Sharpton, Jealous and Morial Meet with President Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and three prominent African-American leaders grappled Wednesday with how to improve economic opportunities for blacks, whose joblessness looms well above the national average and is nearly twice that of whites.
On a day of treacherous weather in Washington, Obama kept his scheduled meeting with Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network. Dorothy Height, chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women, could not make it to the White House because of the pounding snow and winds that kept most of the nation’s capital shut down.
The meeting did not yield immediate announcements or initiatives.
Obama and the other leaders focused on targeting aid to regions to help black people and other groups that have been hit disproportionately hard by the recession, Jealous told The Associated Press.
"When you try to focus on how to lift all those boats, what you come back to are places — geographic areas, urban and rural, where assistance should be located," he said. "That approach can work if Congress lets it work."
He added: "This is about place. It’s not about race."
I don’t know what these traditional leaders actually said to the President, but I’ll bet it included a whole lot of whining about racial inequity. The whines fell on deaf ears and everybody knows how big President Obama’s ear are in size. What they should have been arguing for is an equal opportunity or an advantage in starting a business. Does a person with a business need to beg someone who doesn’t want them for a job? A lot more Blacks should lose their jobs and start businesses. Leadership is about having a vision, raising your voice for others, and holding those helped accountable. The traditional Black leadership has failed because all they do is help themselves. The news was about them, not those they were trying to help. That’s a failure and nothing changed. Did they get their malt liquor served ice cold?
I’m revisiting this story because due to the lack of interest in Rev. Al and the current “Leadership” I had to say something to help us understand. If we give corporations a bonus for hiring qualified people fresh off the unemployment line doesn’t that provide an incentive to put a loyal qualified person on unemployment just to hire them back after they qualify for the bonus? Think about it? Fire one and increase productivity, then hire them back after they qualify for the bonus. Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money from President Obama’s stupidity? Good intentions pave the road to Hell.