People used to give me heat for telling the Rev. Jesse Jackson
to kick rocks. Yep. I used to catch a lot of flak—not so much, lately. And now rapper Nas has just made it plain. He’s calling
for Jesse to step down and let the new generation of black voices—like him,
Young Jeezy and a few other hood-types—take the reins. I’m grateful we don’t
live in a world where are our only choices for leadership are rappers and grievance
merchants. Reality TV star and reformed woman-beater Kevin
Powell alluded to being handed some mantle of leadership years ago. Someone
probably gave him a Snickers Bar and he took that as a sign. Inexplicably, he’s running for office,
got pictures of himself holding babies
and the whole nine. Sweet Jesus on a
Cracker—who gassed him up, man?! Seriously.
Just when you thought it was safe out
there. Politics ain’t no Eddie
Murphy movie, son. What other
brother is at Men’s Wearhouse putting suits in lay-a-way? Tavis Smiley? Roland
Martin? Elmo?
C’mon.
My hope is that when some of these old heads (after long,
productive lives) begin to drop off, the part of black people’s brain that lets
you think for yourself will begin firing neurons, and we’ll actually get somewhere
in this country. In the Barbershop
theis week, we talk about how Jackson’s comments may have been just some kind
of desperate, unconscious goof to stay on-camera just a few moments
longer. He can hear the Sandman tapping just off
stage, and he’s not ready to go. I saw his duplicitous double-speak from the
curb, back when he had a stray kid pop out of the wood-work, then turned around
admonishing young people about morality, abstinence and the importance of
condoms for AIDS prevention and unwanted pregnancy. I wrote a joint
that got me in a ton of trouble and made for a pretty evil face-to-face
when I would meet the good Rev. some years later. No matter. My opinion hasn’t
changed, and as always, I got it right.
At least as interesting as Nas’ call for Jesse to fall back
is the nagging question I’ve been asking for years: As the sun sets on Jesse and Al, who is
suiting themselves up to be the next King of All Blacks, and how do we stop
them before it’s too late? Why do black people need a leader in the first place?
