I have to admit I was a bit perplexed when I was a panelist recently at Tavis Smiley's "We Count: The Black Agenda is the American Agenda" forum, which focused heavily on what President Barack Obama has not done for the black community, rather than the significant down payment he has made in our communities this past year.
(The program aired on C-SPAN 2 yesterday.)
With unemployment and the foreclosure crisis hitting black communities especially hard, I can understand the frustration. But I was surprised that the billions of dollars in meaningful investments the president has already made were such a small part of the discussion.
When Tavis and I worked together on the best-selling Covenant with Black America book in 2006, we envisioned it as precisely the kind of "black agenda" that Tavis brought the panel together to discuss. The Covenant -- which we described as a "national plan of action to address the primary concerns of African Americans today, from health to housing, from crime to criminal justice, from education to economic parity" -- seems like a fair standard to hold President Obama up to.
From where I sit -- with more than three decades of experience working to make public policies more fair and inclusive of all people -- the past year has seen tremendous investment in the African-American community right along the lines we laid out four years ago.
Putting aside the nearly $1 trillion in stimulus spending (including hundreds of billions in social, safety-net spending like food stamps and unemployment benefits), the historic health care legislation alone will dramatically improve the lives of the 7 million African-Americans without health insurance. But also in that health care bill are little-noticed provisions to restructure the college loan system to push $36 billion into the Pell Grant program (one out of every six Pell Grant recipients is black) and invest $2.55 billion directly into historically black colleges and universities.
Far beyond that single bill, though, it's clear President Obama has laid the groundwork for an extraordinary growth in economic and social opportunity for millions of African Americans. The facts are there for anyone to see. So far, the president has invested or proposed:
Does that sound like a president who is unaware of the challenges facing our communities? These investments appear right on target. Many of these investments build directly on the assertion I have made for years that, in America today, where you live has become a proxy for opportunity. African Americans, in particular, will benefit from the investments that improve the conditions in our nation's cities and poor neighborhoods.
That sounds like a black agenda aimed at expanding opportunity for the next generation of our young people. Is there more to do? Of course. But acknowledging progress is also very important.
Angela Glover Blackwell is founder and CEO of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. This piece originally appeared in The Root.
Follow Angela Glover Blackwell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PolicyLink
Most disturbing was Dr. Dyson who contradicted himself is so many ways it was hard to keep track. He is one of many on the panel who seemed more concerned about displaying their oratory skills than actually accomplishing something. Although I could follow him I wondered how those less versed in academia could understand him.
It is clear Ms. Blackwell did not fit the narrative of this broadcast which seemed focused on criticizing the President “in love”. Midway through the program every time they would chime, “in love” I got visions of Ike and Tina Turner. Love really didn’t have much to do with this discussion.
He will make mistakes but they will be outweighed by his successes....which are our successes.
No, I don't cosign everything he does, but I'm also not in a position to know why, so I hold my venom in the same manner that I held it for George W. Bush for eight years. Now that the facts are in, I want GWB in jail. Only, this is my guy. This is the man who's beliefs and ideals align mostly with mine and I will not shoot my self in the foot a la Tavis Smiley, a la Independent/Third-Party voters, a la certain left-oriented websites. They and he need to pick a side and fight. Stop trying to play the fence for the sake of being contrary! Keep your internal strife just that, internal.
He has this irrational jealousy of the president along with Jesse Jackson . I can understand Jesse Jackson's jealousy because he is part of that civil rights legacy along with cornel west after all ' they feel they are more experienced and had more opportunities to become president.
Instead they became too comfortable playing with black folks hope and change gonna come speeches. So when a young upstart like obama came on the scene, It scared these 'so called agents of change'
For real whether they want to admit or not Obama has changed the way blacks look at black leaders in this country
maybe that is what they were scared of .. YALL FEEL ME
Please pass this by Travis when he's on Morning Joe bashing Obama.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ARTICLE........
After reading this, and really acknowledging all of the
money that President Obama......has steered toward
these different programs......
I CANNOT SEE HOW ANY ONE CAN SAY THAT THE
PRESIDENT IS NOT FOCUSING ON LAYING THE
GROUNDWORK TO HELP THE BLACK AGENDA!
AGAIN ANGELA THANK YOU!
President's Handling of Black Agenda.
Only One Problem:
WHAT Black Agenda ?
By: Greg Jones
National Director
Blacks4Barack.org
Recently, a major riff occurred on national radio between Rev. Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley after Tavis basically accused The Rev. of not enticing The President to address The Black Agenda while in a meeting at The White House recently. They argued back and forth on-air for nearly 20 minutes over how each of them feel President Obama should respond to The Black Agenda. Although the back and forth made for interesting radio, both sides of the argument are absolutely mute for one simple reason: there is no Black Agenda !
Read Rest of Article at:
http://www.B4Bmorenews.blogspot.com
no matter WHO THE PRESIDENT IS, if we have questions, we MUST ask them...
as West and others have said, the day after the election, we hold the new President's feet to the fire...
i don't think Tavis is jealous as at all, he is asking valid questions...
i admire his stance, i think he stands to lose a lot with this position of his (no White House dinners for him, or recs to get his peeps into an Ivy League school.)
the President can take it, if he has nothing to fear, there's nothing to be be fearful of....
(besides, if i can talk to God in Heaven and question his decisions, i can certainly question President Obama...)
He always has something negative to say about the president or flatly says the president won on health care reform but....
Cornell west I can understand where he is coming from he is a conscious criticizer of the president but he has never made it a personal issue like tavis has. That is my take on the tavis situation.
I am not for everything our president does. But I do have objective reasons why I am not for it
Like holding a trial in NY with the terrorist will cause commotion and fear mongering
and the closing of git mo - it is too soon
But our president is an intelligent man - passing Health care reform and more income for student loans and signing the Jobs Fair bill ! This is a man we need in office not some body who runs his mouth about a black agenda and does nothing
Thank you Ms. Glover.
it's (actually) helping the POOR (of all races). . . .and that's a BIG DIFFERENCE.
Race specific remedies, for problems CAUSED by racial discrimination are not on Mr. Obama's agenda, they never were. The so-called "talented tenth", the black cultural, political and academic elite, can't identify with day-to-day struggles of the black masses, they tend ignore them (between election cycle's).
EXAMPLE: Mr. Obama speaks about fatherhood as if he were an expert (but both of his children are still pre-teens?) . . . . .his "wise" words ring hollow to young fathers struggling to pay the bills. Young African Americans look at the Wall Street, Auto Industry bailouts as a betrayal, they put Obama first. . . .and he still has not gotten around the them ?. . . .
The(specific) needs of (specific) African American community's must be addressed by this administration before any claims of " black agenda" ring true.
One final point. . . . . all Blacks are not poor.
Blaming all your problems on someone else - even if it’s true - is a waste of energy. Waiting for someone else to fix your problems - even if they should - is a waste of time.
The Russians, the Haitians, and whoever else is out of favor. Islamic terrorists are current scapegoats for all that is wrong. What "perpetrators" do you speak of?
What's wrong with him lately?
when I heard the Al Sharpton show he did the same thing and had his a... handed to him. He calls in thinking he was going to ambush the Rev by misquoting him on the air. The Rev handled his business though