Last week, the NAACP announced their new chair following the outgoing chair Julian Bond, and for the first time it was a woman. Rosyln M. Brock is also the youngest person to sit as the chair of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People (NAACP). The Washington Post focused on the relevancy and generational shift of leadership of the NAACP, and how Brock could change things. One thing that did stand out to me in the article was this exert:
"We have to recognize and to own that we can't be all things to all people, and that there are new players in the space that we operate in who may be able to do some things better than we can."The article also talking about how organization president Ben Jealous has focused on improving the NAACP online presence. As well, Jealous has pointed out that work with LGBT organizations would improve the organization presence on those issue. Brock and Jealous both want to make the NAACP more oriented towards getting the younger generation of people involved in the organization's mission to improve the quality of life of ethnic minorities.
However, the Baltimore Sun in an op-ed posted a question of whether or not the NAACP will focus on the LGBT agenda? They pointed out how Brock and Jealous are the youngest to hold their pedestals, but the specifics of how will the two work toward expanding the parameters of social justice to include LGBTs of color like those in the military, where they make up a large number of those discharged by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The article also digs into how they can get the "rank-and-file" members to adjust their beliefs on homosexual behaviors and how that like slavery and segregation, it was taught that the bible justified it at one point.
Personally, I feel there should be some coordination between the NAACP and other orgs on the LGBT issues, but totally partaking into the arena of it would be reaching at best. The case and point of David Patterson be an eery reminder of what the slippery slope of running to include LGBT issues without pluralistic support will get you especially when you have orgs like Equality Virginia will burn their proverbial bridges with otherwise allies because they didn't get their way all the time. Some of these organizations seem to have their own agenda first and forehand and then essentially abandon their "allies" in their key times of need for political support. I would cautiously aide those when possible, but wouldn't throw myself under the bus for somebody that doesn't seem apt to do the same. REAL TALK.
