A Curious Time for Black America.

This is a most curious time to be black in America. At the same time that there has been so much early pride that the president of the United States is, himself, black, opportunities for African Americans -- including jobs, contracts, public school quality, equal access to health care, etc., are all approaching historically low levels.

Curiously, despite our worsening circumstances, African Americans, in recent years, have stopped advocating for their own issues in a forthright manner. In fact, public demonstrations, demands for fair treatment, and direct commentary on race-based issues are all frowned upon in our community -- even by some in our historic civil rights organizations. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of white, right-wing conservatives, many of whom are clearly possessed of racist values, have been demonstrating on a daily basis across the country, and recently marched on Washington to press their own agendas. (We used to do that!)

Right here in Pennsylvania, labor unions don't hesitate at all to grab picket signs and bull horns and converge on the state capital to make their wishes known to elected officials on job - related issues.

Curiously, black folks have been taught, in recent years, that this kind of activity is now "unsophisticated" and, somehow, "beneath them."

Here's something else: during the late 60's and early 70's, by most estimates, there were approximately 300 black elected officials nationwide. In a report done in 2001, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies estimated that that number had grown to more than 9,100. Current estimates stand at about 10,000. Curiously, the increase in black elected officials has not led to expanded economic opportunity for African Americans. In fact, in 2007, blacks were nearly three times as likely as whites to live in poverty, 8.6 percent for whites versus 24.7 percent for blacks.

It's curious that the political process has not produced outcomes for blacks commensurate with the time, effort, and money we've invested in it.

Talking about curious, why is it that when black mayors are elected, even with overwhelming support from black voters, that those mayors are so quick to make clear -- through word, deed and budget allocation -- that they plan to offer absolutely no special support, whatsoever, to their black political base?

That practice is not limited to black mayors, as we've recently discovered.
In the same way, the position of the Obama loyalists has always been that he can't possibly take time to address black-specific issues--even though we gave him 96 percent of our vote-- because he was elected to be "President of all the people" -- not just the "President of Black America."

On the other hand, when George W. Bush was elected with overwhelming support of right-wing conservatives, his administration catered to every whim of those voters. He didn't even make a pretense of supporting African Americans, or poor people, or people who lived in urban centers, or blue collar workers, of any kind. "W" never had to say that he was not "the President of all the people," he simply took care of those who supported him. Isn't that called 'The American way?"

Even more curious, we are now living through a period of the most clearly raced-based political discourse in recent memory. Every day, on tv and on the Internet, we see anti-Obama healthcare demonstrators bearing posters depicting the "first black President," among other things, as a witch doctor in the African bush. South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, whose political idol was legendary Dixiecrat and segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, and who fought to keep the Confederate flag flying at South Carolina's state capitol, recently screamed "You lie" at the "first black President" at a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

Outrageous, unprecedented, but we all saw it happen.

Subsequently, we've seen pundits on the left and right, black and white, weighing in on whether Wilson, the healthcare demonstrators, and their ilk, are really just, newly packaged racists.

Arguably, the most important voice we've heard on this topic has been that of former President Jimmy Carter, who described the anti-Obama healthcare activists, in no uncertain terms, as racially inspired.

We've also heard from Bill Cosby, who, I believe, shocked white conservatives, who have always been big fans of his "black responsibility" speeches, by emphatically agreeing with Carter.

For me, however, this is where "curious" begins to turn ugly and stupid: I woke up the other day and saw an attractive, business-like, black female pundit being interviewed on the Fox News Channel. She was unabashedly "trashing" Jimmy Carter, Bill Cosby, the NAACP and virtually all American black people for "playing the race card" in these recent discussions.

As she cogently explained, she saw no racial undertones, whatsoever, in anything that is currently taking place, or being said.

Under her image, on the screen, was her name -- Deneen Borelli (her maiden name, I later discovered, was "Moore") -- and her affiliation with something called the National Black Leadership Network.

I found out that the National Black Leadership Network was actually an organization named Project 21, and that it had been established in 1992 by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a right-wing, white conservative think tank, based in Washington, D.C.

I also discovered that the mission of Project 21 was to "provide broadcasters and the print media with prominent African-American conservative commentators as columnists and guests." (So, that's where they get them from!)

I learned further that, since 1992, the group's members have been published, quoted or interviewed more than 12,000 times on media outlets and shows such as the New York Times, the O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy and the Michael Reagan Radio Show.

The National Black Leadership Network was the group that was rushed out to respond, in 2005, after the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for lynching. They Network's press release said that blacks shouldn't "wallow in the apologies and regrets offered by senators, who couldn't be, in any way, responsible for what occurred, but supply our own closure by forgiving those who trespassed against us and moving on."

On another occasion, these same "professionally attired sell-outs" embarrassingly compared the beliefs of conservative Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to those held by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The scary part is that, every day, groups such as Project 21 are "fronting" on traditional media outlets and on the Internet for the right-wing conservatives who pay their bills. Unfortunately, most times, we simply see them, quite incorrectly, as independent-thinking black professionals, and, frequently, we pass along what they say as the valid opinion of a "black leader" we've seen on tv, or read about in the newspaper.

But wait, that's not the most curious thing about the Project 21 "black conservative network." No, the most curious part is that the group's director, the guy who calls the shots, the guy who books the media appearances, the guy who crafts the scripts spoken by these black "Judas goats," is a man by the name of David Almari, who happens to be 100 percent Caucasian.

Even in 2009, it appears, the "overseer" is still alive and well and controlling the activities and pronouncements of numerous black opinion-makers -- even those who appear, on the surface, to be most analytical and intelligent.

Here’s some advice: Pay careful attention to the people who offer you opinions on the issue of race in America. They, too, may be working for David Almari.

This is clearly a most curious and disappointing time to be black in America.


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