Comments on: Yes Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev Al Sharpton and the Black Agenda – It’s Time for a Unified Front.

By: Kevin Chambers

Kevin Chambers — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:02:03 +0000

I am white, let me say that first so that if you wish, you may stop reading right now. If you are still with me let me say that after our house burned down and my father began his drinking we had to move out Chicago’s south side Canaryville neighborhood. I was three years old at that time. For the remainder of my childhood we lived in black neighborhoods. It was a self imposed poverty as my father continued to drink and my parents continued to have children.I have 10 brothers and sisters. We survived on the charity of other including welfare.

I was 14 before I discovered that most people in this country are white and that the dangers of living in a black neighborhood was not something I had to live with. I had that advantage. Something else I discovered was that the welfare system imposes destructive restrictions on family structure. My father was afraid of earning too much or the welfare would be taken away to soon and we could not have nice things because the welfare agent would ask how we could afford such things. They were very suspicious and threatening.

My parents divorced ad my father disappeared. My mother became a Chicago public school teacher and was able to afford to move to the north side were her children were safe and she got off welfare. Welfare can become a trap and the breakup of the family is a disaster. My father was weak and though we are white and had that advantage,his behavior almost doomed us to poverty. Dr.Thomas Sowell is a brilliant economist who writes about his life growing up in Harlem in the 1930s and 40. I was amazed to read how similar life was in that neighborhood to all the nice places I have lived since growing up.

I believe the white sponsored War on Poverty is responsible for the worst kind of racism ever devised. To tell a people that their are helpless and in need of outside guidance in crippling. The Black community must come together and resist the handouts that weaken you. Stand together and depend on and help the community. A great strength of many communities has always been solidarity. German, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Irish and other ethnic neighborhoods are sources of strength and safe harbor for their members from which they may seek acceptance in the larger world with a measure of security at their backs.

Racism has come to be seen by the larger population as something hateful and unacceptable. Forced behavior such as imposed integration is also unacceptable and will not work. Integration works slowly and is happening in many Chicago neighborhoods but nothing can replace a stable home and community. I thank God for my mother’s strength and I know nothing is more important than family. Don’t allow Government interference to continue it’s misguided attempts at assistance which has proven so destructive. Demand change. It’s your government, they work for you.

By: william jackson

william jackson — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:58:43 +0000

theres a growing disregard disrespect for the president, lazy arab so
many odd names , is to show that racist ideas is here to stay, some of
own people likes the term, he lazy not bright, american, black education
don,t mean anything some white folks.

By: Leona

Leona — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:55:40 +0000

Tell me why the young black teens in Chester Pa. had to beat up a mentally challenge white woman and put it on you-tube? And why 4 black teens of Philadelphia beat to white men up in-side a Path-Mark? Also,2 black men beat and tortured a 75yr old white woman of Huntington Pa.
Is this because they can’t find no jobs or the way the black women raises their children by always screaming and hitting?

By: jdgwisd

jdgwisd — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:13:09 +0000

Dr. Watkins:

While I most certainly agree with your comments on holding the Obama Administration accountable as it relates to the needs of a segment of African America, I wonder when we are going to hold our own social,spiritual,and economic instiutions responsible? I believe in the James Brown message of black empowerment: “I dont want nobody to give me nuthin, open up the door, I can get it ma self.” I’m concerned that we have made a cottage industry of asking( a government) who has never been really all that interested in helping blacks in America be sucessful. Let us face our own problems with greed,poverty,sexual immaturity and immorality,spititual impotence, and political irresponsibility instead of asking a president to help us. BTW, like it or not, he is not really counting on our vote to get reelected. If you have paid any attention to what is going on politically, you fully know who Mr. Obama is counting on. And if we keep looking for a “magic negro” for help with OUR problems, we are fools indeed.

By: hoodgirl

hoodgirl — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:02:38 +0000

This encompasses Jessie’s body of work. Jessie warned that Obama was talking down to blacks and got ostracized. Check out Obama’s Utube stoking the flames of racial division by telling his black audience that the federal government does not care about them while intentionally lying to them about the funds allocated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Obama has been in office almost four years and it appears that he does not care about them or the poor because his platform consists of Same-Sex Marriage where Obama compares Same-Sex Marriage to Slavery and Jim Crow laws which is a direct slap in the face to African Americans.

To think that Obama who does not have a history of helping blacks nor the poor is going to suddenly help them from the oval office is ludicrous. However, while Mainstreet is hurting Wallstreet “Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq” is booming under President Obama.

By: sups

sups — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:53:08 +0000

Dear Dr. Watkins;
Thank you for this insight. Firstly, it was a remarkable accomplishment for Rev Jackson to secure the prisoners’ release. I agree that in his position as a civic leader as opposed to an elected one, he is granted access in situations that would be politically impossible for an official visitor.
I’m sure the 38 and their families are as grateful for his efforts, but everyone who enjoys the blessing of freedom owes thanks to him for demonstrating the tenet that liberty for all is worth the effort. I think it is a mistake for a civic leader such as he, to give up his ‘moral high ground’ to be sullied in a run for office.
That said, the one thought that seems out of place is your ambivalence towards Fox News. As someone generally in Fox’ demo but not so ideological, I would like to share my perspective. That you mention it at all and refer to Rev Jackson’s “problematic remarks” underscores your sincerity. But I think your ire is misplaced, after all, they were the only ones who showed up and I would not for the link on Fox’s site. Further, that you blame Fox “for what they did,” is also misplaced. History repeatedly teaches us that to be sitting on a set in front of cameras and think you’re in a private conversation is willful ignorance. For me, I actually added some admiration for the Rev when I heard that, because it showed that the “black community” might not be on permanent loan to the Dems. I believe in political debate and compromise as the course to real solutions and have long felt that if black voters (for example) showed they could be moved or at least weren’t monolithic, then they improve the potential for having specific remedies for their communities addressed. Even as someone rated ‘center-left’ I am loathe to vote for the Dems because I see them as too reckless, short-sighted, cynical and craven. The label ‘compassionate conservative’ was a call to moderates to join in coalition with the GOP that started to bear fruit and though they seem like grumpy old men, they’re mostly ‘classic conservative’ and just want govt to stop pushing everyone around. I was surprised to realize how little if any mention there was of ‘the poor’ or ‘poverty’ at the DNC. It was all about (upper) middle class or immigration issues. I live in a metro center with a thorough ethnic mix and the same old problems still exist here.

By: Terrance Amen

Terrance Amen — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:29:34 +0000

Until we as a people come together to solve the problems in our community, rather then waiting for the government to do what they can’t do for the general population, we will always be shouting for the crumbs we get from them, no matter who’s in office. But united, we can build a strong foundation to stand and build on, that will give us the power we need to forcefully with money, lobby for what we want.

Right now we have no power because we have always voted for the lesser of the evils, in order to beg for the crumbs we get. You can’t come from a position of power when you give everything you have to help people outside your community become wealthy and happy, while your community continues to suffer. The bottom line is how are we expected to get the resources we need, when we don’t even utilize the resources we already have in our community?

Black Unity means financial independence and happiness

By: Patsy

Patsy — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:56:32 +0000

I always knew that it is hard for Black men to make it but I heard a very disturbing story this week. I have been informed that there are Black prison guards who have been put behind bars with the prisoners for a few hours!!! They could have been raped… This is a method employed by the rednecks to show them this is where they belong, I mean in a cage and that they are not allowed to work… This is disgusting!!! The situation is worse than I thought.

By: benji hamilton

benji hamilton — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:53:53 +0000

You loss me at the part where it was the government’t responsibility to alleviate violence, poverty, inequality and mass incarceration in the black community. Makes it seem like we are too weak to do it ourselves.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:33:53 +0000

Seems like Dr. Watkins for got to add Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, to his list of Black Americans who are in a position to intelligently discuss poverty, inequality, violence and mass incarceration in ways that are both understanding of presidential limitations.