OPINION:
Does black America have a BFF?
The unions will let us know shortly as the federally ensconced Labor Day weekend approaches.
Like most Americans, their members will enjoy their time off of work. Unlike the black unemployed, however, they will be compensated.
Federal, state and local lawmakers, meanwhile, will play their usual game of musical talk-show chairs as “unbiased” moderators play anti-Trump, anti-conservative tunes in the background.
And in two weeks, the Congressional Black Caucus will open its Annual Legislative Conference. This year’s conference is much anticipated, and it should be.
The roots of the CBC began 1969, when Reps. Shirley Chisholm, William Lacy Clay and Louis Stokes realized American voters were sending more and more black lawmakers to Congress.
The initial group organized as the Democratic Select Committee and renamed itself the Congressional Black Caucus. Its membership grew as black voters elected black leaders to help pull the “inner cities” into the political fold.
Indeed, two years after the founding in 1971, one of the hottest tunes playing on American air waves was Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).”
Gaye’s soulful voice perfectly depicted urban America, which was losing middle-class blacks and whites, while integration led to an unforeseen consequence.
Black shops, black entertainment venues, black schools and black professionals.
The post office and other federal government jobs that had been black mainstays, and some private industries, coal mines and steel mills and the auto and aerospace industries, were open to black workers, too.
And the CBC became black America’s BFF.
However, the more influential the CBC became, the more downtrodden its already troubled constituency became.
One reason is because the CBC over the decades has bitten the bait of the Democratic Party. Entitlements, the party said, will take care of “you people.”
Government funds for abortions on demand.
More appropriations for food stamps, and pregnant moms and their children. More money for public schools, but not private schools.
Black workers could pick up the trash but not the contracts to build schools.
Black workers could get the jobs to pave the streets and roads but not the contracts.
In addition, urban violence and disorder piled up, and turbulence mounted.
As Gaye sang: “Crime is increasing / trigger happy policing / panic is spreading / God knows where / We’re heading / Oh, make me wanna holler.”
Fifty years. Three generations of black America. African American America.
The CBC is still crying the blues. In Shirley Chisholm’s New York. In Parren Mitchell’s Baltimore. Walter Fauntroy’s D.C. In William Lacy Clay’s Missouri.
Why?
Because the black caucus does not stand up. It moves in lock-step with the big labor unions and the Democratic Party.
Instead of creating ways to give black America a hand up, caucus members give a wink and a nod to socialism, which keeps them in their place.
And then, when TV cameras and radio microphones grant them the full time and attention to make their case to uplift black America, they blame the white man in the White House.
See, the Congressional Black Caucus has quite a legacy to shake. Much of urban America is run by black federal and state lawmakers and mayors, and black administrators who run school systems and dole out top jobs to black candidates.
Donald Trump is not the problem. He’s only been in Washington for 2 years.
The CBC has been here for 50 years and is still fighting the same political war.
It’s enough to make me wanna holler every year the spotlight shines on the caucus.
Yet, as always, the prayer goes up, hoping this is the year the Congressional Black Caucus turns the widest of corners.
Black America needs a BFF — ASAP.
• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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