A Message to Black Candidates

Only one day remains until midterm elections, and the big story around the country is about this year's remarkable crop of black candidates.

Three of these men are vying for the chance to become the second black elected governor in American history, while three candidates are battling to join the Senate - looking to add their names to the ledger of only three black Senators since reconstruction.

These are the big ones - but there are also a vast number of pivotal congressional and state races involving African-Americans.

This is a coup for the black community. This election signals that we are no longer just a demographic to be pandered and promised to - that we are the people who are doing that promising.

And while these candidates are making their pledges, while they are illuminated in that spotlight, it is direly important that they not forget where they came from.

In this midterm, black candidates have been garnering success by detaching themselves from the traditional trappings of black leadership. According to a USA Today cover story from last week, they are eschewing civil rights discussions, and valuing "pragmatism over ideology" in their campaign strategies.

I ask you, in this quest to be embraced by mainstream society, what is our community giving up?

A chance to help those who really need it.

Black men are foundering. A New York Times article printed in March of this year cited that half of all black men in inner cities do not finish high school. Seventy-two percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20s were jobless in 2004, and by their mid-30s, 60 percent of dropouts had been incarcerated. The numbers are completely disproportionate to those of other ethnic groups - and they continue to climb.

In Deval Patrick's stump speech, how much can he talk about the plight of black males? If he did, would he still be the candidate for all of Massachusetts? Can Barack Obama talk about not just hope, but also crisis in the inner city? Can Harold Ford Jr. march around Tennessee and address this topic?

Candidates, right now you have the spotlight. Use it. Use this shot to tell people who you really are and what is vital to you, as a world citizen, as an American, as a man, as a woman, and as a Black man in America.

You have the world's eyes. Show them what matters and how what affects our community is directly tied to all communities.