Posted on 12/20/2004 4:20:23 PM PST by Angry Republican
The abrupt resignation of Kweisi Mfume as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People begs the question: is the organization still relevant?
Mfume says he stepped down in order to spend more time with his family. Insiders claim he was fired.
Black commentator Armstrong Williams wrote that Mfume and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond had been feuding for quite a while. Williams claims that Bond opposed Mfume's efforts to mainstream the group. Bond preferred to keep the organization firmly planted on the far left.
Under Mfume's nine-year tenure, the NAACP rebounded from debt, questionable accounting and a sex scandal to eventually build a financially solvent organization.
The biggest challenge for the group may be relevancy. Steven Holmes, a black journalist, writing for the New York Times back in 1998 pointed out that Bond's characterization of bad times for black America was "wildly at odds" with the facts. Holmes suggested that "dark assessments and dire warnings" were part of the marketing campaign of the NAACP and similar groups.
Black columnist Clarence Page also weighed in. Page took the NAACP to task over its threatened lawsuit against the four biggest TV networks in 1999. The crime? An absence of a leading role for a black in any of the 26 new TV shows for that fall. Page chided the group that it's "time might be better spent pursuing other more urgent issues."
Complicating the plight of the group is an IRS investigation. Bond may have jeopardized the group's tax-exempt status with a fiery speech he gave last summer that planted the NAACP firmly into the camp of political campaigning a no-no for a charity.
This much is certain. The next NAACP president will have to contend with the mercurial Bond who is more intent on bomb-throwing than in supporting the tenets of the group. Until then, its relevancy will be called into question.
And that's The Point.
I'm Mark Hyman.
I'd say they've gone way past the point of irrelevancy.
They have become the Association for the Advancement of Communist People.
It goes without saying that if a similar group with "tax-exempt" status that was not along racial lines or perhaps favored or only permitted whites went on political rants like the NAA(L)CP, it's tax exempt status would vanish like a fart in the wind.
Isn't that a synonym for "teats on a boar?"
Marion Frances-Berry retired.
They no longer have a tool in the gov't to do their dirty work.
Sometimes I wonder if everyone ignored the NAACP if they'd go away like the KKK did.
Has Page been mentioned for the position?
If they would go back to their original purpose of helping black people instead of being another mouthpiece for the DNC.
The enviornmental wings, the union wings, and anti-war groups all get precedent over the NAACP.
The democratic essentially treats the NAACP with very little respect or fear as compared to other left wing or liberal groups.
The NAACP is in the pocket of the democratic party, the dem party IS NOT in the pocket of the NAACP.
Its disgracefull and sad how far they have fallen.
Ask the black caucus about how parts of there agenda are the first to get sacrifised in the name of somone elses agenda. The NAACP makes sacrifises, not the party of the dems.
Consider the original constitution of the NAACP... started by folks we'd define as having a modicum of conservative values today. Plus, a substantial number of white members and the song We Shall Overcome black AND white TOGETHER. I do know that in my area the NAACP is a joke. I don't know what they do except complain. Some other chapters are very diverse and are very different from the national NAACP.
The NAACP has been hijacked by the race pimps.
MD's Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was a former member of the NAACP.
That's odd. Didn't he win City Council?
I didn't know that, but that's one example of how some chapters differ from the national HQ.
NAACP, UN, ACLU, all have overstayed their welcome.
I vote NO.
Ooops!
My bad.
I meant Frances Berry of the Civil Rights Commission.
LOL! That's kinda funny, actually.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.