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Cancer in the Congressional Black
Caucus
as That Body Has Become Increasingly Pro-Corporate
and Anti-Community
By Glen Ford
When the
Congressional Black Caucus began its slide into
irrelevancy, Al Wynn was there, one of four Blacks to
vote to authorize George Bush's Iraq invasion, in 2002.
By 2005, the list of irredeemable backstabbers had grown
to ten, with nine CBC members joining Wynn in support of
a Republican bankruptcy bill.
The cancer in the
Caucus must be removed one cell at a time, but that
requires courageous candidates backed by enough
non-corporate money to go the distance. The larger
challenge is to recognize that Jim Crow is over, and
it's long past time to make Black politicians
accountable.
In recent years, a
cabal of corporate-bought members have degraded the
cohesion and progressive legacy of the Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC), reducing the once-proud body to an
impotent shell. The fracturing of the CBC is largely the
work of the Democratic Leadership Council, the bastion
and bank of corporate power in the Party. As a Trojan
Horse for Big Business on Capitol Hill, the DLC has
suborned the most opportunistic members of the Caucus,
awarding them with key positions and prime access to
campaign cash. Among the worst malefactors is Albert
Wynn, the mis-Representative from the Maryland suburbs
of Washington DC, and the DLC's corporate bagman within
the Congressional Black Caucus.
By slavishly voting
for corporate-backed legislation—Republican bills
supported by the DLC's right wing of Democrats—Wynn's
faction in the CBC give credence to the fiction, that
African Americans are drifting politically to the right.
Although having no basis in fact, this wishful canard
holds that Blacks in more affluent districts are
becoming more "conservative"—especially in places like
Prince George's County, Wynn's base and the most
prosperous majority-Black county in the nation.
However, Albert
Wynn looks like he's on the rocks. Donna Edwards, who
came within a few percentage points of ousting Wynn, in
2006, despite a late start and bone-dry treasury, has
the derelict congressman running scared and desperately
attempting to revise his sordid record before Democratic
primary voters have their say on February 12. A solid
progressive, Edwards is confident she can dethrone the
pretender, this time around.
"There is no excuse
for somebody representing the 4th congressional district
voting with Republicans and voting with President Bush,"
says Edwards, a longtime executive in the non-profit
sector. "Where it's really coming home to roost, today,
is with his bad vote on bankruptcy. When he sided with
Republicans to undermine consumers' and homeowners'
positions in bankruptcy court, we're seeing that come to
roost today in the number of foreclosures going on in
our district and around the country."
Edwards is
referring to the disastrous Spring of 2005, when ten
Black Caucus members voted with Republicans (and DLCers)
to limit citizen access to bankruptcy court. A total of
15 Black congresspersons—more than a third of the
Caucus—supported at least one of
three key GOP measures on bankruptcy, the estate
tax, and energy. Albert Wynn was one of four Blacks that
supported all three Republican bills -- a total sellout.
But Wynn had been
working for the other team for years. He and Harold Ford
Jr. (TN), Sanford Bishop (GA), and William Jefferson
(LA) were the only CBC members to support giving George
Bush authority to invade Iraq, in 2002—the very same
treasonous faction that would pitch their tents solidly
in the Republican camp on bankruptcy, energy, and the
estate tax, in 2005.
It was the
beginning of the end for the Congressional Black Caucus,
as presently constituted. Ever since Wynn, Ford, Bishop,
and Jefferson defected to Bush, five years ago, the CBC
has been incapable of taking a firm position to end the
Iraq war, forcing progressive members to work outside of
the Caucus. Beginning with Wynn's original Four
Saboteurs, political corruption has spread like a cancer
in the Caucus. In the Spring of 2006, two-thirds of the
CBC caved to the telecom industry to support a bill that
would have
rolled back decades of hard-won Black gains in cable
access—a higher percentage than among Democrats in the
House as a whole!
This steady Black
Caucus slide into irrelevance, and worse, compelled long
term activist and Prince Georges county resident Donna
Edwards to challenge corporate power, in the person of
Albert Wynn:
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We need some regulation
on the telecommunications industry, because
some of our neighborhoods are completely
left out of the next generation on the
internet. The telecommunications giants are
giving my opponent money, but they're not
giving me money. I want to challenge the oil
and gas companies and say, instead of giving
you $20 billion in tax breaks, like my
opponent voted for, I want to take that $20
billion and invest it in alternative sources
of energy and research and development so
that we can look at a new energy future that
is not dependent on fossil fuels. |
Wynn will, once
again, outspend Edwards by millions—the DLC will make
certain of that. Former congressman Harold Ford Jr.,
once George Bush's favorite Black Democrat ("I love
George Bush!" Ford gushed), now chairman of the DLC and
a richly-paid vice-presidential flunky for Wall Street,
was the speaker at Wynn's campaign kick-off, last
summer. Nancy Pelosi, once co-chair of the Progressive
Congressional Caucus but now indistinguishable from the
DLCers that surround her as Speaker of the House, gave
her blessings to a Wynn fundraiser, last weekend.
Edwards, however,
has shown she can work wonders on a small budget, and an
array of progressive organizations have pitched in. An
assortment of bloggers centered on the
Blue Majority has pledged to raise $150,000 for
Edwards' campaign. Black internetizens, led by
ColorOfChange.com, relentlessly champion Edwards'
candidacy as a prelude to a wholesale cleansing of the
CBC. "Congressman Al Wynn from Maryland's 4th district
is a perfect example of the lack of accountability
that's hurting our community," said a Color Of Change
letter sent to tens of thousands of potential donors. It
"is about whether or not representatives like Al Wynn
can stay in office when they repeatedly cast votes
against the interests of their constituents. It's about
whether or not members of the Congressional Black
Caucus— which claims to work for the interests of Black
people and describes itself as the 'conscience of
Congress'—can afford to turn its back on the Black
community."
Shocked at almost
losing to Edwards' challenge in 2006, Wynn attempted to
erase his 2002 pro-war vote by nominally joining the Out
of Iraq Caucus. But anybody can place their name on that
list, and it's far too late, now. Wynn's combined scores
on the CBC Monitor's Report Cards, from September 2005
through September 2007, rate him fifth from the bottom
of the class—despite the leopard's frenzied recent
efforts to change his spots.
Residents of
Maryland's 4th Congressional District don't need a
report card as testimony to Wynn's betrayal. "Prince
Georges County is right now taking the highest rate of
foreclosures in the state, and in my zip code, which is
in a supposedly affluent African American neighborhood,
people with college degrees and advanced degrees—and
we're facing the highest rate of foreclosures in our
county," Edwards reports. "We need to get back to a
system of regulating this industry that seems to have
bought its influence all over Capitol Hill and is
running away with the store against the interests of
consumers."
What Black America
needs is a Congressional Black Caucus that is
accountable to the will its constituents. Al Wynn is
only one of at least
ten members that are beyond political redemption.
Wall Street doesn't have enough corporate
vice-presidential slots to accommodate these derelicts,
once evicted from The Hill, so some of them may face
financial hardship.
Let them take their
chances in bankruptcy court.
Glen Ford is the
executive editor of
Black Agenda Report and can be contacted at
Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Source:
http://www.alternet.org/story/68191/ (Photos above:
Donna Edwards, left; Albert Wynn, right)
posted 19 December 2007
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Potomac Primaries
(12 February 2008)—In Maryland, Donna Edwards, a
lawyer and domestic-violence-prevention advocate, ousted
Rep. Al Wynn in the state's Democratic congressional
primary. Edwards is heavily favored to win the general
election in November in the solidly Democratic district
outside of Washington, D.C.—
Womensenews
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Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change
By John Lewis
The Civil Rights Movement gave rise to the protest culture we know today, and the experiences of leaders like Congressman Lewis have never been more relevant. Now, more than ever, this nation needs a strong and moral voice to guide an engaged population through visionary change. Congressman John Lewis was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. Despite more than forty arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. He is the author of his autobiography, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of a Movement, and is the recipient of numerous awards from national and international institutions, including the Lincoln Medal; the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” Lifetime Achievement Award (the only one of its kind ever awarded); the NAACP Spingarn Medal; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, among many others. |
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So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America
By Peter Edelman
If the nation’s gross national income—over $14 trillion—were divided evenly across the entire U.S. population, every household could call itself middle class. Yet the income-level disparity in this country is now wider than at any point since the Great Depression. In 2010 the average salary for CEOs on the S&P 500 was over $1 million—climbing to over $11 million when all forms of compensation are accounted for—while the current median household income for African Americans is just over $32,000. How can some be so rich, while others are so poor? In this provocative book, Peter Edelman, a former top aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a lifelong antipoverty advocate, offers an informed analysis of how this country can be so wealthy yet have a steadily growing number of unemployed and working poor. According to Edelman, we have taken important positive steps without which 25 to 30 million more people would be poor, but poverty fluctuates with the business cycle. |
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The structure of today’s economy has stultified wage
growth for half of America’s workers—with even worse
results at the bottom and for people of color—while bestowing billions on those at the top. So Rich, So Poor delves into what is happening to the people behind the statistics and takes a particular look at the continuing crisis of young people of color, whose possibility of a productive life too often is lost on their way to adulthood.—DemocracyNow
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Nigger: The Strange
Career of a Troublesome Word
By Randall Kennedy
The
word is paradigmatically ugly, racist
and inflammatory. But is it different
when Ice Cube uses it in a song than
when, during the O.J. Simpson trial,
Mark Fuhrman was accused of saying it?
What about when Lenny Bruce uses it to
"defang" it by sheer repetition? Or when
Mark Twain uses it in The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn to make an
antiracist statement? Kennedy, a
professor at Harvard Law School and
noted legal scholar, has produced an
insightful and highly provocative book
that raises vital questions about the
relationship between language, politics,
social norms and how society and culture
confront racism. Drawing on a wide range
of historical, legal and cultural
instances Harry S. Truman calling Adam
Clayton Powell "that damned nigger
preacher"; Title VII court cases in
which the use of the word was proof of
condoning a "racially hostile work
environment"; Quentin Tarantino's
liberal use of the word in his films
Kennedy repeatedly shows not only the
complicated cultural history of the
word, but how its meaning, intent and
even substance change in context.
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Smart, well argued and never afraid of facing serious,
difficult and painful questions in an unflinching and
unsentimental manner, this is an important work of cultural
and political criticism. As Kennedy notes in closing: "For
bad or for good, nigger is... destined to remain with us for
the foreseeable future a reminder of the ironies and
dilemmas, the tragedies and glories, of the American
experience." (Jan. 22)Forecast: This may be the book that
reignites larger debates over race eclipsed by September 11.
Look for a bestselling run and huge talk show and magazine
coverage as the Afghanistan news cycle continues to slow;
the book had already been the subject of two
New York Times stories by early
January.—Publishers
Weekly
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” |
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His father distrusted the police, who had frequently
called him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr. Kennedy’s
father “relished Muhammad Ali’s quip that the Vietcong
had never called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places his
father, and Mr. Wright, in sympathetic historical light.
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The Last Holiday: A Memoir
By Gil Scott Heron
Shortly after we republished The Vulture and The Nigger Factory, Gil started to tell me about The Last Holiday, an account he was writing of a multi-city tour that he ended up doing with Stevie Wonder in late 1980 and early 1981. Originally Bob Marley was meant to be playing the tour that Stevie Wonder had conceived as a way of trying to force legislation to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. At the time, Marley was dying of cancer, so Gil was asked to do the first six dates. He ended up doing all 41. And Dr King's birthday ended up becoming a national holiday ("The Last Holiday because America can't afford to have another national holiday"), but Gil always felt that Stevie never got the recognition he deserved and that his story needed to be told. The first chapters of this book were given to me in New York when Gil was living in the Chelsea Hotel. Among the pages was a chapter called Deadline that recounts the night they played Oakland, California, 8 December; it was also the night that John Lennon was murdered. |
Gil uses Lennon's violent end as
a brilliant parallel to Dr King's assassination and as a biting
commentary on the constraints that sometimes lead to newspapers
getting things wrong.
— Jamie Byng, Guardian
Gil_reads_"Deadline" (audio) / Gil Scott-Heron
& His Music Gil Scott
Heron Blue Collar
Remember Gil Scott- Heron
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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