Sunday, May 22, 2011

Minority Leadership (Part I)

As a white male, some may argue I have no right to comment on minority issues. They may be right, however to overcome racial stigmas and tensions we should all be open minded and honest about our feelings. I certainly would not have a problem with an African-American outlining the problems with Republican or conservative leadership. In fact, I would welcome it and probably find it insightful. Remember, I am only outlining my personal observations as to the problems with minority leadership in this country. I should also point out that minority leadership is no worse than government and corporate leadership. They are all horrible and getting worse each day. To me, the intriguing part about African-Americans is why over 90 percent of them are liberals. The answer to this in my opinion is bad and misguided minority leadership. I am sure a liberal African-American may come to same consensus as to why white males tend to be conservative – bad and misguided leadership.
What are the reasons that the percentage of people living in poverty, especially minorities, continue to grow? A social program such as welfare which pays folks to be lazy is one reason, but minority leadership is also a major contributing factor. Government and minority leaders work in the same way as corporate leaders. They do what is best for them and not what is best for the people. These leaders also have another trait in common. They are generally extremely wealthy. Poor people generally do not have the means to get elected to public office. The scary thing is that most of the people getting elected to public office obtain their wealth through inheritances. Most of these people have not done anything constructive to qualify for the position other than being a wealthy heir. Many that have any corporate leadership experience obtain that through inheritances as well. Americans should favor those leaders who have worked hard to earn their wealth and created their own opportunities and successes. The point is that our leadership today does not know the first thing about solving our nation’s problems because they have not experienced any of them. How can they solve poverty and other social economic issues that divide America if they do not understand them because they have not experienced them? Wealthy leaders think the answer to all of our problems is to throw money at them. After all, that is exactly how they got elected into their political leadership role. The bottom line is that a large portion of the people developing our legislation had their success handed to them, and they have absolutely no credible experience that they can rely on to develop good solutions.

Who sticks out as our country’s main minority leaders? It seems a week cannot pass without hearing about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Are they good leaders? Absolutely not, because the only thing they accomplish is to polarize Americans through the use of the “race card”. They claim they are preaching for civil rights, which is only partially true. The civil rights movement is the fight for equal rights for African-Americans. Part of civil rights is to stop discriminatory behavior, but the other part is to improve the livelihoods of African-Americans and their role in society. Jackson and Sharpton only fight discrimination. They do absolutely nothing to help African-Americans from an economic standpoint. It is unacceptable to use the ‘race card’ as an excuse for civil rights protests and activity. The “race card” defeats the purpose of any civil rights protests because it is only an excuse for the activity. Civil rights protests should be done in a proactive way instead of being reactive to every racist and discriminatory act that comes up across the United States. Reactive protests only anger both sides of the issue, whereas proactive ones create less tension and are constructive in nature. It was discussed earlier how ineffective arguments are when people allow emotions to dictate control of the situation. The civil rights movement started by Martin Luther King Jr. was about being peaceful and respectful, not about agitating and disrespectful behavior. This is exactly what happens when civil rights protests start as a reaction to a racially sensitive issue. Unfortunately, this is exactly the type of reaction minority leaders want to accomplish. The bigger the public reaction is to a problem, the more headlines and chaos it creates. The more headlines and chaos they receive from a protest, the more the African-American public is brainwashed into believing Jackson and Sharpton are needed to help them. The “race card” is getting a bit old. Unfortunately, we live in a society where it is not politically correct to speak against people using the “race card”. The “race card” is when minorities exploit their heritage and use it as an excuse to get what they want. One example of the race card is when my wife, who is a school teacher, disciplines a black child. The child’s parents would accuse her of being a racist, punishing their child only because the child is black. Therefore, these parents are using their race to manipulate the situation. This is just one example of how the ‘race card’ is used at an alarming rate throughout the country on a daily basis. Although a person using the “race card” is a very common occurrence today, the problem cannot be solved unless African-Americans realize that minority leadership is only sidestepping the problem-solving portion of conflict resolution.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com)

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