Community leader

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A community leader is a designation, often by the media, for a person who is perceived to represent a racial or religious community, especially one that is in a minority.

Community leaders are not elected to the position and have no legal powers, but are often used by the media and the police as a way of determining the general feeling within a particular community, or acting as a point of liaison between that community and the authorities. They often attract media and political attention at times of tension within or between communities, and in particular when such tension escalates into violence, such as rioting.

In recent years many younger members of ethnic-minority communities have questioned the legitimacy of such self-appointed spokespeople to represent a wider community^{[citation needed]}.