Is Thinking Black Leaders are Sell-Outs the Ultimate White Privilege? [View all]

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http://alabamaliberal.com/is-thinking-black-leaders-are-sell-outs-the-ultimate-white-privilege/

In episode 9 of “A Year Long Conversation” we dissect the divisions in the progressive movement between age, gender, and particularly race. Because there’s a weird phenomenon out there: young, white progressives who have had relatively good lives seem to think that even black leaders are now part of “The Machine.” They seem to view themselves as more progressively pure than groups who have the most to gain from progressive politics.

We’ve seen this in white progressives’ (cough, Bernie, cough) belief that they could somehow be better for black rights than the first Democratically elected racial minority-President in the history of the world. We’ve seen it in the accusations that the Congressional Black Caucus and particularly veteran Congressman and Civil Rights legend John Lewis are “sell-outs” for backing Hillary. We’ve also seen it at an Occupy Wall Street rally in Atlanta that refused to let Congressman Lewis speak solely because, you know, he’s “The Man.”

There are those that will say this is the ultimate form of progress that a Civil Rights legend could go from Selma to “Sell-Out” and that the black movement is viewed as a full part of the mainstream, but I’m not sure I would see it that way. To me, the idea that any black leaders who have power and real political influence are just another cog in The Establishment is naively wrong at best. At worst, it’s morphing modern progressivism to ignore the voices it supposedly wants to help and think it knows best how to solve other communities problems with solutions that may not have any real affect on how they live.

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