I saw this one coming. Bruce S. Gordon, President of the NAACP, resigned last month. When he took over in 2005, I said to myself: "That bruh won't last."
Here's why I made that statement: Gordon is a hard core, no nonsense, business first, kind of guy. He came from the corporate world. He spent 35 years as a business man at various companies. He does not play.
The NAACP, meanwhile, has been stuck in the 60s for decades. The organization is old school, old school, old school. They CLAIMED they hired Gordon because they wanted a business guy to come in and clean house and move the organization forward.
But, that's not what they wanted. They wanted a tool. The NAACP wanted a guy who, like the organization itself, was stuck in the past. They wanted a successful, educated guy who was a businessman on the surface, but deep down was an "old school bruh" who would do nothing but obey.
The problem with that thinking is that the NAACP's way of handling their business is - at best - trifling. As someone who has covered the NAACP for stories, trust me when I say they are disorganized: Barely returns phone calls; Ignores emails, the whole gamut. It's a shame.
On top of that is the irony: this is the same organization that's forever struggling with recruiting younger generations.
According to the Associated Press, here are a few of Gordon's accomplishments during his short tenure:
- He smoothed strained relations between the NAACP and the White House, meeting with President Bush three times in less than a year.
- He used his corporate ties to lend quick assistance to black New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina.
- he hired a number of key national employees whose reputations inspired staff members
The problem is, in the middle of keeping it real, the organization, as well as the Black Agenda, suffers.
Sometimes, keeping it real involves hard choices.
