The National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
struggles to be relevant.
By Marcus Stringer
Every now and then, a good bout of soul-searching is good for the… soul. And a search for the soul is exactly what appears to be going on at the NAACP, the oldest overtly political organization among Black Americans.
Periodically, I suffer a case of "lost soul". It goes like this. I'm focused on something, making valiant strides, ever forward and hopefully upward. I know who I am, and from where my knowledge and skill come from. I have a solid, sure feeling in my gut (no, not gas). I have a confidence that I've known what to do, I've done it and I'm getting the results that I anticipated. Then like a flash, the sky gets dark, I lose concentration, my plans are clouded in confusion and I wonder if I have what it takes to survive.
This might be what the leadership in the NAACP is experiencing. Perhaps, the sun is even setting on some older ways of thinking - thinking that served its purpose in its time, but cannot get us through the night (the funk) we are in and into a new day. Still what does it take for the NAACP to find itself and its future membership among young black Americans?
And wouldn't you know it, I have a clue for the NAACP. The next person who stands up as the leader of black folk anywhere or the next black publication that starts spreading thoughts like "the black man" or "the black woman" gets shown the door - the exit door. How long will diverse blacks put up with this insult? Is there a "the" to being a black male or woman? Are we clones? Oops, what was that I just tripped on? Was that a clue, a deep clue? Why sure, on closer inspection it does indeed appear to be a clue!
Yes, you are correct. Everyone does want to fit in. Yet isn't there a difference between being counted in and completely losing ones self-individuality? How free are our people to be unique and even different from each other? These are questions that I hope the NAACP is asking itself. How can we help our people to experience success not only through our similarities, but also through our innumerable differences?
Perhaps I'm the only one who has wanted to give back to my community of color and recycle the blessings, but who often feels unwelcome. "You act too white or too black" or "You don't act black enough" or "You talk proper, you don't sound like you're from the hood. What's up with that?" These are the statements of confusion.
Then there's the estrangement from ignorant small minds and heterosexual supremacists alike. Even so, do these things stop me from giving? No. I give anyway - but does this lead me to reserve more of myself than I'd otherwise do? Yes. And here in part is the alienation that should disturb the NAACP at least as much as it irritates me.
So what will you do NAACP? Will you educated leaders be examples of enlarging the tent among us, the same as you seek inclusion by the white political power system? Perhaps the absence of youth taking up your slack says that you have little choice.
