Message to the Black Leaders
Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
While this message is for everyone, it is tailored specifically to the Black leaders. I define Black leaders as more than just elected officials. Black leadership includes those individuals who hold a position that serves the needs of the Black community (i.e. elected, appointed, business, non-profit, civic, public sector, religious, etc.). Why? Because within the Black community the leadership has the capacity, the resources, the expertise and the ability to develop and orchestrate a plan of action to save our community.
The question for us is who are these people and why is our community not moving in the right direction? I contend that the Black community is a body without a head. Who represents the Black community? Some may respond that the Back community is not a monolithic group and hundreds of people represent the community. However, having hundreds of people as our leader without a centralized and strategic representation, there is no leadership at all.
Everyone is a leader of some sort, but some people and their actions have a greater impact on others and, in many respects, because of their position (i.e. job, title, organization mission, etc.) have the responsibility to provide leadership to the community.
This relationship and expectation is not formalized, i.e., the community is expecting that this group will do the right thing for and by them.
Unfortunately, this group of leaders and many of the sectors that they represent are unorganized, coupled with individualism and organizational tribalism. Therefore, nothing is moving in any real way for the Black community.
Even though our Black leaders possess a myriad of resources to ameliorate significant sectors within the Black community, what remains lacking is vision, will and heart. Certainly, some Black leaders have the Black community at heart and are motivated by seeing the Black community get up off its feet. However, too many Black leaders are clueless about their history, the shoulders that they stand on and the legacy that they represent. Were it not for our ancestors, many individuals in black leadership would not even be in the position they are in. Certainly, their position of leadership was fought and won by our ancestors, and it was hoped that the current leaders would continue the struggle.
Too many Black leaders have inherited the majority approach and model in the implementation of their leadership. Their predecessors were White and therefore these Black leaders now implement an approach that is similar to their White predecessors. This can be seen in so many instances, especially in government and politics. Today, in Philadelphia, 15 out of 20 key positions, including the Mayor and the City Council President are African American. Yet, the majority of Blacks in Philadelphia are living at/or near poverty; the school to prison pipeline is primed; the education system remains a failure; nearly every Black neighborhood is in decline; and every major social-economic indicator shows the Black community in a serious demise. A new concept has been developed in the community as a result of this phenomenon called Black Fatigue. Many Black people do not understand why their plight has not improved when Blacks are controlling the city.
Natural tensions exist between one aspect of government and others designed to create a balance in governing: Government and quasi-government agencies, and government and private sector with the courts having the final say on all disputes. Notably, these tensions become apparent between city council and the mayor’s office; city government and state government; independent boards and commissions and city governments; etc. Depending on who is leading these different entities, the natural tensions can be lessened, and progress is made or they can become exacerbated and nothing much gets done. This is played out on a national level where tensions between the Executive branch of government (President) and the Legislative branch (Congress) result in a stalemate and nothing gets accomplished (congress approval rating is near 10%).
The ability to produce within or despite this tension illuminates the dilemma that having an African American in position of leadership is not enough if they do not understand their purpose, and if they do not believe that they are part of the Black struggle. When African Americans are not willing or able to break the cycle of majority politics, having them in those spheres of influence is meaningless. Black leadership rendered impotent defies the hope of our ancestors that these individuals would continue to unite and defend the Black community. If Black leaders acted like those individuals who held these positions prior to them (for most part they were White) and not understand their responsibility to their people in the execution of their duties, they will allow majority politics to rule-in this case. They have done nothing more than to assimilate.
These individuals are now the caretakers and shepherds of these institutions that have oppressed Black people, and they defend their practices more diligently than their White predecessors. This is the embodiment and expression of mental and psychological slavery.
How is it that Blacks control nearly every key government position in Philadelphia, and yet we continue the tradition that serves White people and their special interest groups at the expense of the Black community who voted them in position?
A community, like the Black community in such dire straits, demands that governmental agencies function at the highest level to deliver to those who are least represented and underserved.
Government by its nature operates in a silo, and it takes good leaders to get government to work. Even when these agencies are not productive someone benefits- and we know based on empirical evidence that the Black community does not benefit. Summarily, the white community can afford to have the aforementioned structural divisions because their communities are not in disarray as the Black community is, so this works out for them.
I have heard many people say when things are going well we will wait them out meaning that we will keep the obstruction in place until we can get to the next cycle to replace the leadership. This could sometimes mean 3-4 years of delays or inaction that does not advance the Black community.
While I describe the dysfunction amongst our Black leaders in government, in all other sectors the plight is similar… absolutely disunity of leadership. Throughout our brief free history, we have had some great individual leaders and most, if not all, were giving us good guidance, especially when it came to looking at what Whites were doing to us. Not much instruction was aimed at what we, as Black people, were not doing, which was to unite under the Black flag. With the exception of Marcus Garvey, we have never had an authentic Black movement. Some may espouse that the Nation of Islam was a Black Nationalist movement, but the reality of the matter is that it was also a religious movement and that was a big difference.
We now have history as a reference point of what has worked and what has not worked. We have the opportunity to assess the pros and cons of all of our great thinkers and leaders even though we never truly WORKED TOGETHER. What is our excuse today? Why is it that we know that disunity is at the heart of our failures yet we are unable to mount any campaign to unite?
What the Black community needs more now than anything is UNITY. Not the unity that is some superficial description where all Black people are all doing the same thing at the same time, that is unrealistic. The unity I am referencing is functional unity. Black people need functional unity to defend themselves against the mindset and erroneous public opinion that Blacks are where we are because of our inferiority, and many point to the token leadership that we currently hold. The misguided mindset and erroneous public opinion exist that Blacks have had an equal chance to succeed in America and refuse to take advantage of that chance. Interestingly, the proponents of this viewpoint dismiss our history in America and postulate that our history of oppression and discrimination has no bearing on our current dilemma today. This perspective is delusional or hypocritical as America is a capitalistic society, in which Blacks by design were and continue to be denied capital. This simple factor is crippling to every aspect of Black life in America.
Since Black people have been in America (nearly 450 years), America’s treatment of Black people has been consistently deplorable. Today, Black people exhibit more disparities than any group in America. Blacks continue to lose ground in nearly every category with positive demographics. We’re nearly invisible and decreasing, and we dominate nearly every negative demographic.
While there are so many disparities, none is more impactful than the massive wealth gap that exist between White and Black people, which is a direct result of the enslavement, and legal racial discrimination against Black people. America’s economy, considered one of the largest in the world, represents nearly $150 trillion annually and Blacks have little or no real ownership. Black ownership of the nations wealth remains where it was in 1860 near the end of slavery (pre-emancipation) at one half of one percent (½ 1%).
Where you start matters, especially when it comes to wealth. While America was oppressing Black people through enslavement and legal discrimination, America was becoming todays $150 trillion economy, which is completely owned by White America. Yet, we are led to believe that all things are equal and that Blacks, just by being free should be able to compete economically.
There is a direct link to the overwhelming economic benefit enjoyed today by White people, businesses, and institutions.
This competitive advantage is lethal and plays out in every sector of American life. This is also why very few Black for-profit companies are adequately capitalized and hardly any of our non-profit institutions are endowed.
The Black community lacks resources that the White community takes for granted. The Black community lacks capital because the Black community lacks wealth and America must acknowledge and remedy the economic advantage that Whites have over Blacks.
Simply put, because of the nearly 450 years head start with the enslavement of tens of millions of Black people with no compensation, the American Institution of Slavery produced unbelievable economic gains and wealth for White America with a significant portion of that wealth in play today. To deny this advantage is absurd and outright ludicrous with both being pathological.
The enslavement of our ancestors was a brutal and vicious institution that hurt us, I believe, permanently and it continues to haunt us today in every way. Slavery was a very profitable American institution.
While the institution of slavery does not exist today, its infrastructure (ideas, beliefs, values, and policies) has morphed into other American institutions.
Brothers and Sisters, we must remember that it is all about competition, and while we are severely disadvantaged, no one really cares about our plight. America is about winners and losers.
You are able to win because you understand freedom and the responsibility that comes with being free, and you lose because you have not truly grasped the meaning of freedom. Today we hear from many right-wing conservatives (keepers of the American way) telling the Black community to stop playing the race card and to stop bringing up the past (the past doesn’t matter). They say the past is the past, and I didn’t enslave anyone.
They also say my people endure hardships too, so if Black people cant compete under the concept of free competition something is wrong with Black people and nothing is wrong with the system – America is about free enterprise.
With little to-no knowledge about our history, our children grow up believing in this myth and actualize the core of hopelessness.
