Black conservative leader continues boycott of NAACP

Black conservative leader continues boycott of NAACP

A conservative black leader is blasting the NAACP for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens, but doing nothing to address the real problems facing the black community. The NAACP, says Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, is racially divisive, antiquated -- and in serious financial trouble.

Peterson is founder and president of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), a Los Angeles-based religious group that focuses on helping men fulfill their family responsibilities. Since 2003, his organization has led a boycott against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which recently wrapped up its annual convention in Detroit. He says it is apparent that the liberal-leaning organization is not the influence it once was.

"Already the NAACP announced that they're cutting back their staff by 40 percent," says Peterson. "They're closing seven offices, which include Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, and other major cities."

And the NAACP, says BOND's leader, has sold out the black community with its recent support of the Senate bill that would have given amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Had the bill become law, "it would have taken jobs and education, healthcare away from black Americans," says Peterson -- "[but] the NAACP doesn't care about that. That's why they're not working on the other issues in the black community, like crime and out-of-wedlock birth and abortion and issues that are destroying our community."

So why did the NAACP support the immigration reform legislation? Peterson has a theory. "They think that these illegals are going to come in, they're going to vote for the Democrats -- which includes them -- and somehow or another, they're going to take the power away from the white man," he suggests. "[NAACP leadership is] so racist that they can't see that these illegals are coming in and they're going to support other Mexicans or Hispanics. They're not going to support black folks."

Peterson says the NAACP is more interested in pursuing a liberal political agenda than helping the people it claims to represent. For example, while convening in Detroit, the organization denied a pro-life group the opportunity to read a resolution which urged national efforts to reduce the high abortion and infant mortality rates in the black community. It was the second time in three years the NAACP had turned the group away.