W's making inroads with blacks (Good Editorial!)

NY Daily News ^ | 6/26/03 | Stanley Crouch

[areafiftyone]

On Tuesday, at a White House event entitled Harlem's Song, President Bush declared June Black Music Month and gave a speech that was a further indication of what could amount to a grand strategy. I mean a strategy that could make Democrats a bit unsure about owning the black vote, especially during presidential elections.

I was there because I had been invited to make some remarks before the performers came on stage. The audience then heard the All-Stars of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem under the leadership of Loren Schoenberg, the executive director of the museum and a highly respected saxophonist and bandleader. It also heard three selections from George Wolfe's "Harlem Song," a show that ran for six months at the Apollo Theatre and drew such integrated audiences that you could say downtown and uptown become one town.

The performances on Tuesday were splendid and the audience, which included national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Powell, truly seemed to enjoy itself.

At the conclusion of the program, the President gave his brief speech, which was very pointed in its acknowledgment not only of the importance of black Americans to our nation's music, but of the history those Americans have had to live in the worst times of our nation.

Bush surprised many when he said, "From the earliest generations of slaves came music of sorrow and patience, of truth and righteousness and of faith that shamed their oppressors and called upon the justice of Almighty God and praised His holy name."

At one point, he said that when "Franklin Roosevelt wanted to show the king and queen of England the finest music in America, he brought them to this room to hear Marian Anderson sing 'Ave Maria.'"

If this event was indeed part of a grand strategy, Bush seems well on his way to redirecting the ethnic tone of the Republican Party in a way that may not automatically make black people feel friendly toward it but that could, over time, bring issues of importance to Afro-Americans to the front and put party affiliations in the back.

I thought about all of that walking around the White House as the rehearsals were going on. Integration was everywhere. It felt good to see the military personnel and all the guests representing the many faces of the nation just as much as they did under President Bill Clinton.

Further, with Bush's emphasis on educational policy, with his appointments of Rice and Powell, with his pledge to refurbish Frederick Douglass' home, with his $15 billion relief package for black Africa and with his recent admonishment that federal law enforcement agencies should not profile any ethnic community unless the issue of terrorism is at hand, this President is changing his party.

Were Bush to go further and make it clear that federal assistance will be made available to all communities bent upon removing the anarchic thugs who, to cite one example, have been responsible for the killing of 10,000 people in Los Angeles over the last 20 years, many would have to stand up.

That would be a policy coup that neither the civil rights establishment nor the Democrats - or black Americans - could easily dismiss.

Originally published on June 26, 2003

[sirshackleton]

I saw a little bit of it on C-Span (or whatever station it was on). The performance snippets I saw were great.

[JohnGalt]

"Further, with Bush's emphasis on educational policy, with his appointments of Rice and Powell, with his pledge to refurbish Frederick Douglass' home, with his $15 billion relief package for black Africa and with his recent admonishment that federal law enforcement agencies should not profile any ethnic community unless the issue of terrorism is at hand, this President is changing his party."

If this the crux of the author's arguement, I'd say this is a silly article.

[Coop]

I'm sure the author felt this article was a doing a service to the President, but I found the tone fairly insulting. The whole racial profiling issue annoys me, and then by comparing Dubya to the Impeached Rapist he put me over the top.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Remember:

Slavery was Democrat.
The Confederacy was Democrat.
Segregation was Democrat.

[grobdriver]

On Tuesday, at a White House event entitled Harlem's Song, President Bush declared June Black Music Month

This is such hooey.
Seems blacks and Democrats are the worst when it comes to ignoring Dr. King's words "judged by the content of their character than by the color of their skin".
Are they afraid of something?

[areafiftyone]

Of course I am stuck in a cubie all day (YUCK) so I missed it. Bush has a heart unlike our previous "Commander in Heat" who was constantly trying to score brownie points with Minorities. It's a shame that alot of African Americans are stuck in a "I am Black which means I have to vote Democrat" mode. We need to let them know that the Democreeps have been the ones holding them down for years NOT the Republicans! It's going to be a tough road because of people like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton who constantly put lies into their heads!

[babyface00]

"federal assistance will be made available to all communities bent upon removing the anarchic thugs who, to cite one example, have been responsible for the killing of 10,000 people in Los Angeles over the last 20 years,"

Is he talking about federal funding for fighting gangs, or the Democratic party?

[wayoverontheright]

Were Bush to go further and make it clear that federal assistance will be made available to all communities bent upon removing the anarchic thugs who, to cite one example, have been responsible for the killing of 10,000 people in Los Angeles over the last 20 years, many would have to stand up.

It was a great article until we got to the "federal assistance" part. Mr. Crouch and I could agree on the goal of ridding Watts of the thugs but government assitance is what got LA into this predicament, what with rent control, welfare and other entitlements wreaking havoc on the black families there.

What is needed is getting government out of the way.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

BUMP!

[areafiftyone]

What is needed is getting government out of the way.

I agree. What they need is a better police force and more people in the communities getting involved.

[dfrussell]

LOL...

If the Republicans spend every waking moment between now and the next election pandering to the black vote they might increase their percentage from 6% to 8%

[areafiftyone]

I guess I am overly optimistic!! :-) Maybe because I have an African American friend who lives in Harlem and is a Republican. I am meeting her for dinner on Monday and I will be discussing alot of things with her and one topic will be Bush! She has taken alot of heat for being a Republican from her family but sticks to her guns and has seen some inroads within her community!

[deport]

The Socialist is at it again.... /scarcasm

[Miss Marple]

Yep. I wonder what the Rushbo will say about things today...we should get his latest column about noon-time.

[STD]

Only people identifying themselves as jews bloc vote more dramatically than do people identifying themselves as black.

Since there are a great deal more people identifying themselves as black voters than there are people identifying themselves as jews, this could be significant.

Don't hold your breath. I think that this is just another attempt by the lie-beral media to alienate GWB further than he already has from his conservative base.

Our strength is our diversity and tolerance is the greatest virtue.

[foreverfree]

bump

[steve8714]

Law-abiding shotgun toting black men defending their children would be a good start.
I've always ben of the opinion that gun control laws are to keep guns out of the hands of blacks, in case they get too upset with the ruling elites.
If a thundercat is peppering your domicile with 9mm bullets with impunity, he will never stop; if you blow him up, he stops permanently.

[Grand Old Partisan]

The first gun control laws in this country were enacted by the Democrats in the South after the Civil War, precisely to keep guns out of the hands of blacks.

[dfrussell]

The election is over a year away. When it nears, the usual race-hustlers and con-men will start talking about pickups, chains etc... and most blacks will fall in line.

There is no question that the Democrats are shafting blacks; it's obvious... even blatant.

The fact that blacks appear to respond to it validates the Democrat's belief that blacks need special help.