The News Journal: Opinion: Acknowledgement of racial issues needs to go beyond holiday

By RHONDA B. GRAHAM

It's unfortunate that the first black American president feels he can't confab with African-American leaders about jobs in their community outside Black History month.

This is the distinct impression from Barack Obama's Oval Office meeting Wednesday with Benjamin T. Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network.

Somehow Black History Month becomes the guilt month for all of America rather than a respectful acknowledgement of the remarkable and necessary accomplishments of a particular segment of citizens. As a result, every issue, from slavery apologies to assessments of the latest U.S. Census tally on the state of Black America, gets lumped into the second month of the year for serious consideration.

To their credit the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus understand that their constituents can't wait for a holiday-like recognition to challenge joblessness.

For months they have been forcing the issue of unbalanced unemployment and home foreclosures among their constituents. By standing together to boycott a key House committee vote and threatening to abandon support for banking regulations, in December the CBC was able to get $6 billion added to key legislation to help

To their credit the three men at Wednesday's meeting did not make the case for a race-based preference in solutions to the unemployment malaise.

"It made more sense to target poor areas. When you're on the ground, the poor black community is the same as the poor white community," Jealous later said.

That's what the president essentially said back in December when CBC members challenged him to do more to address the joblessness in black communities.

The unemployment rate for blacks was 16.5 percent in January, compared to 9.7 percent overall and 8.7 percent for whites.

In 2009 the Labor Department tracked similar disparities: Hispanics (12.7 percent), whites (9.3 percent) and Asians (7.3 percent) compared to 15.6 percent for blacks.

But in challenging Obama to do more, members of the CBC did what every other congressional representative and senator did in advocating for targeted interests on behalf their constituents.

Thankfully though, they had the God-honest sense to avoid a "Ben Nelson strategy" and seek special favors for their entire state when it comes to future Medicare benefits and release of the obligation to pay for it.

But race is a prickly issue for Mr. Obama. Who said it wouldn't be? Some recognition of the leadership on this issue and even presence at Wednesday's meeting would have been fitting.

Perhaps, like all politicians Mr. Obama is still holding a grudge for that December vote. It wouldn't be the first time. Ask those folks at Fox News.

But the difference here, when it comes to being frozen out of a major effort to jump-start the U.S. economy, the CBC objections are valid and their solutions are broad-sweeping. In other words not just blacks would benefit from their recommendation to shift the focus from the "too big to fail" financial service industry.

If the Republican Party were smart, it might want to court the mostly Democrat CBC for support, particularly since the president has been beefing so much about bipartisan dialogue.

The always-blunt Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., challenges the effectiveness of the bailout money that the administration says can help minorities catch up to the new employment realities.

Waters called the respective retraining programs targeted to urban communities "rip-offs" and a waste of bailout funds.

Sounds like an appropriate sound bite from, say, one of those Gretawire blogs.

"They're soliciting people to sign up for training on job titles that don't widely exist like 'nurses assistants,' " Waters said. Instead she favors money for training for jobs that will be around in the new economy like green jobs and new technologies.

Furthermore, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver points out the administration's blind spot when it comes to understanding the nexus between unemployment and foreclosures. About 50 percent of the nation's foreclosures are on homes owned by African-Americans, which makes the jobs situation for blacks urgent.

"If you're in a training program and you have a notice that you'll be kicked out of your house if you don't make your payment in two weeks, chances are high that you're going to quit the training program," Cleaver said. "We need some immediate help from a program where the government funds municipalities and nonprofits to hire individuals to do real work right now."