Page 10 The Skanner January 11, 2017
ety in a way we’ve never
fit in. Just knowing that
opportunity is not ev-
erybody else’s, it’s OURS,
too. ... The sky is the lim-
it. And it was never that
feeling before.”
Perhaps nowhere are
those sentiments stron-
ger than at Altgeld Gar-
dens, where a 20-some-
thing Obama honed his
political skills as a com-
munity organizer.
It was there, in the
shadow of rusted steel
mills, where Obama had
his first up-close expo-
sure to a Black commu-
nity mired in poverty.
In his memoir, “Dreams
from My Father,” Obama
describes the sprawling
housing project in “a per-
petual state of disrepair”
with crumbling ceilings,
backed-up toilets and
burst pipes. He helped
residents agitate, rally
and fight City Hall to im-
prove their lives.
Three decades later,
Altgeld is in the middle
of a massive renovation.
Crime and poverty per-
sist, but there’s also a
sense of hope, especially
for kids who, for the first
time, see a president who
looks like them when
they walk by Obama’s
photo on their school-
room walls.
Cheryl
Johnson
is
among the few remain-
ing residents who re-
member Obama’s orga-
nizing days. He plotted
strategies with her moth-
er, Hazel, a well-known
environmental activist.
Johnson, who followed
in her footsteps, sees
Obama as an inspiration.
His presidency, she ex-
plains, allowed people to
say: “If he can do it, I can
do it, too.”
“It’s the influence, the
motivation that he has
given to people who may
have been hopeless in
their life, like, ‘I can’t get
this far,’” Johnson says.
“Now you hear young
people, young as 5 and
6, saying, ‘I’m going to be
the next president of the
United States.’”
Obama changed per-
ceptions of Black people,
says Ellen Singletary, a
youth specialist at Alt-
geld. “The media depicts
AP PHOTO/MANUEL BALCE CENETA
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Obama cont’d from pg 8
In this Friday, June 26, 2009 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks about the passage of the Clean Energy Act by the House of
Representatives in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington. As Obama took office, race became a focal point in a way that was
unprecedented in American history.
us ... in such an unfair
and defaming way,” she
says, “and to see the
pride of who we really
are demonstrated on the
world stage means the
world to me.”
That attitude is part of
what Michael Eric Dys-
on, a Georgetown pro-
fessor and prominent
African American com-
mentator, described in
a New York Times op-ed
as Black America’s “un-
repentant love affair”
with the president. That
pride, he wrote, over-
looks Obama’s failings,
including skimping on
black cabinet appointees
until his second term,
forgoing the nomination
of a Black woman to the
U.S. Supreme Court and
a “reluctance to highlight
black suffering.”
Still, Obama main-
tained an 80-90 percent
approval rating in the
Gallup Poll among Afri-
can Americans for virtu-
ally his entire presiden-
cy.
“One of the sayings we
have down in Alabama is
when you wrestle with a
pig, the pig enjoys it and
you’re the one that gets
muddy,” says Glennon
Threatt, an assistant fed-
eral public defender in
Birmingham, Alabama.
“The president has not
gotten in the mud.
“What he has done is
shown that a Black man
can be a successful pres-
ident and a successful
husband and a successful
father,” he adds. “I think
that’s an extraordinary
thing.”
“The fact that he got
anything done is impres-
sive in hindsight.”
Senate cont’d from pg 7
staff diversity has been
raised several times be-
fore in the press and in
reports issued by the
Congressional Hispanic
Staff Association in 2010.
Their 2010 report “Un-
represented: A Blueprint
for Solving the Diversity
Crisis on Capitol Hill,” re-
ceived media attention,
but no measurable hir-
ing changes. The Joint
Center’s recent study,
“Racial Diversity Among
Top Senate Staff,” was re-
leased in December.
Ten years ago, in 2007,
Politico reported that,
when it came to senior
staff positions, “the num-
ber approached zero” re-
garding African Ameri-
cans. Blacks account for
roughly 13 percent of the
U.S. population, but only
0.7 percent of the senior
staff members in the U.S.
Senate — three people
of 300 senior staff jobs.
Currently Latinos are 17
percent of the U.S. popu-
lation, but only 2.3 per-
cent of top staff.
One reason that there
has been no change in the
numbers over decades is
that members of Con-
gress are exempt from
labor laws that would
prompt a lawsuit in any
other sector. Congress is
not required to adhere to
the 1964 Civil Rights Act
and the Equal Employ-
ment Act of 1972. There’s
no legal requirement for
Senators to answer to
anyone on hiring issues
and no requirement to
post job vacancies in
Congress. Since Con-
gress is also exempt from
freedom of information
requests, there’s also no
requirement to report
data on hiring.
Ironically, federal of-
ficials that must be con-
firmed by the U.S. Sen-
ate must adhere to such
guidelines.
