Posted on 05/08/2006 10:42:33 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
A lot of people say I'm hell on black political leadership. They are correct. Most of the time, our elected and self-appointed African-American leaders are do-nothing, self-aggrandizing and venal.
Now hold the presses. I actually have something positive to say about African-American leaders. In the thorny debate over immigration reform, many are seizing the moral high ground -- against their own self-interests.
We all know that the face of immigration reform is largely Latino. People of all stripes have misgivings about issues like amnesty, guest worker programs and other prongs of the immigration reform movement.
Still, black leaders are trying to bridge the gap between doing the right thing and their constituency's narrow-minded, short-sighted bullheadedness. Based on the chat I hear in the beauty shops, at barber shops and on talk radio, it won't be easy.
Take my own family. Longtime readers of this space will remember my Uncle Leland, a hardheaded and politically whip smart octogenarian. I checked in to get his reaction to last week's massive May Day marches. He was not amused.
"Every freedom that African Americans fought for, we earned the hard way," he said. "Now they say, 'We came across the border and we want it now.' And we will be pushed to the bottom."
He frets over whether there will be a future job for his grandson. "I don't blame the immigrants for coming over here [illegally]," he notes. "But you're rewarding somebody for doing wrong."
I called my mom just to say hello. Mama is a regular viewer of Lou Dobbs, TV's preeminent xenophobe. I got a 20-minute rant aimed squarely at Latino immigrants.
"Those people are breaking the law. ... They have no right to be here. ... They are taking our jobs. ... They don't even want to learn to speak English. ... We're paying for their health care ... their schools. And they have the nerve to demand -- demand -- that we give them citizenship!"
I tried to reason with her, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise. She is not alone. WVON's airwaves are chock-full of diatribes against "those people." Just ask the black-oriented station's talkfest hosts, Roland Martin and Cliff Kelley, who have been fielding angry calls on the topic for weeks on end.
A new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that nearly 80 percent of African Americans said that Latino immigrants worked hard and possessed strong family values, the New York Times reports. Still, nearly twice as many blacks as whites surveyed said that they or a family member had been deprived of a job that went to an immigrant instead.
The numbers register palpable anxiety. To the credit of most black elected officials, they are looking at the bigger picture. They know that blacks and browns need to work together.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. of Rainbow/PUSH has repeatedly heralded the May Day marches. "The new immigrants seek precisely what has made our country great: They thirst for democracy and freedom, a job and security for their families, for citizenship rights and to leave repression and poverty behind," Jackson wrote last week in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Speaking out at a recent Capitol Hill hearing on immigration reform, John Lewis, the civil rights stalwart and longtime Georgia congressman, argued that immigrants take the low-wage jobs that others won't fill.
"I don't think we should be afraid of people coming in, doing some of the work that needs to be done," he said.
I know immigration reform is a very complex issue. I also know that black folks are always harping about how we can't afford to let our community be divided and conquered. And we cannot afford to let immigration critics separate us from natural allies. Latinos and blacks share abiding common interests in job creation, affordable housing, health care, access to quality education and a slew of other bread-and-butter issues.
While we are scrambling for the crumbs, you can be sure the people on top will be supping on foie gras and champagne.
The politicians must convince the people that it is in their urgent interest to resist the divisive and stereotypical race-baiting propagated by the powers that be.
One swallow does not make for a supper, but African-American leaders are on the right track.
mailto:lauraswashington@aol.com
Hint - the more you play the race card, the less effective it gets. Especially when the vast majority of the racists are at the rallies calling for the gringos to go back to Europe.
There is a very simple reason I and so many others are against any kind of amnesty - not only does it not work, it makes the problem worse. Many in the black community have never learned the lesson that if you encourage bad behavior, you tend to get more of it. And apparently that shortcoming applies to the views of some in that community regarding illegal immigration.
Time for the black elites to get their folks back on the plantaion.
"To the credit of most black elected officials, they are looking at the bigger picture. They know that blacks and browns need to work together."
But screw those white bastards.
How perceptive.
Chocolate ain't the flavor of the month anymore.
Most Blacks have a birthright and Hispanics will take it away.
Regardless of what the MSM preaches, The Rainbow Coalition is a figment of Jackson's imagination.
ping
I said that about inner-city social programs for years!
Most blacks were brought against their wills for slavery. They didn't choose to break the law.
"Hint - the more you play the race card, the less effective it gets. Especially when the vast majority of the racists are at the rallies calling for the gringos to go back to Europe."
Exactly!
"many are seizing the moral high ground -- against their own self-interests"
Excuse moi. The self-interest of "Black leaders" is to get money and camera-time from guilt-ridden white liberals. ... Not only with Blacks, but with every group, the leader is rare who really cares about his issue or followers.
It might be easier to convince their people if they could enumerate a single benefit for blacks that comes from this arrangement.
They have already lost status as the largest minority. They face competition for jobs and government handouts. Their wages are falling and they are being forced to share overcrowded schools that are spending all of their resources trying to deal with English as a second language students.
The black politicians are soon going to find out this arrangement does not work out so well for them either as they are displaced by Latinos. Not that they will be missed! The one thing I agree with in this entire article is the opening paragraph where the author notes that these leaders are generally worthless.
"While we are scrambling for the crumbs, you can be sure the people on top will be supping on foie gras and champagne..."
What a joke. It's obvious Miss Washington is writing from a state not innudated with in your face illegal immigrants such as California. Here a black kid the the "inner-city" can only get a job flipping burgers, and race riots and shootings between latinos, and badly outnumbered blacks without the resources to escape to the burbs are a daily occurrence.
It will be interesting to see how the Democratic Black Caucus will survive as Latinos replace blacks in the inner cities.They will run more and more Latinos because they want to be represented by"their people".
I think Maxine Waters' district is now majority Hispanic.You can be she is out there with her Spanish language dictionary courting her new voters.
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You're right...no Mexicans in chicago...
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Is JJ saying that Mexico has a repressive, un-democratic country that lacks freedom? Sound that way to me.
Depends on who you are talking about. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters & Cynthia McKinney? Or people like JC Watts, Clarence Thomas & Alan Keyes?
many are seizing the moral high ground -- against their own self-interests.
between doing the right thing and their constituency's narrow-minded, short-sighted bullheadedness. Based on the chat I hear in the beauty shops, at barber shops and on talk radio, it won't be easy.
Another arrogant writer who thinks they know better then the majority of whom they write about.
TV's preeminent xenophobe
If that is the worst they can say about Lou Dobbs he must be doing something right.
I tried to reason with her
Because she is unreasonable and of course you KNOW BETTER
They know that blacks and browns need to work together.
Remind me. Who are the racist again?
Latinos and blacks share abiding common interests in job creation, affordable housing, health care, access to quality education and a slew of other bread-and-butter issues.
Sure wish whites had those same concerns /sarcasm
Bush is trying to capture the Latino vote when he should be trying to get the Black vote.
If only the beltway people would wake up on this issue! The people this poor dumb liberal rat has been talking to and hearing from are the ones who could be swayed to vote GOP over this issue. The question is: how many of the 20 % or so of Blacks that could be brought over to vote GOP, are with us on this issue? It's got to be 99%! THIS IS THE WAGE ISSUE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! Will Rove see that? I'm afraid he will end up being too smart by half on this one - just a shame, a damned shame.
5% of the Blacks that were sold by their countrymen arrived in the United States the balance were distributed throughout the Caribbean and So America. The 5% are Americans.
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