The Blogcritics conversation proceeds apace
At this point my primary remaining concern relating to the original topic is the concept of "Uncle Tom" or "Tommin'" - what does this mean exactly? Why is this term so much more freely used by liberals against conservatives than the other way around? Is it a political issue? Can one be a conservative black without being an Uncle Tom?Eric, politics is sea foam.
Consider your local police department: a heterogenous group of people facing a basically hostile world of which circumstances decree they see mostly the seamy side.
Extrapolate.
I need to correct an impression one might form from the discussion.
I don't like the NAACP. Big ups all day to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, but the NAACP pissed me off terminally a long time ago. And the turning point was during the brief tenure of Rev. Ben Chavis.
When Chavis was brought in, it was with instructions reverse the decline in membership and donations. He chose to approach those younger Black folks that never felt a connection with the NAACP and that was accepted. Until he approached Minister Farrakhan and the fragmented grass roots community.
Now at the time, on a practical level, if you wanted to make a big impact among Black youth Farrakhan was the way to go. He wasn't so much followed as heard. And the grass roots community is where the energy is. These are people who are already committed to action. If you can sort the personality issues out (just because there's always personality issues when a bunch of folks who are the alphas of their immediate tribes get together) and get some coordination going, you've got serious potential.
Nope. Blew that up. I was like, you should have asked your corporate sponsors to begin with.
And I thought well of Kweisi Mfume, I know his history, but when the first program he launched as President of the NAACP was to get more Black people on sitcoms I was not impressed. And nothing has happened to change my mind since.
So no, I don't like the NAACP and frankly I don't feel it is long for this world. But I defend it against attacks like that which started the Blogcritics because the criticism was not legitimate, but if allowed to stand it will serve as precedent (as it were) against whatever organization grows from the soil its corpse fertilizes.
