Black Agenda Radio, from Bruce Dixon
African American leadership, including the Congressional Black Caucus, are demanding that the ‘base' reaffirm our priorities as a people.
Leadership from Below
Click here to listen to this Black Agenda Radio commentary (3:51)
We're all used to thinking of leadership as something that comes from above. But in a political space where we know we can't trust what the president or the mainstream media tell us about war, peace, energy or taxes, in a moral space where so many of our clergy preach the gospel of harsh judgment and acquisition rather than the gospel of justice and mercy, in an economic space where millions are without jobs or medical care, and in a social space where one or more members of nearly every black family is behind bars, on bail, probation or parole, it just might be time for black America to recheck our ideas of just where progressive leadership can or will come from.
"African American leaders above have thrown the burden back upon us below, demanding leadership from ordinary people."
If leadership is supposed to come from above, the Congressional Black Caucus, as the highest group of black elected officials from all across the nation ought to be one of the main places we look for direction in confronting the pressing problems of black America. Problems like
l How to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs that pay living wages,
l How to provide universal health care and quality education to all,
l How to ensure the availability of the low-cost high speed universal broadband essential to future economic development of our communities,
l How to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast so that hundreds of thousands of the uprooted and displaced can return home to work and live and be made whole, and most of all
l How to reduce the astronomical number of black men, women and children in the nation's prisons and jails. In 1960, whites were the majority of the nation's prisoners, but now we, at one eighth the population, are fully half of all the locked down.
l And finally how to end the racist, unjust and illegal wars in Iraq Iran, Somalia and elsewhere, and reduce the military budget which consumes the resources we need to solve all the other problems
Make no mistake about it - these are the issues black people talk to each other about on street corners, at school and work, in beauty and barber shops, in churches, jails and in the military.
The best members of the Black Caucus, like John Conyers, Bobby Scott, Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee will tell you that they share these concerns, but that they are dependent on us for vocal, insistent and even impolite affirmation of our priorities as a people - not just on election day, but every day of the year. So it is that African American leaders above have thrown the burden back upon us below, demanding leadership from ordinary people to keep them focused upon our urgent priorities.
"Sign the petition for the Leadership From Below campaign."
In 2005, the CBC Monitor was established to evaluate the performance of the Congressional Black Caucus from an African America point of view. Since then, CBC Monitor has issued semiannual report cards to caucus members.
This year CBC Monitor will launch a national internet petition campaign aimed at delivering tens of thousands of signatures of black voters across the nation to caucus leaders and members calling them home and giving them the leadership from below they say that they need to lead from above.
So when you see the CBC Monitor petition in your email box, sign it with your name, the address at which you're registered to vote, and your email address, so we can send you updates on the Leadership From Below campaign. And don't forget to forward it to a dozen of your closest friends and associates.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Bruce Dixon
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