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 Askia At-Large
Askia Muhammad
Columnist Page
Friday, October 1, 2004; Page 19
New Black Leadership in Bush’s Second Term
Since it may still be so very difficult for some Black opinion leaders to admit the fact that we’re looking at, at least four more years of the George W. Bush presidency (it’s possible that some folks may even want to amend the Constitution to allow him to run for re-election in 2008 and then another Constitutional amendment to allow foreign-born Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California to run in 2012), I’ve begun to think about what Black life will be like.
First, there will be a whole new cadre of influential Black “leaders.” I hesitate to call them “leaders” because they won’t be leading Black people anywhere, they will simply be the “go-betweens,” the “gate-keepers” between Blacks and the White folks with the real power.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is a classic example of this new type of Black “leader.” To his credit, he earned all his stripes. Before Gen. Powell became the most popular national Black hero, all others from Muhammad Ali to Frederick Douglass had been protest leaders, leading the tide of Blacks marching against the tyranny of this government which allowed us to be bought and sold as slaves. So Mr. Powell’s ascent to power within that government--like that of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice--was unrelated to the suffering Black masses. He was not and is not a representative of his people. They represent the interests of Whites, not Blacks.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas--who was obviously a token appointed solely because of his race--would be another example of this “crossover” type of Black “leader” except that Justice Thomas is so unpopular, even Black Republicans often find themselves marching to a different drummer than the conservative jurist.
No, the Congressional Black Caucus will not go away, nor will it abandon its role as the most progressive voice in Congress. Capitol Hill in 2005 will find both Cynthia McKinney returning to a seat in the House of Representatives from Georgia, and Barack Obama taking a seat in the U.S. Senate from Illinois.
But within the top echelons of the Republican Party, Blacks tend to be knee-jerk, conservatives like Dr. Allan Keyes, who moved--in violation of his own loudly articulated position--from Maryland to Illinois just so he could run for the open Senate seat in Illinois against Mr. Obama, another Black man. There does not seem to be one single White, far-right-wing, extremist philosophy with which Dr. Keyes disagrees. Don’t disrupt the life of a White Illinois Republican to be the sacrificial lamb slaughtered at the polls by Mr. Obama on Nov. 2nd. No, get Allan Keyes to oppose him. He’s like “Mikey” in the children’s breakfast cereal commercial: he’ll try anything.
Someone like Dr. Keyes might very well be appointed to a top post in the second G.W. Bush term, but he or she would need a chief deputy who could “speak English” instead of the kind of hard, right-wing, red-meat jibber-jabber--such as was spoken by Education Secretary Rod Paige, who compared striking school teachers to terrorists--which rabid Black Republicans usually speak.
So there will be a need for new Black leaders like Powell and Rice, who can go in and among White folks without shocking their countenance, and yet who are absolutely loyal to the best interests of Black people, not to the oligarch of politicians currently in power.
Michael Steele, the Republican Lt. Gov. of Maryland fits that bill. Mr. Steele was conservative enough to rise to a leadership position in the liberal state of Maryland. He was a great symbol on the gubernatorial ticket which pulled a surprise upset, and catapulted Mr. Steele onto the National Republican spotlight.
So who will the new Black leaders be? There are only two Black Republican lieutenant governors, no Black Republican members of Congress. In fact, of the 2,500 or so Black-elected officials (Mayors, county commissioners, etc.) who designate a party affiliation, only 50 of them said they are members of the G.O.P.
The Republican Party will have to work on developing Black leaders who are actually concerned about the well-being of their people, and Black folks will have to get used to talking to conservatives in power for a while longer.
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