{"id":465,"date":"2014-08-26T16:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/al-sharpton-does-not-have-my-ear-why-we-need-new-black-leadership-now.html"},"modified":"2014-08-26T16:02:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T16:02:00","slug":"al-sharpton-does-not-have-my-ear-why-we-need-new-black-leadership-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/al-sharpton-does-not-have-my-ear-why-we-need-new-black-leadership-now.html","title":{"rendered":"Al Sharpton Does Not Have My Ear: Why We Need New Black Leadership Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Racial politics in the U.S. is beholden to the space of black death. On Monday, Michael Brown\u2019s family, friends and loved ones gathered to lay his body to rest, even though his unjust and untimely death leaves his community of Ferguson, Missouri, in a state of unrest.<\/span><\/div>\n
Michael\u2019s funeral, held in a local black Baptist Church, was reminiscent of so many familiar rituals of black cultural home-goings: raucous preaching, the call and response of the audience emboldening those in the pulpit to \u201cmake it plain,\u201d and \u201ctell it all,\u201d while the truths being affirmed received \u201chearty amens.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
Black churches are a central part of the 20th\u00a0century story of American racial politics. Dr. King was the consummate preacher, flanked by peers like Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rev. Joseph Lowery, and prot\u00e9g\u00e9s like Rev. Jesse Jackson. Last century, black churches were the locus of a kind of narrative authority in black communities \u2013 the way black preachers, mostly male, told our story to us in light of the story of Jesus Christ gave us hope, inspired change and helped us to make sense of black suffering, to believe that God had a grander purpose in the sure and steady sacrifice of black bodies, namely the fashioning of a better, more just America.<\/span><\/div>\n
It is within that context, that of the black church and its relationship to black politics, that we have come over the last three decades to know the person of Rev. Al Sharpton.<\/span><\/div>\n
In his sermonic\u00a0remarks at Michael\u2019s funeral<\/a>\u00a0yesterday, Sharpton tried to assume the mantle of black America\u2019s spiritual leader, the one with the moral and rhetorical force to move us toward thinking of Mike\u2019s death as the beginning of a movement, rather than merely a moment.<\/span><\/div>\n
Al Sharpton, however, does not have the ear of this generation, and it is not his leadership that any of us who will live on the planet for the next half-century or so really needs. To be clear, I do not believe in the slaying of elders. Black cultural traditions hold within them a serious reverence for the authority and wisdom of elder people.<\/span><\/div>\n
This is not about Sharpton\u2019s age, but rather about how he has positioned himself in relationship to black politics. My issue with him resides squarely within the limitations of his moral and political vision for who and how black people get to be within the American body politic.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racial politics in the U.S. is beholden to the space of black death. On Monday, Michael Brown\u2019s family, friends and loved ones gathered to lay his body to rest, even though his unjust and untimely death leaves his community of Ferguson, Missouri, in a state of unrest. Michael\u2019s funeral, held in a local black Baptist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAl Sharpton Does Not Have My Ear: Why We Need New Black Leadership Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Racial politics in the U.S. is beholden to the space of black death. 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