Quote of the Day: Comparing Civil-Rights Pioneers and Today’s Pretenders
OpinionJournal.com’s Jason Riley:
When the rhetoric of so-called elder statesmen is materially no different from hip-hopper Kanye West’s, it might be a sign that the movement is in trouble.
Or that it’s irrelevant.
An America where blacks run Merrill Lynch, American Express and the State Department no longer needs civil-rights activism of the Rosa Parks and James Weldon Johnson variety, and hasn’t for decades. Thanks in large part to their diligence and sacrifices, the battle for legal equality has been fought and won. Blacks still face social and economic challenges, but these result mainly from self-inflicted cultural wounds, not a manifestly unjust society.
The current crop of opportunistic pretenders isn’t ready to acknowledge this reality–just ask Bill Cosby–but as more and more black Americans reach the middle class and beyond, it’s becoming self-evident.
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Oct. 30: Wizbang Weekend Carnival participant.
