The following edited letter was written by Bob Law, radio talk show host and café owner in New York and Jim
Clingman, author and head of Blackonomics in Cincinnati. The letter called for Black leaders to Bring Back
Black as a focus of Black leadership and to make Black group self interest the purpose of all activity. This
letter accompanied an invitation to a select group to an organizational meeting for new Black leadership that
was held in Cincinnati on December 9, 2006.
An Open Letter To Black Americans
It Is Time To Bring Back Black by Bob Law
In recent years some nationally prominent Black leaders have complained that they resent being known as Black leaders. They say they want the world to know they are capable of leading anybody.Rather than demonstrate that leadership by leading their own people to the necessary levels of
self- sufficiency and competitiveness, these leaders have abandoned the critical issues facing Black people and have begun to chase an ambiguous romanticized notion of alliances with other groups without any demonstration or even an explanation as to how these alliances will actually empower
Black people.
For decades these leaders have stood on the shoulders of the Black community to challenge and threaten corporate America in what we were told was a struggle for economic justice, and while
the Black community is still being exploited by corporate America. These nationally prominent
Black leaders acknowledge that their operating budgets are now sustained by their corporate sponsors. It appears as though these leaders, a small cluster of their friends and, in some instances,
members of their own families are the only ones to have received concessions from the nation’s major corporations.
True leaders not only examine issues and point out inherent problems; they also craft solutions and lead by example. These nationally prominent Black leaders and organizations have actually abandoned the specific needs of Black people.
A case in point for instance is that Black Americans
have never received proportional benefits for the time, energy, and resources that they have devoted to voting. No major party or candidate has delivered benefits to Black people in return for
their votes. Still these nationally prominent Black leaders tell Blacks simply to vote, while politicians
hide behind mythical concepts and broad groupings, like people of color, minorities, poor people, multi-culture, and diversity in order to justify doing nothing specifically for Blacks in
return for their votes.
Black people are offered a meaningless covenant with America that leaves all the power and resources firmly in the hands of White power brokers. These leaders have cooperated with major
White developers in securing huge development contracts to build anything they please, from Stadiums in downtown Brooklyn to a $1billion urban riverfront in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rather
than secure the development project itself for a consortium of Black developers they, on behalf of
the White developers, urge Black people to accept temporary dead end jobs as the Black benefits,
jobs they would never allow their own children to accept.
It Is Time To Bring Back Black
Enough is enough, Black people are in need of leaders who
without apology are committed to the very real needs of Black
Americans....It is time to bring back Black These prominent leaders argue that unemployment is so high among Blacks that any job is of
value. When you consider that unemployment among Asians is 0%, among Arabs 0%, Hispanics 4.6%, with Hispanics receiving 41% of all new jobs since 2004, and among Whites unemployment is 4.5%, it is clear that other groups have an economic plan working in and for their communities. With unemployment at 48% to 50% in Black urban centers
throughout the country,... the real question becomes, how is it that under their watch unemployment among Blacks remains twice the national rate that it was for all Americans
during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Black leaders, where is your economic strategy to empower Black America?
While ignoring the work being done to revitalize Black communities by lesser known Blacks in various cities, and in some instances even moving to block and discourage those efforts,
these prominent Black leaders... make the agendas of other groups sound like an extension of
the civil rights movement. Allowing any and all groups to use broad terms like diversity, people of color, and minorities
is a ploy to avoid addressing the specific needs of Blacks, and to equate the grievances of these groups to the historical suffering of Black people. It does Blacks and history a great disservice.
Blacks have the strongest legal and moral grounds for justice due than any other group, but
have not enjoyed the full support of any of these other groups.
Enough is enough, Black people are in need of leaders who without apology are committed to the very real needs of Black Americans. We urge the leaders who feel trapped by their
Blackness to go quickly to the task of providing leadership for all these other groups so that
we can get away from their mis-leadership long enough to get out of our current political and economic ditch.
It Is Time To Bring Back Black, and hundreds of thousands of us are ready to do just that. What about you?
A Word of Explanation...You will notice that The Harvest Institute capitalizes the words Black and White when referring to people. This may feel unfamiliar but we do it out of respect for both the
Black and White race. It is inappropriate to capitalize Asians, Hispanics, and other groups and not give Whites and Blacks respect to which both are entitled
by Bob Law December 9, 2006
Posted By: Sylvainy R
Thursday, May 21st 2015 at 11:31AM
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