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Live Blogging the State of the Black Union Symposium -- Panel 2

Lunch is over, so it's back to work.

Note:  All times are Pacific Standard.

3:50 PM Karen Bass is hopeful that we can now reverse some of the draconian drug laws that has created the mass incarceration of Black people.

3:38 PM Lani Guinier is brilliant.  I can't even give a synopsis of her commentary other than to say her analysis of mass incarceration is something that must absolutely be considered by decision makers. She introduced the concept of "modern scientific racism" -- a way to use standardized testing to justify racism. She hit at the "one size fits all" measure of merit.

3:28 PM Van Jones puts it down in linking the green jobs movement with addressing poverty and other economic issues facing the country.

3:15 PM Juwanza Kunjufu called out the funding disparities in public school systems around the country. He gave a specific solution to the significant problem of the dearth of Black male teachers.He also noted the cultural differences in the approaches to academics (particularly study habits).

2:57 PM Randall Robinson reflects on Obama's election.  He cites Obama's brilliance and Bush's incompetence as contributing factors to Obama's election.  Robinson laments the fact that we, Americans, don't know much about what's going on in the world.  He noted that the U.S. has become the single biggest obstruction to human rights around the world.  Robinson spoke the truth, as always, on U.S. foreign policy.  On the issue of oversight and accountability, Robinson spoke critically, and rightfully, of the Clinton administration on these issues.  I hope those who Robinson's words didn't miss the subtle message that we need to be more informed AND oversee our current president, no matter what.  Robinson brought the heat, which is what is to be expected when he takes the stage.

2:47 PM Tavis asks Cornel West about the notion of a "post-racial America."  West believes there is a great need for clarity on race and those who are pushing "post-racial" is wrong.  I didn't really understand the next 10 minutes.

2:38 PM Tavis asks Danny Bakewell about how Black media will critically analyze Obama when, during the election, they were often cheerleaders.  Bakewell danced around the question a bit.  It's not the media's responsibility to uplift a candidate, but to report on his/her work after winning the election.

2:29 PM Na'im Akbar is asked by Tavis to deal with the question of the psychology of loving Obama while, when necessary, criticizing as appropriate. Akbar tied in the importance of public conversations such as the SOBU as helping to create an environment in which Obama could be elected.

2:20 PM  Al Sharpton got the line of the day "America made the Obama decision after being amBUSHed for eight years."  He focused his comments on the deregulation of media and banking as a major problem that must be undone.

2:17 PM  Emily Townes, of Yale Divinity School, urges everyone to pump the brakes on all the "Obama is God's man in the White House" stuff.  She sees it as dangerous and something that could lead us to not live up to our responsibilities as citizens.

2:11 PM  Julianne Malveaux spoke.

2:06 PM  Michael Steele gets the first opportunity to speak.  He's asked to reflect on the current state of politics in which he and Barack Obama lead the two major parties.  Steele emphasizes the importance of the two in their respective positions.  He took the NY Post to task for its ridiculous, racist cartoon.

1:59 PM  Tavis begins introducing the panelists.  Everybody loves Cornel West!

1:56 PM Tavis mentioned the newly added third panel (I am the moderator).

1:44 PM As in the morning session, Tavis takes the audience through Accountable explaining its layout, which includes solutions for particular issues.  He lists President Obama's campaign promises and how he is living up to them in office.  The book includes similar lists for Congress, governors, legislators, corporations, community leaders, and individuals.  At the end of the book is an "accountability check list" which allows us all to identify the extent to which elected officials are on their jobs.  There is also an "accountable report card" that enables readers to follow the progress of the officials.

1:40 PM  Tavis introduces a welcome video from President Barack Obama.  It's the same one shown this morning.

1:35 PM  I look up and count 13 chairs.  It's going to be hard to get a word in edgewise.

Live Blogging the State of the Black Union Symposium -- Panel 1

I'm in Los Angeles today to blog the State of the Black Union conference.  I'll be posting throughout the day with observations about event.  Note:  All times are Pacific Standard.

10:55 AM Q & A session:  Morial gives "action items" for making sure that the stimulus money gets to the neighborhoods.  He urges everyone to ask their elected officials to publicly state their plans for spending the stimulus money.  Jackson calls for a squatters movement on foreclosed homes.

10:45 AM Michael Eric Dyson bypasses Raymond Brown's question about how we should measure Obama at the end of his first term to sermonize on other things.

10:29 AM  Les Brown:  "Recession, restores, resourcefulness."  He emphasized the importance of studying success. 

10:15 AM  Michelle Singletary begins her remarks with a tribute to Jesse Jackson and her husband.

10:02 AM Iyanla Vanzant gave a personal twist to this notion of the tough time people are going through.  She lost her house and two major contracts that left her unable to pay her bills, including health insurance.  She emphasized personal accountability and gratitude for her life and used that to pull out of her troubles.  She's a beast.  I love her honesty and willingness to share her story. 

9:38 AM  Peter Harvey, former New Jersey Attorney General, lays out the fact that aggressive prosecution alone never eradicates social ills -- overemphasis on prosecution and incarceration will lead to greater destruction in Black communities.  Harvey offers a clear, intelligent plan for dealing with social problems.  He emphasized the importance of mentoring programs as a mechanism for addressing gangs and other problems. No bluster.  Just real solutions.

9:21 AM  Q. to Professors Ogletree and Rose regarding the negative narrative regarding Black youth.  Tree identifies the importance of voting as a mechanism for changing the narrative.  Black youth turned out for the November 2008 election and made change in many states in which Blacks have generally not been able to take the reins of power.Rose cites the role of commercial hip-hop as a driver of racial stereotypes.  It's a particularly problem given that 70% of those that buy commercial hip-hop are not African American.

9:11 AM  Jesse Jackson speaks to the governors around the country who are threatening to not take stimulus from the government.  He believes that Bobby Jindal and others are posturing for political purposes.  I've written about that.  Jesse also argues in favor of greater expenditures for student grants (not loans).

9:03 AM  Marc Morial lays out how the stimulus package provides funds for important initiatives that could have a positive impact on Black communities.  He commends the Congressional Black Caucus for their work to make sure that money that was originally cut from the stimulus was restored. He emphasizes the need to hold local officials accountable to make sure the money gets into Black neighborhoods.

8:52 AM  Maxine Waters takes out a stick and beats the banks on sub-prime mortgages when asked about the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP).  She goes after Wells Fargo, a sponsor of the SOBU, for their unwillingness to re-do loans.  A WF Executive Vice President told a gathering last night that their bank didn't do sub-primes.  Either Waters or the WF rep got it wrong.  The first two rows of people behind me include many WF staffers, virtually all of whom cringed and moaned when Maxine went off.

8:45 AM  Michael Eric Dyson gets the first question and it is on this notion of "post-racial" America in the wake of Barack Obama's election as President.  He associates "post-racial" with "post-gender" as lens put upon how we view race and gender.

8:40 AM  Raymond Brown brings the heat in his introductory statements.  He associates Obama's election as striking a blow against White supremacy.  He further puts the beat down on this notion of a "post-racial" America.  I've written about this before.  Put me on the list with Brown and others who think "post-racial" is real.  It isn't.  In fact, it's bullshit.

8:33 AM  Tavis introduces Tom Joyner, who been with SOBU from the outset.  Joyner introduces the panelists: Maxine Waters, Charles Ogletree, Stephanie Robinson, Peter Harvey, Michelle Singletary, Marc Morial, Michael Eric Dyson (flashing hand signs!), Iyanla Vanzant, Les Brown, Jesse Jackson, Tricia Rose, and moderator Raymond Brown.

8:20 AM  Tavis takes the audience through Accountable explaining its layout, which includes solutions for particular issues.  He lists President Obama's campaign promises and how he is living up to them in office.  The book includes similar lists for Congress, governors, legislators, corporations, community leaders, and individuals.  At the end of the book is an "accountability check list" which allows us all to identify the extent to which elected officials are on their jobs.

8:13 AM  Tavis discusses the Covenant with Black America, the Covenant in Action, and Accountable:  Making America as Good as its Promise, and how it prepares an action plan for ensuring that the President, Congress, and other elected officials live up to their political promises.

8:08 AM  Tavis introduces a video from President Obama who brings greetings from the White House.  Obama lays out some of the policy changes he will lay out with is domestic economic agenda.  Toward the end of his statement, he notes that the African American unemployment is five points higher than that of the rest of the country.  I was hoping he would encourage the audience to keep him accountable for what he's doing as President.  He didn't.

Bobby Jindal is a Crass, Lying Politician

Governor Bobby "the new, less White face of the Republican Party" Jindal has been caught in his first lie as he ascends the ladder to the 2012 nomination.  Jindal has been offered up as the embodiment of the new Grand Old Party but, if his stilted, incoherent response to President Obama's not State of the Union address on Tuesday is any indication, he is not ready for prime time.

Anyway, TPM Muckraker is on the case of how Jindal's remarks Tuesday concerning his involvement in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are completely accurate; if by completely accurate you mean totally untrue.  According to Muckraker, Jindal has admitted to not being with Sheriff Harry Lee busting through the bureaucracy as he stated in the Republican response to Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress.  The yarn Jinal spun in his speech was supposed to show how Republicans are all about breaking through red tape to make things happen for regular folk.  His pratfall on the national stage probably won't have permanent impact, but it wasn't the smooth launch some supporters hoped to see.

All this on top of his grandstanding threats to not take money from the stimulus make him less that credible.  Leading a state with major issues that could be helped with more financial resources, Jindal has been among the most prominent critics of the package.  It appears that his gubernatorial responsibilites will be in conflict with his presidential aspirations.  Louisianans should be very aware.
Somewhere, Sarah Palin is smiling.

State of the Black Union 2009

I am in Los Angeles, California for the 10th anniversary State of the Black Union conference to be held on Saturday, February 28th at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Tavis Smiley has created a wonderful event that brings together African American scholars, activists, elected officials, and others to discuss some of the critical issues that face Black Americans. Each year it is the most watched event on C-SPAN, a testament to its enduring relevance. This event comes on the heels of the release of Smiley’s latest book, Accountable, a guide that provides Americans with a roadmap for measuring how the President and other elected officials keep their campaign promises.

I happy to be a part of the event. I am moderating a newly added third panel, which will include bloggers and some panelists to provide some additional analysis of the days’ events and offer additional observations. C-SPAN and TavisTalks.com will broadcast the first two panels. The third panel, scheduled to run from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern, will be seen exclusively on TavisTalks.com. I hope you’ll tune in.

Irresponsible Leadership

Here is a New York Times that calls to account some Republican governors who are threatening to turn their backs on funds available by the recently passed stimulus bill.  It's particularly worrisome that the governors in question "lead" some of the poorest states in the country.  They need the money, but are playing silly political games rather than provide for their citizens.  From the Times' editorial:

What makes these bad decisions worse is that they are little more than political posturing by rising Republican stars, like Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina. This behavior reinforces the disturbing conclusion that the Republican Party seems more interested in ideological warfare than in working on policies that get the country back on track.

These Darwinian governors -- most notably Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mark Sanford of South Carolina -- are providing irresponsible leadership and appear to be placing personal political ambition ahead of the needs of the citizens.

Video Clip: Michael Fauntroy on Fox 5 DC Discussing NY Post Cartoon

Here is the clip of my Thursday, February 19, 2009 appearance on the Fox 5 DC morning news show.  Allison Seymour is the interviewer.

Cartoons and Racial Symbolism

I’m a fan of political cartoons and political satire.  When well done, they can humorously humble those overrun with hubris, subvert stodgy convention, and speak truth to power.  I understand satire can sometimes be harsh and be painful to some.  But Sean Delonas’ cartoon that recently ran in the New York Post – with two policemen standing over a prostrate chimpanzee sporting two bullet holes and leaking blood under a caption “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” – doesn’t meet any reasonable satire test.  Indeed, the vile cartoon continues the degradation of our political discourse that has gone on too long.  The difference here, however, is that it adds a heaping helping of racial symbolism to the mix.

The imagery of this cartoon is foul on at least two levels.  First, the truth of police brutality is real in the Black community and there are more than a few examples of police killing Black people.  Second, is the centuries-old degrading device of referring to Black people as monkeys.  It cannot be said that monkey in the cartoon refers to anyone else but President Barack Obama.  This cartoon isn’t referring to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, or anyone else involved in it’s passage.  It’s Obama’s bill.

It’s appropriate and necessary for the Right to oppose Obama on policy differences.  That’s the primary role of the loyal opposition.  It’s absolutely out of bounds to traffic in racism to give voice to that opposition.  This is no small point.  Obama’s supporters must understand that if the Right is allowed to push this garbage with impunity, it’s volume will only increase.  The Constitution offers us many guarantees, even those that make us cringe and angry.  Those guarantees should be protected at all costs.  But that doesn’t mean those who promote racial symbolism should be able to do so in comfort.

I believe that there should be a place in our society for vigorous political debate; it’s helps to make a society strong.  I also believe that it would be a mistake to have media that comprehensively sings the virtues of any political, social, or cultural leader.  But it’s at least as dangerous to have a media, particularly a venue as powerful as the New York Post, that proffers racial imagery to attack those with which they disagree.

Delonas and the New York Post have hidden behind the horrific details of an event in Connecticut to traffic in racist imagery and gratuitous violence in the name of parody.  This is cowardly and they should not be allowed to escape public scorn and ridicule.  The aid and comfort they provide to those that have yet to make peace with the fact that the United States of America has a Black President should be met with the unified voices of reason.  Make your voice heard: Letters@NYPost.com.

Michael K. Fauntroy is a professor, author, columnist, and commentator who blogs at MichaelFauntroy.com.

I'll Take Peter Schiff Over The Crystal Ball

Who is Peter Schiff?  Well, I can’t tell you a whole lot about the guy.  In fact, until earlier today, I’d never seen him before.  But I don’t care.

Peter Schiff is my hero.

I know that may sound crazy, but if you watch this video, you’ll see he was all over the economic crisis as far back as August of 2006 and was willing to be the skunk at the party on a full range of television shows to speak the truth.  He said during the summer of 2006 that the recession heading toward the country would be long and painful.  This was still when the cheerleaders at CNBC and Fox were telling us that all was well.  He fingered sub-prime mortgages, too much consumption, and too little savings as the ingredients of a dangerous financial gumbo when most other talking head analysts were saying the coast was clear.

The last year or so has revealed that people like Art Laffer (former Reagan administration economic advisor), Ben Stein (who touted financials, Merrill Lynch “an astonishingly well run company” in particular, as buys), Neil Cavuto, Tom Adkins (ReMax Fairlawn), Mike Norman (Biz Radio Network Host), Charles Payne (of wstreet.com, who sang the praises of Bear Stearns just a few months before Bear went under), and Stuart Varney have been made to look like fools in their debates with Schiff.  They were wrong.  Schiff was right.  I wonder if they have publicly stated that they got it wrong.

Check out this video.  The prescience is incredible.

Kudos to you, Peter Schiff.  We need more contrarians like you.

Andre Shepherd and the Strain of War

You probably don't know about Cleveland, Ohio native Andre Shepherd, but you likely will in the near future.  That's because German officials are about to hear his plea to remain in Germany after going absent without leave (AWOL) after being told he would be deployed to Iraq for a second time.  He claims that he couldn't serve in what he called a "completely illegal war."  He was on the lamb for 19 months before applying for German asylum three months ago.

Here, and here, are two stories that detail his case.  The stories reminded me that while the Iraq War has receded from the minds of many Americans, it does still continue and there are still consequences for all involved.  It also makes me wonder how many servicemen and wome.

The Meaning of Michael Steele

Michael Steele’s ascension to the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee is a tremendous step forward for a party seeking to avoid slipping into the political abyss of its own creation.  The symbolism of Steele’s win is undeniable – a party whose late 20th century rise to dominance was largely fueled by demonization of African Americans is now led by a Black man.  It’s difficult to underestimate the symbolism of Steele’s election as chairman.  It’s also difficult to see what difference it will make in the fortunes of the party.  For all the talk about this election, and it’s hard to remember the last time a party chairman’s race has been so closely followed, the reality is that Steele’s win really doesn’t mean much.

Yes, his win has great meaning.  It demonstrates that at least some party leaders understand that the wheel of racial politics is turning away from the Grand Old Party.  Recent Census Bureau projections make clear that the Party can no longer be competitive in much of the country by ignoring minority voters: in a little more than thirty years, the U.S. will no longer be a majority White nation.  Steele’s election and, indeed the attention given to the chairman’s race, sends a message that the Party knows the status quo must change. 

Steele’s election may actually be more important to White moderates than it is to minorities.  Suburban White moderates, in particular, don’t want to be associated with a party that continues to  play race cards.  Things could have been much worse.  Had the Republicans elected Chip Saltsman, distributor of the “Barack the Magic Negro” discs, as chairman, the message to those voters would have been: In times of change, we give you the “same old, same old.”

But recognizing the need for change and making it happen require two distinctly different skill sets and it’s an open question if Steele is up to the task.  While Steele is the official head of the party, he may prove to be a titular leader because there will be many 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls that want to guide the party in their own interests.  Moreover, Steele stated since his election that the problems engulfing the GOP are as much about marketing their ideas than the ideas themselves.  That is not the kind of vision that will lead to better days for the party.  The data are clear: most Americans think the GOP is too conservative.  It doesn’t appear that the Party is getting the message.

Steele’s win doesn’t mean that the Republican Party is any closer to serious competition with the Democrats for the votes of African Americans.  The single digit performances of the GOP in two of the last three presidential elections is emblematic of a party that has more than just marketing problems.  The Republican Party, overtaken by narrowly focused special interest groups, is now officially out of the business of mainstream thinking and Steele’s ascension, while historic, is unlikely to bring about the change needed to make the GOP relevant going forward.

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