NAACP: Once a great civil rights organization, now just shakedown artists?

The NAACP has every right to promote boycotts of those companies which refuse to roll over for it. The rest of us have the right to stop respecting a once-great organization which has descended into shaking down ppl who have committed no crime.

Brian DeBose in The Washington Times has the story. Thanks to PowerLine, which has worthwhile comments, for the tip.

MILWAUKEE -- The NAACP will target private companies as part of its economic agenda, seeking reparations from corporations with historical ties to slavery and boycotting companies that refuse to participate in its annual business diversity report card.

"Absolutely, we will be pursuing reparations from companies that have historical ties to slavery...," Dennis C. Hayes, interim president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said yesterday at the group's 96th annual convention here.

"Many of the problems we have now including poverty, disparities in health care and incarcerations can be directly tied to slavery."

Many of their problems stem from their own bad behavior, starting with teaching their children that they cannot succeed in a racist America, and that others whose ancestors came here in the 20th century owe them a living, or reparations for injustices done by others to others. If Americans are so racist that blacks cannot succeed, why is it that African immigrants do so well?

The group's strategy will include a lobbying effort to encourage cities to enact laws requiring businesses to complete an extensive slavery study and submit it to the city before they can get a city contract.

Such laws exist in Philadelphia and Chicago...

During an event on economic inequality, Mr. Hayes said the NAACP will lobby other localities and begin protesting and/or boycotting companies that refuse to participate in its annual business diversity report card survey.

That sounds like a productive use of NAACP resources: instead of working to end disfunctional behavior among African-Americans, they will boycott firms which don't fill out NAACP surveys.

...This year's report card measured 55 companies on their efforts. Taken together, four industries got a C grade. Retail got a D, largely because five of the 11 companies examined did not respond to the NAACP's request for information, getting an automatic F.

What a shame. The NAACP used to be great.