African American Leaders

I have to agree with LaShawn, there is something patronizing about the claim that African Americans need African American leadership. The RNC’s move to set up the African American Advisory Committee for the sole purpose of bringing together African American Leaders together as a "sounding board for Republican outreach efforts" is commendable, but who are the so-called ‘African American leaders’ that will speak for me?

I live in the Los Angeles area, probably considered the second most liberal part of California next to San Francisco. And as an African American conservative Christian, I can say with pretty much absolute certainty there are no African American leaders that speak for me. Personally, I don’t need one either. First of all just because a supposed leader has similar skin color to mine does that automatically mean we hold to the same values or ideas?

Granted, historically Blacks had specific leaders that I would consider true leaders. But these leaders focused on improving the conditions of blacks based on the common ideas that all humans are created equal in the sight of God. Frederick Douglas comes to mind as one of these true African American leaders. Douglas came along during a time where the concern of any social reformer was the abolition of slavery and the equality of the African people in America. First, slavery and then equality focused Douglas. To read more on Fredrick Douglas click here.

Now compare that to today’s supposed African American leaders. First of all African Americans are not galvanized behind civil rights anymore. We have overcome that hurdle. Read La Shawn’s article to understand why we don’t need Black leaders.

Blacks come in all shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, and confessions. We are as diverse as the Jews are in America, but you don’t see the need for Jewish leadership only African American leadership. If other racial groups don’t have leader, we don’t need them either. So why doesn’t somebody ‘lead’ that idea?