Black leadership, instead of being proactive and creative, continues with the same strategies developed during the last century when most of its hopes were tied to affirmative action. Black leaders often aggressively pursue public policies that alienate whites (such as racial reparations), but do little to help those blacks most in need or to improve interracial cooperation. At a time when serious conditions in the black community cry out for sustained national attention, many clack leaders, I believe, waste a great deal of energy championing the symbolic battles - like elimination of the Confederate flag - when their energies could be channeled into much more productive effects.