Quote:
Originally posted by Pathfinder
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I blame well known black "leaders" (the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Farakan, etc.) for mis-leading their people. These people are in it for their own gains and egos and play their people.
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What the media fails to report is that "leaders" like Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, et al represent the MINORITY of African American point of view. Most African Americans have the same values as mainstream America. These leaders' "solutions" to the problems plaguing black America focus on EXTERNAL solutions--ie., what does the mainstream need to GIVE black Americans to set things straight. This usually involves the same tired Big Government cocktail of welfare, subsidies, affirmative action, etc.
Farrakhan sometimes talks about INTERNAL solutions such as self-help, economic initiative, and individual responsibility but these are buried in the "I blame white people" rhetoric that most of its listeners easily gloss over them.
The solution has to come from internal sources since other minority groups that had to deal with a lot of external pressures succeeded. Their success did not come through political concessions but through economic boot strapping. Examples: Jews in the 1800's, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, other blacks who immigrated directly from Africa or the West Indies.
Unfortunately, the legacy of the "black leadership" that focuses on victimhood rathen self-empowerment is the creation of a black middle class who owes its existence to affirmative action rather than economic initiative. This may explain recent polls that show blacks making over $50,000 still being pessimistic about racial and economic progress in the US.