Crabs in a Barrel

I have always hated that saying.  It never amounts to anything good.  Unfortunately, I knew it would rear its ugly head during Barack Obama's campaign.  It wasn't a matter of if or even when.  It really came down to how often.

For those of you that aren't familiar with the saying, it is pretty much just like it sounds.  When a bunch of crabs get put into a barrel, they will do everything in their power to get out.  Often times at the expense of their crab brethren.  That is often how you see human beings behave in certain societal and/or cultural circles.  Especially my people.

One of them worth mentioning is the one and only Andrew Young.  It would be just my luck that he is also a member of my fraternity.  That would have been a proud thing to admit back in the day when he was running things as the mayor of Atlanta.  Not so much now.  He is one of many affluent Black "leaders" claiming that Obama doesn't have what it takes to run this country.

First of all, Young argues that his problem with Obama as President has nothing to do with inexperience.  He contends that in order to be a great leader, one must go thru some suffering.  He even goes so far as to bring up MLK as an example.  That's all fine and good, but what suffering has Hillary been thru?  In fact, what suffering has ANY of the Democratic OR Republicans been thru that could be remotely equated to what King went thru?  Having gone thru suffering would be nice, but a prerequisite to be President?  Not so much.

Secondly, Young tried to justify his own argument to those that may say he should be supporting Obama because he's Black.  He wants us to believe that Clinton is just as Black as Obama.  Why?  Because he moonwalked down a Soul Train line at Nelson Mandela's inauguration party, of course.  And Hillary danced too so she's Black by association.  So Obama needs to do some more shucking and jiving and dance some more jigs if he wants to be President.  Yes, because this is what we want our President doing.

As if that wasn't bad enough, along comes BET founder Bob Johnson.  He wants to bring up Obama's childhood as part of the basis as to why he shouldn't be President.    Because things we did as children are always a reflection on the adults we turn out to be, right?  Well at least Bob is a Kappa.

The problem with brothas like these and the Sharpton's of the world is they want to see our people succeed, but only to a certain point.  President of the United States is an office often deemed to be the most powerful position in the free world.  The "house" folks know that with a brotha in that position, their place in the world will slowly become irrelevant.  Why would their people need to look to them for leadership when there's a brotha running thangs in the White House?  They can't very well have THAT happen, now can they?!

I don't have any issue with the fact that our own people aren't supporting Obama.  Okay, I'm not going to lie.  I do have an issue with that.  However, at the very least, they could do it without attacking him.  If you are going to support the opponents, focus about their strengths instead of trying to tear down others.  Stop throwing rocks from those glass houses.

They are forgetting one of the most basic rules of leadership.  Any supervisor and/or manager worth his mettle can tell you.  A good leader should be grooming other(s) to take his/her spot.  If and when that does happen, that leader should be prepared to either step aside or step up.  They need to stop hatin'.  And stop being so crabby.