It seems that every couple of years there are a spate of articles in the world of political journalism -- particularly mainstream political journalism -- declaring a wave of "new" black leaders, or a "next generation" of black leaders.
These stories typically go on to profile a collection of recently-elected or aspiring would-be elected officials who are either Republicans or relatively centrist Democrats -- hence the "new"-ness.
Current icons of the moment include Barack Obama and Harold Ford (both of whom I'll get to in later posts), state-wide candidates like Michael Steele and Lynn Swann, and Newark mayoral candidate Corey Booker.
Next month New Jersey's largest city will elect Booker its first new mayor in 20 years. Due to his nearly-succesful attempt four years ago to topple long-time incumbent Sharpe James, Booker instantly became the favorite when James bowed out of the contest a couple of weeks ago.
What makes Booker so attractive to the mainstream media are his Ivy League education and his alleged new approaches to the problems particular to African-Americans. When you read any profile of Booker, however, or hear him speak, it becomes clear that there is not that much which is new about his perspective on government's role in the lives of black Americans -- or all Americans. What all the hoopla seems to come down to is that he supports educational vouchers for private schools (a topic I'll address in a later post). That's pretty much it.
What's really "new" about Booker with respect to other black politicians are his marketing skills. First, upon returning from Yale Law School, Booker, who grew up in an all-white suburban neighborhood, moved into one of the city's worst housing projects. This act strikes most blacks as a fairly meaningless stunt, but helped garner a fair amount of publicity for the young Booker. Second, for his fudraising activities he courted not the money men of Newark (there are almost none), nor of the (very) wealthy nearby suburbs in New Jersey. No, instead, Booker has has been raking it in from the stock brokers of Wall Street and the professional class of Manhattan.
This has been the source of considerable consternation from outlets like Black Commentator, and not unreasonably so. When black candidates and elected officials start turning in significant degrees to sources of support in which African-Americans have so little representation or influence, it makes many blacks nervous over where, exactly, the candidate's priorities will lie should he get elected.
More troubling, in my mind, than his support of vouchers is that he chose to announce said support in a speech before the Manhattan Institute, a conservative New York think tank that, for example, had spent considerable energy trying to make excuses for the cops that had famously gunned-down the black New Yorker Amadou Diallo in a fusilade of 41 shots. The Manhattan Institute, to be clear, has few friends in the black community.
From Wall Street power brokers to conservative think tanks to the mainstream (as in non-African-American) media, Booker's biggest boosters do not seem to have any roots in the black community, or even the local New Jersey community, despite the fact that he is looking to govern a city that is almost 60% black.
This makes more than a few of us uncomfortable. Perhaps this is a lot of worrying over nothing. Perhaps Booker will prove to do the right thing by his constituents once in office. But blacks, particularly in Newark, are right to wonder about this latest example of the alleged "new" wave of black leaders. Where exactly do they want to lead us?
Are you listening Harold?
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