January 14, 2008--The Second Black President

If Bill Clinton was our first black president, who will be our second? Barack Obama? Or Hillary Clinton?

From the tempest that Senator Clinton unleashed last week when she said, and let me quote her fully since I do not want to be accused of “personally offending” her—which is how she described the blowback reaction to her words—it appears that race has finally raised its corrosive head in the Democratic campaign. She said:

Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done. (See NY Times article liked below.)

Putting aside for the moment how this carefully-crafted statement (evidence of careful crafting is the fact that Senator Clinton uttered almost exactly the same words later in the day), notice how this assertion is in the form of one of those analogy questions we all hated on the SAT exam—to remind you, here’s an easy one, Doctor : Hospital :: Professor : College.

In her analogy, Hillary Clinton was asking us to fill in the blanks thusly:

Barack Obama’s dream of hope and unity will be realized when President Hillary Clinton passes the Civil Rights Act of 2009. And it will again take a president to get it done. Me.

Also put aside her (intentional?) carelessness in speaking about how King’s dream began to be realized by President Johnson when in fact it was the articulation of that dream and lots of on-the-ground protesting, mobilization, and suffering that effectively forced political leaders to pass civil rights legislation. It hardly began to happen only when LBJ got involved. Dr. King and his followers began it. The legislation, incidentally, required Congressional action and not just presidential action as Senator Clinton also in a self-referential and (intentionally?) self-serving way misstates.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I have a few questions for both of the Clintons and for those African-American spokespeople and politicians who support them and designated remember, Bill Clinton as our first black president. (This occurred in 2001 at a dinner in his honor hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus.)

First, what exactly did Bill Clinton do during his presidency to earn this distinction? Can you cite one piece of legislation he proposed or executive order he executed that was of direct and significant benefit to the black community? In fact, as I recall, he struck a deal with Newt Gingrich and the Republicans who controlled Congress to “reform” welfare, which many continue to claim disproportionately disadvantaged black people.

Yes, one of his best friends was Vernon Jordan and he was genuinely comfortable appearing and preaching in black churches. As Congressman John Lewis put it at the Black Caucus dinner:

"Bill Clinton has the rare capacity of connecting with African- Americans. He understands the hopes and dreams and the frustration of African- Americans. We identify with him and he can identify with us."

True, but where was the beef?

And then what about Hillary Clinton? What specifically has she accomplished during her 35 years of experience? I may be missing something, but again I cannot think of anything noteworthy that she has accomplished that shows a unique sensitivity to issues of race. In fact, when just yesterday Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, while introducing the senator scurrilously slandered Barack Obama, again making a crack about his youthful drug use, she just sat there and smiled. If she is so concerned about not injecting race into the campaign and is such a force for racial justice, why didn’t she, why hasn’t she disavowed Johnson’s comments? I think we all know the answer to that one. As we do recall Hillary Clinton not too long ago appearing in a black church and speaking to the parishioners in her version of Ebonics.

It’s taken a while, but we’re approaching crunch time, and this is when those inspired by Karl Rove emerge from under their rocks.