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Date: Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 11:44 AM
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CBC Chair Says Obama's Given a Pass Because He's Black
Last week the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, admitted that African American members of Congress are being lenient on President Obama's lackluster effort to assist issues that plague the African American community because he is black. Pointing specifically to the surge of unemployment in the African American community, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said, "If we had a white president we'd be marching around the White House." He continued to say that if Hillary Clinton sat in the oval office he'd tell her "My sister, I love you, but this has got to go."
Cleaver continued by saying, "The president knows we are going to act in deference to him in way we wouldn't to someone white." Paul Butler, law professor at Georgetown University and author of Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, wrote a column in response to Cleaver's remarks. "This is black solidarity at its most self-defeating," he said. "It's why, as the President hands out goodies to other core groups in the Democratic base, African-Americans get squat. On the campaign trial, Obama delivered to Latinos his own version of The DREAM Act, gays received their long-sought presidential endorsement of same-sex marriage, and union workers get a job-protection intervention directed at China."
Butler continued to say African Americans have received the short end of the stick under the Obama Administration: "African-Americans, on the other hand, are like Charlie Brown on Halloween," Butler said. "While everyone else gets candy, they get a rock. Obama's most emphatic statement on black unemployment was back in 2009, when he said, 'I can't pass laws that say I'm just helping black folks. I'm president of the entire United States.'"
Butler offered two lessons that African American constituents can learn from other constituents that President Obama has assisted. "There are two lessons for blacks here, and other groups who feel taken for granted by the administration," Butler said. "First, leadership has to lead. From day one, the gay establishment did not cut Obama any slack. In contrast, many African-American leaders, from the Black Caucus on down, seem asleep at the wheel." Continuing with the second lesson, Butler said "Second, the grassroots has to be demanding. Racial justice is never going to be the president's priority unless people of color get impatient. There is always going to be something—unrest abroad, a natural disaster, a campaign—that will legitimately demand the president's attention. The gay community didn't say,'Never mind, we'll wait our turn,' and neither should African-Americans."
Butler criticized the Congressional Black Caucus for failing to represent the needs of the African American community in the White House. "The 43 members of the Black Caucus call themselves the conscience of the Congress," Butler said. "But when it comes to forcing Obama's hand, they seem missing in action. As Cleaver put it, the caucus "is always hesitant to criticize the president.'"
