Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus were in Detroit yesterday hosting a "For the People Jobs Tour" town hall meeting where they apparently received quite an earful from constituents over the lack of attention being paid in Washington to the dismal economic state of black people in America. Waters expressed her and other Black Caucus members' dilemma of having to walk a fine line between expressing support for a black President, and challenging him to address the unemployment and poverty crisis facing black America:
"We don't put pressure on the president," said Waters. "Let me tell you why. We don't put pressure on the president because ya'll love the president. You love the president. You're very proud...to have a black man [in the White House] ...First time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you're going after us."
"When you tell us it's alright and you unleash us and you tell us you're ready for us to have this conversation, we're ready to have the conversation. The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president too. We're supportive of the president but we're getting tired ya'll...we're getting tired. And so, what we want to do is...we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity...but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community...we don't know that."
http://www.thegrio.com/...
According to the author of the article, Jeff Johnson of the black news website, the Grio.com, who also served as moderator of the town hall meeting, members of the mostly-black audience collectively expressed their willingness to "unleash" the CBC to confront the President on these issues:
As community members provided call and response, it became apparent that many in the room were also frustrated by their perception that the president has been less than responsive to the issues of the urban poor . . . It was clear that for the audience, the concerns over the president's lack of engagement of the urban poor is growing from a whisper into a steady buzz.
http://www.thegrio.com/...
The article notes that the CBC Jobs town hall meeting and job fair will roll on to Atlanta (tomorrow), Miami (August 22-23) and Los Angeles (August 30-31). It will be interesting to see if they continue to receive these kinds of earfuls across the country, and what that might mean in Washington this fall.