Should there be a "black agenda" in America? And if the answer to that question is 'yes,' what is the black agenda?
These are the questions that black leaders and black people have been discussing more and more since President Obama took office. Last week, Reverend Al Sharpton hosted a leadership summit addressing this very issue. Today a group of black leaders got together on an MSNBC special to talk about this issue in more detail. And many will remember the on-air argument that Tavis Smiley and Rev Sharpton had a few weeks ago about this topic.
Tavis believes that Obama isn't doing enough. Sharpton believes that Obama need not 'ballyhoo' a black agenda. I think most agree, though, that something needs to be done.
With a 16.5% unemployment rate (compared to 9.7% for white Americans), an education system that is under serving black children, higher than average rates of death from diseases like breast cancer, and continued social issues, it is hard to disagree that there is need for some kind of targeted and focused approach to dealing with the issues that affect African-American. But many are divided on whether or not the president is doing enough for black people, whether or not it's incumbent on him to do anything at all, and what should or shouldn't be done.
My view is that a black agenda is definitely needed. As I have written before, "solving the issues that affect African-Americans strengthens America as a whole, since chronic unemployment, foreclosures and health care issues have not only a cultural and societal impact but an economic one." I am also of the belief that a black agenda -- which I define as one which would take into account the current and pre-existing conditions of black America and actively seek to do something about them specifically rather than simply addressing them as part of a wider economic, educational or other policy -- is an obligation. Any society which ignores, or overlooks, those of its citizens who are not doing well, as is happening at the moment, is a society that cannot function to its full potential.
The black agenda is not just one for the president nor certain black leaders to address; it is for all black people within the black community to take leadership on.
Listen as Dr Boyce Watkins and I talk the issue out.
Follow Lola Adesioye on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lolaadesioye
I had been a fan of Tavis until the recent arguement with Sharpton and constant berating of Obama about the Black agenda. For Tavis does the black agenda involve him doing more than talk about it? What does tavis plan to DO as a result? I think the time for talk is over and the time for action is now. Tavis missed the boat. I hope it is not too late for him to catch up.
Immigrants can come here with nothing and successfully start their own business and build wealth, even with a cultural and language barrier, but you mean to tell me a black person that was born and raised here can't? It breaks down to hard work and sacrafice and if a middle eastern can come to the US after 911 and successfully own and operate a business and be welcomed in his community - anyone can - if they
Are some of these children just throwing away opportunities? Yes...but if you knew any of these kids, you'd know that the majority of them aren't throwing them away because they want to live off the government dole (which is the common misconception), they just don't see any opportunities that THEY feel are realistic. It's hard to convince a kid who's grown up poor, and SURROUNDED by violence, with very few or NO role models (unless you count drug dealers), sometimes has no heat, no electricity that by simply going to school everyday will lead them out of poverty. It's tough when you don't have any concrete examples (neighbors, etc.) Yet you somehow feel that their ONLY problem is a lack of "hard work"?? Really? How sure are you that had YOU grown up in the exact same conditions, that you would've turned out the same? There's a reason parents want to send their children to the best schools, and raise them in safe neighborhoods.
That said, YES, parents need to do a better job ensuring that their children receive a proper education. YES, there needs to be greater accountability for personal choices...but to paint the totality of the problem as simply a lack of effort, as if somehow we live in an alternate universe where the SAME effort from everyone produces the SAME results, is to over simplify the situation.
The issue is not whether or not there are examples of those willing to work hard and sacrifice. What you miss is the reason such hard work and sacrifice were required. There were laws that allowed employers, schools, hospitals and landlords to deny them access simply because. The issue is that many people were denied that opportunity to even have access to any kind of work!
So let's dispense with the lectures on hard work. Could work be any harder than that done by those struggling for freedom, for demanding that the nation live up to its creed?
The people who murdered Oscar Grant are the same who murdered Emmitt Till. I guess you might call that another kind of "equal opportunity".
Racism is racism is racism.
Favoring one race over another is racism.
To give one person an advantage over another because of his skin is racism and should not be a part of this nation.
Where have you been?
Two wrongs do not make a right.
Blacks are minorities in this country, which means that there are real possibilities that issues that are more pressing in minority communities may get completely overlooked, especially if they are not issues that plague those in the majority...so to write them off as "racism" is to completely miss the significance, either willfully or not.
And plenty of people are given advantages in life. If you were born to a middle-class, or wealthy family, guess what? You have opportunities that a poor kid will probably not have due to no fault of his/her own. What's wrong with saying, 'hey, we should do something to even the field for poor kids'??
Further, there are PLENTY of groups who advocate on their own behalf...religious groups lobby...unions lobby...corporations lobby...gun rights advocates lobby...hispanics lobby...women lobby...why can't blacks?
Even Dr Martin Luther King expounded that when he said ""I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Mr. Sharpton need to be told to get out of the way and shut his mouth trying to protect The President from the reality of Political promise keeping.The Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus need to have a retreat together to discuss achieving their goals together, and not let Mr Obama's people nor Mr Sharpton's people in on the discussion until they having come to some agreement as to how they would get some of their peoples needs taking care of in their respected communities.I would even invite the Asian Leadership to join in on the discusses . These are formidable Voting Blocks that the President knows put him in office.He's needs to deal with the social and political reality of their concerns right now not in some distance future.Not to throw cold water on what I just said but everybody in this Country is hurting except the Wall Street Bankers and Big Energy,but it should never be everybody for themselves, we need to work together to get back on our feet.
Barack Obama is trying to show us how to see ourselves as Americans. I know it's tough because we have been marginalized for so long and made to feel like outsiders in our own home. Then along come the conservatives who, for the last 40 years, have made us the face of everything from welfare to crime, just to gin up anger and resentment. We are part of the bedrock of this nation. We are not a voting bloc and we don't need to join with Hispanics or Asians to achieve goals. We have more in common with poor whites, who have in the past few decades been just as neglected, than with any of the new immigrants. This President is working to level the playing field and it will benefit us all.
Until they can stop the money drain, until they can construct a system that keeps money in the community instead of other communities, until they can call out without fear those forces of any stripe that are complicit in the underdevelopment of the Black community, let them debate. Just get the hell out of the way of those who have actual work to do or something of relevance to manifest.
For example. Let's talk solely about blacks living in (shall we say) "racially integrated" neighborhoods. Do these folks have a significantly higher unemployment rate than their neighbors, or are we talking about predominantly black neighborhoods?
If the latter, is it really an epidemic exclusive among black people in particular? Are there not hispanic neighborhoods that mimic the state of these neighborhoods? Are there not white neighborhoods that mimic them? There are.
The thing that I never understood is why it appears that blacks seem to think this problem is theirs and theirs alone to bare. And it's not true.
I don't want a president who has an agenda to benefit any one group, and neither should anyone.
this legacy of Ignorants has to stop.
THE AGE OF PATERNALISM IS OVER... I am TIRED of witnessing political Hucksters come in the name of people who can't even get their attention.
The current generation will pass into history, which should and will be kind to those who were sincere and made a real difference.
"NOT IN MY NAME" without my consent.
Impediments to the success have long since been thrown on the ash heap of history. Bull Conner is dead, and so are his dogs. Racial discrimination is now illegal except in cases where it favors Blacks and Latinos. Inner city public schools spend 11-13k per student per year, so there is plenty of money for education.
I could go on, but I think my point is made.
The "post-racial society" is wishful thinking amongst liberal whites who want to pretend that the system of white skin privilege has disappeared.
unless you can demonstrate to me how and when the paradigm and structure of white supremacy has been dismantled and or replaced with a system that is working for the most of us, please wake up or come out of denial.
Peaceful Journeys!
I think that one would have to look back at least 40 years to find any area of the country that was governed by white supremacists.
Different groups sometimes need different things. We don't live in a one-size fits all country and not all of our problems can or will be solved w/ a one size fits all approach. A President (regardless of race) can and SHOULD do things that may be specific to a particular community or subset of America ESPECIALLY if in doing so it helps the country as a whole.
We need unity right now, not division.
And if there be any example today of just how far this nation HAS come, at least in certain ways, consider this: an African-American man is sitting in the White House today, having earned and won the position ... as any American person, regardless of race or gender, should as a matter of course expect to be able to do.
I am not, myself, an African, but I voted for a person of African heritage -- not because of that heritage, and not in spite of it.
We need unity right now, not division. Virtually every ethnic group within this vast melting-pot shares the same (valid) ethnic-oriented concerns that you do. I'm not saying that your points are not valid: I'm saying that they are by no means peculiar to Americans of African descent -- and, therefore, that they should be properly treated as an "American" concern.
We are a melting pot. Always have been. Any source of division among ourselves is potentially quite harmful to us, especially now as so many people seek to divide us against ourselves for their own selfish gain.
Something doesn't compute there.There is a major disconnect between the tea baggers and the likes of Tavis
Tavis has ALWAYS been envious of President Obama.I find it surprising that he has not gone on Fox news to bash him even more.
I don't remember Tavis bashing Bush for doing absolutely NOTHING for minorities and quite frankly Bush didn't do chit for nobody; just for his fellow republicans and those involved in the arms sales and oil business