Newspaper Page Text
6A
MARCH 1, 2001
THISWAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT
By Dr. Lenora Fulani
Reining in the
poverty industry
U
any people I speak
with who are
progressives, or
Democrats, or Afri
can Americans - or all three -
think I’m being unfair when I
criticize the partisanship of
the Democrats. They believe
that the partisanship of the
Democrats shouldn’t be
equated with the partisanship
ofthe Republicansbecause the
Democrats have the interests
of the poor and working class
at heart. Partisanship by the
Republicans benefits therich,
they argue. Partisanship by
the Democrats benefits the
poor. And consequently, even
if you think partisanship is a
problem, it’s different when
the Democrats do it, or so the
Democratic partisans would
have us believe.
I have some trouble with
this proposition. I think it
requires a closer look. Let me
explain.
The history of the Demo
cratic Party since the 1930 s is
the history of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s New Deal coali
tion and the creation of the
Welfare State. It was at that
point that the Democratic
Party’s interests became sub
stantially intertwined - actu
ally, virtually identical with —
government interventioninto
poverty, joblessness and lack
of opportunity.
In the 1930 s and the 19405,
the labor movement — newly
organized and very militant —
was institutionalized and rec
ognized. It became a central
partner in a political coalition
which put Franklin Roosevelt
inthe White House four times.
The partisanization of govern
ment-meaning the conflation
between the Democratic Party
agenda and a public agenda -
became the dominant modal
ity of politics.
The New Deal Democrats’
Welfare State was updated by
the Great Society Democrats
of the 19605, who led the War
onPovertyandintegrated vast
numbers of African Americans
- politically energized by the
civil rights movement - into
the ranks of the Democratic
Party in the process.
Inthecourseoftheseevents,
anew American industry was
created — a poverty industry.
This new public sector indus
try was, in some respects, the
product of a well-meaning ef
fort tomitigate on alargescale
the disastrous effects of free
market capitalism on thelower
classes. But the poverty in
dustry, while it created a
sprawling social service sec
tor whichemployed and served
millions of Americans, turned
out to be an expensive self
perpetuating bureaucracy.
The conservative journalist
and author M. Stanton Evans
AuguSta' Charles W. Walker
Publisher
Focus Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Since 1981 Dot T, Baly
A Walker Group Marketing Director
Publication
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
QTN Lilion Wan Copy Editor
VG L Timothy Cox Staff Writer
lIN )\ Tonya Evans Office Manager
N A‘ Jerome Turner Aduvertising Rep
\’@% Samuel Daniels Production Assistant
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AUGUSTAFOCUS
gave a vivid description of
the problem. For every dol
lar put into the hands of a
poor person, $lO is spent:
one for the recipient, three
for a bureaucrat, one for his
supplies, one for his secre
tary, and four to build the
building to house him and
other bureaucrats.
The poverty industry was
huge. According to many
historians, among them Dr.
Alan Brinkley at Columbia
University, its impact was
modest, however. And this
is particularly true with re
spect to Black people. Black
poverty in 1999 was at a
record low of 23.6 percent,
but still three times the pov
erty rate for whites. Most
analysts agree that it was
overall economic growth and
not anti-poverty programs
which reduced poverty lev
els in the U.S. The anti
poverty industry per se left
millions of Americansin pov
erty.
That should come as no
particular surprise. What
enterprise actually under
takes to eliminate its reason
for existence? Ending pov
erty would end the poverty
industry. Like the military
industrial complex, which
requires war or the perceived
threat of war, to stoke mili
tary spending, or the prison
industrial complexwhich has
lobbied successfully for
building more prisons and
passing those mandatory
sentencinglaws tokeep them
filled; the poverty industry
requires poverty — and
plenty of it —to stay in busi
ness. And insofar as the
Democratic Party has wo
ven its electoral strength
deeply into the social fabric
of the poverty industry and
the sprawling network of
government-funded pro
grams which are the patron
ageof Black Democratic poli
tics, it too has a stake in the
perpetuation of poverty.
Anytime a Black person
goes to the polls and pulls
the lever for hte Democrats,
they’re voting for the per
petuation of poverty in our
community. Thismay sound
harsh. But I mean to be
harsh. For the economic
consequences of our politi
cal situation are harsh.
The Democratic leader
ship will tell you, of course, I
am wrong. That they want
to make us less poor. And
they do — as long as that is
consistent with their main
taining their political power.
The problem is, we don’t
want to be less poor. We
don’t want to be poor at all.
And we certainly don’t want
See POVERTY, page 7A
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TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price |
Measuring John Ashcroft
any Americans, un
doubtedly, won’t
think to connect the
name of the new
United States Attorney Gen
eral, John Ashcroft, with the
name of a hardworking immi
grant from Black Africa,
Amadou Diallo. .
But I think many African
Americans will.
Recently, African Ameri
cans, along with the rest of
the country, learned the ex
pected: that the former Sena
tor from Missouri will be their
next attorney general.
Also recently, African
Americans learned that the
U.S. Attorney’s Officein Man
hattan had decided not to
bring federal civil rights
chargesagainst the four white
New York City police officers
who shot Amadou Diallo to
death in the hallway of his
apartment building in a furi
ous, overwhelminghail of bul
lets.
Justice Department officials
said the decision was made
after concluding that the of
ficers did not fire at Diallo
“with the specific intent to
use unreasonable force,” add
ing that without evidence of
GUEST COMMENTARY By William Reed
The G.O.P & blacks: renaissance or resistance?
re you still stuck on
hating George W.
Bush? Now that his
presidency is a reality,
what will be the relationship
between his administration
and Black Americans? No
question that Bush’s victory
came from white votes, so the
essential question now is: will
this administration get ongo
ing resistance from African
Americans or, be a source for
Black Renaissance? Blacks
have a heavy reliance on gov
ernmentand positiverelation
ships with the Bush Adminis
tration can result in much
needed development for our
communities.
AsPresident and Candidate,
Bush has often extended a
open hand to blacks. With
multiple campaign stops at
inner city schools, churches,
welfare offices and other ven
ues, Gov. Bush pursued con
nections among African
Americans more aggressively
than any Republican presiden
tial candidate in recent his
tory. The end result was that
there was never a connection
and he did worse than any
Republicanin recent memory.
Unlike the Nixon years,
Opinion
intent, no federal civil rights
charges could be brought.
The decision of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office means that
thecriminaljustice system has
now twice effectively declared
that the death of Amadou
Diallo, an innocent man who
came to America in search of
opportunity, wasnoone’sfault
but his own.
That wasthe meaningofthe
jury acquittal handed up in
the state criminal trial of the
four officers, too—a trial which
before it began, was moved
fromits properlocationin New
York City’s multi-ethnic bor
ough of the Bronx to Albany,
N.Y.in order to placeit in the
hands of a white judge and a
predominantly white jury.
So, behind all the by-now
practiced declarations that
Diallo’s death was a “tragic
mistake,” what this means is
that the criminal justice sys
tem has accepted the argu
ment of the police officers:
That it was the behavior of
Amadou Diallo, who was not
armed when he was shot to
death, had never been in
trouble with the law, and was
not about tocommit anycrime,
which made the four officers
when successful capitalist like
Earl Graves werebred, today’s
GOP persist in being “color
blind” and clueless when it
comes to blacks. The GOP
should pursue blacks with a
passion because they are piv
otal tothe Republicans’ politi
cal future. If they don’t make
inroads among African Ameri
canand Latinovotersby 2008,
their presidential nominee
can’t win. Actually, the gap
between today’s GOP and Af
rican Americans is a result
moreoffailed communications
than policy differences. Many
Black Americans can be la
beled as “conservative.”
Thirty-percent share the Re
publicans’ commitment to
family and religion, as well as
strong work ethics and beliefs
in opportunity. In direct oppo
sition toestablished black lead
ership, over 50 percent of
Blacks espouse conservative
views on issues of school
vouchers, welfare reform,
school prayer and economic
and business development.
Republicans have to engage
a communications strategy
that links with blacks. Pic
tures of Bush on front pages of
draw their weapons and turn
his apartment building’s nar
row hallway into a shooting
gallery.
What most African Ameri
cans know is that Amadou
Diallocould have been any one
of us, and that under those
same circumstances ,our
deaths, too, would have been
written off as a “tragic mis
take.”
Amadou Diallo’sdeath, two
years ago this month, was at
the center of an extraordinary
moment in the history of the
relationship between black
Americans and the American
criminal justice system.
It was a moment which re
vealed that the complaints
black Americans had beenrais
ing for years of a deeply-rooted
racial bias in the criminal jus
tice system were valid.
The Amadou Diallo case
symbolized in stark, tragic -
and yes, here the word is ap
propriate — terms what crimi
naljustice expert Christopher
E. Stone referred to as the
crux of the harsh “paradox”
African Americans face in re
gard tocrime and the criminal
justice system.
Writing in the National Ur
the nation’s major newspapers
dolittle to make genuine black
connections. To be successful,
Bush mustincorporate people
who understand issuesimpor
tant to blacks. Blacks’ affir
mative access in a Bush Ad
ministration could breed Black
Republicans like rabbits. To
effect this type of affirmative
connection, the Bush Admin
istration, dragging the recal
citrant Republican Party
along, mustincorporate people
able toreach out to ministers,
educators, union officials and
other black grass-roots lead
ers. Wider-known Black Re
publicans like Ward Connerly,
aCalifornia Conservative, and
J.C. Watts, the soleblack GOP
congressman who won’t join
the Congressional Black Cau
cusbecausehe’s “elected from
a predominately- white elec
torate,” telling Bush how to
connect with blacks would just
increase resistance, but rely
ing on advice from black-re
naissance-minded John Wilks
could help bush and the GOP
make sound and reciprocal
relationships among Black
Americans. A grass-roots and
campaign organizer, Wilks is
aorganizational management
ban League’s The State of
Black American 1996, Stone
said that “(a)s a group, Afri
can Americans suffer severely
from crime in their communi
ties. Yet, they have learned,
justifiably, tomistrust the gov
ernmental institutions
charged with fighting crime.”
As attorney general, John
Ashcroft assumes the federal
responsibility to reform the
criminal justice system’srela
tionship with people of color -
to continue the effort to make
it truly a system of justice; and
also, of course, to uphold the
law on a host of other issues,
including protecting the law
ful right of choice on abortion,
election reform, AIDS, and
ensuringthecivil rights of gay
and lesbian Americans.
The National Urban League
made no secret of its view that
Mr. Ashcroft was not theright
choice for this critical post
because of the rigidly doctri
naireconservative positionshe
has expressed on a wide range
of issues and the actions he
has taken while serving as,
first, governor of, and then,
senator from Missouri.
See ASHCROFT, pageZ7A
specialist who, as a Depart
ment of Labor Contract Com
pliance Officer, authored af
firmativeaction mandatesthat
helped Richard Nixon garner
the largest percentage - 24% -
of black votes cast for a Re
publican in 60 years.
Other business-and -man
agement-minded Republicans
tied into issues Black Ameri
cans care about include:
Ernest Johnson, Louisiana
statepresident ofthe NAACP;
Alphonso Jackson, a housing
and energy specialist who has
broad local-level experience as
a governmental official in a
number of cities; and Vicky
Wilcher, a Democrat-turned-
Republican executive director
of the D.C. Party. Through
their connections at local lev
els, these types of people know
the problems of blacks and
how to solve them. With such
appointments a renaissance
can occur among blacks. This
type connection and access, in
each Federal Agency, can pro
duce a renaissance-type im
pact on issues that concern
African Americans, like jus
tice, housing, education and
economicdevelopment issues.