Volume 7 Issue 4…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 30, 2004

By Crystal Cartier

Was I born to be a free Man or was I born to be a slave?

Destined to crawl around on my knees

and eat crow until the grave

What kind of Father would do this to His Children?

How can I believe He really cares?

When I get to Heaven

will there still be elevators for Whites Only

while Black folks take the stairs?

Is there poetic justice to be had for those oppressed?

Do we have to die to be happy?

Why must we live in such distress?

Idealists live in the State of Denial

until Trouble strikes close to home

In the meantime victims remain voiceless

in the Lion's Den all alone

Executed or locked up cages

Tracked by the System like wild beasts

Controlled and manipulated

killing each other out of desperation in the streets

Cruelty and abuse flows downhill

Victims become victimizers

Hungry beasts kill to eat their fill

White folks only help us when securely looking down

Then desert you in a pinch if you get close to higher ground

Other races smugly snub us then look the other way

"Better you than me."

They shrug and walk away

I hate them all!

I hate anyone that thinks they are better than me

I hate being the lowest on the food chain

I hate anyone that looks like me

I'm mad as hell at people

I'm mad as hell at God

I'm tired of getting kicked around like a mongrel dog

When I look into the mirror; I even hate myself

I'm losing all compassion...Black Rage is all that's left.

Race Matters in Southern Politics

Nearly 37% of Mississippi's population is black. None of its approximately 900 black elected officials holds statewide office. In its 2003 gubernatorial race, which pitted incumbent Ronnie Musgrove (D) against Republican Haley Barbour, two blacks ran for statewide positions. Based on qualifications, financial backing and party endorsement, State Sen. Barbara Blackmon and Gary Anderson had excellent chances of becoming lieutenant governor and state treasurer, respectively.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole likened GOP tactics to Richard Nixon's Southern strategy, which made "subtle winks and nods to white racism in the South." In stump speeches to cheering white crowds, Barbour voiced support for the state flag, which is basically the Confederate battle emblem. In 2001, voters chose to keep the state symbol over the protests of blacks and whites who found it offensive.

A heavy turnout and high-profile visits by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney helped propel Barbour to a 53 to 47 percent victory over Musgrove. Blackmon, who ran against Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, got just 37 percent of the vote, while Anderson lost to political newcomer Republican Tate Reeves 52 to 46 percent.

Barbour's victory speech paid lip service to racial and political diversity. A few blacks served as strategic props to lend credence to the photo op. In typical fashion, the GOP encouraged the state's citizens, white and black, "to get past all of that," meaning the race-baiting employed throughout the campaign, and unite behind the new governor. GOP state chairman Rickey Cole said the Democrats failed to win over the crucial swing voters that "chose not to vote" for the black candidates. In other words, whites that would normally vote Democratic voted for the white GOP candidates.

On Reluctant Democrats

By John Burl Smith

Screaming "electability," the first two primaries reflected Democrats' reluctance to embrace its true strength. Electability frames issues to fit the 99 % white electorates in Iowa and New Hampshire. Such a construct pictures reluctant Senators John Kerry as the best at motivating upscale white voters but can he appeal to the Democrats' most dependable voting block? If Democrats have a prayer of defeating George W. Bush and taking back Congress in 2004, they must have a huge black voter turnout all across the South. Good in Iowa and New Hampshire "ain't gud 'nuf" down South.

Reluctant Democrats have always blocked black political mobility and advancement. Controlling changes in leadership within the Democratic Party, their reluctance maintain fixed ratios that correspond to any black gain. That is to say, white Democrats cling to power by keeping blacks out of power. Changing only under tremendous pressure, blacks overcame Democrats resistance in 1960, '64, '76 and '92 to help win the Presidency. George McGovern's reluctance to chose Shirley Chisholm as VP in 1972 cost him the Presidency.

Headed South, Democrats must come directly talk directly to black people, just as they did whites in Iowa and New Hampshire. Some claim to have a lock on this region. However in the past, such locks have kept black voter turnout down. This time the key is in our hands and vague generalities will not satisfy needs in our beleaguered communities.

Blacks want candidates to be specific about how they will move the nation towards "full employment." They want initiatives that create jobs and address chronic black unemployment. They demand improvements in educational quality and someone who strongly opposes using test scores to stigmatize schools and children as "failures" in poorer communities. They want a clearly articulated plan that provides access to health care for all Americans. They want a President that will stop draining Social Security and Medicare funds to cover tax cuts and runaway spending. Bush's economic plan straps the bludgeoning war and tax cut deficits and debt onto the backs of our grandchildren.

Down South, the modern civil rights movement energized the Democrats' surge to power in the 1960s and '70s. Conversely, although turning out in record numbers in 2000, blacks suffered an egregious injury in Bush v Gore and voter fraud in Florida. Reluctant Democrats turned their backs on black voters and the "Gentle Ladies" from the US House of Representatives who challenged the injustice of not counting every vote in a so-called democracy. Now Senators that caved in to Republican demands not to challenge the Florida fiasco are coming South in search of black votes, even though they have never spoken to black issues.

Having done nothing to reverse the sense of betrayal black voters felt after Election 2000, Democrats have helped Bush completely reverse Brown v Board of Education (1954). Labeling anyone one who dared speak out on black issues "too liberal," sheepish Republicans dressed in Democrat wolf clothing, like Georgia Senator Zell Miller, vacillate on affirmative action, while re-segregating public schools through "No Child Left Behind." For blacks desiring professional and graduate level training, the picture is particularly grim. The black vote is a bastion of Democratic strength, but reluctant white Democrats' stranglehold aids Republicans undermining the nation's avowed commitments to freedom, justice and equality, which are symbolized by the vote. Will Democrats fight for blacks' votes in 2004?

Disgruntled feels: Incredulous! The size of government has significantly grown since the avowed fiscal conservative George W. Bush came to power. His ideological base, which eschews Keynesian economics when the federal spending helps individuals, is left to wonder whatever happened to fiscal discipline and concerns about budget deficits and the size of the federal debt. Rarely do we hear Bush Republicans lament deficits that stretch from the Earth to Mars and back. None talks about putting the budget in the black or retiring the debt. Rather than spend billions to colonize the moon, Bush needs to address an array of domestic issues, stop the decline in the value of the dollar and stem the dearth of US credibility across planet Earth.

Disgruntled wants to know: In an introduction of Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark, comedian Michael Moore called George W. Bush a deserter. Moore's characterization was based on Bush's unapproved absence from his unit during the Vietnam War. Why do the media refuse to cover Bush's history and insist on giving him an unreasonable bye.

Disgruntled says: Everyone not asleep or blindly insisting the US was justified in its naked aggression against Iraq will recall Vice President Dick Cheney rode roughshod over the intelligence community to build a dossier that supported the war. Moreover, we now know that plans for attacking Iraq were on the drawing board long before George W. Bush's installation in office. David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group charged with finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, has resigned. In doing so, he asserted that Iraq had no stockpiles of banned biological or chemical weapons. There is a call for an independent investigation. For Bush and company, the absence of WMD is as much of a smoking gun as Monica Lewinsky's stained dress proved to be in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Depression and the New Deal

Classical economist and English clergyman Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) is best known for his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), which argued that the population of a region would grow until checked by famine, pestilence or war. This pessimistic perspective held no hope for improving the condition of the masses. For many decades, Malthusianism served as the justification for limiting assistance to the poor.

Classical economic thinking dominated Western public policy making until the 1930s. Malthusianism complimented capitalism's laissez-faire. Left alone, an "invisible hand" worked in the free enterprise system to fully employ the factors of production. Capitalists generally opposed government spending on social programs to improve the condition of the masses. Generally, care of the poor and unemployed was left to private charitable organizations, such as the Red Cross, churches and emergency funds. Public officials encouraged citizens to contribute to these organizations.

The Great Depression, which followed the 1929 United States stock market crash, did not conform to classical prescriptions. US President Herbert Hoover, on the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, limited governmental intervention, even in the face of steep declines in economic activity. His administration encouraged voluntary efforts on the part of business and labor leaders. Businesses promised not to cut payrolls and labor groups did not press for better wages and working conditions. In general, Hoover's positive intervention assisted businesses that had over-invested in capital in the lead up to the stock market crash.

To shore up confidence, Hoover declared, "The fundamental business of this country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis." He announced a significant tax cut and arranged for the Federal Reserve to provide increased bank credit. The economic decline deepened as more people numbered among the unemployed.

Without a safety net, such as a system of unemployment insurance, the Red Cross and other private charitable organizations could not meet the demand for assistance. In September 1931, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted and the state legislature passed the first relief measure of any state; it served as the prototype for other states and the federal government. Roosevelt challenged Hoover's bid for reelection and won by emphasizing economic issues and downplaying earlier divisions over prohibition and religion between urban and rural Democrats.

From 1933-38, the Roosevelt administration implemented "The New Deal," an array of relief, recovery and reform programs. Conservatives saw it as dangerous, revolutionary and wrong. Roosevelt's "The New Deal" was based on John Maynard Keynes' analysis of the Great Depression. According to Keynes (1883-1946), a British economist, when national demand falls critically short of productive capacity, high unemployment, low prices and business stagnation results. There is no automatic or "invisible hand" mechanism to correct the shortfall in demand, hence his prescription of government spending and low taxes to bring the economy back to full employment equilibrium.

Email www.bayarea.com COLUMBIA, S.C. - A conservative radio program airing in South Carolina's Republican-heavy Upstate region has airwaves buzzing with talk about a matchup between George W. Bush and a flamboyant black preacher from New York. Whether a wacky stunt or a sincere endorsement for presidential candidate Al Sharpton, the morning drive-time show on WORD-AM has called on its GOP listeners to exercise their right to vote in the state's first-in-the-South Democratic primary. Note: Blacks were discouraged from participating in the 2000 Republican primary.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is studying the US Civil War. His public school textbook romanticizes the conflict and sheds little light on the slavery holocaust. Fresh from reading a section on the battle at Gettysburg, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro declared, "The Civil War was crazy; slaves were not freed!"

Pimping Black Church

Prior to his visit to Atlanta, Georgia to ostensibly lay a wreath at the crypt of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1-15-04), George W. Bush visited a large black Louisiana church. A political pit stops pit stop merely served as a backdrop for a photo op. It justified the use of tax dollars to defray the cost of a campaign activity, i.e., a fund-raiser held later in that state. Standing in the pulpit, Bush praised the faith community for assisting the growing population of poor Americans. He touted his faith-based initiative on the way to collecting an obscene amount of money for a primary campaign in which he is virtually unopposed for the Republican Party nomination.

Understandably, the black church has come under fire. Its most vocal critics, including members of the hip hop generation and others, cite its failure to address the spiritual and other myriad needs of the black community. From their perspective, the black church, an institution established by whites for the enslavement of blacks, is ill-equipped to address these needs in a manner to positively impact black life. Indeed, while some black churches played a pivotal role in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, these critics see the mainstream black church as having evolved little beyond its original role of control.

While the most vocal critics are outside the mainstream black church, Rev. Arthur Hilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, recently voiced frustration over how presidential contenders in New Hampshire used his congregation as a backdrop for campaign photos rather than a sounding board for the discussion of serious issues. During a Sunday sermon, he said, "I'm tired of people coming in here to pimp the church."

As contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination turn South, speculation is, there will be numerous visits to black churches. Rev. Hilson appealed to the candidates to continue coming to the black church. However, he encouraged them to address the issues, rather than pimp black congregations. After all, blacks are just as affected as the rest of the nation, perhaps more so, by the need for full employment, affordable housing and health care, quality education, etc.

On 3/5 Compromise

By Dot

In the early 1980s, I conducted research and euphemistically titled its findings Recession and Unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Economic Welfare Loss. Published in the 1982 Mid-South Journal of Economics, interested parties can access the paper at www.thedish.org under the header Reparations. The major difference in terms of the economic landscape between today and then is the absence of inflation, a serious concern during the 1980s.

The analysis basically looked at the business cycle changes in income and employment of blacks and whites to discern the incident of welfare loss, in other words, which group suffered more. Not surprisingly, those who suffered the most in every economic downturn experienced by this nation were and are young blacks, especially teenage males. Indeed, in good and bad economic times, this group experienced unemployment rates in excess of twenty-five percent, indicating a constant state of depression. This chronic unemployment translates into lower incomes and greater welfare loss than experienced by the nation as a whole.

In the aggregate, blacks tend to bear the brunt of the welfare loss experienced whenever the economy falters. Victims of a vicious pattern of employment identified simply as "last hired, first fired," black unemployment rates have historically been twice the rate for whites. Since wages from jobs is the main source of income for the vast majority of Americans, black income lag behind the income of whites. The income differences display a pattern that dates back to the legalization of slavery and the founding of this nation.

The ratio of black to white family incomes has historically fluctuated along a narrow band that mimics the 3/5 compromise. While researchers today have yet to acknowledge the 3/5 correlation, the data from any number of their studies verify its existence, rather than refute it. As I have concluded elsewhere, the 3/5 compromise is alive and well and continues to determine outcomes in the US marketplace for goods and services.

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