Essay 853

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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Bush’s NAACP address just a start

BY JESSE JACKSON

After five years, President Bush finally addressed the annual NAACP conference. He said he wanted to reach out to the African-American community -- suggesting it was a mistake for African Americans to be locked into one party.

But blacks have not always voted for Democrats. After the Civil War, they voted Republican in the party of Lincoln. When the Depression hit -- and the poor were hit the hardest -- they turned to Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the 1950s, blacks voted in large numbers for Eisenhower, in part because he vowed to get us out of the war in Korea.

When Kennedy reached out to Dr. King in his Birmingham jail cell, and Nixon did not, African Americans began voting Democratic again. As Johnson helped pass civil rights legislation, culminating in the Voting Rights Act and the launch of the war on poverty, African Americans rallied in support. This was reinforced as Republicans rose to power in the South as the party of white sanctuary, profiting from politics of racial division. African Americans are not locked into any one party -- they are voting their interest.

Bush says he wants to reach out. Here’s what he could do if he were serious about reaching out:

First, pay us the respect of communicating with us. We did not always agree with Kennedy -- he opposed the March on Washington for example -- but he talked with us. The same is true of Johnson, Carter and Clinton. There were disagreements, some sharp and intense, but we kept in communication.

Second, come into the discussion with questions, not just pat answers. Let’s agree on the subjects -- and discuss the solutions. We know we disagree about some policy questions. But by talking together, we can find common ground in some places, and agree to disagree in others. For example, any conservative should be providing incentives to businesses to invest in impoverished areas -- from Appalachia to rural America to the ghettos and barrios. Providing incentives doesn’t bust the budget. It relies on private markets and it helps even the playing field so capital, the lifeblood of capitalism, flows to all parts of the body politic.

Third, don’t assume that African-American leaders are concerned only with an ethnic agenda. We worry about poverty and decent wages -- and more poor people are white than black. We worry about war -- and all Americans are concerned about war. We are particularly hit by the outsourcing of jobs and by the loss of affordable housing -- and so are working and poor Americans of all races.

Fourth, enforce the Voting Rights Act, don’t just sign it and gut its enforcement. For too long, African Americans have been locked out of voting. Now, from Florida to Texas to Ohio to Georgia, we see increasing evidence of systemic efforts by Republicans to block blacks from registering and from voting. Too often, your political appointees to the Justice Department and your nominees to the Supreme Court choose state rights over federal enforcement.

Similarly, you can speak clearly against private-sector discrimination and work to open up opportunity for all. Equal opportunity is a pro-family value. Even to this day, minorities suffer discriminatory practices in employment and in gaining loans -- business loans, mortgages and personal loans. This impedes free markets and retards economic development. Again, this doesn’t cost money -- and it demonstrates leadership.

Finally, understand that you can’t choose the leaders for African Americans or Latinos or small farmers. If you want to reach out to the African-American community, you have to talk with the leaders we choose. For years, J. Edgar Hoover sought to create a black leader who could compete with Dr. King, but he could not be displaced from above. That remains true to this day. That’s why you can pump millions into selected black churches and still lose over 90 percent of the black vote.

Your belated address to the NAACP is a beginning. It’s late. The record is clear. Our disappointments are many. But African Americans have problems to solve and miles to travel -- so we look constantly for allies. We are open to talk and looking for action. The door isn’t shut; see us through the door, and not the keyhole. Let’s meet at the door and make this a more perfect union.