I was on WNYC radio yesterday to talk about How The NAACP Doesn’t Care About Black People (my recent blog post here). We thank them for having us. For those of you who missed my conversation with WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter and Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, who blogs over The Root’s Buzz, you’ll find the audio above. Take a listen while you work and let us know what you think. Jonathan and I were mostly on the same page that the NAACP needs to step up its game if it wants to keep playin’.

As a result of our really interesting conversation, Jonathan wrote a piece called The NAACP & GOP: Dodos of a Feather over on his own blog. It really cut me up. Here’s a lil bit:

Of course Michael Steele was there.

That Michael Steele was a speaker at the NAACP convention is poetic in a way; the head of a currently-floundering party trying to find its footing and place in the world and the preeminent Black civil rights organization attempting to do the same.

Did NAACP president Ben Jealous and Michael Steele commiserate over drinks at the McCormick and Schmick’s across the way? Did they split a fried catfish sandwich and wax into the night on the days of yore, the days when things fell neatly into Black and White? I know not, but I imagine the conversation might go something like this:

INT. – McCormick & Schmick’s – Night

NAACP president Ben Jealous and Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Steele are seated in a both by the window. Ties loosened, they seem weary, watching passersby on the street. They’re men that should be charged by the convention’s energy, and to the outside world they seem that way. But that is not the case.

Meal finished and tumblers in hand, they begin to converse.

STEELE: We’re getting absolutely creamed out there. Creamed!

JEALOUS: Us too! People are saying we’re out of touch that, that–

STEELE: We don’t know how to be more inclusive, more understanding!

JEALOUS: People say we’re just made up of Protestants and sorority girls–

STEELE: And frat guys! Frat guys that only represent certain interests.

JEALOUS: (Swirling his drink) I just don’t get where we went wrong…

STEELE: I hear ya. It used to be, people came to us for answers.

JEALOUS: Damn straight. Something went down, *Boom* we were on it.

STEELE: But now, it seems like people don’t want to hear us

JEALOUS: Want to? They don’t even care. And we’re trying to keep up but…

STEELE: It’s that flippin internet! Can’t really corral that sucker.

JEALOUS: No; no you can’t. People use it. A lot.

STEELE: You’re telling me. [snip…read the rest]

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