MichaelFauntroy.com

Obama and Black America’s Generational Divide

I wonder if a generational divide is emerging among African Americans regarding Senator Barack Obama and his quest for the presidency.  This is purely anecdotal, but it seems to me that older voters like Obama and feel strongly about him, but are less likely to support him because over concerns about his inexperience.  I keep hearing “he’s not ready yet” from seniors in particular.  Younger voters don’t appear to care as much about his inexperience and will support to make a statement.

The question for Obama, particularly in an important state like South Carolina, is: Which of the two groups will comprise the lion’s share of Black votes?  History suggests that it will be older voters, particularly those old enough to remember when Black voting was more than just a given.  Older voters, particularly seniors, have a tradition of higher than average electoral turnout.  If the former shows up in big numbers, then he can’t win the Palmetto State primary.  Younger voters, historically, talk about voting but never show up in the same volume as older voters.  That also explains why some believe that Obama may not be able to put out a win in Iowa despite the polls that currently have him leading Senator Hilary Clinton.

I’ll be curious to see if Obama speaks more directly to issues that may be of particular interest to younger African Americans, such as student loans and housing at this weekend's Heartland forum on TV One..

TVOne Presidential Forum

TV One is presenting a live Webcast of the Heartland Presidential Forum: Community Values in Action.  The forum will begin on Saturday, December 1 at 2:00 PM (Eastern) and will include five democratic presidential candidates: Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton, Senator Chris Dodd, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Representative Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Barack Obama. 

I am pleased do be among a group of Black bloggers that will be writing about the event (my website is linked to the TV One site).  I'll be writing all week on the forum and provide post-forum analysis that will be posted on the TV One site (as well as my own).

According to the TV One press release:

"Unlike other presidential forums, this unique event will allow everyday people from across the nation to address the candidates head on about the issues they deem important to their community.  Each candidate will receive one framing question around the idea of community values and will then be asked to respond to two to three questions from families directly affected by housing, agriculture, immigration, low-wage employment, healthcare and clean elections, a new form of campaign finance reform."

I'm looking forward to hearing from the candidates on these issues.  Too often, the focus on Iraq and the "war on terrorism" and silly things such as "Is Hilary playing the gender card" or "Is Obama Black enough?" and important issues such as housing, wages, and electoral administration get pushed off the agenda.  I get particularly worked up over clean elections.  The reality is that legitimate elections are the primary hallmark of democratic governance.  The demonstrated inability of the United States -- the world's longest running democracy -- to run clean elections is a slap in the face to all who believe in representative government.  I want to hear what the candidates have to say about this and hope they go beyond trite platitudes and sloganeering.

Pathetic Propaganda Posing as a Documentary

I recently saw a ridiculous, ignorant, poorly-produced “documentary” that nearly led me to explode. “Emancipation, Revelation, and Revolution” purports to fill the void in Black political discourse by telling the “true” story of the GOP and its position as a salvation for Black America.  In reality, it is propaganda masquerading as an educational documentation of the history of America’s political parties relative to Black America.

Alveda King, a niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was featured in the film and was also one of its apologists.  In response to a comment at a post-screening forum that the film wasn’t balanced, King called it a “balancer” relative to whatever else is in the marketplace of ideas.  Even the film’s producer/director, conservative activist Nina May, didn’t hide the imbalance in the piece and didn’t dispute the contention that the film was political propaganda.

This film is disgraceful.  It’s more one-sided than anything you’ll see on Fox News – prime time or otherwise.  Virtually no dissenting voices; nearly all of the 28 people featured in the film are well known conservatives who are in line with the Republican Party.  No historical context and a slanted view of history that is designed to leave viewers with the belief that a single politically opportunistic telephone call from Senator John Kennedy to Coretta Scott King after the arrest of her husband, Dr. King, was the event that led Black people to vote for Democrats.  History demonstrates otherwise but the film doesn’t deal with any of the real reasons why African Americans left the Republicans.   

The film glosses over or ignores contributing factors such as the Hayes-Tilden Compromise, GOP capitulation to southern conservative “redemption,” the "southern strategy," the embrace of disaffected racist Democrats, opposition to the Martin Luther King holiday bill, constructive engagement in South Africa, vetoing civil rights legislation, and so many other examples where the GOP came up small with Black voters.

The “documentary” also traffics in odd, cheesy subliminal messages.  Ominous background music underscored discussions critical of Democrats, while uplifting music played in the background when praise of the GOP was spoken.  Then, inexplicably, the film pivots into a 15 minute condemnation of same-sex marriage, an issue that ranks low on the list of priorities among African Americans.

In arguing that the Dems were racist and that the GOP has been miscast by the liberal media as the enemy of Black people, “Emancipation, Revelation, and Revolution” completely overlooks the role of ideology in policymaking.  Conservatives have long opposed Black progress. Conservatives opposed Reconstruction and civil rights.  Conservatives pushed the “Lily-White” movement that purged Blacks from leadership of state Republican parties throughout the South.  Conservatives have pushed for the maintenance of a racial status quo that held down Blacks and them blamed them for the lots in life.

Republican activists such as those in this film would rather that Black voters focus on party labels rather than ideology because the GOP is now the home of America’s conservatives and rode to prominence in the 1960s on the strength of conservatives who left the Democratic party and embraced by the Republican Party.

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote.

African Americans are Hustling Backwards

One of the sad truths of contemporary life for many Americans, particularly African Americans, is that our financial trajectory -- long heading upwards and showing no signs of slowing -- is now changing for the worse.  The Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a study on the financial status of African American families and the research shows that many of the gains of the civil rights movement and affirmative action have eroded to nearly nothing.  Read the bad news here:

Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.

Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children.

This study is about as depressing as it gets for those interested in the status of African Americans and one can only press leaders, educators, and policymakers to respond.

An End to Crack Cocaine Sentencing Disparity?

The Washington Post reported today that sentencing disparities for federal crack cocaine sentences may be about to end.

An independent panel is considering reducing the sentences of inmates incarcerated in federal prisons for crack cocaine offenses, which would make thousands of people immediately eligible to be freed.  The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal prison sentences, established more lenient guidelines this spring for future crack cocaine offenders. The panel is scheduled to consider today a proposal to make the new guidelines retroactive.

Should the panel adopt the new policy, the sentences of 19,500 inmates would be reduced by an average of 27 months. About 3,800 inmates now imprisoned for possession and distribution of crack cocaine could be freed within the next year, according to the commission's analysis. The proposal would cover only inmates in federal prisons and not those in state correctional facilities, where the vast majority of people convicted of drug offenses are held.

The decision to impose this disparity in the first place stemmed from the punish-first-last-always wing of the conservative movement that contends that being tough on certain crimes rather than others is the right thing to do -- even if the law has blatant racial implications.

There's Nothing Conservative in Cosby's Message

Bill Cosby’s Black critics are circling like vultures in response to his new book written with Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.  The book is the latest phase in a three-year effort by Cosby to publicly urge change in the Black community.  In ways unique and controversial, has toured the country, often with little fanfare, speaking to growing groups of African Americans – in what he has dubbed “community call-outs” – about the need for Black America to take a more aggressive approach to community change.  Many of his Black critics charge that he focuses too much on personal responsibility in his public statements while ignoring the structural-racial reality of Black life in America.  They also charge that he is providing aid and comfort to conservative enemies of Black America that use his words to validate their own racism.  The truth is there is nothing conservative in Cosby’s message.

Cosby’s Black critics should pay closer attention to what he is saying.  Cosby says that he wants to get drugs and violence out of Black neighborhoods.  In fact, he wants Black communities to see drug dealers, too many of whom are Black, in the same way as we see the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, and racism – a threat to physical and psychological survival and advancement of Black people.  He wants parents to pay more attention to what their children watch on television and hear on the radio; he wants parents to turn off harmful images.  This negative imagery is all the worse when one considers that many of the “artists” that create the images are Black.  He wants parents to participate more actively in the education of their children, meeting with teachers and making sure that the home is an environment in which education is valued and children are expected to achieve.  What’s conservative about that?  If that is conservative, then what are liberals and progressives to stand for?  Many successful liberals and progressives emerged from such environments and to argue that this is cover for conservative racism is to apologize for Black dysfunction.

An unfortunate fact of life regarding Black public discourse is that, sometimes, if you are Black and say something that is even slightly seen as critical of African Americans, then you are branded as a conservative apologist for White racism.  That is ridiculous in this case because it infers that the change Cosby is advocating is wrong and that his prescription for what is ailing Black America won’t work.  As a progressive, I find that offensive and stupid.  Neighborhoods that are safe and drug and crime-free, schools that educate and nurture, and parents that protect their children from dangerous images encourage achievement have produced great people, even in the face of structural impediments such as poverty, racism, and segregation.

By criticizing Cosby for airing dirty laundry (which is probably the real reason for their enmity toward him) his critics are ceding the moral high ground to enemies of Black people when they heap scorn upon the messenger, in this case Cosby, while ignoring the message.  Many Black people have longed for stronger, more tightly-knit communities.  Cosby is showing the way.

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote.

Obama's Struggle With Black America

The conventional wisdom was simple: Senator Barack Obama would trounce his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in the Black community. His youth, vitality, and freshness, coupled with his call for greater unity in the nation, suggests he has a legitimate chance to win, thereby energizing Black voters in a way unseen since Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign for the nomination.  This view, coupled with his phenomenal fundraising and stubborn ambivalence about Senator Hilary Clinton’s electability gave many hope that Blacks would flood ballot boxes across the country and push him over the top.

The reality, however, is beginning to set in and it’s not pretty:  Obama is beginning to look more like Howard Dean in 2003 rather than the rock star politician with the promise to remake American politics.  Yes, he’s doing very well in the polls and has raised a ridiculous amount of money; his third-quarter 2007 total was $78.9 million.  However, the emerging reality is that he won’t win the nomination next year.  The phenomenon of 2007 likely won’t win the prize in 2008.

And he can’t count on Black America to lead him to the nomination.

A recently released CNN poll shows that Obama is not being supported by Black America.  Indeed, Obama’s support among Black Democrats, never what many hoped for, is actually in decline. Thirty-three percent of Black Democrats indicated their support for Obama in the poll, a three point decline from a similar poll in April.

While the poll had a slightly higher than usual margin for error, the numbers tell an unfortunate truth for Obama: Black women aren’t giving him the love.  Only 25 percent of Black Democratic women polled indicated they would vote for Obama; 46 percent of Black Democratic men concur. He’s trending downward at the same time his primary challenger for the nomination, Clinton, is beginning to take off with Blacks. The same poll showed Clinton favored by 57 percent of Blacks polled. Particularly notable is the support she is receiving among Black women: a whopping 68 percent are going with Clinton.

There are a number of reasons why Black America hasn’t warmed to Obama, but two warrant particular attention. First, there is a worrisome concern that has been circulating among Black activists and politicos since his campaign launch that he has few, if any, African Americans in positions of authority in his campaign. His team, led by Chicago-based consultant David Axelrod, doesn’t have a Donna Brazile-like leader whom Black America can see and embrace.  Further, the campaign strategy, to this point, has led some African Americans to scratch their heads in disbelief that Obama isn’t engaging the Black community to the extent that he should.  He doesn’t have to spend a disproportionate amount of time courting Black voters, but he does have to do more than he has.

Second, he’s shown no proclivity to speak forcefully on issues of unique importance to Black America. His relative silence on Jena 6 was duly noted by Black activists.  His conservative, de-racialized approach to campaigning is understandable – he doesn’t want to run the risk of alienating White supporters who might recoil from forceful discussions of racial issues.  It’s clear that he isn’t inspiring the volume of loyalty from Blacks necessary to fuel his candidacy.  That’s unfortunate because, his base, Black America, is craving for leadership and his silence and stylistic conservatism may be disappointing to many Black voters.

Black America too often holds Black candidates to an unfair standard of racial solidarity and purity. Most African Americans want identifiable, overt Blackness in their Black candidates.  That is, of course, a recipe for electoral failure in statewide and national contests and Black Americans are slowing and grudgingly coming to grips with this political reality.  They want Obama to be “blacker”, but he can only be as “Black” as Whites will allow him to be.  Whites want to support Black candidates, but only those they see as “safe.”  Black candidates deemed “scary” may have the same political positions as Obama, but can’t come close to a nomination.  Obama’s dilemma in this regard is clear, but he has to figure it out very soon or he will be spending the early spring of 2008 putting salve on his ego, wondering what happened, and preparing to endorse Hilary Clinton for President.

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote.

Radio Interview Clip -- NPR's "News and Notes"

I had the pleasure of appearing on NPR's "News and Notes" on Monday, the 5th.  Check out the discussion when you get a few minutes.  I, along with John McCann of The Book of John, Earl Dunovant of Prometheus 6, discussed Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's announcement that he's keeping a friend with a criminal record as a top campaign fundraiser.  We also discussed a recent shopping boycott to protest racial injustice and accusations of Sen. Hillary Clinton using the gender card in her presidential campaign.