Thoughtful article by Juan Williams on the need for black leadership right now

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The president represents black power beyond anyone’s imagination just a few years ago. He inspires young black people to dream of fulfilling their dreams. Here is a black man with a seat at the head of the American table of leadership and that means the world’s leadership.

But he is now weighed down by the troubled history of American race relations and the failure of established black civil rights and political leadership. So President Obama had to step into vacuum of national civil rights leadership and appeal for peace on the streets all the way from the White House.

Street violence, riots, only plays into the hands of racial provocateurs who are too weak to engage in the constant, on-going struggle for equal rights and protections for black people. Those self-promoters are never around to clean up after a riot destroys a black neighborhood and tears at the trust between good people of all races.

Some television stations, too, have practically called for riots. They are so self-serving that some have identified them as fans of “Riot Porn.” They want the cheap thrills that come with stereotyping black people as violent and the high ratings that come with racial tensions. Their anchors want to be seen in the middle of the fray.

But as the “Last Poets,” a 60s group of black musicians once said: “The revolution will not be televised.” The riots of the 1960s and the 1990s riots that followed the Rodney King verdict are proof that riots don’t advance justice for black people.

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