Black Leaders Matter

There’s a lot to bewail in this time of terrorism war, discord, planetary immolation and general chaos. Our Rogue ex-president has escaped justice for all his long, lawless and bullying life. He threatens to recapture the White House and take “retribution” on those who oppose him.

If he wins the presidency again, our democracy will end, and many of the best of us might flee. He would replace our dedicated public servants with cronies, sycophants and lackeys, just as Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Castro did before him. His path to tyranny is well-trodden and clear.

Who stands in his way?

Republicans in Congress have failed to do their jobs. Our media have failed miserably to promote facts and truth. On the pretext of being “objective,” they have compared flawed small-d democrats with extremists, would-be tyrants, demagogues and oligarchs bent on a tyranny of “freedom”— their freedom to enrich themselves as they subjugate the rest of us.

Thus have our media equated extremism with politics as usual and truth with lies. They’ve profited from amplifying disinformation and nonsense, treating them all as part of the business commodity of “news.” They promote what brings them profit—what’s surprising, startling, terrifying and enraging—with far too little regard for civic virtue or foreseeable consequences.

So who still stands between us and the Abyss?

Besides President Biden and his team and our (barely) Democratic Senate, there are just four lone prosecutors. Their names are Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis.

Three are Black, and two are Black women. Day by day, surrounded by “security” they would rather not have in their lives, they bear the onus of death threats, vilification, and mindless enmity. They toil long hours with the sordid details of the Rogue’s many assaults on decency, honesty, and civic virtue as they do the hard work of restoring the Rule of Law. Our collective future hangs on their daily grind.

That’s not all. Our two top military leaders are Lloyd J. Austen III, our Secretary of Defense, and General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs. Both are Black

You don’t have to ask whether they are qualified. Since Harry Truman integrated the Army in 1948, our American military has become the biggest meritocracy in our nation. It’s a place where men and women denied other options can rise to the top by displaying brains, competence, courage, and dedication in the service of our country. And if you doubt that, then you must at least acknowledge the simple facts of life: Black leaders still have to be twice as smart and work twice as hard as their white counterparts to reach the top.

In this dismal time, there is something more: a unique symbolic value in the Blackness of our two top military leaders. Here at home, and perhaps everywhere, white supremacy and right-wing extremism go hand in hand. Having superbly qualified Black leaders in the top two spots in the world’s strongest military will move white supremacists and many right-wing extremists to self-select out. Many of them will leave military service on their own initiative, without the need for chain-of-command purging, litigation, or special effort of any kind.

Let them practice their vile ideologies in rogue militia drills with small arms in the hills of Idaho. Our heavy weapons, and our nukes, will stay in loyal, safe and steady hands, led by top Black commanders. (This is yet another reason to break the one-man embargo on military appointments by Republican Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who never served himself. These reliable top leaders must be able to pick subordinates they trust, in order to insure a complete non-extremist chain of command.)

None of this is an accident. Nor is it God working in mysterious ways. It’s simply cause and effect.

For the last four centuries, Black people and their ancestors have struggled mightily, often alone, to taste the fruits of freedom and equality and enjoy the pursuit of happiness as our Founders promised—albeit not to their ancestors. Since our Civil War—still our history’s bloodiest—they have striven ceaselessly for the benefits it promised but never fully delivered. By and large, they have met rejection, marginalization, exclusion, and often atrocious white terror.

But they have kept at it. Yes, they have had their Black Panthers and their revolutionaries. But they have mostly kept their Eyes on the Prize: full, peaceful acceptance as equal citizens in our flawed but still workable democratic republic. As they have overcome formidable obstacles and begun to enjoy some success, they have never lost sight of the value of what they seek, unlike many of the rest of us.

So this white geezer can only marvel at a beautiful irony. Our democracy’s prospects for survival as a democracy—and the continuation of our Rule of Law—now hang largely on the work of four harried but devoted prosecutors, three of whom are Black. Our efforts to keep extremists from infiltrating our military now rest on the command—and the symbolism—of our two top Black military leaders.

For all his hypocrisy, Thomas Jefferson would have savored this irony. He gave us the goal, but not the example. Now, people whose likes he once enslaved are bringing us all home.

In Jefferson’s day, science was just beginning. Today we know, with the certainty of modern microbiology, that all human DNA is 99.9% identical. We are all essentially the same at birth. That’s what Jefferson, unconsciously and unknowingly, signaled when he wrote “all . . . are created equal.” What matters is what’s in our heads and hearts, not the color or texture of our skin, hair or eyes.

As the extraordinary Black leaders of our time struggle to restore our democracy, I feel deep gratitude and admiration. In my minds eye, I see a long line of eminent Black ghosts standing and cheering their lungs out. They include Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, MLK, Thurgood Marshall, and Colin Powell. They include also Emmett Till—with the wide, innocent young eyes of his famous photo—as special emissary for the thousands of victims of white terror.

But most of all, I savor the irony of descendants of the most oppressed among us rising with devotion, skill and valor to advance our sacred national values and keep us from the fate of other mighty democracies that fell to venal forces. Under their leadership, we can avoid the fate of ancient Rome and the Weimar Republic. Those of us whose ancestors have struggled for four centuries to grasp the sweetest fruits of democracy and decency are not about to let them slip away.


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