In 2007, as a relatively young U.S. Senator began to explore a possible run for President, there were numerous leaders (elected and nonelected) in the black community across the country who were upset that this guy had not sufficiently paid his dues and should wait his turn. How dare he think he can just jump out there replied many when asked if they would be supporting the young Senator. We do not just support individuals for office because they are black exclaimed others.
The larger sentiment being expressed was one that has crippled the black community over the years, leading to some good and some not so good leaders being elected to office or other non-elected leadership posts. However, the issue arises when these leaders time has come and gone, yet they refuse to step aside for the next generation of leadership.
And so with today's generation, you have young black leaders coming along who are aware of the skills, education and capacity for greatness they possess and who are ready to lead and in many cases have already been leading in their respective communities. Moreover, these young leaders are no longer willing to be relegated, by anyone, to the waiting line.
(Note: Gwen Ifill's new book highlights some of these new, dynamic, young leaders)
A current case study of this ideology is in Florida where a three decade old friend is challanging her friend's son in the open U.S. Senate race becuase he has not paid his dues in her opinion.
Brown, Carrie Meek were close
By: Alex Isenstadt of Politico (June 22, 2009)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23989_Page2.html
By testing the waters in Florida’s open Senate race, Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) is imperiling a relationship between two prominent Florida pols that has spanned three decades. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) was already five months into his 2010 Senate bid when Brown — a longtime friend of Meek’s mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek (D-Fla.) — announced that she was launching an exploratory committee. Brown and Carrie Meek forged a bond while serving together in the Florida state Legislature in the 1980s, and in 1992 she and fellow Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings became the first African-Americans elected to the House from Florida since Reconstruction.
But on May 30, to the surprise of many, Brown announced that she was exploring a run for the Senate against the younger Meek, explaining that she was spurred to do so after commissioning her own poll, which revealed that she was better known and had higher favorability ratings than the Miami-based congressman.
“Experience,’’ the 62-year-old Brown told the St. Petersburg Times when asked why she would be a stronger candidate than Meek, 42 — a not-so-veiled shot at Meek’s relative youth.
