Anderson@Large

Obama’s First 100 Days

Yesterday marked President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office. So, how is Obama doing? Among African Americans, it’s all good.

A New York Times/CBS News poll found blacks are nearly unanimous in their support of the President. Ninety-six percent approve and zero disapprove. CBSNews.com reports:

The election of the first-ever African-American president and his time in office has prompted an outpouring of optimism among African-Americans, despite the tough economic times.

Seventy-percent of African-Americans now say the country is headed in the right direction - more than twice the percentage of white Americans (34 percent) who say as much.

African Americans have faith that Obama will do the right thing. But their “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

During last night’s news conference, BET’s Andre Showell asked:

As the entire nation tries to climb out of this deep recession, in communities of color the circumstances are far worse. The black unemployment rate, as you know, is in the double digits, and in New York City, for example, the black unemployment rate for men is near 50 percent.

My question tonight is, given this unique and desperate circumstance, what specific policies can you point to that will target these communities? And what’s a timetable for us to see tangible results?

Obama’s response: keep the faith.

My colleague Richard Prince observed that “Obama gave his usual answer to such questions about the racial impact of his policies”:

Every step we're taking is designed to help all people, but folks who are most vulnerable are most likely to be helped, because they need the most help.

Obama continued:

So -- so my general approach is that if the economy is strong, that will lift all boats, as long as it is also supported by, for example, strategies around college affordability and job training; tax cuts for working families, as opposed to the wealthiest, that level the playing field and ensure bottom-up economic growth.

And I’m confident that that will help the African-American community live out the American dream at the same time as it’s helping communities all across the country.

As for seeing tangible results, the black unemployment rate was 11.3 percent in November 2008. It's 13.3 percent today.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, University of Maryland Prof. Ronald Walters said Obama’s achievements to date are “not good enough”:

The black community was in a crisis before the [national] crisis. There is a need for targeted public policies. I’d say his 100-day report card is pretty much a zero where African-Americans are concerned.

Walters is a tough grader. So, 100 days in, I give Obama an “incomplete.”

Voting Rights before Supreme Court

Today marks President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office. While Obama celebrates this once unimagined milestone, voting rights advocates will gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supremes will hear a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Opponents argue that Obama’s election shows the preclearance provisions are relics of a bygone era. They point to the record turnout of African American voters as further proof that the mission of the Voting Rights has been accomplished.

Tellingly, opponents fail to mention the racial disparities in voters’ experiences on Election Day 2008.

The New York Times editorializes:

The election of the first African-American president last year was an undeniable sign of racial progress. But even that breakthrough cannot ensure that legislative districts will not be gerrymandered, voting rolls purged or election procedures modified at the state and local levels in ways that diminish the rights of minorities. For that, as Congress wisely recognized, we still need the Voting Rights Act.

John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, observed:

The Voting Rights Act has literally transformed our democracy and our country. Section 5 cut right through the determined resistance to black political participation by requiring that certain states with entrenched histories of discrimination obtain preapproval before implementing new voting laws.

You can join the NAACP for a “virtual rally” in support of voting rights.

Background info on Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District One v. Holder is available here.

Black Farmers Say ‘Enough is Enough’

In 1999, a landmark settlement was reached in Pigford vs. Glickman, a class action lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture by black farmers who alleged racial discrimination.

In approving the consent decree, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman acknowledged USDA’s past discrimination. Friedman said the settlement was “a fair resolution of the claims brought in this case and a good first step towards assuring that the kind of discrimination that has been visited on black farmers will not continue into the next century.”

The consent decree was hailed as the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history. USDA set aside $2.3 billion to settle the claims of black farmers whose loan applications were wrongly rejected.

But an investigation by the Environmental Working Group found that nearly nine out of ten claims were denied; 81,000 out of 94,000 farmers received nothing. Most claims were denied because they were filed late.

Nine years into the next century, black farmers still are waiting for compensation. Dr. John W Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, said:

We have pressed USDA and Congressional leadership for additional funds to compensate all eligible black farmer late filers. Congress has bailed out Wall Street, auto makers and America’s top banks. It is time to elevate our plight.

So, they will pack their mules and hold a rally today at 10:00 a.m. at the USDA.

Boyd added:

We will be asking President Obama to finish what he started as a U.S Senator when he sponsored the black farmers late claim language that passed into law in the farm bill in May of 2008.

ColorofChange.org is circulating a petition demanding justice for black farmers denied compensation. To add your voice, go here.

Mapping Change

President Barack Obama will mark his 100th day in office with a primetime news conference.

For some Obama supporters, it’s still crying time.

The Washington Post reports that black voters in the South Carolina county that ignited Obama’s campaign are still looking for change:

But now, as Obama nears the 100-day milestone of his presidency, Childs suffers from constant exhaustion. In a conservative Southern state that bolstered Obama's candidacy by supporting him early in the Democratic primaries, she awakens at 2:30 a.m. with stress headaches and remains awake mulling all that's befallen Greenwood since Obama's swearing-in…

On Day 88, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that South Carolina had set a record for its highest unemployment rate in state history, at 11.4 percent. Greenwood's unemployment is 13 percent -- more than twice what it was when Childs first started chanting.

The Post continues:

Now Obama is president, and she still believes he will help rescue Greenwood County. But her enthusiasm has faded into a wary optimism. “He's only one man, and there's a lot to get done,” she says, a predicament she knows all too well.

Gov. Mark Sanford rejected some stimulus funds and Childs’ congressman, J. Gresham Barrett, voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Still, the Palmetto State will receive more than $600 million in infrastructure funds and energy efficiency grants.

The White House estimates 50,000 jobs will be “created/saved in the next 2 years” in South Carolina, including 7,900 in the 3rd congressional district.

The question now is whether stimulus funds will “help rescue” Greenwood County?

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 73 percent think Obama’s economic stimulus plan has made no difference in their personal financial situation; 65 percent think it has made no difference in their local community.

If the economic benefits of the stimulus plan go to Beltway bandits and good old boys, that’s not change Childs, Evon Hackett or any Obama supporter can believe in. Indeed, Hackett told the Post:

I guess he’s just working his way down the list, and he’ll get to us.

But as jobless claims rise and the national black unemployment rate remains in the double digits, “ain’t nothing going on but the rent.

As data become available, Tracking Change Wiki will map the impact of the recovery plan in reducing black unemployment and expanding opportunities for minority businesses.

To borrow a phrase from Gwen Guthrie, black folks are looking for the man, President Obama, to put some money in their hands. After all, what's good for Wall Street is good for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Summers Asleep at the Wheel

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Larry Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, stayed awake when he was raking in the dough from hedge funds and Wall Street banksters and defending bonuses for bailout bunglers.

But during President Barack Obama’s meeting “to discuss the impact of the current crisis on consumers,” he can’t be bothered.

Grading Obama

President Barack Obama will mark his first 100 days in office on April 29. This has been the milestone for grading a president’s performance since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But some folks aren’t waiting.

The Institute for the Black World is holding a national town hall meeting to “review the accomplishments of our President and the Black agenda.” Dr. Ron Daniels, founder and president of IBW, recently wrote:

It is foolhardy for any African American to think that by simply electing a Black President the intractable problems facing Black poor and working people will miraculously disappear. They will only be resolved under this President or any President if we identify those issues that are of critical interest to our people and demand that they be solved. That's why Marc Morial’s action in demanding that President Obama do something about the gross disparities between Blacks and Whites in education, health, income and wealth was courageous and exemplary. I'm certain Mr. Morial admires our President, as I do, but in the world of politics, that's beside the point. We need symbols and substance not symbols without substance; otherwise those “crime-haunted dying grounds” are where the dreams of many Black people will continue to be buried!

The event will be held on Friday, April 24 in DC. It is free and open to the public.

For more info, call (888) 774-2921 or visit the Institute for the Black World’s website.

Stimulus Oversight Hearing Held in Bklyn

The House Oversight Committee held a field hearing yesterday on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the role of state and local governments. The hearing was held in the ornate chamber of Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Chairman Edolphus Towns said the unprecedented level of federal spending demands unprecedented transparency:

Every dollar that we can stop from being wasted is a dollar that is put to good use on a school improvement project for our children, a job training program for those who want to work but need new skills, or a construction project that results in something as simple but important as a safer road or cleaner drinking water.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich noted that he voted for the stimulus package in the hope that help would go to the people who need it:

After many years of trickle-down economics, I understood that the trickle seldom gets down.

The witnesses included Colvin Grannum, president of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, which is located in the 10th Congressional District. The White House estimates that 7,300 jobs will be created in the district.

While residents will have access to social spending for education, unemployment benefits and food stamps, Grannum questions whether the “stimulus package will have concrete benefits for communities like Bed-Stuy.” He is concerned the economic benefits--jobs and business opportunities--will not trickle down:

It is less clear that the residents and businesses of Bedford Stuyvesant will directly receive the employment and business opportunities that will be generated by stimulus spending unless government prioritizes and monitors goals for local employment and minority and women-owned utilization.

Grannum said to ensure the trickle gets down, state and local agencies must not use existing contractual relationships that don’t include minority-owned businesses:

Unless there is some intentional mechanism to open up avenues so that enterprise funds can flow, the money will flow as it has in the past…We must make sure funds don’t go to the same old places.

Towns shares Grannum’s concerns:

We want to make sure the stimulus dollars go to the intended purposes, not to stimulate the big boys’ pocket. They created the problem.

As one attendee observed, stimulus funds are “the only game in town.” To make sure your community isn’t played, get informed and get involved.

For one week beginning April 27, Recovery.gov will host a national online dialogue to engage leading information technology vendors, stakeholders and citizens in answering a key question:

What ideas, tools, and approaches can make Recovery.gov a place where all citizens can transparently monitor the expenditure and use of recovery funds?

Log on and tell them: Provide guidance to states and localities on how to measure job creation and require disclosure of minority business participation. After all, it’s our money.

To keep track of implementation of the economic recovery plan, bookmark Tracking Change Wiki.