Anderson@Large

U.N.I.T.Y.

Big Daddy George “Yo Blair” Bush has apparently been listening to Queen Latifah.  President Bush reportedly will make an appeal for “unity” when he speaks before the NAACP convention today.

Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow offered up this gem:

He has an important role to play not only in making the case for civil rights, but maybe more importantly, the case for unity. Because as long as we have a nation that in any way is divided along racial lines or where politics become a source of division rather than one of simple debate and trying to perfect democracy (emphasis added) that’s a problem.

So that’s what Bush was doing in Florida, Ohio and Georgia -- perfecting democracy.

Fact is, Bush has made the case for unity against Republicans.  According to the latest Gallup Minority Rights and Relations Poll:

[There is] little evidence that the Republicans have made any headway in the black community to date…

More than 8 in 10 black registered voters (83%) say they would vote for the Democratic candidate in the congressional district; only 13% would vote for the Republican candidate. Views among black voters are essentially the same as they were in the 2004 election.

The survey also shows that very few blacks in the U.S. today identify themselves as Republicans: Sixty-two percent of blacks interviewed identified themselves as Democrats, 31% as independents, and just 7% as Republicans. Along these same lines, the survey shows that only 15% of blacks say they approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president, while 78% disapprove (emphasis added).

In plain English, there's unity in the community.

GOP Breaking News: Dog Bites Man, Again

It’s been six years since President Bush last addressed the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.  After much hemming and hawing (here and here), Bush is scheduled to show up at the NAACP's 97th annual convention on Thursday.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. This is what I wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece in 1996 (and here) when then-GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole dissed the NAACP:

In spurning an invitation to address the NAACP’s annual convention last week, Bob Dole missed an opportunity to deliver an unfiltered message to African American voters about his lifelong commitment to inclusion, fairness and equal opportunity for all Americans. As a policy advisor to the Dole campaign, I wish Republican strategists would stop running away from African-American voters.

I do not believe that Kweisi Mfume, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was trying to “set up” Mr. Dole, as the Republican Presidential candidate initially thought. Invitations to address the group are routinely sent to candidates in election years.

On the contrary, I have no doubt that Mr. Dole could have connected with the delegates of the NAACP, which was founded by, among others, W.E. B. DuBois, a Republican. Mr. Dole could have begun with a review of the pivotal role played by many Republicans in the passage of the seminal civil rights and voting rights legislation of the 1960’s.

Ten years later, House Republicans nearly scuttled renewal of the expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act (here and here).

Rep. Melvin L. Watt, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told the Times:

You have someone stand up one day and say, “We’re going to make a major outreach to African-American voters,” and the next day, you pull the Voting Rights Act from the floor.

As for Bush connecting with the NAACP delegates, I seriously doubt it.

Black Men in America

Today at 10 a.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post will host a live webcast of a national forum, “Paths to Success: A Forum on Young African-American Men.”  They will also release a national survey of the views of young black men and expand on the recent Washington Post series, “Being a Black Man.”

The forum will begin with a conversation with Bill Cosby, followed by a panel of experts who will discuss “strategies to enable young black men to succeed in America” and paths not taken. The panelists will include:

• Ronald Dellums, chair of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' Dellums Commission and mayor-elect of Oakland, Calif.
• Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
• Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist
• Faye Wattleton, president of the Center for the Advancement of Women

My dear friend, Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., will moderate the event. Sadly, one doesn’t have to be a Harvard lawyer to know that it’s hard out here for black men.

And when something is wrong with black men's health, wealth or well-being, something is wrong with black women.

If you want to submit questions for the panelists, click here.  To view the live webcast, click here.

An archived webcast will be available after 5 p.m. ET.

Looking for Officer Feelgood

There was too much week in my weekend so I’m off to a slow start. But probably not as slow as the woman who placed a booty call to 911:

A woman who called 911 to get “the cutest cop I’ve seen” sent back to her home got a date all right -- a court date.

The same sheriff’s deputy arrested her on charges of misuse of the emergency dispatch system.

Sure, I can empathize with the caller’s lament that “it doesn’t come very often a good man comes to your doorstep.”  But, hello, aren’t there any donut shops in Aloha, Ore.?

If convicted, this desperate house frau could face some jail time plus as much as $4000 in fines.   To listen to the 911 call, click here.

So, tell me, how was your weekend?

Summer in the City

Another summer and I still can’t stand the heat.  But I’m not a beach-goer and I definitely don’t go up on the roof.  Anyway, it's a soulful myth that the “air is fresh and sweet” on New York City’s tar beaches.  Blame it on the urban heat island effect.

As I count down to Labor Day, the free concerts in the city’s parks make the heat and humidity just barely tolerable.  This season’s lineup includes Shemekia Copeland, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, LL Cool J and Leela James.
          

Last night, the right Reverend Al Green provided some love and happiness at Asser Levy Park in Coney Island.  For the good times.

Steele Drum

As Michael Steele continues his “uphill battle” to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate, he’s once again under attack for trying to be part of the problem and the solution (and here).

Steele is being bushwhacked for taking campaign contributions from Floyd Brown, whose claim to fame is the Willie Horton ads during Daddy Bush's 1988 presidential campaign.  In his defense, Steele is beating that worn out GOP drum about Sen. Robert Byrd’s past affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan.

But as reported:

The senator [Byrd] apologized many years ago, saying he regretted his association with the White supremacist group.

Unlike Steele, his national campaign chair, Jack Kemp, doesn't miss a beat. Kemp told the Los Angeles Times that Republicans “need to get back on the right side of history.”

Mississippi Goddamn

Alabama’s got me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn
--“Mississippi Goddamn,” Nina Simone

Upset doesn’t begin to describe my response to this headline, “Hurricane Katrina Survivors Twice Victimized as 70 Workers Lose Jobs to Illegal Immigrants."  And when I viewed the video report, I nearly blew a gasket. An excerpt:

Hurricane Katrina was almost one year ago, but its effects are still being felt in the Gulf Region, where thousands of people are still waiting for permanent housing and full-time jobs. Recently in Mobile, AL, 70 construction-industry workers thought they had finally found the employment opportunity they were waiting for, when they were hired for reconstruction jobs in Biloxi, MS.

Not only had they found jobs, but they were also working to help fellow hurricane victims rebuild their city. However, within 10 days of relocating to Biloxi for the project, the workers were replaced with illegal immigrants and sent home.

For more info, click here (and here).