opinion
let’s Talk about Jobs, race, and Herman Cain
D
emocrats and Republicans
chant in unison jobs, jobs,
jobs. President Obama
offers an American Jobs plan, but
Republicans use the filibuster in
the Senate to kill it and a
Republican majority will not con-
sider it in the House. House
Democrats offered a heftier jobs
bill, but it is ignored by the major-
ity in control. Republicans offer
more of the same - tax cuts for the
rich whom they call “job creators”
- but they have put no actual jobs
plan on the table.
As a result, 15 million Ameri -
cans still languish, officially
unemployed, with another 10 mil-
lion underemployed or so discour-
aged they have stopped looking
for work.
One of the leading Republican
candidates for President, Texas
Gov. Rick Perry, is an advocate of
Tenth Amendment (states’ rights)
solutions and we are suspicious of
anyone advocating Tenth Amend -
ment solutions because that
amendment protected the peculiar
institution. Further, the Tenth
Amendment solutions guy was
also found to have taken friends,
colleagues and contributors hunt-
ing on a ranch widely known by
the name on a rock at its entrance
called Niggerhead.
While in the past, unacceptable
language used by Minister Louis
Farrakhan was overwhelmingly
D emoCrat
r eP .
Jesse Jackson
Jr.
condemned by a House resolution,
Republicans voted down a similar
resolution that would have con-
But what if not condemning
racism when it raises its ugly head
is actually diverting and delaying
the jobs discussion? What if
Herman Cain’s presence in the
race is actually camouflaging the
fact that President Obama’s jobs
plan (and virtually anything else
he proposes) is actually being
blocked, not just by conservatives,
but by white conservative
Republicans determined to use
any means necessary, including
race - as both Republicans and
Republicans offer more of the same -
tax cuts for the rich whom they call
“job creators” - but they have put no
actual jobs plan on the table
demned Governor Perry for taking
his friends to hunt at a place with
a racially offensive name.
Republicans protect their own
from charges of racism and the
press doesn’t vigorously pursue
the issue because Herman Cain
says, “it’s time to move on,” and if
he, as an African American, isn’t
upset, why should others be per-
turbed. And Democrats don’t
want to discuss it because it’s a
distraction from their jobs mes-
sage.
Democrats have done in the past -
to defeat America’s first African
American President? If Herman
Cain was not in the race, could the
press really ignore Gov. Perry’s
hunting site with no apology for
its name or use?
Why is the word so offensive?
Historically, the use of the “N”
word by whites often preceded an
act of violence by the perpetra-
tor(s) (e.g., hanging) or by the vic-
tim responding. Viola Liuzzo and
Rev. James Reeb were called N-
word lovers before they were mur-
dered.
Most recently James
Anderson was murdered in
Mississippi and the young white
perpetrator reportedly said, “I ran
that n****r over.”
If the American people were to
conclude that white Republicans -
not just conservative Republicans
- were actively working to defeat
Barack Obama because of his
race, they would overwhelmingly
reject the Republican Party, its
candidates and proposals, and
understand more clearly a
Republican strategy of blockage
and obstinacy.
The heart and soul of “conser-
vatism” is the South. When race
was rampant, it was the solid
Democratic South. In today’s
“post-racial” society it’s the solid
Republican South - minus the
African and Hispanic American
congressional districts. But why
would the poorest, least educated,
most ill-housed and most
unhealthy region of the country be
solidly conservative? Conserving
such poverty seems unnatural. So
what are the people of the South
conserving?
Clearly, historically, the rich - be
they slave-owners or possessors’
of other wealth or power - were
conserving their privilege. They
used the fear of blacks to manipu-
late whites and blacks politically
to keep them separated, and from
rebelling and joining forces to
fight their mutual state of unem-
ployment, poverty, lack of health
care, housing and education.
Poor whites were not told the
truth about the Civil War - that
they were fighting to protect the
slave-owners’ economic self-inter-
est. Instead they were told they
were fighting for states’ rights.
Rather than join the civil rights
movement for social, economic
and political equality for all in the
‘60s, poor whites were told to stay
away because African Americans
were being manipulated by “com-
munists” and “socialists” like Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and now
Obama.
So when the first 15 Presidents
avoided resolving the race issue
the result was an explosion, the
American Civil War. And when
white politicians know the
American weakness on race, and
exploit it politically, we can never
really get to the jobs discussion.
Dealing with and getting
beyond “Niggerhead” may actual-
ly be the key to addressing the
needs of the American people and
unlocking a real discussion on
jobs.
Jesse l. Jackson, Jr. represents
illinois'
2nd
Congressional
District: the people of the South
Side and southeast suburbs of
Chicago.
Take Time to Read.
www.theskanner.com
october 19, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 5