FORUM
W here are the black Republicans?
Harry
Alford
Guest
Columnist
The times are quite different
now. Gone are the days wfien the
Chairman of the Republican
National Committee (RNC)
would make deliberate outreach
efforts within the Black commu
nity. Former chairs Jim Gilmore
and Ken Mehlman would
aggressively attend events,
make speeches and order their
staff to recruit aggressively.
It was RNC co-Chairwoman
Pat Harrison who came to the
2000 National Black Chamber
of Commerce annual convention
and asked our participants to
give the Republican Party a try.
Former Chairman Ken
Mehlman came to our annual
event in 2005 along with Lt.
Governor Michael Steele
(Maryland) and Secretary of
HUD Alphonso Jackson and
demonstrated sincerity and
inclusiveness. We were
impressed and it made our polit
ical outlook "balanced."
Some of us were Democrats
and some were Republicans.
Most were actually undecided
until election time. Npw those
who are Republican are keeping
it quiet. It is not just because we
have a dynamic African
American on the Democratic
ticket but there appears to be a
definite indifference shown by
the RNC. You get the feeling
that we aren't wanted anymore.
As I write this, I cannot recall
the name of the RNC Chairman
as opposed to Gov. Howard
Dean for the DNC. That says a
lot.
? In 2004, the RNC seated a
record number of delegates at its
Presidential Convention. This
year they had the lowest Black
representation in 40 years
(according to Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies).
In 2004, the convention' had
Black delegates that comprised
Steele
6.7 percent (167 delegates) of
the total.
This year, that number was a
dismal 1.5 percent (36 dele
gates) which equates to a 78.4
percent decline. By contrast, the
Democratic National
Convention had over 24 percent
Black participation. There was a
majority female population
among the delegates, and
Hispanics reached the 14 per
cent level.
Gays and Lesbians held a
higher percentage of delegates at
the DNC event than Blacks at
the RNC event. The DNC was
undoubtedly and proudly inclu
sive, and the RNC appeared to
be very old school.
Yvonne R. Davis has this to
say about the trend, "Since the
2000 and 2004 Republican con
ventions, a lot has dianged for
African- American Republicans.
I was a vice chairwoman for
Bush in Connecticut, a national
co-chairwoman for African
Americans for Bush, a surrogate
spokeswoman for the
Republican National Committee
and worked on Latino outreach
efforts nationwide ... There
were rainbow coalitions of
interns and delegates. Featured
speakers such as Colin Powell,
J.C. Watts Jr., Condolezza Rice,
black actors and ministers and
gospel singers played a role on
prime-time tele vision.... I've
gone from having VIP seats sit
ting in the Bush family box to
having a premier seat on my liv
Rice
ing room couch.... Real or per
ceived there was an effort to
engage us." Things have certain
ly changed now.
A close friend of mine, who
I won't expose right now, is a
former "Eagle" in the
Republican Party. That's a per
son who contributes at least
$50,000 per year to the party.
This time' around, he is quite
active in the "Veterans for
Obama Committee". He has
done a complete turnaround and
is actively recruiting Black
Republican veterans.
Raynard Jackson, a long
standing Black Republican
advocate, has now started the
"Black Republicans for Obama"
movement. He is populating the
Internet with his message and
throwing it right up into the
RNC's face, As though he is say
ing "You dis us; you will miss
us".
Senator Obama's charisma
and Senator Biden's statesman
ship contrasted to that "pesky"
Senator McCain and Gov. Sarah
Palin who appears to be an "out
back nut case" replete with "Red
Neck legacy" makes things
rather noncompetitive in the
Black community everywhere.
The movement amongst Blacks
all over the world is overwhelm
ing. Prosper Adabla, an entre
preneur in Ghana, wrote me,
"Hope you are well. My family
and I cried uncontrollably for
most of the speech period
(Obama's acceptance speech).
Jackson
The only other time I cried so,
was when S. Africa held its first
election. We saw people, sick
and able, grandmothers and par
ents, sinners and the saved, the
oppressors and the enslaved
standing in long procession,
waiting to cast their votes, with
the national black anthem echo
ing in the background."
This equates to the same
moods 1 detect in France,
England, Brazil, Spain, and
throughout the rest of the world.
The RNC is being viewed as the
"oppressor" and the DNC as the
"liberator".
How could the Republican
Party let this happen, and to
what success do they think it
will lead?
I have polled close relatives
of mine who aire Republicans.
The majority of them have
recently officially changed their
registration to Democrat or
Independent. I haven't seen such
a "sea of change" in my lifetime.
It reminds me of the historical
change that was led by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Maybe next time, the RNC
will return to inclusiveness and
open up that "big tent" once
again. Right now, I am finding
more and more disappointment
and hurt. Isn't this 2008?
Harry Alford is the co
founder, President/CEO, of the
National Blatpk Chamber of
Commerce, Inc. Website:
wwwjiationalbcc .org .
Poverty: Beyond breaking news
Dr. Julianne
Malveaux
Guest
Columnist
The political hoopla has
obscured a critical new data
release about poverty. As the
respective political camps debat
ed their agendas, there is evi
dence that people at the bottom
of the economic spectrum are
still scratching their way toward
survival, and that, despite
proclamations by President
Bush and Republican candidate
McCain that the US economy is
strong, the real deal is that noth
ing has iptproved for the poor.
The US Department of Census
released data on August 26 that
showed that one in eight
Americans live in poverty. The
numbers are larger for people of
color, with one in four African
American households experi
encing poverty, and more than
one in five (21 percent) of
Hispanic households experienc
ing poverty. The differences are
simply a function of income and
household status. While White
families had an average income
of $54 ,000, African- American
families had an average income
of $33,000, and Hispanic fami
lies had an average income of
$38,000.
Some cities had staggering
poverty rates. In Detroit, for
example, a third of the people
are poor. Cleveland is another
city with extremely high pover
ty. Invariably, the cities with
high poverty are Black and
Brown, old and young, and also
industrially abandoned. When
there are turnaround efforts, they
are snagged up with the politics
of race, class, and sometimes
gentrification. Every number
represents an urban tragedy, but
the news cycle has not taken us
past the numbers. The macro
economic story of poverty and
joblessness is compelling, but
the microecoomic story is heart
breaking.
I get emails daily from
brothers and sisters trying to
make it and finding survival a
basic challenge. A woman wrote
that she spent a year at an
HBCU but cannot get a tran
script because she has not paid
her outstanding bill. She did not
return to school because an
aging parent required her care,
and when the parent died, she
lost any inheritance she might
have hoped for because an older
sibling staked a better-docu
mented claim. Family chal
lenges left her homeless and she
is looking for a chance to com
plete her education. She is a vic
tim of family drama, but also of
an economy that cannot embrace
her, and a higher education sys
? tern that will close doors unless
she is properly financed.
She won't be properly
financed in the current climate,
yet this young, bright, focused
black woman deserves a place at
the educational and employment
table. The higher education act
does not have room for her - it
barely has the dollars for mini
mally funded Pell grants.
To criticize this Higher
Education Act, my colleagues
say, is to bite the hand that feeds
too many HBCUs. The fact is
that our nation can only prevent
poverty by investing in educa
tion, and heretofore, our invest
ments have been scant and
insufficient. The Census data
would suggest that we have
invested in health care. The
number of people who lack
health care has dropped by about
a million, with 47 million lack
ing health insurance in 2006,
and 45.7 million lacking health
insurance in 2007. This mJiy be
described as commendable, but
it may also be described as a
political sleight of hand?
Because of changes in Medicare
rules, a million or so more peo
ple, mostly children, get a break.
But our health care system still
fails to deliver for many work
ing Americans. Our monthly
data on employment and unem
ployment suggest that there is
insufficient value for the work
ers whose efforts keep our econ
omy alive. Health care is the tip
of the iceberg, with data woeful
ly insufficient because they fail
to capture "the burden some fam
ilies take on when they simply
try to pay their share of a health
care premium or a co-payment.
Unemployment is another part
of the challenge families face,
with too many being shrugged
off so forcefully that they don't
turn up in the data. Thus, in a
period when economic growth
has been robust, the poverty
level has not dropped. This is the
story that may have been swal
lowed in the middle of the polit
ical rhetoric. If poor people
could organize, they would offer
a compelling statement about
the ways poverty data has been
ignored in favor of so-called
breaking news.
Noted economist Dr.
Julianne Malveaux is president
of Bennett College for Women.
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