By David A. Love, JD, The Black Commentator, Issue 260 – 17 January 2008
People of color, who have supported far more candidates from outside their community than have their White counterparts, know that Black faces in high places will not constitute progress without a positive agenda that benefits the people left behind. When Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas climbed the ladder, they did not leave it out for the rest of us. They have meant nothing for Black progress. Obama has a unique opportunity to change the whole game in this nation if he listens to the people, dares to bring discomfort to the powerful, challenges institutional racism and fundamental inequality, and does not succumb to the corruption of the cesspool that is Washington.
Likewise, the senator from New York does not deserve a free ride due to her or her husband’s perceived record of helping Black folks. The first time around, they courted us with saxophone playing on the Arsenio Hall Show. When in office, through a game of bait and switch, they delivered disappointingly conservative policies, welfare reform, “don’t ask don’t tell,” and media consolidation that decimated Black and Brown-owned radio stations and newspapers. One wonders what they really did to deserve the considerable support they have enjoyed among progressives and in many corners of the Black community, support they enjoyed at least until they became desperately unhinged in this campaign.