We hope the Salute to Excellence recognition events, hosted annually by the St. Louis American Foundation – and, especially, the flagship Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards gala, presented this past Friday – provide some counterbalancing context to the challenging, gadfly role we often play, particularly in Democratic politics. We love to praise, when praise is due. We love to honor and cherish the deserving. We would like to help prepare a better future for this region and state. We would like to think the Missouri state university system’s recent decision to recognize our publisher with the second scholarship in his name (this one, at Southeastern Missouri State University) reflects institutional awareness that our mission in the community ultimately is a positive one.
However, the keynote speaker to the 20009 Salute to Excellence in Education – Roland S. Martin, who self-selected black newspapers as his entry into journalism – also reminded us, by message and example, why we do not hesitate to offer stinging criticism where we think it is needed to move this city, region and state forward. Martin spoke about remaining unapologetically a strong black man with a strong black man’s point of view as he makes appearances on mainstream venues like CNN. He also reminded an elegant crowd of more than 1,300 how rare it is for a strong African-American analytic perspective to be broadcast in 2009, even with a strong black man in the White House – under intense fire from resentful white activists.
Roland Martin reminds us that a strong, critical voice from the African-American community remains essential to understanding this country, state, region and city. And Martin reminds us that when the achievements of a strong African American places him or her in the mainstream, with the attention of powerful people and a diverse audience, that is not the time to dilute the perspective and message coming from this community. Quite the contrary – that is the time to be bold.
When we look around St. Louis, we see this message is not often put into practice. With too few exceptions, when a black person achieves some prominence, he or she accepts the benefits of this empowered position but does not use their new power to voice the real, enduring concerns of this community. In fact, we know all too well that the power brokers in this region prefer to reward precisely those African Americans willing to lend a black face – and the opportunity to reference the inclusion of a black employee – in exchange for complicity and compliance. We are, of course, describing a familiar pattern in this former slave state and offering the reminder that it remains very much in play.
We also thank Roland Martin for the reminder that too many African Americans are often failing to lead not only at the executive level. Martin talked of black people attending a family reunion and seeing profoundly disturbing things going on in their own family, but then turning around and going home rather than accepting responsibility and addressing the problem. “We can no longer say, ‘Let’s get in the car and go home,’” he said. This is a challenge well worth remembering and repeating. As Martin reminded us, African-American leadership in the White House is not going to trickle down to the state, region, city, neighborhood, block and finally to our individual homes. We must take control of our individual homes, then our blocks, then our neighborhoods, and if we can do that, then leadership on the larger scene – where we have been lagging – will be more than possible. It will be a reality.