I think the NAACP has always had to walk a tight line between addressing the needs of the Black community, and working w/in the system. Sadly, I think the NAACP has lost sight of the fact that the needs of the Black community are in direct conflict with the system that they work within. Here's an example:
When I was at Penn state, the NAACP chapter was inactive since the end of my freshman year, SP 96. That fact is still debated, but according to NAACP regional people, it's true. Anyway, when we were going through that hellish experience at PSU, the Pres of the university refused to meet w/ us. This is after a racist death threat told us that a Black man had been killed and 1 week later the body of a Black man was found. So the Regional NAACP folks came to help out. Well the university wouldn't meet w/ us, but they would meet w/ the NAACP who they wanted to represent our needs to the school, provided that none of us came.
When we asked them why they felt they could fully represent our needs after having met w/ us for less than 1/2 an hour, they explained that they felt strongly that they could. They went on to say, that as the local chapter has been inactive for nearly 5 years for the low, low fee of $10 a head, we could reactiveate it right now, and the
next time something like this happened, we would be better prepared.
Now here we are, members of the Black Caucus, and Sankofa (active and organized Black organizations on campus), with thousands of student protestors of all races supporting us, all locked in a building, with the body of a dead Black male that the university is trying to cover up, and these people--after 45 minutes--want to speak for us, and chastise us by saying had we been affiliated w/
thier group, we would have been ok. We told them that while we appreciated their help, we were sure they could understand that due to the war-like nature of the present situation, we would not be passing around an NAACP signup sheet in the immediate future. But when the PSU sh!t got national, the NAACP came back with the national big boys, we even had Kweisi speak to an audience of a few hundred through cell phone.
Within 2, yes
TWO days, the NAACP had re-activated the PSU chapter, had an executive board, an agenda (the main point of which was getting metal dectors at graduation), and an attitude at the fact that we did not allow them to take control of the situation. They would not, or were unable to address the very severe issues that we were addressing, as the university had told them that most of what we wanted was not negotiable.
Even though days later, we ended up getting exactly what we wanted, point is that the NAACP had come to negotiate with the PSU system. The needs of that system were in direct conflict with the needs of the Black community, but the NAACP felt like they could accomplish more by negotiating, and we believe(d) that our freedom was not negotiable. I believe that there is a place for the NAACP, but only once they realize that begging for scraps from the massa's table is not an option. This is just one example, but it has helped to sharply alter my once high regard for this organization.