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Wednesday, 02 August 2006 03:13 |
 | | Roland Martin |
CHICAGO ?? After six years as president, George W. Bush finally decided to show up at the NAACP convention after ignoring invitations to speak.
Then again, considering the blasts unleashed by Chairman Julian Bond and then-president and CEO Kweisi Mfume, ain??t no way in the world I would have walked into the lion??s den.
But
with retired Verizon executive Bruce Gordon at the helm of the nation??s
oldest and largest civil-rights organization, Bush had someone as a
soulmate he can relate to.
Was his speech a
pretty good one? Sure. He hit on some critical themes ?? increased need
for black homeownership, the importance of African-Americans saving
money and ensuring a quality education for all Americans.
Yet the one
issue that will become the main item of interest is his admittance that
the GOP does not have a good track record and he wants to change that.
?®I consider it a
tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties
with the African-American community,?∆ he said. ?®For too long, my party
wrote off the African-American vote, and many African-Americans wrote
off the Republican Party...?∆
?®That history
has prevented us from working together when we agree on great goals.
That??s not good for our country. That??s what I??ve come to share with
you. We??ve put the interests of the country above political party. I
want to change the relationship. The America we seek should be bigger
than politics. And today I??m going to talk about some areas where I
believe we can work together to reduce the obstacles for opportunity
for all our citizens. And that starts, by the way, with education.?∆
Again, all of the critical issues he spoke of are good and wonderful, but what bothered me the most was the lack of solutions.
For instance,
Bush pushed the need for blacks to own their homes and acquire assets.
Yet two days before the speech, The New York Times ran a story about
the ?®ghetto tax?∆ or the ?®black tax,?∆ which showed that drivers in
certain neighborhoods paid as much as $400 a month more in car
insurance than white drivers with the same credentials. Is that
American?
The president
can talk all day about the need for African-Americans to own their own
homes, but if banks are charging higher interest rates because of your
race, is that American?
Bush spoke of
his administration increasing opportunities for black business owners,
but tell that to those owners who can??t get lines of credit from banks.
Again, the ?®black tax?∆ rears its ugly head, and our government does
nothing to hold these banks accountable. Is that American?
A few years ago,
the Community Reinvestment Act was gutted, giving financial
institutions the freedom to screw black and Hispanic communities who
weren??t considered prime candidates. Is that American?
You have
companies that actively promote a ?®non-urban dictate,?∆ which says that
they will not advertise in black newspapers, on radio stations
targeting African-Americans or shows that reach African-Americans. Is
that American?
The president
spoke of signing the Voting Rights Act. Thankfully, that is going to
happen. But surely he doesn??t expect African-Americans to flock to his
party when his Justice Department has failed miserably to enforce the
Voting Rights Act. In Georgia, they passed a voter ID law that career
officials at Justice felt was illegal. But the political appointees ??
many of them from the hard-core, right-wing Federalist Society ??
overruled them and let it fly. Our government set up satellite voting
locations for Iraqis to cast ballots in their nation but wouldn??t do
the same for displaced New Orleans residents.
Is that American?
If the president
had presented a plan of action to the NAACP and followed through with
it, he would have put the Democrats on notice and gained significant
credibility with African-Americans.
There is an
assumption that black voters aren??t making informed choices at the
ballot box. They are. It??s a matter of choosing the party that offers
them hope and opportunity rather than rhetoric.
Unfortunately, President Bush and the GOP offers more of the latter. And that is a shame.
?®For nearly 200
years, our nation failed the test of extending the blessings of liberty
to African-Americans,?∆ he said. ?®Slavery was legal for nearly a hundred
years, and discrimination legal in many places for nearly a hundred
years more. Taken together, the record placed a stain on America??s
founding, a stain that we have not yet wiped clean.?∆
Mr. President,
you can do more to assist in the cleaning. Then I??ll be able to
determine if a vote for you and your party is in my best interests.
?ÿ
Roland S. Martin, editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper, is author of ?®Speak, Brother! A Black Man??s View of America.?∆
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