Anderson@Large

Moore’s Law

The Senate Finance Committee has pulled the plug on the public option. Five Democrats, including Committee Chairman Max Baucus, voted against a government-run insurance plan.

Filmmaker Michael Moore says it’s time to apply Moore’s Law: Congressional Democrats should get with the program or get to stepping.

During a rally at the headquarters of Public Citizen, Moore promised to rock the House -- and Senate. Moore threw down the gauntlet:

To the Democrats in Congress who don’t quite get it: I want to offer a personal pledge. I – and a lot of other people – have every intention of removing you from Congress in the next election if you stand in the way of health care legislation that the people want. That is not a hollow or idle threat. We will come to your district and we will work against you, first in the primary and, if we have to, in the general election.

CBC Week Wrap

Another CBC Week has come and gone. I attended so many policy sessions till I was almost relieved when the Secret Service locked down the Washington Convention Center on Saturday afternoon to do their security sweep.

The issue forums and Braintrust meetings featured a number of eloquent speakers. Few were more passionate or eloquent than Susan L. Taylor, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement.

Taylor is on a mission to “mobilize massive numbers of able African Americans to take the lead in fulfilling our society’s spiritual and social responsibility to our children.”

Consider:

• Of all black fourth-graders, 58% are functionally illiterate.
• In some cities, 80% of our boys drop out before finishing high school.
• Every day 1,000 Black children are arrested.
• 1 in every 8 African American males ages 25-29 is incarcerated.
• The number one cause of death for our boys is homicide.

But as Taylor observed:

We are the people who refuse to die.

Taylor doesn’t want much of your time. Just an hour a month to:

• Encourage a child each
• Be available for a phone call
• Help with problems at school
• Have lunch or a snack
• Listen to challenges and ideas

So, are you in?

To find out how you can get involved, go here.

Hope, Change and Accountability

President Barack Obama was welcomed with thunderous applause at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s awards dinner.

In his remarks, Obama acknowledged African Americans have not reached the Promised Land:

But we also know that we’ve got a long way to go; the progress we’ve made has been uneven; and that this recession has hit communities of color with a particular ferocity. Today, more than one in seven African Americans are out of work -- the highest in nearly a quarter century. More than two out of 10 African Americans -- and three out of 10 black children -- are living in poverty.

Those grim statistics were the subtext to hallway conversations at the Washington Convention Center. Truth be told, the euphoria of a black man in the White House is giving way to the reality that “hope and change” will not put food on the table or pay the rent or mortgage.

The whispered anxieties were given full voice at the Black Family Summit organized by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century. IBW President Ron Daniels announced the formation of the Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission whose mission is to “instill the notion that whoever is in the White House, there needs to be accountability.”

The 11-member commission is co-chaired by Dr. Julianne Malveaux, president of Bennett College for Women, and Dr. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland.

Malveaux provided an overview:

The commission will lift up the name of Shirley Chisholm who spoke truth to power. And it’s time we spoke truth to power.

While making it clear that the commission is not interested in trashing “this president who we do adore,” Malveaux added:

It’s not in our interest not to be analytical, to look at the data and the numbers…No matter who is in the White House, we have to ask questions.

Her analysis of the data shows that “our community is taking it on the chin.”

An MIT-trained economist, Malveaux said the official unemployment rate of 9.7 percent is a “fiction.” When you factor in discouraged workers, part-timers who want to work full-time and the marginally employed, the real national unemployment rate is 16.8 percent.

For African Americans, the real unemployment rate is closer to 30 percent than 15.1 percent. With 1 in 3 blacks unemployed or underemployed, Malveaux gives Obama an “F” on job creation:

I give Obama a failing grade on the issue of job creation. Job creation is critical. If money can be pumped into the banking community, we can pump money into the working community. We must hold our president and our Labor Department accountable for what didn’t happen this summer.

Walters said accountability is paramount:

We have to move beyond hope and trust politics to the politics of accountability. American politics is based on what for what. We gave President Obama 95 percent of our vote. So what is the return?

A lot of us are in the hope and trust mode but are afraid to demand accountability. It’s more about the presidency than the president. The presidency is Rahm Emanuel and a whole lot of other folks…We have to understand that office for what it is and the influences on this man, and get out of this hope and trust bag.

Walters said the “political and economic influences are stronger than his constituency.” Exhibit A: the healthcare debate.

Dr. Iva Carruthers, general secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, cut to the chase:

We have to have the courage to break the silence and speak truth to power.

For more info on the Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission, email the IBW or call (888) 774-2921.

CBC National Town Hall Meeting

The Congressional Black Caucus’ national town hall meeting, “Economic Recovery & Opportunity,” should be a wake-up call for African Americans who are waiting around for someone to show them the stimulus money. Rep. Chaka Fattah, honorary co-chair of ALC ’09, noted:

Everybody’s not going to get a contract, but no one’s going to get a contract if they don’t go after it or bid on it.

Fattah added:

Stop complaining about what we’re not getting versus claiming the victory that’s right in front of us.

Truth is, victory is not assured. Eighty percent of stimulus spending is at the state level. The American people will not have access to data on how states have spent the money until Nov. 1. So right now, all we have is anecdotal evidence of the impact of the stimulus plan in African American communities.

And from all indications, stimulus funds are not reaching communities most in need.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux, president of Bennett College for Women, observed:

The Recovery Act has not trickled down to the black community. We need a recovery that is targeted for the least and the left out.

And African Americans are among the least of these. A new report by the Center for American Progress found that African Americans and Latinos have been hit the hardest in the current recession:

Some groups have felt more economic pain than others. The past 21 months are not much different in this regard than prior recessions, except that the length of the economic pain is lasting longer than before. African Americans and Hispanics have lost more economic ground and done so more quickly than their white counterparts from the end of 2007 to the summer of 2009, and the economic fortunes of minorities have fallen from lower levels than those of whites to begin with. This means that the gap in the economic security between minorities and whites is widening in this recession, as it has in previous ones.

Malveaux similarly noted:

We’re looking at a depression in our community. We have to deal with it. While the president is embroiled in the healthcare debate, we need to focus on job creation.

Indeed, that is the mission of Tracking Change Wiki. We are tracking and mapping the impact of the Recovery Act on reducing black unemployment and increasing opportunities for black-owned businesses.

When the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board releases the data, we will analyze the reports, and hold a public forum at which we will release our findings.

For more info, send an email here .

Holding Tavis Smiley Accountable

PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley is discovering that accountability is a double-edged sword.

Tavis is under fire for his longtime relationship with Wells Fargo, which is being sued by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo’s “wealth building” seminars helped steer black and Hispanic borrowers into subprime mortgages.

Tavis is living well by supposedly doing good for black folks. While he wants to hold elected officials accountable, he was in bed with Wells Fargo until the media spotlight got too hot (h/t Richard Prince).

Back in June, blogger Gemma Holmes observed that if Tavis were white, his relationship with Wells Fargo and its “ghetto loans” would be “front page news”:

When Mr. Smiley first partnered with Wells Fargo in 2005, he was a TEACHER of economic empowerment and assembled seminars around the country as the keynote speaker for wealth building. Press releases filled every major news outlet inbox and black newspapers were infected with faxes stating Mr. Smiley’s desire to teach the principles of home ownership as the key for breaking the cycle of poverty in the African American community. All this knowledge was given at no charge to trusting black folks. This was the golden ticket to obtaining the elusive piece of the pie via Mr. Smiley’s recommendations.

Mr. Smiley stated he was “thrilled” to help black folks achieve their dreams but now that many of them have found themselves in a nightmare, where is he? Has he spoken out against the “ghetto loans” statement by Wells Fargo employees? Has he demanded accountability that he touts must be part of helping President Obama be the best President he can be?

A recent story in the Washington Independent turned up the volume. Mary Kane reported:

But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite, according to a little-noticed explanation of the “Wealth Building” seminar strategy, contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Wells’ plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank’s overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said.

In the wake of the new media glare, Tavis issued a statement:

In this economic climate we continue to be reminded every day that there is no perfect company. Part of the process of accountability is making sure that companies are taking steps to do the right thing, and that includes appropriate outreach to communities of color.

Our relationship with Wells Fargo began in 2005 as part of its commitment to increase financial literacy among African Americans. Those efforts included free wealth-building strategy seminars designed to help prepare attendees for their families’ futures through credit management, home ownership, investing and entrepreneurship.

Tavis has since, um, revised and extended his remarks:

Recently there has been a flurry of false reports about my relationship with Wells Fargo Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Inc. amidst charges that the company unfairly steered African American customers into costly sub-prime mortgages.

I addressed this issue many months ago with a statement posted on my website during the first quarter of this year when these allegations against Wells Fargo first surfaced.

My statement thoroughly explained that I was no longer conducting any business with the Wells Fargo Company. That initial statement has remained accessible on my website homepage since it was first posted, shortly after the State of the Black Union symposium, February 2009.

Oh really.

Over a year ago in an AOL Black Voices post, I wrote:

The subprime mortgage scheme has recast the future for African American homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

Baltimore has filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleging the bank intentionally targeted African Americans for high-interest mortgages in violation of federal law. Similar lawsuits have been filed against Wells Fargo by the city of Cleveland and the NAACP.

So, while Smiley pleaded for “a language of love as we make our choices” between Obama and Hillary Clinton (read: cut him some slack), he showed no love for Wells Fargo’s victims. By the time Smiley is out promoting his book on accountability next year, thousands of Wells Fargo’s borrowers will be out of their homes.

Smiley asked participants to give it up for the “free seat” made possible by Wells Fargo and his other corporate sponsors. That “free seat” was partly paid for by African Americans who were taken for a ride in their pursuit of the American dream of homeownership.

A year later, Tavis conveniently severs his relationship with Wells Fargo “shortly after the State of the Black Union symposium, February 2009.”

That is, after he got paid. Negro, please.

Minorities and the Economic Recession

When white America has a cold, black America has pneumonia. With the black unemployment at 15.7 percent, compared to 9.7 percent for whites, African Americans are facing an economic depression.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns, is holding a hearing today titled, “The Silent Depression: How are Minorities Faring in the Economic Downturn”:

The hearing will examine the disparate effects of the current economic downturn on minority populations in the United States, with particular attention on the recent increases in unemployment and home foreclosures. Additionally, the hearing will explore the effectiveness of Federal government initiatives in ensuring that minority populations are adequately included in the nation’s efforts toward economic recovery.

Chairman Towns said:

The inability to find gainful employment has crushed the hopes of achieving the American dream for so many families in minority communities. For us to move ahead as a nation, we have to examine why the African-American unemployment rate in several communities more than doubles that of whites. We must also take a look at the high rate of subprime loans and default mortgages within minority communities that are expanding an already enormous debt disparity.

Towns added:

The fact of the matter is that the current economic downturn has amplified an already burgeoning economic gap for minorities. The role of race in unemployment and other economic trends is something we must analyze because for minorities this is not a recession but is, in fact, a depression that could potentially alter decades of economic progress.

You can view a live webcast of the hearing here.

CBC Time

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference kicks off tomorrow with its first ever Hill Day Summit, “Opportunities for All -- Pathways Out of Poverty Summit.”

The conversation is long overdue. Consider: The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that the nation’s poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2007.

The poverty rate for African Americans was 24.7 percent. While statistically unchanged, it is nearly three times the poverty rate for white Americans (8.6 percent).

The CBCF will bring together intergenerational panels of elected officials, policymakers, experts and activists to “reengage the conversation on the intersection of race and poverty, redefine poverty as it currently impacts communities and discuss federal solutions for disrupting the poverty pipeline.” The speakers will include:

• Secretary Shaun Donovan, Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Secretary Arne Duncan, Department of Education
• Secretary Gary Locke, Department of Commerce
• Secretary Hilda Solis, Department of Labor
• Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund
• Ben Jealous, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Marc Morial, National Urban League
• Dr. Ronald Walters, African American Leadership Center, University of Maryland, College Park

The summit is free and open to the public; seating is first come, first serve. The event will be held in the Congressional Auditorium at the Capitol Visitors Center. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.

To register for the ALC ‘09, go here.