Sharpton, Obama and the Promise of America

By Dedrick Muhammad

Forty years after the Democratic National Convention refused to seat anintegrated delegation from Mississippi led by Fannie Lou Hamer, theDemocratic Party and the nation as a whole still finds itself challenged byAfrican American Democrats to create a more inclusive society.

Reverend Al Sharpton, former Democratic candidate for president, describedthe promise of America in his address at the Convention. ³The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and notspend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schoolsŠ Thepromise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.²

Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama provided a healthy balance betweenpublic and individual responsibility ­ a balance that so often eludes publicpolicy discussions. Obama affirmed the government role in creating theladder of opportunity. His white grandfather went to college on the GI Billand got an FHA mortgage, programs that most often were not open toAfrican-Americans at the time. It is ironic that Obama, who may have theopportunity to be the only Black U.S. Senator next year, exemplifies notonly Black excellence and diligence but also white privilege.

This white privilege seems to be taboo in public discussion. It is usuallyconcealed with the racist rhetoric that white Americans are more prosperousbecause they worked harder and upheld better moral standards. In recentyears, Charles Murray¹s book The Bell Curve and Ronald Reagan¹s demonizationof the welfare queen have helped keep these stereotypes on the public stage.

When it comes to the racial divide in this country and de-facto whitesupremacy, the primary cause is not the moral behavior of Blacks, or thetypes of music we listen to, it¹s institutionalized racism.

African Americans with graduate degrees are two to three times more likelythan whites to engage in the rough-and-tumble world of entrepreneurship withsmall business start-ups. Employed Black workers work more hours per weekand per year than white workers.

When sociologist Dalton Conley analyzed educational outcomes, he found thatfamily net worth, not race, was the best predictor of high school graduationand college enrollment. At a given level of assets, Black students areactually slightly more likely to graduate from high school than whitestudents. The drop-out rate for Black students has declined 44% since theassassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yet African Americans have not been rewarded for all this effort. For everydollar of per capita white income, Blacks had 57 cents in 2001, up from 55cents in 1968. The racial wealth divide is even worse: the typical Blackfamily has less than one-tenth of the median white net worth of $120,000.

In the decades when white income and wealth soared, it was not only due tohard work and talent. It was because of public investment in a ladder ofopportunity. The New Deal and the generous post-WWII veterans¹ benefitslargely excluded people of color. Since that time, public investment inopportunity has eroded. Federal spending on affordable housing was cut bythree-quarters in the 1980s, and the majority of families of color have beenunable to achieve the American dream of homeownership.

Obama and Sharpton, in their speeches, stressed that government must be heldresponsible for its failures and for countering discrimination. They alsoboth stressed that citizens must be responsible for taking hold of theseopportunities. As Mr. Obama asserted, ³with just a change in priorities, wecan make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.²

Rev. Sharpton articulated how, from Crispus Attucks to Fannie Lou Hameruntil today, African-Americans have been at the forefront of demandingopportunity for all Americans.

Let us all work to continue the African American tradition of both living upto our own personal responsiblities and demanding that the government liveup to its promise.

Dedrick Muhammad is the Racial Wealth Divide Coordinator at United for aFair Economy and co-author of UFE¹s report ³The State of the Dream: EnduringDisparities in Black and White.²

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