It's all about understanding what life is like on this side of town. Although the people with whom I spoke praised Yeshitela for his understanding of the area, I must in all fairness point out that three other candidates, Larry Williams, Karl Nurse and Maria Scruggs Weston, also live on the south side and understand many of the issues facing the area. My hosts believe that few so-called black leaders, like their white counterparts, understand or truly care about the area. Most of their efforts to improve the area have not materialized. They owe their very existence to forces outside their community.
Black leadership is appointed from the highest levels of the white community.
So if your leadership does not spring from the people but instead is appointed from outside, those people don't have anybody following them because no one put an investment in them. Essentially, black leaders are surrogates for an invisible white leadership in the black community. If they were to stand up for the needs and interests of their community, they would no longer be designated black community leaders. The relationship of white people to black people in the United States has been based on control. Lowe argues that the next mayor should not be deluded into believing that life has improved on the south side since the riots of nearly five years ago.