Society & Culture - Posted by Beverly Clark-Emory on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 14:24 - 1 Comment 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Black politics beyond Barack
“If there was a motto for the book it would be: Black politics is bigger than Barack Obama. It’s important to acknowledge the trailblazing of the early cohort of African-American politicians and give voice to the diversity that persists in African-American politics, even amongst this new wave of black politicians,” says political scientist Andra Gillespie (below). (Photo Montage Credit: Clicksy/Flikr)
EMORY—The era of post-Civil Rights Black politics didn’t start with Barack Obama, and won’t end with the 44th president, according to a new book featuring essays analyzing 10 leading young black politicians.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Among the politicians discussed are Newark, N.J.’s Cory Booker, Civil Rights legacy Jesse Jackson Jr., Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick, and Tennessee’s Harold Ford.
Whose Black Politics? Cases in Post-Racial Black Leadership—edited by Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie—explores the contemporary cohort of black political leaders who came of age after the Civil Rights era who have been defined through the election of President Obama.
While race may tie them together, the case studies from scholars around the country reveal philosophical and practical differences in how they view the world—and the importance of their own racial identity.
“If there was a motto for the book it would be: Black politics is bigger than Barack Obama. It’s important to acknowledge the trailblazing of the early cohort of African-American politicians and give voice to the diversity that persists in African-American politics, even amongst this new wave of black politicians,” Gillespie says.
Gillespie establishes a road map for defining new leaders in African-American politics based on black leaders’ crossover appeal, their political ambition, and connections to the black establishment. The collection also explores what’s missing with an examination of the underrepresentation of young black women in this new generation of politicians.
Gillespie defines the post racial cohort as those born after 1960, give or take five years, who didn’t experience the Civil Rights movement first-hand nor the codified racism of Jim Crowe laws. They also benefitted from the gains of the Civil Rights movement with opportunities for education and integration not experienced by previous generations of African Americans.
“Their attitudes toward race are going to be very, very different. It’s not going to be shaped through the crucible of struggle and through the crucible of protest,” Gillespie says. “They are however, sympathetic to the struggle and history of their people and that could actually have an impact on how they approach politics, and what policies they espouse and how they reach out to other people and create the partnerships to address the problems in African-American communities.”
At the same time, “they are more likely to embrace deracialized campaign and governance strategies,” she says. “Members of this new cohort have often publicly clashed with their elders, either in campaigns or over points of policy. And because this generation did not experience codified racism, critics question whether these leaders will even serve the interests of African Americans once in office.”
Emory University news: www.emory.edu/home/news/releases/
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As far as I know, there is only one place left in American law where racism is still codified into law.
That place is the 8(a) Business Development Program.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_06/13cfr124_06.html
and in partiucular
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2006/janqtr/13cfr124.103.htm
The below listed people (races) are eligible for participation in the 8(a) program.
Black Americans;
Hispanic Americans;
Native Americans (American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native Hawaiians);
Asian Pacific Americans (persons with origins from Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Vietnam, Korea, The Philippines, U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Republic of Palau), Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Samoa, Macao, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, or Nauru);
Subcontinent Asian Americans (persons with origins from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives Islands or Nepal)
___________________________________________________________________
“The purpose of the 8(a) BD program is to assist eligible small disadvantaged business concerns compete in the American economy through business development.”
The effect of the 8(a) BD program is to lock the door on other very small struggling white owned businesses like mine.
100% of contracts offered to my industry locally by NAVFAC Mid Atlantic, Naval Base Norfolk, Naval Air Base Oceana, Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, and Fort Story are reserved for 8(a) program participants. I am (because I am white) left with no possibility of participating in these contracts, and no way to EVER qualify for participation until this discriminitory practice and law is changed.