It’s been lower than two weeks and President Donald Trump is popping the White Home, and by proxy the nation, into his personal fiefdom. Each infuriating headline about an vital shuttered federal division or collection of petty feedback about how Black people couldn’t probably be certified to do the job they had been employed for begs the query: Have we no Black leaders who can push again in opposition to Trump?
Throughout chattel slavery, Harriet Tubman escaped her chains and have become a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass, a former slave who discovered to learn and write, took a special method and put pen to paper. He wrote and spoke forcefully in opposition to slavery. Everybody did their half to assist individuals who seemed like them.
Within the years after slavery, Booker T. Washington wrote the e book “Up From Slavery” and argued for what he thought would assist former slaves. He thought that Black individuals wanted financial independence essentially the most. Time has confirmed that he was, the truth is, incorrect: W.E.B. Du Bois, a Black mental and a up to date of Washington, passionately disagreed with the previous slave and argued that what was most wanted was civil rights.
The listing may go on and on. There was Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X; Ida B. Wells and Mary Jane McLeod Bethune. There are the extra controversial people like Black Panther chief Bobby Seale and activist Marcus Garvey. These had been all leaders who noticed that Black individuals had been in want, and, out of affection, took it upon themselves to attempt to present management.
Hopefully the purpose is evident: Any time there was a menace to Black America, there have at all times been Black leaders who stepped up and tried to offer a imaginative and prescient for the longer term.
W.E.B. Du Bois was right in his criticism of Washington, however we must always by no means doubt for a second that Washington — who was the principal developer of Tuskegee Regular and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee College — beloved Black individuals…flawed as his concepts had been. The identical is true of all I named above. Every in their very own means beloved us and sacrificed for us.
So the place are our leaders now?
Trump poses an actual and current menace to America normally and Black individuals particularly. He opposes DEI initiatives and is working diligently to eradicate them from the nation. On Wednesday (Jan. 29), he signed an government order that he hopes will defund Ok-12 colleges that educate Crucial Race Idea. (One thing most faculties don’t educate.)
He’s doing all this to ship a message: Don’t educate the reality about American historical past. Educate solely these components that I approve.
Now’s a time for leaders. Many in America are disheartened that Trump is again within the White Home, however Black individuals are not simply unhappy —we’re beneath assault. Previously, after we had been handled like we’re in the present day, a frontrunner would come up. They had been by no means good. They had been generally incorrect, however at the least they cared.
Certain, there are some who’re attempting to push again. There may be Dr. Freddie Haynes III who leads Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. There may be Rev. Raphael Warnock, the primary Black senator from Georgia. And, in fact, Kamala Harris remains to be round…however let’s be sincere…is she a Black chief?
Now we have no transcendent, earth-shattering Black chief like we did in years previous. They simply aren’t there. Possibly it’s due to social media, and everybody who would take that mantle has skeletons of their closet that they don’t need to come to gentle. Maybe it as a result of we now have change into too cynical to comply with any chief.
Regardless of the cause, we don’t have one. And we’re all the more serious for it.