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GUEST: Thandisizwe Chimurenga, writer, activist, and the Director of the Ida B. Wells Institute. <\/em><\/p>\n The [lack of] Crisis in Black Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot has been said recently \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and continues to be said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about the crisis in Black leadership. While I do agree with most of the critiques raised by various voices, I cannot help but notice that most of these voices are waaaay off the mark when it comes to critiquing Black leadership locally.<\/p>\n Most of these voices allude to it, but \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctruth be told,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really say that we have a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccrisis in Black leadership\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for one very simple reason: in order to have a crisis in leadership you have to have leadership in the first place.<\/p>\n The Black community of Los Angeles – as in the rest of this nation – is not a monolithic entity yet there is one thing about our community that is dead-right-on the money: too much of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 so-called leadership is media-created. And, as the body craves for what it feeds on, that segment of so-called leadership is also media-hungry.<\/p>\n * The ability to call a press conference does not make one a leader Ella Baker once stated that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strong people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need leaders\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. We would do well to study not just her words but her life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work. As the organizer for the NAACP, SCLC and SNCC – the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Ms. Baker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 40-plus years of work in the Civil Rights Movement was her source for understanding that people, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plain old everyday, ordinary people\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 have the intelligence to figure out the solutions to the problems that plague them. Leadership stands ready to assist – not to speak for – \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plain old everyday, ordinary people\u00e2\u20ac\u0153. Regardless of what the issue is – whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s racist police who maim and murder Black folk in the street; a criminal criminal injustice system that disappears Black men, women and children; misguided youth in the form of gangs that prey on our communities; or drug peddlers selling death and destruction with the sanction of police and government – the solutions to our issues ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gon come from no heroes ridin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 into the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchood on white \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or black – horses. We are the ones we have been waiting for. <\/p>\n As regards most of our leadership, perhaps some basic questions should be used to point us toward greater clarity:<\/p>\n Who are they and where did they come from? Do they have a sense of humility? Are they critical thinkers? Do they have vision? Do they have a sense of collective morality? The question is not \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWho will be the protectors and defenders of the people?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/p>\n The question is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWho should it be?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n Why \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the people, of course. <\/p>\n We are the ones we have been waiting for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" | the entire program GUEST: Thandisizwe Chimurenga, writer, activist, and the Director of the Ida B. Wells Institute. The [lack of] Crisis in Black Leadership A lot has been said recently \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and continues to be said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about the crisis in Black leadership. While I do agree with most of the critiques raised by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n* The presence of Black faces on television and in front page photos does not make one a leader;
\n* The presence of Black voices on radio does not make one a leader;
\n* Jumping in front of the march in time for the cameras does not make one a leader.
\n* Did I mention that the ability to call a press conference does not make one a leader?<\/p>\n
\nNobody just appears from nowhere; they have to be known by somebody, somewhere. <\/p>\n
\nDo they understand that it ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about them, or are they just egomaniacal train wrecks waiting to happen?<\/p>\n
\nMaybe I should change that to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153can they think?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I mean, it would be nice if they had a plan or a strategy of how to move our people (or our enemies) from point A to point B, but at this point, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be happy if they just had a clue.<\/p>\n
\nIn other words, can they conceptualize beyond our present conditions to a future condition? It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter if that future condition is practical or utopian, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all good as long as they have a vision \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 for a people without a vision will perish.<\/p>\n
\nTrustworthiness is an essential characteristic of leadership. Can they be trusted to do the right thing by Black people \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 all of the time? Most of the time? None of the time?<\/p>\n