CBC Chairman Emanueal Cleaver: African Americans Would ‘March on the White House’ If Obama Wasn’t Black

TheDailyCaller.com:

Rep. Emanueal Cleaver — the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus – told The Daily Caller that African Americans won’t “march on the White House” over the high unemployment rate in the black community because President Barack Obama is black.


Following his appearance at Republican Rep. Allen West’s Black Conservative Forum, Cleaver elaborated on his past comments about Obama’s image in the African American community, saying, “The point I was making is that black people hold the president in such high esteem, that they would not dare march on the White House even though unemployment is at 15 percent and higher and if there was a white president we would do that because we’ve had white presidents since George Washington.”


Cleaver continued, “The point was that if we had anybody else in the White House, with this level of unemployment, that you know, you would see a lot more African Americans, African American organizations and retro organizations speaking out against it. But because he is revered, you know, he gets I guess the benefit of, you know, understanding that the situation was terrible when he came in. So, we’re not doing that.”


The Missouri Democrat told TheDC that he personally resisted a proposed Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) “prayer” demonstration at the White House.


“I was resistant to a group of individuals who wanted to lock arms, surround the White House, with several thousand people during the ALC this past October and pray. I resisted it because I thought if we did that it would be interpreted as some kind of assault on the president, which I was not willing to launch,” he said.

Congressional Black Caucus Members Criticize Obama On Unemployment

They'll all support and vote for Barry next year anyway, but it's about time they stepped up on the fact that it's gotten worse for Blacks since the "first Black President" for elected:

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday publicly accused the Obama administration of failing to adequately address a veritable epidemic of African American unemployment.


"Can you imagine a situation where any other group of workers, if 34 percent of white women were out there looking for work and couldn't find it?" asked Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat and chairman of the caucus. "You would see congressional hearings and community gatherings. There would be rallies and protest marches. There is no way that this would be allowed to stand."


In May, the black unemployment rate was at 16.2 percent compared to 9.1 percent overall joblessness and 8 percent levels among white workers. In Milwaukee, Wis., a staggering 34 percent of black men are unemployed, CBS news reported.


The Obama administration has focused on broad-based initiatives aimed at lowering unemployment in general, while declining to address elevated rates among minority groups. The administration unleashed an $800 billion package of spending measures aimed at stimulating economic growth, while extending unemployment benefits and increasing funding for community health centers. These programs are also sure to help black and Latino Americans hard hit by the recession, Obama said at a White House press conference in April.


Debate about the ability of a universal job creation strategy to address persistent and disproportionate African American unemployment occupied a significant portion of Thursday's gathering. So too did concerns about the political feasibility of any sort of effort to target black joblessness, the public's appetite for programs that may look and sound like affirmative action and common assumptions about why so many black people do not have jobs. Black Americans make up about 12 percent of the nation's population, but about 20 percent of the unemployed.


"This is an American crisis that demands an American response at the highest echelons of our government," said Michael Eric Dyson, a writer, Georgetown University professor and frequent social and political commentator on television and radio programs aimed at a black audiences. "And that does include the White House."

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Black Republican Allen West Will Join Congressional Black Caucus

Politico.com:

Allen West is coming to Washington with a message for the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus: He wants in.


West told POLITICO he’d “absolutely” be interested in joining the CBC. “That has been a monolithic voice in the body politic for far too long. There is a growing conservative black voice in this country,” West said, that needs to be represented in Washington.


West, of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina will be the first two black Republicans to serve in Congress since J.C. Watts, who refused to join the CBC, and the first black GOP members from the Deep South since Reconstruction, but the two have different ideas about whether they should join the CBC, which hasn’t had a Republican member since Connecticut Rep. Gary Franks, who lost his seat in 1996.


“I haven’t really decided. I’m probably leaning against it at this point,” said Scott, whose 89-year-old grandfather was with him Tuesday night when he won a seat in South Carolina’s 1st District. “My experience has been the whole notion of one nation — so I really shy away things that create some kind of boundaries. ... It highlights the divisions I’ve been pushing forward to erase.”

That's right, we're not a monolithic voice.

Black Democrat Lawmakers Irate Over Rahm Emanuel's $1.5 Billion Promise to Sen. Lincoln, Accuse Obama Of Ignoring Black Farmers

When you know black liberals will vote for you come hell or high water, why should you ever be motivated to ever help them out?

African-American lawmakers are irate that the Obama administration has promised Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) $1.5 billion in farm aid while claiming it can’t pay a landmark legal settlement with black farmers.


Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to President Obama on Thursday calling on him to find a way to compensate black farmers who suffered discrimination in government loan programs during the 1980s and 1990s.


The letter was spurred by behind-the-scenes deal-making in the Senate as part of an effort to pass small-business legislation.


White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel promised Lincoln, who sponsored the provision, that the administration would find a way to pay out $1.5 million in disaster assistance to farmers while they wait for programs in the 2008 farm bill to be implemented.


At the same time, the administration has told black farmers it lacks the funds to pay a $1.2 billion agreement they reached with the Department of Agriculture in 1999 to settle the Pigford class-action lawsuit.


The agriculture disaster relief had been included in the small-business bill until Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled it at the last minute in a bid for GOP support.


Members of the black caucus say that if the administration can find $1.5 billion within its administrative funds to pay mostly white farmers in Arkansas and other states, it should be able to pay black farmers who suffered discrimination.


“The current hardships experienced by other farmers should not trump hardships placed on African Americans and Native Americans by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past,” they wrote.

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Is The Congressional Black Caucus Dying Of Neglect?

Congressional Black Caucus Looks Out For Black Americans While Obama Doesn't

Politico.com:

The long-simmering family feud between the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African-American president burst into the open on Wednesday, with members boycotting a financial overhaul vote as a warning shot at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The 43-member caucus — which included Illinois Sen. Barack Obama from 2004 to 2008 — has chafed against President Obama and his top aides since the Inauguration, complaining that the White House takes it for granted and plays favorites with conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

Ten CBC members decided to boycott the House Financial Services Committee vote en masse after a tumultuous morning meeting at the Capitol between Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel failed to yield a deal, according to people familiar with the meeting.

The bill passed easily, but Waters suggested the CBC’s 43 members could vote with the GOP to scuttle a variety of Democratic bills if Obama and Emanuel don’t address what she thinks is a lack of understanding of the CBC’s wide-ranging goals of reducing urban unemployment, home foreclosures and bank failures.

“I think that it is important for us to educate those people around [Obama],” Waters told reporters. “We’ve got to get his people educated and moving. We have not brought these issues to him personally — it is important first to educate those people around him so they understand.”

Good for the CBC. During his presidency Barry has more than gone out of his way to look out for the gays, while ignoring blacks and focusing on the issues that concern his white, liberal base: global warming, health care reform, etc. Meanwhile, Black unemployment rates take on unprecedented heights. Black Americans have seen white liberals from the Democrat party take their votes for granted for decades now, but they expected more from a half-black President who they supported in record numbers (and all they've gotten in return is a half-an-hour visit to New Orleans). Well, enough is enough, and it's about time the few Black members of Congress look out for their own. Maybe now Barry and his white, liberal minions will start paying attention.

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