Jamie Foxx Says He, Will Smith, Jay Z, Should Be the New Civil Rights Leaders...

                            

I've got to admit, waking up to see this post on my Facebook newsfeed is somewhat of a relief. On yesterday (which marked 50 years and 1 day since the March on Washington) I drank from fountain of cold water at The Florida State University. This water fountain did not have a "whites only" sign on it.

It made me think. And yes, I had a moment in which I almost came to tears over a water fountain. Look how far we've come I thought. It really made me think of those who just 51 years ago would not have had the privilege of being in the predicament that I am in (In 1962, Maxwell Courtney was the first African American student admitted to Florida State). Here I am in the year 2013 learning for free as an academic scholar, drinking from the water fountain I want, while listening to Jamie Foxx on my Pandora app. This was right after I just held a civilized and somewhat flirty casual conversation with one of my random white colleagues about Chipole. The world that African Americans live in today verses 50 years ago is filled with what so many before us would call luxurys. It is up to us to honor, respect, and reflect on that...never forgetting what the purpose of the black "community" was and is.

(On Florida State's Campus visiting the Maxwell Courtney sculpture)

Apparently the function of the African American community (or any community) is defined and structured by the sociopolitical leaders in that community. If you ask me I would tell you that the primary leaders in the African American community are the "New Civil Rights Leaders": Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, and Nikki Minaj. Who is Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks? "What song they sang?"I would be willing to bet anyone reading this $1,000,000 that if you ask African American students in public schools say, grades 3-5, majority of those students could not tell you much of anything about the Civil Rights movement. Not because the school system hasn't taught them that. It's scary because they don't know what that is, but they probably can sing at least one Beyonce song.

I applaud Jamie Foxx, not because I am totally biased and I think he's amazingly talented. It's because he understands his power as a celebrity and the role that this "celebrity" has in shaping the black community into what it could be. Better.