Black liberal reliance on back-room leaders without accountability mechanisms undermines black democracy

Evidence

Most black liberals (elected and otherwise) have stood silently by as this economic devastation swallowed black America. Afraid to give ammunition to a boisterous ideological right and never wanting to appear disloyal to their own, they have refused to criticize the president. Instead, we have been asked to shift the blame to a recalcitrant Congress or to trust that they are working on our behalf behind closed doors. I want to expose the limits of this view of black politics—the wrongheaded idea that some leader in some back room can represent the interests of black people without any mechanism of accountability. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 23

Categorization

• DEFINE: Glaude here names what he means by the flawed ‘view of black politics’ — leader-as-representative with no accountability mechanism — which is foundational to the trap argument.