“None of this over-the-top grandstanding does Black America any good.”
I think a big problem is that there IS such a thing as “black america”, instead of “America”. As long it exists in the minds of people in this country, there will always be a Sharpton or a Jackson to take advantage of it for personal gain and influence.
-------------------------------------------
Yep, and they are building a high wall and digging a deep moat around it. The language, music, social mores and victimhood inculcated from the crib are defined as 'this is how WE do it' or 'It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand'. They create an inclusivity that may feel comforting and empowering but that has as its flip side an exclusion from the productive mainstream.
Furthermore, they have not realized that the race game in America has changed, it is no longer black & white.
Since the uber-liberal RFK opened the doors to non-Western immigration the playing field has started to fill with people who have zero racial connection to the slave and Jim Crow days.
A second generation American from India, Korea, China, Nicaragua, Russia, etc. has no cultural memory knowledge of the history and couldn't care less. All they know is that their parents broke their butts to give them a shot and they are going to make the most of it. They are not going to look for or accept excuses for black American failings in education, commerce, academia, science, etc, and the same group's destructive life-style choices. They will just see a non-accomplishing sub-culture from whom they themselves can derive no benefit. And, it is these 'new' Americans who are already starting to move into positions of power in nearly every area of American culture.
The world turns and it has moved past the day when the sun shines on the old scructure. The new structure is emerging into the light of day. Those who fail to see this and adjust face further, perhaps culturally terminal isolation.