Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to watch "Street Fight", the Marshall Curry directed documentary recording the 2002 mayoral race in Newark, NJ between incumbent Sharpe James and challenger and 1st term Newark City Council member, Cory Booker(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457496/). The documentary is without a doubt one of the most important discussions of the internal politics within African-America. James and Booker knowingly and willingly play out one of the oldest dramas of post-Emancipation African-American political life, the leadership battle fought on the terrain of culture, class and color.http://www.imdb.com/...
The question of class, traditionally, in African American communities did/does not play out in the Marxist sense of relationships to the means of production (owners vs. workers). Instead class is defined and signified by a group or individual's cultural capital. Success in "mastering" the master narratives of bourgeois Euro-American society was thought to be a means to overcome the (racial, social and economic) limitations of African-American life. One's familiarity with Euro-American cultural forms, embrace of mainstream ideas, adoption of mainstream dress and matriculation through centers of education, articulated a difference between this acculturated elite and the masses of African-Americans who were not able or willing to achieve these characteristics. Those who had gained these affectations, were embraced by the Euro-American community and many in the African-American community as the "leadership", the best and the brightest in short as W.E.B. DuBois named them, "The Talented Tenth." This vanguard was(is) expected to lift the masses of Blacks up the social, political ladder as they climb higher up mainstream America's hierarchy. Theoretically, anyway.
This elite was limited by the transformative embrace of mainstream beliefs, perspectives and prejudices. Taking on the dominant perspectives of mainstream America and embracing the covert and overt ideas of African American inferiority, many of these leaders saw leadership as the imposition of standard American beliefs and practices upon the masses of African-Americans, failing to recognize the beliefs, desires, practices and goals of the African-American majority that did not fit into a mainstream box. Historian Carter G. Woodson recognized the limitations of African-American leadership, shaped by white supremacist institutions, upon the liberatory efforts of the African American community. In his classic work The Mis-Education of the Negro Woodson argues that the racist education that Black leadership receives in mainstream institutions, only creates a dependency complex among "racial" leaders and undermines the efforts of African-Americans who seek to create truly self determined institutions for the Black community.
"If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto."
Woodson looked to those who had not been subject to the "mis-education" of segregated schools but who had gained knowledge of their professions through experience. States Woodson,
"Practically all of the successful Negroes in this country are of the uneducated type or of that of Negroes who have had no formal education at all."
Woodson and others have analysed the role of the educated/acculturated elite vs. the organic leader in the African-American community and found the acculturated elite, wanting. http://www.brainyquote.com/...
Yet somehow, these traditional roles of the educated "elite" leader vs. the "grassroots" man of the people are beginning to undergo serious change
and necessary re-consideration as these characters play out in real time.
In "Street Fight" challenger Cory Booker's battle was not with the policy's of incumbent Sharpe James, nor the success or failure of the 4 term mayor (16 years). His battle was with the ghosts of failed middle class leadership. James' attacks on Booker echoed the fears of working class Blacks in relation to the historic types. Accusing Booker of being white, being a Republican, backed by Jewish money from New York and a carpet bagger, James stoked the flames of working class Black suspicion and disappointment with leaders who "represented" the people but served the interests of forces antagonistic to Black communal growth. Backing up his presentation of himself as a local boy made good and a defender of the sovereignty of Black Newark, Sharpe James, utilized tactics of intimidation, thuggery and illicit influence to silence or undermine Booker supporters. To sanction his behaviour and add authenticity to his efforts, the Black religio-politico leadership (Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton)weighed in and announced Cory Booker a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and Sharpe James, the real deal. As Political Scientist Arnold Lewis has stated, "It was an example of good old fashioned machinism." James, the people's candidate, servant of Newark's interests for 30+ years had indeed become nothing more than that which the Black political movements of the late 1960's and early 1970's had fought against, a corrupt Democratic, ethno-centric, party boss of an urban machine. And the "outsider," Cory Booker, Stanford University and Yale School of Law graduate, the supposed caricature, seemed to be the the real articulator and representative of the People's needs.
However this is not a singular event and maybe indicative of a sea change in the politics of leadership for the African American community. The battle Cory Booker fought against Sharp James is little different from the battle Barack Obama fights against the gatekeepers of African American politics. In an interview in The Politico, Eugene Wilder, the 1st African-American Governor (D-Virginia) in the country, present mayor of Richmond, VA. and wily old Black politician (the only type of old Black politician there could be) all but endorsed http://www.politico.com/... Barack Obama for President. Easily fobbing off the usual critiques of Sen. Obama, Wilder makes a telling statement
"Certain black leaders would believe that you have to go through their prism: 'If I lay my hand on you, you're OK,' " Wilder said with a chuckle. "So many people have made a living off of the pimping of race. I told him when he runs, one of his big problems he would have is with the African-American leadership, as such. He didn't question it. He said, 'I think I know what you mean.' "
Wilder's comments clearly support what under the successes of Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), Cory Booker and Sen. Barack Obama appears to be the growing "professionalization" of African-American political leadership. This rising tide is exposing the limitations of the Civil Rights era of model of charismatic leadership. Obama, et al offer a "new" vision of Black leadrship that is functionally the realization of the goals of the Civil Rights movement. Armed with policy papers and hard earned experience in state and local legislative chambers, these individuals recognize that "I marched with Dr. King!" is no longer sufficient cause for election to public office. These are public servants that recognize and respect the needs of dis-enfranchised communities but are not limited in their message and effectiveness to those communities. The policies of this new (?), certainly different, type of African American public servant are ones that continue the efforts and the agenda of Civil Rights and Social Justice. As well these figures have shown that their cultural capital has not come at the loss of familiarity and identification with African American working class life. These individuals are men of color, African Americans, in ways that seem honest and earnest. Being Black does not seem to be an election strategy nor is it something to be downplayed on the campaign trail though as an article in GQ Magazine (September 2007) about Barack Obama states, " . . . he drops a 'y'all or two into his patter, as he often does in the South . . .," http://men.style.com/... indeed it simply seems to be who they are. Hesitatingly I think that perhaps these public servants, these "new jacks" are simply the best of what old critics of the "Talent Tenth" hoped for; educated leaders, whose education intensified their relationship to Black Communities not alienated them, whose skills and abilities would be put to use in service of larger communities not narrow interests and whose agendas could possibly be of service not just to the "race" but ultimately to the world.