There is a legitimate question of whether many affluent African Americans like Bill Cosby and Juan Williams truly care about poor black people. Are they distancing themselves from poor blacks rather than linking themselves to the fate of their brethren trapped in rampant, long-term poverty?
While these cynics sternly attack some admittedly pernicious behavior and its destructive consequences apparently without concern, empathy and deeper understanding, there are some more promising young political leaders who want to make service to their people and governmental reform the essentials of their work.
Last May, Cory Booker, a 37-year-old former Rhodes Scholar and son of civil rights activists, was elected mayor of the struggling city of Newark, N.J. Booker, a former councilman, is a Yale Law School graduate and former Stanford football player. In his second attempt after a narrow defeat four years ago, he won in a landslide. As mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, he now faces the myriad ills common to many troubled urban areas.
On Tuesday, District of Columbia Council member Adrian Fenty, age 35, won the Democratic Party’s nomination for Washington D.C. mayor by an impressive margin that is tantamount to victory in the November general election. Despite some severe criticism about his youth and lack of experience, Fenty ran an energetic, well-organized campaign. He boldly pledged to reform government (making it more accountable to all of the people), rebuild the schools and bring institutions together to improve the peoples’ lives. We are impressed that he wants to go beyond keeping the District on a steady course to challenge the best in the people.
Booker, who had to win a street fight to dislodge the decades-old political machine, is not without his critics. He comes heavily funded by school voucher PAC’s and is expected to push their agenda, which calls for redirecting public funding into scholarships to offset the formidable expenses of private education. Booker’s harshest critics dismiss him as a “nominal Democrat” and his success as a harbinger of future GOP attempts to place stealth black Republicans in office as Democrats, using school choice as a new wedge issue.
Yet there are signs that Booker and Fenty, like U.S. Senator Barak Obama, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. are part of a new generation that could bring needed fresh thinking to address structural problems that have left many American cities – and so many black people – desperate and demoralized. High ideals and good intentions alone will not solve these daunting, almost intractable problems. However, it is encouraging to see these individuals of privilege willing to commit themselves and their futures to public service. They need to be joined by leaders at every level who want to largely eschew personal material success to address peoples’ needs.
It is one thing to criticize, as Cosby, Williams and many others have done. It is something altogether different to sacrifice and organize and struggle to effect change.