Neither are the leaders. Over time, what you are seeing is that blacks who come into legislatures and the Congress are looking more and more like their white counterparts, especially if they are lawyers. Without the dimension of a class of black economic professionals arriving in some strength, which is occurring but rather slowly, then the black political leadership is dependent on the party or the private sector, which is largely white, for money. That means they are dependent for funding on people who might not share the same agenda. Walters also surmises a disconnect between blacks who have the ability to fund political campaigns, such as sports figures and musicians, and those involved in the political process.
Black athletes come out of a culture that is apolitical for the most part.
The black hip-hop culture comes out of a music orientation and a cultural lifestyle that does not connect with the black political elite or the black elite in general. Page says the current generation of young African Americans faces a different test than that imposed on his generation. Maybe it takes a generation or two to get past the anxiety, the nervousness. My generation seemed to be the 'first blacks' in everything. Achieving that in a political system that is inherently racist requires, he says, an inclusive vocabulary addressing racial issues in the language everyone can understand and most support.