J. Pharoah Doss: With an intelligentsia like this who needs idiots?

Several Black political commentators consider themselves the “talented tenth.” W.E.B. Dubois coined the term “talented tenth” at the turn of the twentieth century. Between 1865 and 1900, the majority of Black Americans received industrial education. Dubois believed that 10 percent of the most outstanding Black Americans should pursue higher education and that “talented tenth” would drive the growth of the Black race. Following the Civil Rights Movement’s victories, the “talented tenth” became unnecessary. However, “higher-educated” Blacks aspired to emulate the “talented tenth” but instead developed a “Black intelligentsia.” The term “intelligentsia” refers to a group of intellectuals who are part of the artistic, social, or political elite. This is not a group of leaders dedicated to advancing the Black race, as Dubois envisioned. The Black intelligentsia is a progressive group of elitists. Despite seeing themselves as champions fighting the “White establishment” on behalf of Black people, the Black intelligentsia remain disconnected from the people they claim to represent. Economist Thomas Sowell famously defined them as self-anointed proponents of a “worldview concocted out of fantasy, impervious to any real-world considerations.” The Black intelligentsia supported Democratic nominee and current vice president Kamala Harris for president because Harris was a member of their...