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.
