Alt
hough I intended this message to be for everyone, it is tailored specifically to suit the Black leaders.
On a cautionary note, Black leaders are herein defined as more than just elected officials. Black leadership includes those individuals who hold a position that serves the needs of the Black community be it elected, projected, appointed, pinpointed, business, non-profit, civic, public sector or religious.
Why? Simply put, because within the Black community the leadership has the capacity, the resources, the expertise and the ability to develop and organize a plan of action to save our community.
The question for everyone then becomes –“who are these people and why is our community not moving in the right direction?
I assert that the Black community is a body without a head. Who represents the Black community? Some people may respond that the Back community is not a monolithic group, and that hundreds of people represent the community.
However, having hundreds of people as our leader in the absence of centralized and strategic representation is tantamount to no leadership at all.
Let’s face it, everyone is a leader, but some individuals and their actions have a greater impact on others and, in many respects, because of their position have the responsibility to provide leadership to the community.
This relationship and expectation is not formalized, that is, the community is expecting that this group will do the right thing for and by them.
Such a group of leaders and many of the sectors that they represent are unorganized, coupled with individualism and organizational tribalism. Therefore, nothing is moving in any real way for the Black community.
Additionally, although our Black leaders possess multitudinous resources to ameliorate significant sectors within the Black community, in my opinion what remains lacking is vision, will and heart.
Certainly, some Black leaders have the Black community at heart and are motivated by seeing the Black community get up off its feet.
However, far too many Black leaders are clueless about the shoulders that they stand on and the legacy that they represent.
Were it not for our ancestors, many individuals in black leadership would not even be in the position they are in. Certainly, their position of leadership was fought and won by our ancestors, and it was hoped that the current leaders would continue the struggle.
The Good Lord knows that far too many Black leaders have adopted the majority approach and model in the implementation of their leadership.
Simply because their predecessors were White, these Black leaders now implement an approach that is similar to their White predecessors. This fact is borne out in a few instances especially in government and politics.
Figure it out especially where a Black is in politics, and the socio-economic indicator shows the community he/ she serves is in a serious demise.
Many Black people do not understand why their plight has not improved when a Black individual is in a position to have a say in that community.
The ability to produce illuminates the dilemma that having a Black in position of leadership is not enough if they fail to understand their purpose, coupled with failure to believe that they are part of the Black struggle.
When Blacks are not ready or willing or able to break the cycle of majority politics, having them in those spheres of influence is meaningless.
Black leadership rendered impotent defies the hope of our ancestors that these individuals would continue to unite and defend the Black community.
Black leaders acting like the individuals who held those positions prior to them, and failing to understand their responsibility to their people in the execution of their duties, will most certainly allow majority politics to rule-in this case.
They have done absolutely nothing more than to assimilate. These individuals are now the caretakers and shepherds of these institutions that have oppressed Black people, and they defend their practices more diligently than their White predecessors.
This is the embodiment and expression of mental and psychological slavery. The Black community should demand that governmental agencies function at the highest level to deliver to those who are least represented and underserved.
I have heard many people say when things are going well we will wait them out meaning that we will keep the obstruction in place until we can get to the next cycle to replace the leadership.
This could sometimes mean 3-4 years of delays or inaction that does not advance the Black community.
While I describe the dysfunction amongst our Black leaders in government, absolute disunity of leadership, there were occasions where we have had some great individual leaders who gave us good guidance, especially when it came to looking at what Whites were doing to us.
Again not much instruction was aimed at what we, as Black people, were not doing, which was to unite. With the exception of Marcus Garvey, we have never had an authentic Black movement.
We now have history as a reference point of what has worked and what has not worked. We have the opportunity to assess the pros and cons of all of our great thinkers and leaders even though we never truly WORKED TOGETHER.
What is our excuse today? Why is it that we know that disunity is at the heart of our failures yet we are unable to mount any campaign to unite? What the Black community needs more now than anything is UNITY.
Not the unity that is some superficial description where all Black people are all doing the same thing at the same time, that is totally unrealistic. The unity I am referencing is functional unity.
Black people need functional unity to defend themselves against the mindset and erroneous public opinion that Blacks are where we are because of our inferiority, and many point to the token leadership that we currently hold.
The misguided mindset and erroneous public opinion exist that Blacks have had an equal chance to succeed in Canada and refuse to take advantage of that chance.
Interestingly, the proponents of this viewpoint postulate that our history of oppression and discrimination has no bearing on our current dilemma today.
This perspective is delusional or hypocritical. This simple factor is crippling to every aspect of Black life in Canada.
Today, Black people exhibit more disparities than any group in Canada. Blacks continue to lose ground in nearly every category with positive demographics. We’re nearly invisible and decreasing, and we dominate nearly every negative demographic.
Black ownership of the nation’s wealth remains where it was near the end of slavery. Where you start matters, especially when it comes to wealth.
Yet, we are led to believe that all things are equal and that Blacks, just by being free, should be able to compete economically. There is a direct link to the overwhelming economic benefit enjoyed today by White people, businesses, and institutions.
This competitive advantage is lethal and plays out in every sector of Canadian life. This is also why very few Black for-profit companies are adequately capitalized and hardly any of our non-profit institutions are endowed. The Black community lacks resources that the White community takes for granted.
The Black community lacks capital because the Black community lacks wealth and Canada must acknowledge and remedy the economic advantage that Whites have over Blacks.
While the institution of slavery does not exist today, its infrastructure (ideas, beliefs, values, and policies) has morphed into other Canadian institutions.
Brothers and Sisters, we must remember that it is all about competition, and while we are severely disadvantaged, no one really cares about our plight. Canada is about winners and losers.
Today we hear from many telling the Black community to stop playing the race card and to stop bringing up the past (the past doesn’t matter). They say the past is the past, and they didn’t enslave anyone.
They also say their people endured hardships too, so if Black people cannot compete under the concept of free competition, something is wrong with Black people and nothing is wrong with the system.
With little to-no knowledge about our history, our children grow up believing in this myth and actualize the core of hopelessness. WE must do better.
Aleuta– The struggle continues.
