I Miss...

They say you can't miss something you never had.  As the child of an absentee father I disagree.  We know exactly what we're missing.  We see other children with their fathers and wonder what it would be like if ours was that loving, caring, or even just present.  It leaves you with a hole in your heart because you know you could have used the guidance in your tough moments, when the advice of a man who'd already been through his own tough times could help steer you away from the same pitfalls.  To know that someone would always have your back and be in your corner but love you enough to tell you when you're wrong from a man's perspective I imagine would be incredibly empowering.  I'm aware that there are some fathers that even while present, are horrible people to their children and that their influence cripples them instead but the power of the influence is still there.  Even when we speak of the founding of our nation we speak of the "founding fathers."  Men who some of us hold infallible and will forever remain the blueprint of what America should be.  I know that feeling.  Its the feeling I get when I watch footage of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  When they speak on the issues of their time there is a feeling of self assurance and faith in their steadfast leadership that makes me feel like everything is going to be ok.  We of course know how it ended for these great men.  I realize now, on a larger scale Black America feels the same way we do looking at other children receiving the guidance they so desperately long for.

We had it once.  Frederick Douglass' philosophy of equality through education and outspoken leadership was the driving force of the post Reconstruction era. Most of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were founded during his lifetime and his speeches inspired a waves of black intellectuals to take up his mantle long after his passing. The debates between W.E.B. DuBois' Talented Tenth ideology,  Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise, and Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association left our people with no shortage of schools of thought on what success was and how to achieve it.  The assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. King, however, seems to have brought the era of the great black leader to a close.  We have a generation of kids for whom that type of leadership has never existed.  The black intellectuals of today, Michael Eric Dyson, Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, and many others don't seem to have as strong a voice.  You have to seek them out instead of being the inescapable force their predecessors were.  They seem to be content with being talking heads on someone else's news network instead of banding together and forming their own organization.  The NAACP has been silent on issues that don't involve them getting a check and honestly, I've gotten more news on black entrepreneurs and people making positive changes in our communities from Mary Jane Paul than our "leaders".  Many who lived through the 60s and 70s had hoped that Barack Obama could be that voice but he has consistently shied away from directly confronting the issues that may still be affecting his grandchildren if no progress is made.  The recent riots and protests set off by the unjustified deaths of unarmed black men show that the need for strong leadership is there.  The desire for change is there.  The need for justice is there. As Malcolm X predicted, we are assailed in the media as if we're a pack of wild animals that can't control themselves.  We are weighted down by practices like gerrymandering, housing discrimination, and outright gentrification designed to strip us of the rights so many gave their lives for and like Christ on the cross, we are screaming "why have you forsaken me?"

The reasons no one has stepped up to carry the torch of leadership have been debated, dissected, and disclosed on countless whats-wrong-with-black-people themed projects across every cable news channel.  My take is that the rise of the black middle class has created a class divide among black people that compound the racial issues that hinder us all.  We've lost sight of what unites us.  Black immigrants tend to look down on African Americans (a sin of which I am guilty from time to time). African Americans in turn resent foreign blacks.  The reality, of course is that our stories are as intertwined as the tribes our ancestors were taken from centuries ago.  It's a divide that doesn't truly exist but we've been living with segregation so long we've adopted it too.  It doesn't matter in the end, though.  The lack of leadership and common purpose for our people has left us wandering.  Everyone just tries to eek out the best living we can and every man woman and child is left to fend for themselves.  We keep looking for the person who can bridge the gap and bring us together the way we used to be.  I once advised young brother who asked me where our leaders are and I told him that leadership comes from a strong family first.  I still believe that but I realize now what he was really asking.  He's looking for what our great men used to provide.  Its like that little boy watching what a good father does for his kids. It's something we all miss