Carry My Card Back Home
Ethelbert Miller on the Future of the NAACP
2009-07-20

Two years ago I wrote a check and sent it off to the NAACP. A few weeks later I received a membership card in the mail. It was very attractive, and I placed it in my wallet next to those important medical cards that prove, I'm a member of the elite that has health care in America. I was a card carrying member of the NAACP. I had this secret desire to only wear suits and be like Walter White or DuBois. Langston Hughes loved this Civil Rights organization, and even Julian Bond once wrote poems. How can I not surround myself with this beautiful colored tradition?

When President Obama stepped into the room to address the NAACP this week, he first met a group of black people (many women) who became almost hysterical with joy. Church here he come. It reminded me of when the Beatles arrived in the States from England. Spin the black middle-class in circles and folks will either mistake you for Moses or Jesus.

It's important to understand that Obama was speaking to the NAACP and not the black community. Yes, he was preaching to the choir. Much of what he said we had already heard before. It's not tough love but instead early Booker T. with biscuits. Talking about education is like living in Boston and talking about the Red Sox. What else do you want to talk about? Black leaders talk about education as if it was the lottery. If a person could just win or earn a degree in anything wouldn't they be free to dream a world?

What should black people expect from a black president? The answer can only be answered if we decide,what the role of government should be in our lives. Listening to Obama it seems as if it should be less and not more. President Obama can lip sync Malcolm X, as well as Martin at times. At the end of the day however everyone is still looking at poverty and high unemployment. I think since the days of Marvin Gaye singing about saving the children, black leaders have done nothing but play with blocks. We neglect our elders in nursing homes and all the adult black males in the prison system.

Instead of Obama speaking to the NAACP, he should give a series of talks inside American prisons. Let's see how well his message goes over. Tell a black guy in jail on his third or fourth tour of duty about hard work. Talk education with inmates but explain how many won't find a job when they are released. Yes, discrimination still exists and not just against Gays and Muslims. Tell someone you have a record and you won't be recording.

What will happen after Obama is no longer president? How will the black pundits explain gravity? Many black intellectuals can't think about the unthinkable. Race determines their shadows. They would be lost in America without the problem of race. But why is race always seen as a problem?

Why do some of us feel we need the crackerjack boxes? What's the surprise? The U.S. Constitution? An NAACP card? President Obama?