Who Speaks for Black America?

On this special episode of the The Glenn Show, Reihan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute, moderates this discussion on Black identity, individual freedom, and the future of race in American civic life. Watch an excerpt here, and the full discussion here. From the transcript in Glenn's SubStack:

SHELBY STEELE: I'm a jazz fan. I love the music. Follow it way too much. Because it's, to me, a rare, magnificent creation that does come out of the black experience. But that experience doesn't exist anymore. Racism is simply not a problem. It doesn't deserve a cultural response.

ROBERT WOODSON: Shelby, what I find disturbing is that the Left, the elite Left, are using race to the disadvantage of poor people, and they are dying as a consequence of their misuse of it. But if you're not going to confront that reality with some idealized version of post-racism and just say, well, it doesn't exist anymore ... We've got to take action, I think, in those places to confront those who are misusing race. And the way we do it is to gather groups who are suffering the problems, like the mothers who lost children to homicide, to stand up to the Black Left and say, we are against defund the police. And so it is important to have those suffering the problem as the symbols of that pushback.

SHELBY STEELE: Why would you exclude whites from the latter approach?

ROBERT WOODSON: Because it doesn't have the same power. In other words, when someone derives their moral authority by saying they represent you, when you stand up yourself and say “they don't represent me,” that undermines their moral authority. But if I go in and say, “Oh, I have to have a white person on my arm to walk in to claim it.” No. I mean, it's a strategic move, Shelby. It's not an ideological bias. It's a strategic move.

Check out Glenn's SubStack here for more of the discussion.

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was one of the most brilliant, charismatic, and controversial Black leaders of the early 20th century, and a principal figure in the Pan-African movement. This lesson looks at Garvey's rise to power, from his early life in Jamaica, where he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.); through his immigration to the United States and the rapid expansion of the U.N.I.A. from its headquarters in Harlem; up to the triumphant first international U.N.I.A. convention in 1920, which produced the influential "Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World."

This is the first installment in a series of lessons on Marcus Garvey, his U.N.I.A. movement, and their legacy. An upcoming second lesson will cover the decline of the U.N.I.A., Garvey's arrest and deportation, and the continuing efforts of local U.N.I.A. divisions even as the national leadership fell into disarray. 

A third lesson will look at Garvey's tragic final years in exile; the decisive influence of his wives, Amy Ashwood and Amy Jaques, on U.N.I.A. and its place in history; and the lasting impact of Garvey on Black culture and politics in the postwar decades when colonized nations began to win independence.

The Woodson Center’s Community Affiliates Network (CAN) is a nationwide association of community-based leaders solving some of America’s most challenging social problems—from the ground up.

Embracing founder Robert Woodson’s Ten Principles, CAN invests in leaders who are already improving lives and communities with programs and activities that are both practical and innovative. The CAN mini-grant program provides small, indigenous organizations financial support for a specific project that can have immense impact. From reducing gang violence and teaching professional etiquette, to augmenting on-line education and enriching afterschool activities, CAN leaders ennoble and empower those in low-income communities, rather than dictating or condescending to them.

Our process allows our groups to continue serving their communities without having to navigate the cumbersome paperwork and bureaucratic barriers that often prevent smaller, more nimble organizations from being funded.

Thanks to the funding, support, and the specialized free training offered by the Woodson Center in budgeting, book-keeping, and program development, a great many of our mini-grant recipients have leveraged the experience gained to raise larger funds, enabling them to expand and to reach more lives.