Cornell McCleary, Former 610 - WTVN Radio Bad Boy

NAACP - Champion of the past - Leaderless today

THE National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) recent national convention alleges to address the concerns of African-Americans - The group wants President Bush to stop by and say Hi.

The NAACP recently held it's 97th annual convention in Washington D.C. attended by 2,000 people, mostly African-Americans out of 35 million plus African-Americans in the United States.  What is wrong with this picture?

Some of the issues being advocated by the NAACP, urging lawmakers to raise the minimum wage (the overwhelming majority of blacks make much more than the minimum wage) and the group's Chairman, Julian Bond condemned attacks on school integration (most Americans, black and white wants their children going to school where they live, neighborhoods of choice).  Part of the six-day convention will include analysis of how well industries serve minorities not the efforts of minorities to empower themselves.  Since 1997, the NAACP has graded banks, hotels and other companies.

The sad truth is that the leadership of the NAACP focuses on the bread and butter issues that result in recognition or donations to the NAACP.  The business community knows this as well as the white politicos.

The real issues facing urban communities in general and black communities in particular that require leadership and heavy-lifting, NAACP so-called leadership puts the weight on government to resolve community-related issues like illegal drug sales and abuse, violent rising black-on-black crime, extreme high school drop out rates, disastrous rates of single-female head of households, immoral rates of abortions sought on the part of young black females, the high rate of incarceration for black males, etc.

As stated in a recent article published in the Columbus Dispatch but written by Associated Press Reporter Erin Texeira: His (Julian Bond) frustrated tone reflected the diminished status of the NAACP and other civil-rights groups at a time when conservatives dominate Washington.  Conservatives have not rendered the NAACP and other civil-rights groups impotent, their own respective lack of leadership and being out of step with the true issues and concerns of their respective communities have rendered them impotent.

The NAACP and other civil-rights groups are membership-driven organizations.  Having said that, the facts can stand on its own.  If one examines the membership numbers of groups like the NAACP and finds those numbers to be low or extremely low versus the available minority population then, it would be wise for one to seek another avenue to truly ascertain the concerns of blacks and other minorities.

Governor debates are on -Ohio's powerful white print media turned off

The Columbus Dispatch, The Plain Dealer and the Dayton Daily News are given a lesson in moral responsibility by Ken Blackwell and Ted Strickland.

Recently, the two major party candidates for governor have agreed on dates and places for four debates.  They also agreed to reject a debate proposed by three of Ohio's largest white owned newspapers because they (the white-owned print medias) refused to include the Call & Post, a minority-owned newspaper circulating in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.  Both Blackwell and Strickland were both politically mature enough and responsible enough to recognize that if they went along with the white media's proposal that it would have created a political outrage in the black community.  The arrogance of the editorial boards of the white media's in this instance shows both their respective ignorance and political immaturity.

The sponsorship of the debates are as much a business decision as well as providing a public service.  And, it can be safely concluded that each of the white print media co-sponsors would be contributing significant financial and other resources to secure their respective participation and positions as co-sponsors, resources that most, if not all, of minority-owned businesses don't have.  The problem is, in this particular situation, we are not talking about a private business private joint-venture development project.  We are talking about a public event that can and will help decide who the next governor of the state of Ohio is going to be and it is absolutely unacceptable in such a situation that it be even remotely suggested, that when it comes to sponsorship of public debates, that rich white organizations need only reply.  Not only should the three white major print media's have welcomed the participation of the Call & Post Newspaper, if these medias were being socially and politically responsible, that should have sought out the participation and support of every known minority-owned media in the state of Ohio to truly show Ohioans their respective greatness and true public interest.

Both Ken Blackwell and Ted Strickland in this instance have both gained the respect of minorities throughout the state of Ohio.  The question that remains is does the Dispatch, The Plain Dealer and The Dayton Daily News have the guts to admit that they were wrong and immediately, comprehensively, correct the problem?