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| The Role of the Black Elite in Outreaching to the Black Lower Class... |
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| Written by Dr. Martin Kilson, PhD | |
| Thursday, 27 September 2007 | |
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Page 12 of 14 A Black Civil Society Revitalization Movement
The Black Civil Society Revitalization Movement will address a variety of problems associated with the social crises of poverty and joblessness. Problems such as fragile families, teenage pregnancies and unwed motherhood/fatherhood, macho-violence and the related Hip-Hop influenced macho-male “gansta-culture”, massive Black youth homicides spawned by macho-male violence patterns, drug abuse, high HIV/AIDS cases (today disproportionately highest among Blacks in general and Black women in particular), so forth and so on. A viable Black Civil Society Revitalization Movement will also focus on Black neighborhood renewal and development. Especially as this relates to rehabilitating decrepit physical infrastructure (housing, basic commerce relating to food business, barber and hairdressing shops, restaurants, etc.) in so many urban Black neighborhoods. The new class of Black entrepreneurs, financial experts, bankers, media entrepreneurs (e.g., Oprah Winfrey, Tom Joyner, Tavis Smiley, Reginald Hudlin), clothing entrepreneurs (e.g., Russell Simmons), millionaire sports figures (e.g., Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson), millionaire entertainment figures (e.g., Bill Crosby, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Chris Rock), could take leading roles in launching the Black Civil Society Revitalization Movement. Another sector among the Black elite should also be identified as potential contributors to the leadership roles needed to mount a viable Black Civil Society Revitalization Movement. The sector I have in mind involves the numerous African-American professional associations that have evolved in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. Associations like the following:
Furthermore, owing to the Democratic Party’s fortuitous victory in the 2006 congressional elections, the political class sector of African-American leadership underwent a ground-breaking metamorphosis. Historic legislative power became available to the 42 African-American U.S. Congress legislators. Above all, 4 African-American U.S. legislators for the first-time ever gained the chairmanship of 4 House of Representative Committees and 16 House Sub-Committees. The long-tenured Black congresspersons are now at the helm of politically powerful House Committees. For example:
In short, when these new advancements in the political attributes of the aggregate
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