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03/26/2006:

"The Crisis in Black Leadership"

Novelist Walter Mosley recently lamented the void in black leadership in America, saying "millions dying in Africa while your leaders argued about the references and jokes in the movie Barbershop?"

It is much worse than that. Millions of the poor around the world that got jobs producing sneakers and apparel for America's youth got nothing but scorn or betrayal from African-Americans, when they desperately sought assistance.

Anyone remember what Temple's Coach John Chaney said to Philly Daily News about Michael?

[from Village Voice]: The great Jordan famously promised to investigate Nike's factories when sweatshop conditions made headlines in 1996. He has not been heard from on the issue since, and Temple basketball coach John Chaney may have spoken for many in the sports world when he was asked about Jordan's silence: "Why should he stick his neck out and risk his endorsement deals? You got a fucking problem with Michael making money? Michael should pick up every fucking dollar possible."

What about Rev. Jesse Jackson? I was sitting in his church with a fired Indonesian Nike worker & the rev was IN INDONESIA, doing the "CNN photo-op prayer service" outside a locked (to keep him out) Nike factory; didn't I think we were gonna drain the swamp! But JJ started collecting Nike contributions almost as soon as he touched down in the USA & talked about a boycott. A couple of years later, he gave the Rainbow Coalition's "Leadership in Sports" award to Nike's chief of public relations, Vada Manager.
counterpunch.org