
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994                   TAG: 9402050010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CLARENCE LUSANE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

CLASS CHASM

THE BLACK community today is in perhaps the most profound political crisis in its history. While black achievement in countless fields is at a peak, there is little joy in the community at large. The social and economic misery and pain of millions of African-Americans express more stubborn political concerns.

Since the days of Martin Luther King Jr., black political leadership has lacked a compelling and unifying political vision. Such a vision, and the ability to realize it, is a precondition for resolving the crisis of the black community. But with the controversy over the anti-Semitic speech made at Kean College by Khalil Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, even prospects for ``operational unity'' among black leaders grow dimmer.

A number of factors contribute to the current political crisis, beginning with the increasing significance of class. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, class differences among African-Americans existed, but were muted by the commonness of segregation. Blacks in the middle class lived, worked and socialized with working class and poor blacks, sharing the goal of ending segregation.

Now, no single agenda can possibly address the often-conflicting interests of different sectors of the black community. Racial segregation and resegregation in the United States continue, but with a distinct class edge. There may be more black faces in the board room, but economic disruptions continue to fall most heavily on black workers.

The black community also tends to place too much leadership responsibility in the hands of black elected officials. The problem is not the negative behavior or politically limited views of individual officials. But any elected official must contend with a broad array of interests that includes bankers and barbers, the haughty and the homeless, the broader community and the black community. In many cases, black officials actually call out the troops to repress the uprisings of the black poor.

Would the career of New York Mayor David Dinkins have ended differently if he had not been seen as both the mayor and the leader of the black community? We need not retreat from electoral politics, but we must develop a different approach to electoral work.

Further complicating black politics is the rise of what is now called ``outlaw culture.'' The proliferation of guns, the violent tenets of gangsta rap, and the deadly marketplace of illegal narcotics only partially explain violence in the black community. Economic collapse, the sustained political assault on civil rights begun in the Reagan years, a warmongering foreign policy and media messages of the past decade created a small but significant sector of the black community that rejects authority at every level - family, community and state - and accepts violence to resolve even the slightest conflict. Black leaders of the past have never had to confront such a disabled and dispirited community.

Finally, the continuing dominance of liberalism as the ideology of most black leaders has led to a dead end. Black political conservatism remains alien, and has receded to near irrelevance. Despite their historic strength and recent small efforts at mobilization, neither black nationalism nor radicalism threatens to supplant black liberalism.

Yet, liberalism in the United States appears to have reached its historic and political limits. Liberals have been unable to explain why race and racism - personal, institutional and systemic - continue to be significant factors in shaping the lives of millions. Unwilling to challenge fundamental causes of black suffering - corporate and media power, undemocratic political systems, vastly unequal wealth distribution, unfair tax structures, and class-based power relations - black and nonblack liberal leaders find fewer and fewer receptive ears.

What's needed to overcome the crisis?

First, black leadership must be guided by a theory of governance. Without a framework, political struggle is reduced to survival strategies and tactics at best, and individual objectives at worst.

Second, black politics itself must become more democratic. Too many organizations in the black community - with unelected permanent leaders - embody the very contradictions that they criticize. Employees are treated unfairly, leadership communication with members is limited or nonexistent, and no process for creating new leadership exists. Until these problems are overcome, success in building a movement will be muted and cynicism towards black leaders will grow.

Finally, black politics must become inclusive. In the years ahead, it will become even clearer that diversity is not a choice, but a fact. The changing racial dynamics of the United States should be seen as an opening to create a society where people from all backgrounds share economic, social, educational and political opportunities.

The vision of black leadership must be to build and govern, in unison with others, a democratic, progressive and multicultural society.

\ Clarence Lusane, a Washington activist and scholar, is author of the forthcoming book, ``African Americans at the Crossroads: The Restructuring of Black Leadership and the 1992 Elections.''

\ Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB