From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: The NAACP IS Obsolete

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The NAACP IS Obsolete

July 26, 2004

Black conservative author and commentator John McWhorter writes that the NAACP is painfully irrelevant.

The NAACP is stuck in a mind-set that worked 30 years ago but makes little sense today. (President Kweisi) Mfume and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond boast that the organization is committed to "speaking truth to power," continuing the whistle-blowing tradition that the organization was founded upon in 1909. This was urgent in an America where lynching was commonplace and segregation was legal.
But a century later, black America's main problem is neither overt racism nor subtle "societal" racism. Lifting blacks up no longer depends on getting whites off our necks. We are faced, rather, with the mundane tasks of teaching those "left behind" after the civil rights victory how to succeed in a complex society.

To be sure, racism still exists and must be stamped out. But it has been clearly and distinctly marginalized. And it is simply a fallacy to say that the only way people can achieve is when there is no bias whatsoever against them. The burgeoning of the black middle class has made it clear that societal racism doesn't condemn African Americans to failure.

Yet Mfume and the NAACP's anger-based politics imply that black success can be only accidental unless the playing field is completely level. Instead of insisting on that, they should be working on specific cures to specific ills: creating a culture of achievement among black students, addressing the AIDS crisis in black communities and fostering constructive relationships between police forces and residents of minority neighborhoods.

These real problems are being addressed, but not by the NAACP.

A real-life illustration of how times have changed comes from Waynesboro, Virginia. Moreko Griggs, a black high-school valedictorian, found he had to share the stage with two white co-valedictorians after their parents appealed his selection.

The reason? The school district decided to use grades from the last three weeks of classes to calculate final GPA, and that put the two whites on equal footing with Griggs. But in the past, grades from the last three weeks had never been factored in.

This little procedural tweak reveals discomfort with having a black valedictorian.

I find the district's actions highly suspect, race-based, and perhaps even somewhat racist. And also fairly insignificant, in the larger scheme of things.

Consider the epilouge.

...NAACP national board vice chairwoman Roslyn Brock (compared the episode) to an academic "lynching" at a banquet in Staunton last month.

What about the student himself?

Griggs ruled out filing a lawsuit, saying he was trying to put the issue behind him. He will study engineering at Rice University in the fall and plans to go to medical school.

Smart kid, and not just becasue of his GPA. If the NAACP wishes to avoid extinction, it must not only stress self-responsibility, parenting and family cohesion over shop-worn victim politics. It must also change its awful name. The bigoted phrase "colored people" is a throwback to a long-gone era, in which the NAACP still wallows.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 26, 2004 10:58 AM

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Comments:

Hey, wot's this? The lynching's stopped?! Well, I guess we can all go home now and stop our fussin'. Phew.

The NAACP's only relevant to the degree racial prejudice is still exercised. The NAACP's goal is not AIDs relief. It has its own focus, and unfortunately the need still exists for many.

If you or any other pundits (of color or blanched) think racism or the quest for equality is "irrelevant" then bully for youse. Your pristine reality fairly gleams.

The next time you hear something about the NAACP, just ignore em, like you would a Madonna's-in-town announcement. Or, better yet, go do somethin.

Posted by: memer at July 27, 2004 11:43 AM

Whoops. When I said above "go do somethin," I gave the wrong link: this is the one I meant ;-)

Ta.

Posted by: memer at July 27, 2004 11:46 AM

I live in the Waynesboro area and thus I've probably gotten more coverage of it than most, with this being local news.

From how the story came about, the students directly affected didn't see it as too big of a deal. This was confirmed by Griggs himself, when I ran into him at the local Wal-Mart. The adults, particularly those with no connection whatsoever to the participants, seem to be the ones to have made the biggest stink about it.

Admittedly, Waynesboro High School did lay the groundwork for the whole fiasco by not having a set policy on how the valedictorian is determined, and how they changed horses mid-stream on how they calculated GPAs for valedictorian. This has since been remedied, with Waynesboro having a policy on this now.

Three months after the graduation, with the three co-valedictorians all off in college (and Moreko Griggs' family refusing to give the press his contact information at Rice, and rightly so), the NAACP is still making a stink about an apology, even as Waynesboro developed a policy on selecting the valedictorian. Personally, I think an apology is rather irrelevant, since actions speak louder than words. You want to show how badly you feel about it? Make sure it won't happen again. Waynesboro High School did this.

Still, the NAACP lost a lot of credibility with me through this whole fiasco. It was even floated by the NAACP that Waynesboro Public Schools should pay for Griggs's first semester of college. I and everyone else thought that was ridiculous.

Locally, this seems to be the issue that will not die. Still, at least Waynesboro's taken steps to make sure this fiasco will never happen again, and other school districts are following suit.

Posted by: Ben Schumin at September 15, 2004 09:03 PM

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