I have to respond to a fallacy I heard yesterday from both Mitt Romney and SE Cupp, one of four hosts on the new MSNBC show The Cycle. Mitt Romney was interviewed on Fox News soon after his speech with the NAACP. He talked about having a meeting with African American leaders who told him that privately there are blacks who are unwilling to vote for Barack Obama this election cycle. On The Cycle, SE Cupp also made mention of African American leaders who have a disdain for Mitt Romney. She named Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in particular as an African American leader who ridiculed Romney on a recent trip he made to the city.

I have a question for SE Cupp, Mitt Romney and others who talk about African American leaders. There are no African American leaders in this country; never had and never will be. If you want to believe that, then is Chris Christie a Caucasian American leader? Maybe Rush Limbaugh is one, or Donald Trump or the Walton family, since they own Wal Mart. Name me an Asian American leader and I specifically mean some who, as you use for African American ‘leaders’, someone who can speak for the whole of the Asian community. Remember, just like any other race we like to lump in a group, someone who may be of Japanese descent couldn’t speak for someone of Indian descent. Maybe you can name me a Hispanic leader. Would Marco Rubio be a leader for all Hispanics? Of course, using him you would be talking about Cuban Americans and they would have different interests than someone of Mexican or Columbian descent.

Even when you try to being up a leader in a group like Hispanic or Asian, you have sub-groups who, by the criteria that seems to be laid out, would have to have their own leader. While we’re talking about leaders, what about the person of mixed race and heritage? If I’m a second generation Columbian lesbian would my allegiance be with a Hispanic leader or LGBT one? Since this person is a woman would that trump both?

I mean, really think about it and ask what are the criteria that you have for calling someone an African American leader? I ask the question for all of my 48 years on this planet and in this country, I have been told as a black that there are these people that someone bestows the word leader on and they speak for me. I’ve never met them, never voted for them, yet when policies, when attitudes or opinions are needed, instead of going out and asking black people like myself what we think, they go to these self appointed leaders to get answers.

Just so we are on the same page, I blame people like Cupp, Romney and others who seek these people out for blanket affirmation or blame and I also blame those who would feel so embolden to put the sign of leader on their head and present themselves as leader to a public that is fearful, naive or just don’t want to bother with what real people have to say. I hatred the term black leader when I was growing up in San Diego and when anything happened in what was the black section of town at the time, Southeast San Diego, you would have officials who had never set foot in the community before seeking out self appointed leaders who would promise they could keep the black citizens in line. To be blunt, these so called leaders would promise to keep the black citizens placated. The obvious reason why they did this was to carve out power for themselves. They didn’t care about the people in the community.

When I got older I didn’t like that the press placed Jesse Jackson then Al Sharpton as the leaders of the black community. When any grievance happened the press made a bee line to their doorstep and both were more than willing to speak for me. How would they know me? Have they ever met me? Have they given me a phone call? Have we had lunch once? Are Jesse and Al like Professor X and they hook themselves up to Cerebro, Bro probably being the operative term, and they can link in to the thoughts of every African American?

The talk of an African American leader never sounds strange to people like Cupp or Romney until the chairs are switched. I doubt either of them would like it if someone was appointed as a spokesperson for their whole being; someone who wasn’t elected and named as such either by the person who is the self professed leader or by other who have no connection to you by fiat. If I wanted to know the inner workings of people like SE Cupp and I proclaimed Orly Taitz as the person to speak for their point of view, SE Cupp would be rightly concerned. Sure they are both women, and they may have similar political views but I doubt SE Cupp would agree Orly best represents her views.

That’s what it feels like to me and millions of other people when some unelected person is declared our leader. Hey I don’t claim to be so unique that I’m indefinable as a person, but claiming that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the President or any other black person speaks for me because they are black would be wrong and condescending.