Let's talk about the disturbing lack of black lobbyists in Washington

[Poitier]

True, it could be argued though that black politicians are pressured to play ball in a white workplace by not sticking their necks out on black issues which would alienate them from 95% of congress. If blacks made up 14% of congress instead of 4%, alienation as a method of maintaining the status quo would become problematic and black lobbying would have a stronger impetus.

My rebuttal would be what about all Black municipal governments that still display the need to not tackle black issues? If we can't get it right on the city level then what hope is there to at the federal level?

 

[FruitOfTheVale]

My rebuttal would be what about all Black municipal governments that still display the need to not tackle black issues? If we can't get it right on the city level then what hope is there to at the federal level?

I think a lot of black municipal governments have their hands tied by state government and particularly on issues like education. State guidelines rarely ever benefit bigger cities that tend to have the largest concentrations of black people in their respective states (i.e. Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, etc). California's property tax codes for example benefit suburban school districts where the vast majority of residents are homeowners and disadvantage city school districts where the renter population is much higher.

I think that federal and state government does need to be our focus because a lot of the issues we deal with in our cities are directly mandated by the federal government and the majority of these state legislators have no ties whatsoever to any of our communities.

 

[get these nets]

I think a lot of black municipal governments have their hands tied by state government and particularly on issues like education. State guidelines rarely ever benefit bigger cities that tend to have the largest concentrations of black people in their respective states (i.e. Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, etc). California's property tax codes for example benefit suburban school districts where the vast majority of residents are homeowners and disadvantage city school districts where the renter population is much higher.

I think that federal and state government does need to be our focus because a lot of the issues we deal with in our cities are directly mandated by the federal government and the majority of these state legislators have no ties whatsoever to any of our communities.

Fruit,

Elected officials work FOR and are beholden TO the people who fund their campaigns and contribute to them. Even in all or mostly Black cities, the people holding the purse strings(donating money to elected officials) are white businessmen. Politicians need the Black vote in those districts, but they need the money even more.

That's why you can have mostly Black cities, with mostly Black officials and still not have Black issues addressed. C.R.E.A.M., get the money..dollar dollar bill y'all.

 

[Poitier]

I think a lot of black municipal governments have their hands tied by state government and particularly on issues like education. State guidelines rarely ever benefit bigger cities that tend to have the largest concentrations of black people in their respective states (i.e. Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, etc). California's property tax codes for example benefit suburban school districts where the vast majority of residents are homeowners and disadvantage city school districts where the renter population is much higher.

I think that federal and state government does need to be our focus because a lot of the issues we deal with in our cities are directly mandated by the federal government and the majority of these state legislators have no ties whatsoever to any of our communities.

You're more optimistic than me but we need folks with a plethora of viewpoints to get us out of this jam

 

[FruitOfTheVale]

Fruit,

Elected officials work FOR and are beholden TO the people who fund their campaigns and contribute to them. Even in all or mostly Black cities, the people holding the purse strings(donating money to elected officials) are white businessmen. Politicians need the Black vote in those districts, but they need the money even more.

That's why you can have mostly Black cities, with mostly Black officials and still not have Black issues addressed. C.R.E.A.M., get the money..dollar dollar bill y'all.

Of course money talks, all I'm saying is that 9/10 municipal governments in larger cities are compromised by state governments and even county governments catering to the suburban population that represents the bulk of the voters. In my own area the cities (SF, Oakland, SJ) have a combined 2.5 million population share of a region with 8+ million people. Detroit is the largest city in Michigan (680,000) but the county it's seated in (Wayne County) is 1.7 million. If the surrounding suburban population of Wayne County wants to shoot down any measure that proposes funneling more county spending to say, Detroit public schools, they can do that. This isn't even touching on the rampant voter suppression and misinformation campaigns that directly target black population centers.

 

[Neuromancer]

subs

 

[get these nets]

Good article.
More important than Black owned lobbying firm would be lobby group promoting the interests of Black folks. Paid for by Black people.Economics and legislation are the real ways to fight, everything else amounts to running in place. Only the naive would think otherwise.

Shout out to those who think that hashtagging and social media posts will force a candidate to "address Black issues". Keep doing the running man on a treadmill and think you're getting anywhere.

 

[I Really Mean It]

Good article.
More important than Black owned lobbying firm would be lobby group promoting the interests of Black folks. Paid for by Black people.Economics and legislation are the real ways to fight, everything else amounts to running in place. Only the naive would think otherwise.

JC Watts used to be a republican Congressman from Oklahoma..I think. He used his connections to switch hustles. I used to watch him tap dancing on tv back in the day.

JC Watts was a Republican, sure, but he wasn't a tap dancer. I think he was a genuine conservative black man who felt the Democratic party didn't represent the values - family, self-preservation, entrepreneurship - that formed the bedrock of the black community decades before Democrats removed the black man from the black household. Do I think he meant well? Yes. Do I believe that he wrongly mistook the neo-confederate wing of America politics as a hospitable home to black voters? Absolutely.

This is his wife:

 

[get these nets]

JC Watts was a Republican, sure, but he wasn't a tap dancer. I think he was a genuine conservative black man who felt the Democratic party didn't represent the values - family, self-preservation, entrepreneurship - that formed the bedrock of the black community decades before Democrats removed the black man from the black household. Do I think he meant well? Yes. Do I believe that he wrongly mistook the neo-confederate wing of America politics as a hospitable home to black voters? Absolutely.

This is his wife:

You didn't read me write or imply that he was a tapdancer because there was an R next to his name when he was in office. Nature of politics that elected officials juelz and tap dance along party lines.
.

When Trent Lott(R) made the controversial comments about Strom Thurmond,
(first 15 seconds of clip)

it was Republicans' time to tapdance, and as the lone Black Republican in Congress......JC Watts had to do a Nicholas Brothers routine.
J.C. Watts speaks out on Lott controversy
"
"He told me what he said and in the end, Jim, I concluded that Trent did go too far. Sen. Lott did go too far. I suspect that, as he said, if he could take those words back, he would. He would have stated what he was trying to say differently. He wouldn't have said it the way that he did. I think he went too far. I think he would love to have his words back. I think anybody could interpret that his words were racist, but I don't think that Sen. Lott is racist.

When you consider what was said, people in Washington are going to take things like that and they're going to be manipulated, they're going to be bandied around, and people are going to get as much mileage out of it as they possibly can. And that's unfortunate. But it's also unfortunate that it's the nature of the beast that Sen. Lott operates in. I don't think he meant to imply that he condoned the segregationist platform that Sen. Thurmond campaigned on in 1948 for president."



==========================================================
When the actual klansman Sen. Byrd(D) died ,President Obama did some disgusting and shameful gene kelly tapdancing at his funeral.

I call it like I see it.

 

[I Really Mean It]

You didn't read me write or imply that he was a tapdancer because there was an R next to his name when he was in office. Nature of politics that elected officials juelz and tap dance along party lines.
.

When Trent Lott(R) made the controversial comments about Strom Thurmond,

it was Republicans' time to tapdance, and as the lone Black Republic in Congress......JC Watts had to do a Nicholas Brothers routine.
J.C. Watts speaks out on Lott controversy
"
"He told me what he said and in the end, Jim, I concluded that Trent did go too far. Sen. Lott did go too far. I suspect that, as he said, if he could take those words back, he would. He would have stated what he was trying to say differently. He wouldn't have said it the way that he did. I think he went too far. I think he would love to have his words back. I think anybody could interpret that his words were racist, but I don't think that Sen. Lott is racist.

When you consider what was said, people in Washington are going to take things like that and they're going to be manipulated, they're going to be bandied around, and people are going to get as much mileage out of it as they possibly can. And that's unfortunate. But it's also unfortunate that it's the nature of the beast that Sen. Lott operates in. I don't think he meant to imply that he condoned the segregationist platform that Sen. Thurmond campaigned on in 1948 for president."



==========================================================
When the actual klansman Sen. Byrd(D) died ,President Obama did some disgusting and shameful gene kelly tapdancing at his funeral.

I call it like I see it.

He took one for the team he represented, which was and is the Republican party. I still don't believe JC Watts is a c00n in the same vein as a Ben Carson or Candace Owens.

 

[get these nets]

He took one for the team he represented, which was and is the Republican party. I still don't believe JC Watts is a c00n in the same vein as a Ben Carson or Candace Owens.

I don't really use those types of terms. JC Watts was mentioned in OP, I remember watching him on tv and weighed in on what I remembered. I was waving heavy at the time and I also remember that JC's wave game was up...
His shapeup was disgusting,though