Until there is unity among Black leaders, there will be no true leadership.
Everyone agrees that if we keep doing the same thing that we’ve been doing, we will get the same outcome. Thus, creating a collective is the best way to go. But what keeps us from doing this is the distrust of each other that has paralyzed our community to the point of hopelessness.; a distrust that can never be challenged if we don’t come together. Our leadership must set the example of the unity that our people need. We can all talk about our problems ad nauseam. Unfortunately, few discuss what we can do to get out of this mess.
In my humble opinion, there are three things that we must recognize if we are to have a shot at changing our conditions:
1) It’s going to take a significantly high level of Black unity;
2) Our progress will only come when we organize our resources, capacities, and people; and
3) We will have to earn the success that we envision. No one will give us what we need and what we deserve.
Conditions demand that you get out of your comfort zone and make your voice heard. We must end our self-imposed complacency and join the fight. We won’t be able to remove the distrust we harbor toward each other until we fight our internal differences and get ourselves to the table. Too many of us are sitting on the sidelines.
I’m frustrated and dismayed by the lack of leadership and ‘take charge’ attitude that we are showing in our community. We make excuse after excuse for not coming together. I say excuse because the large number of children that we lose daily should embarrass us into doing something. Our children don’t care about our status, egos, or our pedigree. Their destiny has already been determined unless we unite around the common cause of Black survival. Some say, that I’m too preachy; that I’m talking down to the people. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m doing the best I can because I’m not only working on those issues that I deem important, I’m equally working to unite our leaders and our people.
We are greater than the sum of our parts. Our problem is that we just get to see it often enough. If you look at a house, each ‘part from the design to the labor, has its own value. But putting the parts together in one place at one time, the final product escalates the value exponentially. When it all comes together, some call it synergy. We reference the greatness of our people, but to be great is to have great leaders and to be a great leader, one must be able to lead.
‘There comes a time when silence is betrayal” –Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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