The NAACP is stuck in a mindset that worked 30 years ago but makes little sense today. Mfume and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond boast that the organization is committed to “speaking truth to power,” continuing the tradition that the organization was founded upon in 1909. This was urgent in an America where lynching was commonplace and segregation was legal.
But almost a century later, lifting blacks up is no longer a matter of getting whites off our necks. We are faced, rather, with the mundane tasks of teaching those “left behind” after the civil rights victory how to succeed in a complex society.
To be sure, racism still exists and must be stamped out. But it has been clearly marginalized. And it is a fallacy to say that the only way people can achieve is when there is absolutely no bias whatsoever against them. The burgeoning of the black middle class proves that societal racism doesn’t condemn African-Americans to failure.
To be sure, the NAACP was once a stalwart and necessary institution in America. I grew hearing about the great things they’ve done and stood for. But today’s NAACP is an old institution where bored old men go to have parties and complain about everything from the latest “racist” slight to the catered food on their plates. (Speaking of food, lunch with John McWhorter might be interesting. It could happen;)
