Obama Disappointment over Appointment
Project RACE does not usually get involved with articles
about race-based entitlements, but an article caught my eye and begged for a
little commentary. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is admonishing
President Obama because he hasn’t chosen any blacks to fill cabinet and other
high-level positions during this, his second term. In a very blunt letter,
Chairwoman of the CBC Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) not only complains about the
slight, but adds, “[The CBC] ire is compounded by the overwhelming support
you’ve received from the African-American community.”
So what are they going to do? Pressure the White House,
get even more publicity, scream and shout and hopefully get an African-American
put in one of those top positions. I could go into the logic of just getting
the right person, regardless of race, into the right job, but we all know that
argument or the implication of some pay-back by the President.
Surprise! My point is to applaud the CBC for coming
together and pointing out their gripes. The letter also states, “We want to
make sure that everybody understands that we’re not some group that’s so way
out that we can’t fit in the mainstream. We are very mainstream, and I want
that message to be told.” You go, Congresswoman.
The CBC is doing exactly what the multiracial community
should be doing, but is not. Oh wait, I sent a requested letter to the Census
National Advisory Committee (NAC) a week ago and stated this: “Members of the
multiracial community are stakeholders, not outliers in the Decennial Census
and in other government reports. We are more than bits of data or combination
folks.” I waited until their March meeting was over to speak with them, so they
could confirm that none of the vital concerns of our community were brought up
during the meeting, especially not by multiracial members of the committee.
Then I immediately followed-up with the letter.
The biggest failing of the multiracial community is that many
do not understand how things work in Washington, or even on state levels. Ya
gotta have clout and/or think outside of the box(es). We accomplished
everything we could in the 90s because of strategic political thinking by some
of the Project RACE advisors. But where did all the other advocates go? How did
academics without political science knowledge become voices for the movement?
The same way clueless people got on committees, they were appointed by people
on the inside who knew they were powerless or they were self-anointed to play
“expert.”
I am proud to say that Project RACE has worked for the
civil rights of multiracial people and our families since 1990, mostly behind
the scenes, politically, to build an important base. But we can’t teach others
in the community who do not understand the different needs between—let’s say a
zombie—and a multiracial child.
So don’t worry, Project RACE has the collective backs of
the multiracial community despite one old academic and his followers’ efforts
to keep us down. Maybe one day, we can join forces and become as effective as
the Congressional Black Caucus.
