Black Nephews vs. Black Daddies

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine carried an article "Data You Can Believe In" (Jim Rutenberg, 6/23/13) that gushes about how a gaggle of young number crunchers were responsible for identifying Obama's wavering supporters in the 2012 campaign, then targeting torrents of media messages to these waverers with high precision and minimum cost, thereby ensuring Governor's Romney's defeat. 

The article's Big News is that this small band of Big Data phreaks is now set to get rich quick by applying their public sector algorithms to help corporate clients target wavering customers ... in exchange for fat fees. That's Mr. Rutenberg's intended story.

But my personal takeaway from the story was in the photo of the group's leaders next to its opening paragraphs. Indeed, I really didn't have to read a word of the article. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case the photo was worth more to me than Rutenberg's thousand words that followed because, as far as I can tell from the photo, it's an all white band. Yes, once again the nation's first African American president will accelerate the careers of ambitious young white supporters in his inner circles. So once again we see the consequences of his having so few blacks in his inner circles. 

When Jack Kennedy became president in 1960, his entourage included so many Irish Americans that it sometimes seemed as if the White House had been relocated to a suburb of Dublin. And even after his tragic assassination, his Irish American cronies thrived in their subsequent political and business careers.

Contrast this to Barack Obama's entourage that contain so few blacks that one would think that they were in the cast of a Woodie Allen movie, instead of being the close associates of the first African American president. Correction: President Obama has a teensy-weensy sprinkling of pepper in his salt, but not so much as to make a difference in his preferred flavoring. Ironically, I have been told many, many times by blacks in Washington on the fringes of the fringes of the fringes of power by way of "explanation/justification" that President Obama doesn't want people to think of him as a "black" president ... Too late!!! I suspect that most voters saw his photos before the November 2008 election. Indeed, I also suspect that's why most voters voted for or against him twice. I know that's what I did ... :-(

Now let me get to the point of this blog. This is not another Obama-bash in which I lament my continuing and deepening disappointment with the president for whom I campaigned twice, to whose campaigns I twice contributed far more funds than I could afford, and the candidate for whom I voted twice. No, the point of this blog is that President Obama is not unique. Unfortunately, he is just another example of a "Black Nephew" as contrasted to a "Black Daddy"

• As per their label, Black Daddies are seminal. Find a successful Black Daddy and you will find clouds of younger blacks, especially younger black males, whose careers he has facilitated, careers that will flourish long after Daddy's career has declined or come to an end. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a prototype ... as was his biological father, "Daddy" King. Unfortunately, there aren't enough Black Daddies.
   
• Whereas Black Daddies are mentors, Black Nephews are mentees. Whereas Black Daddies facilitate the careers of their black sons (and daughters), Black Nephews have usually received their biggest career breaks from white mentors ... which is perhaps why they feel so little compulsion to return this favor to younger blacks. Black Nephews are often the first black men to be hired, appointed, or elected to high positions, but one usually finds few, if any, blacks in their entourage. General Colin Powell was the most famous Black Nephew before President Barack Obama. Unfortunately, there are too many Black Nephews.
  
  Question: Can Black Nephews become Black Daddies?
  Answer: Apparently not.