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July 28, 2002
Ward Connerly on the NAACP
Ward Connerly critiques the NAACP and the "the triumph of intellectual laziness over intellectual advocacy." They are paving the way to irrelevance as they have become practitioners of hyperbole and a Democratic shill--which has compelled them to take positions, such as their one against school vouchers, that put them at odds with their constituency. It is sad to see such a great organization cede the moral high-ground through misplaced moral indignation.
Does anyone, other than the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, really take the NAACP seriously anymore? An organization with such a glorious history of championing equal treatment for all Americans now finds itself in the position of being largely irrelevant in the ongoing national dialogue about race. What a tragic farce this group has become.
When I joined the NAACP over 40 years ago as a student at Sacramento State college, the organization was dedicated to passing laws that guaranteed voting rights for blacks in the South as well as the right to have a meal at a lunch counter regardless of your skin color. Back then, even though we strongly disagreed with the Southern politicians who defended the racial status quo, we were generally polite and respectful in our criticism of them and their opinions.In other words, thoughtful and moral arguments, not jive insults, were used to overcome bigotry and to promote the equal-rights agenda. These days, the latter seems to be all that the old-line civil-rights groups are capable of delivering.
'Snake Oil'
Last week, Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP's board of directors, speaking in Houston to an aging crowd of nearly 4,000, slung insults at everyone from President Bush to yours truly. Last year, before Sept. 11, Mr. Bond told the same audience in New Orleans that President Bush's nominees to various positions in the judiciary and his administration were from the "Taliban wing of the GOP." One would think the NAACP leadership would recognize how such mindless invective trivializes and disgraces the organization in the eyes of the public. ...
Contrary to the conclusion of the NAACP, blacks are not disenfranchised from voting in this country, but they are self-marginalized. Because the NAACP has degenerated into a wholly owned political franchise of the Democratic Party, blacks are the most predictable voters in virtually any election anywhere. The NAACP leadership keeps everyone on the plantation and threatens to withhold this lockstep voting unless the Democrats toe the line. This is power politics at its rawest.
Connerly nails it and the NAACP here. The performance in Houston was despicable. For an even better, and definitively broader based article that complements this one, see John McWhorter's "Get the Led Out: The Failure of Black Leaders is Good for Black Americans" (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110002037).