The miseducation of the negro leader

Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month, was from a generation of black leaders who believed in using their education, training, and influence to “uplift the race” and form a more perfect union. But the black leadership class that preaches bigger government and better white people as the solutions to unequal social outcomes has become one of the biggest barriers to success today for black Americans.

The black progressive politicians, pundits, professors, preachers, and performers (aka “the Afristocracy”) are self-interested actors who use the plight of working-class blacks to blackmail liberal whites. Their entire business model is based on the “reverse Robin Hood” mindset applied to race politics. The Afristocracy steals valuable currency — narratives, experiences, and outcomes — from the poor to extract benefits for themselves.

What we have today is a group of people who offer little beyond their racial identity, which they use as both a sword to carve out opportunities and a shield to deflect responsibility.

Take, for example, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). The St. Louis Democrat has been a vocal proponent of defunding the police for several years. Now she is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Bush reportedly spent over $750,000 on security since 2018, including employing her husband, who is not a licensed security professional. Perhaps Bush wants fewer officers safeguarding theconstituents she represents because she needs them to be ready if she needs to expand the size of her detail.

Bush is hardly the only one. The Afristocracy’s parasitic tendencies have been on full display in recent years. For example, the death of George Floyd in 2020 was used as a justification for more black women getting jobs in corporate America. Sean “Diddy” Combs accused General Motors of standing on the necks of black people because the company didn’t do enough business with him.

If greed were their only vice, maybe they could simply be ignored. But the miseducated black leaders of white liberals also push ideas that are destabilizing, degrading, and self-destructive.

There are “millionaire Marxists” like Colin Kaepernick and the co-founders of Black Lives Matter who decry capitalism while signing deals with Nike, Disney, Netflix, and Warner Brothers.

Then you have radical professors like Brittney Cooper who say the black community does not need nuclear families to thrive. She said the same thing in a 2015 column for Salon: “American families are changing, and we should celebrate the fact that the two-parent, nuclear family ideal has gone the way of the floppy disk.”

Carl Hart, professor at Columbia University, wrote approvingly of his own heroin use in 2021 at a time when drug overdose deaths were at record highs.

Marc Lamont Hill is adamant in his belief that men can get pregnant and acts surprised that some people disagree.

Howard University professor Greg Carr said that women leaving Texas to seek abortions in “civilized states” were channeling the spirit of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

Michael Eric Dyson, a professor, author, and social commentator, went on Fox News to encourage white people to create individual reparations accounts to atone for their privilege and cure racial inequality.

In 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that drag queens play an essential role in improving reading proficiency for the city’s 1 million public school students.

There are also confused organizations. Preachers from across the country use their pulpits to tell their congregations that abortion is really a “white conservative” issue, even though close to 40% of aborted babies in this country are black.

The list of entertainers using their influence to promote guns, murder, and sex is too long to print. So is the list of their defenders in the media. These are people who will consume the most vulgar and violent music and claim it has no effect on the mood, values, or behavior of the people who identify most closely with the artists. But when a country singer makes a passing reference to Black Lives Matter, they claim he is stoking violence against the black community.

Some people would argue the black community does not need leaders. I understand this perspective and agree that the leadership models of past generations do not work today. But to the extent any community, culture, or country has people who curate information, manage resources, administer government, and influence public sentiment, I would prefer them to be godly, competent, and wise.

What we have today is a group of people who offer little beyond their racial identity, which they use as both a sword to carve out opportunities and a shield to deflect responsibility. Many of them combine two of the worst traits — they know nothing and are willing to say anything.

If Carter G. Woodson were alive today and had to rewrite his most famous book, I have just the title for him: “The Mis-Education of the Negro Leader.”