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Gordon was the last hope for the NAACP, IMO. Damn shame when he left.
Don't trust the new guy. Don't trust him AT ALL.
Bwwaaaahahahaha!!!
Thank you and good night!
Change is hard but it's really hard for privileged entitled folk.
They will never get a dime of my money, or my time.
Barack Obama is the kind of leader a new generation of black folks want: a guy with a seat at the fucking table and who has the influence to get things done. Screw marching or protesting or symbolic bullshit like confederate flags and King holidays. What I want is FAIR ACCESS TO THE PIE. And the only way you get that is to get your own folks in who are interested in protecting your right to fair access.
That certainly does not describe the modern NAACP.
Oh well... the NAACP is not for me.
That further goes to show that the Old Guard of the NAACP, unless they're going to teach the next generation and pass the baton, probably needs to have said baton forcefully taken from them.
Especially since they appear to have become what they used to despise.
And that's a shame.
I am not a member of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. I don't do church and, frankly, even if I did I would not belong to a church pastored by "Famous Amos" Brown. If Willie Brown was backing Benjamin Jealous, the likelihood of Amos Brown supporting the grandson of the founder of Third Baptist was next door to nil.
I do want to point out, however, that Rev. Haynes' grandfather, Rev. Frederick D. Haynes, Sr., occupied a larger place in local San Francisco history than just being the founder of Third Baptist. He was, for example, the first black person to run for political office in the city when he ran for the Board of Supervisors in 1948. Rev. Haynes probably would been elected if the city was still using the district method that so-called "progressives" had persuaded it to abandon 12 years earlier. He was also the first black person to be appointed to any city commission when he was placed on the Library Commission in 1954.
CPL - I am on board with you about the National Association for the Advancement of Certain People but I slightly disagree with you about the NAACP's response to Shannon Reeves' complaints. I don't think it should have used any of its dwindling supply of Black people's political capital to lodge a protest or complaint against the GOP.
I find it hard to believe that Reeves was not aware of how he would be received when he attended any of its events. Didn't his elders tell him about how black GOP delegates were treated in 1964 when the party held its convention in San Francisco? I know a sister whose mother was a national committeewoman. She told her daughter that she had never felt so unwanted and coldly treated in all the time she had been in the Republican party until she attended the convention that nominated Barry Goldwater.
STOP RIGHT THERE.
WEB Dubois is turning in his grave!
The NAACP needs a hardcore house-cleaning. But how to do it? Thank you for writing this article. It makes me sad.
What did DuBois do, though? I haven't heard this, but I'm not up on my NAACP history. The only thing I know about is the struggle between blacks and Jews for leadership, and I only know that faintly.
I'm no longer in the NAACP. I said I used to volunteer for them, and that was about 10 years ago, when they started ignoring any and all issues of racism and discrimination of people who weren't Black.
The NAACP was started as a coalition of all people of race, gender, religion, ethnicity - that faced bigotry and discrimination on all levels. Until the 1970's the organization did what it was intended to do when WEB DuBois helped to found it.
The wheels have come off under the current leadership - name me a board that has 63 members on it that is actually effective in policy development, change and implementation. The NAACP won't be found on that list.
To set the record straight, let me rebut some of the most egregious errors.
Neither the Search firm, the NAACP Search Committee, or the Executive Committee “ranked” CEO candidates in any way; there was never a first, second, or third choice;
The NAACP Board voted in October, ’07 and February ’08 for the NAACP Executive Committee to present one CEO candidate to the Board for their approval or rejection. That is the procedure the NAACP Board followed when they selected Ben Jealous.
Despite repeated challenges to our “relevance”, polls consistently show that black Americans overwhelmingly value the NAACP and believe its work is valuable. A 2007 poll found that the NAACP had the highest favorability rating of 17 organizations working in the civil rights arena. The NAACP is viewed favorably by most blacks – 94% including 70 percent who view it very favorably, and by three-quarters of the general public. Fully 93 percent of blacks surveyed believe the NAACP represents the interests of the African-American community, and 67 percent believe this strongly.
A 1993 leadership study by Brakeley, John Price Jones, Inc., showed 75% of blacks believed the NAACP the leader among groups with civil rights, social justice and race relations agendas. In this study, 75% of all respondents believed the NAACP adequately represented the black community. An October 1995 US News and World Report poll reported 90% of blacks supported the NAACP. In an April 1998 poll conducted by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, 81% of blacks reported a favorable opinion of the NAACP. The NAACP is profoundly democratic. “Nationally, the NAACP (of all black civil rights/political organizations) is governed by its individually based membership.” In Class Notes by Adolph Reed, The New Press, New York.
I could say more – most of the commentary about the NAACP is uninformed and badly needs correction. We’re certainly not immune from criticism – no organization is, and when you’ve been around as long as the NAACP has, you’ve got to expect criticism – some of it deserved. But we remain the organization most love – and many love to criticize – it is a free country – we’ve helped make it more so.
If we could persuade the critics to join us, I am sure we’d be a much better and stronger organization. Come on in – anyone who shares our values is more than welcome.
Julian Bond
NAACP Board Chairman
What can be done to resurrect the NAACP from the dead? A clean sweep of the board, a restructuring of the mission and objectives of the organization. A fresh take on the new lay of the political and social land and what an African American based organization should be accomplishing. Ain't gonna happen. We are just not that good at working together on a prolong basis for the common good. Folks have a better shot at creating a new organization that does what the NAACP hasn't done for a very, very long time. An organization that relies more on social enterprise and less on the corporate dollars to function. When you find such a place, let me know. I'll show up and support it.