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Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4836
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 08:52 pm: | 
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JULIAN BOND WEIGHS IN ON RESIGNATION OF BRUCE GORDON:
Feisty NAACP chairman confirms organization is still alive and well.
By DeBorah B. Pryor
March 13, 2007
“We’re trying as hard as we can to say to some people, ‘just because someone jumps off the ship doesn’t mean the ship is going to sink,” says NAACP Chairman Julian Bond who interrupted his working vacation in Florida to speak with EUR’s Lee Bailey by phone on the highly-publicized resignation of President & CEO Bruce Gordon after only 19 months in office.
“This ship is alive. It’s well. It has great promise. It has great, great history. But its promise for the future is even greater,” the 67-year-old Bond emphatically stated. “If you’ll stick with us—and I’m happy to report that almost to a woman and a man...most people that I’ve talked to have said, ‘I’m with you, we’re going to continue on.’”
Gordon’s sharp departure from the 98-year-old civil rights organization may have taken most people by surprise. But some don’t really understand why because, after all, there were warnings early on that the former Verizon businessman was not a good match.
No one listened.
Gordon himself, noticing significant differences in his vision from that of the NAACP almost immediately, tried to exit his post as early as six weeks into his position; but was talked into staying by Bond.
Why didn’t they just let him go?
“Well 6 weeks after he took the job Mr. Gordon called me and told me he wanted to resign, says Bond. In his words, ‘it’s not a good fit’. But I prevailed on him to continue and then about 3 weeks ago he handed in his resignation to the NAACP executive committee and all the resulting publicity followed... Looking back on it maybe I should have behaved differently, but I thought then and I think now that he has many, many wonderful qualities. He’s a bright, bright man. He had experience managing a population many times larger than our employees. He had contacts in the corporate world. In many ways he was just immensely suitable for the job. But there was this basic conflict which I say, I can’t understand how he and we had such different ideas about it but we did; and eventually, at least for him, it came to a head.
Bruce Gordon
The reasons behind Gordon’s seemingly “abrupt” exit appears to be pretty cut and dry. In a nutshell, if that’s possible, he aimed to modernize the organization; bring it more up-to-date, more suitable to, and effective for, the issues and needs of black folk today. The NAACP wasn’t interested; opting instead to stand steadfast to their original mission: Fighting racial discrimination and advocating for social justice.
In addressing what some of the practical differences were between Gordon’s vision and that of the NAACP Bond explains to Bailey,
“Well this is an ancient conflict among African Americans indeed. I think it’s a conflict among all minority groups who are trying to win acceptance in the larger society. There’s a group of people who think ‘here’s what we need to d We need to knock on these doors as strongly, as loudly, as often as we can and force our way into the mainstream of society’. And another group...says, ‘no, these people don’t like us because of things we do, the way we behave; so what we need to do is improve our behavior, and if we improve our behavior then the doors will open and we’ll be allowed in’. Well you know there’s merit in both of these groups, although I think more merit in the first than the second,” concludes the activist who has been on the cutting edge of social change for over four decades.
Meanwhile on Tavis Smiley’s PBS show just one day after his resignation, Gordon, while gracious, did not shy away from his disappointment with the organization; alluding to its below par performance, short-sightedness and outdated practices. Speaking via phone to Smiley from the NAACP National headquarters in Baltimore, in what was his first television appearance since the announcement, Gordon answered Smiley’s "What happened" question with the poise of a man who offered no apologies and had no regrets.
“It may...be... what didn’t happen. I think that any organization that is going to be effective, whether it’s a not-for-profit, a civil rights organization or a private corporation, where there is a board and a chief executive, those two parties have to be totally aligned. The work of organizations in every regard requires the best the organization has to offer and if there is a conflict, if there is a misalignment, the organization is going to be sub-optable...It’s going to under-perform. I think we are punching below our weight. I think that the NAACP, all of the history that we have, for the power of our two-thousand units across this country, for the name recognition of the brand NAACP I think that we could be a greater force in America-- if not the world-- than we are.”
The disparity between the two opposing visions—which is basically can strategy be updated while staying true to mission brings up some interesting points. While fighting racial discrimination, part of NAACP’s main mission, is a self-explanatory, ongoing challenge; doesn’t the need for social justice (the other part of their mission) work simultaneously with the act of social service? One would not be necessary without the other. And further, at times, one may need more attention than the other—depending on the state of the times. Why couldn’t one vision be realized without fear of jeopardizing the other? How can an organization like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People expect to be effective in the changing infrastructure of African American life if they are not willing to be flexible?
“I don’t want to give the impression that he wanted us to drop our social justice mission and take up a social service mission; that’s not so,” clarifies Bond on what went down with Gordon. “But he wanted us to do more of the service than we had been doing and we thought that is contrary to what our mission has been since 1909 ...There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of organizations in the United States both within and without the black community that engage in social service. One of the most prominent, not a black organization, is called Habitat for Humanity. They do wonderful work; help people build houses for themselves. That’s great work and we participated in that work. But our mission is providing justice for people. And that’s what we want to spend our energies, our resources, our time doing.”
Bruce Gordon, LL Cool J & Julian Bond (from the recent 2007 NAACP Image Awards)
Many African Americans today may find Gordon’s viewpoint more realistic. The NAACP has long been questioned on its relevancy with regard to the organizations’ lack of creativity in developing new strategies to combat the issues important to elevating the life condition of African Americans as a whole today. According to the national office in 2004, membership for the National NAACP had dropped from an estimated 650,000 members in 1995 to an estimated 500,000; and additionally, according to Duane Reed, president of the Minneapolis Chapter, in his interview with Jean Hopfensperger of the Minneapolis, St. Paul Minnesota publication, Star Tribune, “...99 percent of the people who call aren’t members...You have a gap in membership and potential leadership," said Reed, who at 58 represents the the average age of members nationally. “You have to have balance and a succession plan," he concludes.
When questioned by Bailey about the validity of criticism surrounding NAACP’s relevancy, especially to people under 40, Bond responds,
“You know it’s odd, I’ve been hearing that for most of my life and I’m 67 years old; and I particularly hear it about young people. I don’t think people know that the largest growing sect of our membership is high school and college-aged young people. At our last board meeting in February, we chartered at least 20 new high school and college branches. That segment of our membership is growing like wildfire and we’re as happy about it as we can be... You just have to go by the evidence; we have 2,000 active chapters around the United States. If you go on Google news right now and look at the news for today about the NAACP you’re going to find a lot of articles about us losing our CEO, but you’re going to find many, many times more articles about the things our branches are doing in small towns and big cities across the country; and what they’re doing is fighting racial discrimination...You know when people, black people, get in trouble they don’t call Michael Jordan, they don’t call Michael Jackson, they call the NAACP.”
And that they do.
The NAACP was called upon to support an increase in the minimum wage. They were called upon to support the federal program to improve children’s access to healthcare nationwide; the organization is onboard in support of cutting interest rates on need-based student loans and the list goes on...
“I’m a businessman so I look at this like a business. I look at our two-thousand units like a distribution channel,” Gordon told Tavis Smiley. “And I think distribution channels have to be modernized. They have to operate with state-of-the-art technology; they have to have the capabilities to turn on a dime. Civil rights issues, as you know, pop up in different shapes and forms in communities across this country. So I also believe in peak operating efficiency. We are not operating in peak efficiency...That means we need a remake. We need to reinvent ourselves from the vantage of 21st century technology, 21st century operating systems and I don’t find us making progress as quickly as we should in that area.”
One really has to wonder what the heck actually went on in what had to be a pretty in-depth interview for this position. Did Gordon, or the board, misrepresent themselves? There had to be some sort of clue that surfaced, sprung up, lightning-bolted out from somewhere to signify these people were clearly on different paths. To have Gordon exalting, “I’m about results...We measure our performance in terms of whether we close gaps. Are we succeeding at getting more African Americans...tested for AIDS in a measurable way...Are we getting more voters registered and more voters out on Election Day? Are we getting more people educated in terms of literacy and what is involved to make homeownership a reality?
While Julian Bond and his NAACP board is espousing, “...The major part of our mission is what we call social justice advocacy: we fight against racial discrimination. We knock down the barriers against race and discrimination that keep black people from reaching their full potential in American society; and we’re fond of saying that, if our people have social justice they won’t need social service.”
Yet and still, according to Bond, Gordon was the hands-down candidate.
“He was hired because having conducted a search and having talked to a number of candidates--many of them wonderful women and men-- it was the consensus of the search committee that he was the better of all the candidates that we had and we thought, wrongly as it turned out, that there was a basic understanding that—as is true with almost every organization in the world-- that the board of directors set the policy and the strategy and the President CEO carried it out. As it turned out that was our understanding, but it wasn’t his and inevitably crisis occurred and he decided to resolve the crisis by quitting.”
Gordon did admit to Smiley, “I take accountability for not getting the board to approach our work the way that I think we should...We are making progress...but I believe we can make far more substantial progress than that. So it’s a matter of whether this 98-year-old institution with its name recognition and its two thousand units is being as impactful as we have the potential to be.”
What lessons can be learned from this experience was a question posed to Mr. Bond by interviewer Lee Bailey with regard to him and the NAACP board,
Well it taught us one thing in that, while we thought we had good communication between the board and the CEO, obviously we didn’t. So when we have someone else in place we need to make sure that we, each, perfectly understand what our job is, what our role is, and how we relate to each other. We thought we’d done that; obviously we had not...Our next step is to begin the search as quickly as we can for a replacement and hope that he or she will be somebody to lead the NAACP to the next level...in some respects Mr. Gordon did that, his predecessor did that, and we hope the next person will do that as well.
And now with the latest mea culpa: southern states apologizing for their participation in the act of slavery; while little more than an insult to some who call it ‘too little, too late’ others, including the NAACP, see it as progress still. Bond elaborates,
Its one of those symbolic acts which have great meaning. If the Georgia legislature apologizes for slavery it doesn’t mean any real changing in the material stand of black Americans, but it does mean that an institution which helped to perpetuate slavery , which created untold misery for black Americans from which some are suffering still today has finally taken responsibility for what it did. So its not something that’s going to instantly change the material lives of black Americans ...I tell you, I used to live in Georgia, I used to serve in that legislature, I’d be so pleased if they did it. Virginia has done it, where there’s a Bill in the Congress to get the Congress of the United States to do it and again, these are symbolic acts that mean a great deal.
Well, let it be noted that whether one agrees with the viewpoint of Bruce Gordon’s need for modernization or the NAACP’s solid position to stand unyielding to its original mission; the importance of continuing such an organization as the NAACP is imperative to the landscape of African American existence. Such continuance can only be ensured by monetary support (continued membership drives); community presence and involvement at open NAACP meetings, and a renewed sense of loyalty and faith in action from the African American community which this important organization has stood behind, steadfast, for the past 98 years.
In his book Choose Hope, brilliant philosopher Daisaku Ikeda states, “One tragedy of our times is the willingness of realists, in spite of impending crisis, to criticize and obstruct people who expend their energy toward finding solutions. Their judgments however are superficial and conventional and their attitude distances them from the essential quality of reality—change. Often the wisest realists cannot escape this trap. The challenge then is to create a new kind of reality that offers hope for changing the world.”
We can never know with any certainty if Gordon’s decision to quit the organization so soon, rather than work within it; with the faith that he would be able to gradually alter its viewpoint—even if only by one board member at a time—was the right decision; but we can only hope that his decision to abandon ship is not the beginning of what could possibly become, at the very least, a disturbing human resources trend.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For MORE insight and for a different perspective on the issue, see these associated stories at EURweb: Darryl James' THE BRIDGE: Pimps of the Movement and Anthony Asadullah Samad's BETWEEN THE LINES: The Bruce Gordon Resignation: You Can't Know The NAACP If You've Never Been In The NAACP
DeBorah B. Pryor is an internationally recognized journalist and president of “The Art of Communication: Public speaking for private people” a series of workshops offering valuable strategies to emerging professionals. Articles on her international journeys; including visits to South Africa and the West Indies have appeared in The Electronic Urban Report where she is also a regular columnist authoring “The Heart of the Matter: Strategies to Solve Your Workplace Woes.” She can be contacted via Email at DeBorah@DPRYORPRESENTS.COM or visit her website at http://www.dpryorpresents.com
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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1982
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 09:21 pm: |
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This is quite interesting...Bond poses it as the historical debate between Du Bois and Washington. I'm interested to find out what exactly Gordon wanted to do...both of them are being quite vague.
I will say that it took 100 yrs to get civil rights, so fighting social injustice doesn't seem like the kind of thing Gordon really wanted to engage if he expected to obtain in a "measurable way."
Nevertheless, getting more folk registered to vote is important; tested for AIDS, etc....
Actually, when I think of social service, I think of the National Urban League not the NAACP.... |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7798
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 09:49 pm: |
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I agree, Yukio. When it came to his departure, it's like this organization and its new director just opted for detente rather than controversy. Obviously the NAACP is entrenched in tradition and not amenable to "upstarts" from the corporate world. |
Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1418
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 10:29 pm: |
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MULLATTO WHO IS MARRIED TO A WHITE WOMAN IS AN EXPERT ON BLACK ISSUES!!
GIVE ME A BREAK!!
NO WONDER NO ONE TAKES BLACK PPL SERIOUS!!!! |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4840
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 11:17 pm: |
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Bond was clear. He was being completely gracious at the same time; that's all. This Gordon guy, tho, is another story. Either he's a crackhead...or he decided to say what they wanted to hear during the interview, then make his own rules once he got in, thinking he could get away with it...OR BOTH. |
Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 4492
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 11:46 pm: |
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Serenasailor,
I agree with you about the NAACP being a total joke.
They've never been for Black people in the least and everything Marcus Garvey said about them in the 1920's still stands today.
It's the "height" of ni66erdom.
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Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 895
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 12:06 am: |
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Kola: I agree with you about the NAACP being a total joke.
They've never been for Black people in the least and everything Marcus Garvey said about them in the 1920's still stands today.
It's the "height" of ni66erdom.
Schakspir: True. But then again, there's always you. Who could resist??? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8849
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 01:22 am: |
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Though it makes for interesting copy, I don't think what happen was primarily due to the legendary W.E.B. Du Bois vs B.T. Washington debate.
Instead, it appears there was confusion between Gordon and NAACP Board with respect to how the organization was to be managed. I suspect what happened was there were too few SPECIFICS established and mutually-agreed about what Gordon was charged with doing PRIOR to his being made President. Once Gordon came aboard the helm of the NAACP, he quickly deduced he would NOT be able to manage and administer as he required, and wanted to leave.
That happens...
But it's really troubling that Gordon wanted to leave so QUICKLY. I mean, if it's TRUE he attempted to leave as soon as SIX WEEKS on the gig, that suggests he did NOT expend enuff time and resources deducing whether or not he will be able to do what he wanted. He knows over the last 20 years the NAACP has been a troubled organization and he SHOULD have known it is going to take a LOT of time and elbow grease to turn things around.
You can't just walk through the door of a NFP business and just start bossing foks around like you can in a FP business.
It's a charitable, mostly volunteer organization whose staff probably is paid below market rate. And its roots run DEEP. To get fok under these circumstances to change require foks being wooed, seduced and inspired into doing things differently. Not big-timed and bullied into such. And, again, that takes some time, largely because it takes a while to convince foks you will not do EXACTLY what Gordon did: When things got ruff, King Gordo bails on'em.
Perhaps I'm being premature. But it sounds like brotha Gordon did NOT do his HOMEWORK as well as he should have. And it also sounds like he's a frickin' QUITTER.
Still, having said all of that, it is possible that the NAACP might benefit from changing it's mission and/pr primary objectives to reflect the changes that have occurred over the near-100 years the organization has existed. And much of its senior directors and management - who are largely still immersed in Civil Rights Movement mode - might have to retire and die off before that happens. |
Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 4495
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 01:44 am: |
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ABM:
I mean, if it's TRUE he attempted to leave as soon as SIX WEEKS on the gig, that suggests he did NOT expend enuff time and resources deducing whether or not he will be able to do what he wanted.
KOLA:
Sounds to me like he saw what a "fake" COTILLION the organization is----I mean wanting to leave in 6 weeks----
he probably realized that all he'd be able to do is "boycott Hollywood" over film roles or sue "DENNY's" for discriminating against black diners.
Joe Madison was a Head of the NAACP, he's an extremely close friend of mine, and they never would have allowed him to speak out on SUDAN, attack the PRISON SYSTEM or do anything that wasn't first approved by the Democratic party and other "White" STAMPERS.
Joe left the NAACP and freed more than 6,000 slaves in SUDAN on his own.
http://www.sudancampaign.com/gallery.html
*Can you see now why someone would want to leave in 6 weeks?
It takes a very special "political place marker" to be in charge of the NAACP.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3978
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 01:52 am: |
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L-I-A-R
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8850
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 02:05 am: |
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Kola,
There are LOTS of reason to criticize the NAACP. But the issue HERE is NOT about whether or not the NAACP is what we think or want it to be.
Because Gordon knew what he was getting into when he took the gig. And if he didn't, shame on him. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1985
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 03:15 am: |
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Well, I only stated that is was a DuBoisian and Washingtonian battle because thats how Bond framed it. Be that as it may, ABM, I agree with you. Gordon didn't seem committed, and/or he really doesn't get what the NAACP is about, and is too wealthy to get his hands dirty; and if that is the case, then it is a Du Boisian and Washingtonian conflict, because Booker T. was into immediate results--funds from whites, obtaining industrial schooling, etc....Du Bois was trying to take folk to court, demand political rights so that they could protect their economic rights--the first civil rights is what we have obtained [with the help of the NAACP and host of other organizations, such as SNCC, CORE, and many, many local organizations] but only 100 yrs after the civil war, the latter, economic rights, we are still battling for.
Speaking of Garvey, he was actually a student of B.T. Washington's philosophy and came to the U.S. to study under BTW as well as to solicit funds to build an industrial school in Jamaica. Of course, BTW died in 1915, and Garvey established his own path, one of race first, but also one without a viable economic plan. Garvey is important because he helped blacks embrace their blackness, but at the level of politics and economics his plan was unrealistic...his Black Star Line was important in that it spoke to his ambitions as a capitalist and entrepreneur, but his business acumen was nonexistent, and the reality of establishing a commercial relationship w/Africa was unlikely since the majority of Africa's coasts were colonized by Europeans....
This is why he was criticized by many blacks, those in the NAACP, as well as Asa Randolph and the African Blood Brotherhood [black communists]. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8855
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 11:04 am: |
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Yukio,
I've always believed too much was made of pitting Du Bois and Washington against each other. Becausse they BOTH were so GLARING right.
Washington: You can't have/maintain rights of American citizenry if you're broke.
DuBois: You can't have/maintain money/property if you have no rights.
I don't believe either of those position should trump the other. They should have, instead, been allied. And it's unfortunate that so much was made of their illustrious debates that DuBois and Washington didn't see fit to COMBINED their equally relevant and important messages into some that might have been GREATER than the sum of their individual parts.
I agree Garvey was ahead of his time. So FAR ahead, his demise was both swift and inevitable. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1990
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 07:00 pm: |
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ABM,
Well, you have the benefit of hind sight. The debate at the time first decade of the twentieth century between DuBois and Washington was intense not because either position was right or wrong, but because Washington's philosophy held sway because it was buttressed by whites, and he used his power with whites to silence other blacks--newspapers, universities, etc...
Du Bois's was not so fortunate, though the NAACP was primarily a white organized institution. Lest us not forget, then as now, you need money to running an organization, and many blacks since the end of the American Revolution tried to establish organizations to counteract white supremacy.
I dont know about Garvey being ahead of his time; his politics, in fact, were not new at all; what made Garvey important was that at the time, the White World was at war and it used blacks--african american, west indian, and africa--as labor and soldiers to fight their war; at the same time the racism of whites was so glaringly egregious that Garvey's focus on 'race first,'a phrase he used and title of Tony Martin's classic study of Garvey, was eaten up by the black masses. Martin R. Delany and others had already espoused race first, and Garvey's entrepreneurism was nothing new. in fact, paul cuffee more than 100 yrs. beyond had already endeavored to establish trade between african americans and africans.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h485.html |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8878
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 01:50 am: |
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Yukio,
If I recall correctly, both Washington and Du Bois had their White backers. Heck. Physicist Albert Einstein bailed once bailed Du Bois out of jail.
Truth is NEITHER man would have had much of a platform from which to speak at the turn of the 20th Century if there were no Whites backing them.
And I believe Garvey was very first Black to cause large numbers of African Americans to actively attempt to view their themselves and their place on the planet TOTALLY free of White foks. He was defeated and/or failed. But what he did has been the inspiration of COUNTLESS Black liberation efforts throughout this country.
Perhaps the other gentlemen you mentioned 'espoused' certain things about Black conscienceness/liberation prior to Garvey. But Garvey gave a grander, more potent LIFE to such efforts. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1754
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 10:59 am: |
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Offered w/out comment as I have no way of verifying this one way or the other:
http://eurweb.com/story/eur32105.cfm |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8893
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 12:00 pm: |
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Yvettep,
So Smiley tried to coerce Cannick's BOSS into silencing her just because she criticized how Obama was treated during his State Of The Black Union?
WOW!!!
I swear. When Black foks FINALLY get hip to some shyt, A LOT of our so-called "Black leaders" are gonna be looking for new work. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1765
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 08:18 pm: |
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Well, like I said, I can't attest to the truth of this. I am just passing along something someone passed along to me. If true, it is pretty messed up. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 2000
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 10:47 pm: |
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abm: yes, they were both backed by whites, as I stated above. BUT, Washington's backing was more powerful. So powerful that he had the power to silence DuBois and others.
So Elder, it is not a matter of being backed by whites, but which whites. And Washington's whites were just left of the extreme right.
On Garvey:
If we are talking about what was attempted, no he was not the first. His importance lies in his impact....and the time period.
I doubt if many of his followers actually viewed "themselves and their place on the planet TOTALLY free of White fo[l]ks." That is not correct. He pushed blacks to embrace their blackness, to believe in beauty, power, and possibility of blackness. This is quite different from being free of white folks.
While Farrakhan is no Garvey, he has a similar kind of power, wherein he garners respect for his audacious claims, but the majority of his 'supporters,' i mean supporter in the loosest sense, are neither members of the nation of islam nor muslim.
In fact, many of the people who tried to get rid of him were black nationalists; in many respects DuBois was a nationalists.... |
Toubobie
Regular Poster
Username: Toubobie
Post Number: 230
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 12:50 am: |
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Julian Bond is a white, misogynist devil. |
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