An article in the New York Times titled The Black Caucus, A Fund Raising Powerhouse goes into enough detail about how these elected folk is rolling. It seems that the model for black politicians is not Barack Obama, but more that Kwame Kilpatrick. You know the type that always appeared with a hand out (as opposed to a handout). I have to admit I was still taken aback by Danny Davis reversing his stand on the predatory practices of the Rent-To-Own industry, which should be called the rent-to-be-owned industry. But that is what pimpin is like, what do you care if your buyer beats your product to a bloody pulp, so long as the money is made.
Now to be fair to the Congressional Representative from Chicago's West Side, he did do better for the community he serves than say, Bobby Rush and the money he got from the sugar interests in not cutting their subsidy Maybe it was Rush that taught him how to kill a bill you co-sponsored, like Mack the Knife, quite and not a trace of red. Peep H.R. 2081, if you think I'm being 'unfair' to our legislative representation.
The CBC has been known to refer to itself as the conscious of Congress. But they may have been unconscious when supporting the Iraq war to the degree that they did. But what they are doing now is little more than selling their constituency down the river. To be completely honest, many members of many legislatures from a Local School Council (LSC) to the U. S. Congress routinely sell their constituency up and down rivers all the time.
But when you look at the people that the CBC is selling us to, it appears that they have no shame at all. AT&T, Walmart, and Altria (aka Phillip Morris, aka Marlboro). They may have lost the kiss of Lorrilard, the makers of Newports, when they had that spat about adding menthol to cigarettes. So it appears that they may have some concern for our well being,the price simply was too high, or Newports already have the black community in their pocket (looking like 'loose squares'), I just can't call it.
The thing is, I do not want to under-appreciate what is at stake in this matter. The first thing an elected official has to settle on once elected, is getting re-elected. I mean, you got to make hay until the scent of scandal wafts over you, then you have to 'retire' to spend more time with your money, I mean family. In truth re-election is a big deal in all legislatures. You have to find the balance or the best pragmatic approach between doing the right thing for your constituency, your campaign contributors (who do not give a damn about your constituency) and yourself.
Danny Davis some ducats in his back pocket, I mean 'foundation and a feather in his cap. The Rent-to-own industry got to kill legislation that would have cost them millions in profit. And Danny Davis' constituency of a few hundred thousand got 22 bright, shiny new computers. Give that bitch a bangle (or bauble) and she will shut up and roll over.
Now that is big pimping.
For years Black entreprenuers have been trying unsuccessfully to get their products on the supermarket and drug store shelves that serve our communities, while Black consumers continue to spend $500 billion annually with everyone else but ourselves. Black unemployment is at an all time high and the CBC is begging the very companies that they take donations from to please create jobs for us. When are Black people going to wake up. No one is going to save us but ourselves.(BlackJesus.com)
Dude ( I suppose BlackJesus is a dude), I am not a proponent of entrepreneurship in the black community, it costs too much and rewards too little. If you want, I would be happy to go into details. $500 billion annually? I would really love to see where those numbers come from. But we do agree that the CBC is a clusterfock.
Let me move that figure up from $500 billion to $700
billion spent by Black folks annually. See www.TargetMarketNews.com for proof.
As for your not being a proponent of entrepreneuership, that's your choice, but this very blog that you write for exemplifies entrepreneuership. Its the very reason why slavery was so profitable for everyone else but us. And its the reason why foreigners do what ever they can to come to America and in some cases set up shop in the Black community to profit from the free enterprise system that creates jobs. Don't you think its time we
started employing ourselves and tapping into our own
economy? Everyone else is!
We would better to measure the worth of businesses in our community not by the race of the owner, most of the time the owner is not a member of the community. But the wages paid to the workers who are members is certainly a worthy measure.
What does the worth of anyone elses business
have to do with the lack of Black own business and jobs in our own communities. Whites hire whites, Asians hire Asians, Hispanics hire Hispanics all made possible because they support their own businesses. End oof story.
Hold on. Are you saying that there are no black businesses? Because a pretty high percentage of black business rely solely on black customers for support. Si? But what you fail to register is what black businesses have done to the black community.
Peep the move.
In the 1970s Chicago was the center of the black universe as far as I was concerned. We had the largest black banks in the nation. Not to mention that some of the largest black business in the nation were also headquartered in Chicago. I grew up on Chicago's South Side. If there was a business in my community, it was black. Grocery stores, gas stations, cleaners, laundromats, chicken joints, bowling alleys and so on and so on. We even Johnson Products and Soft Sheen products in our NEIGHBORHOOD (as opposed to some ethereal sense of our community). BBQ joints, bars and lounges all black owned and operated.
And what happened to them? Well to the last one, for one reason or another, they all sold out. Now in some instances, there were matters of competition, but more often than not, it was piss poor service (a direct effect of low wages), divorces, scandals of one sort or another and many owners had made their nut, put their kids through college, bought their home in the burbs and faded out of the picture. The thing to keep in mind is that, they would never have gotten a quarter if they did not have black people supporting them in their efforts.
Perhaps the most egregious instance was that of E. Garner and Soft Sheen products. Black people helped him get started, supported his business (no matter the fact that most of the labor force rarely made $7 an hour and I do not even want to go into the sexual exploitation of the black female workers that took place in that business. Then some white company in France made him an offer. He made sure his children would continue on their payroll, sold the business and closed the factory. Mind you that Soft Sheen products are still on the market. Well so are many of the people who were employed there.
There are many more instances of the same thing, in the black community. It is not that we did not support them.
Stick around and one day, I might post about a 'real' black business. One that actually scared 'Da Man' to the point where they had to put him out of business. It is one of the most fascinating stories you will ever read, and every word of it is true.
I've never been able to see how the CBC could have been conceived with anything in mind except "big pimpin'." Can representatives of disparate constituencies really "caucus"? When Rep A has to make a deal in order to bring home the goods to his voters, he might not be able to stand with Rep B. Just because the caucus members are all Black does not mean their respective constituents have shared interests because a lot of those interests are determined by region, AND not all of them represent Black or solely Black citizens. Sooo...their caucusing is based on self-interest, not the needs of the people back home. Big pimpin' is exactly what it is.
I think they have shown their shared interest in stacking dollars