Was the ‘African-American meeting’ with Obama a farce?

[Brother Tony]

 

[Bison66]

RE: the meeting, itself.

It is nothing new for folks to be in awe of the President in the White House.  White and Black are affected.

In H. Rap Brown's book, "Die, N i g g e r, Die!", published in 1969, he recounted (page 52) a meeting of Black leaders with LBJ at the White House.  Rap was there as Chairman of SNCC.

He quoted several of the leaders saying how happy and honored they were to be there and to meet the President and that they would tell their grandchildren about it.  

Rap said that when it came his turn, he said:

"I'm not happy to be here and I think it's unnecessary that we have to be here protesting against the brutality that Black people are subjected to."  Further, since LBJ had complained that his daughters couldn't sleep well due to noise from a demonstration outside the White House, Rap says he told him he didn't care about that and that Black peoples lives were at stake.  "Which side is the Federal government on?"

 

[EB]

Here is my $0.02.  I will agree that we should better support our own businesses like our ancestor did with Beale Street (Memphis), T-Town (Tulsa), and Auburn Avenue (Atlanta).  We should do it regardless of the economic times.  However, I would like for the administration to more aggressively institute a jobs program and rebuild our manufacturing base.  Sure, the jobs bill passed, but Americans, despite the skin color, need more.  Of course our people need it badly because during hard economic times we get hit hard worse and more often.

[Bison66]

EB,

The point that you raise about manufacturing should probably go into a new thread, but...here's my 2 cents.

There is, in the large scheme of things (the huge size of the economy), relatively very little the govt can do to rebuild the manufacturing base, especially in these times of globalization (cheap labor overseas).  What can Americans build where the ultimate costs could compete with Chinese labor, who work for a fraction of the money?

The Conserv/Repub approach is to cut taxes with the implicit assumption that the funds will be re-invested and strengthen industry resulting in more jobs.  But we saw that during the Bush years, there was ZERO manufacturing increase (despite the Bushites counting McDonald's burgers as manufacturing.  SERIOUSLY!) AND ZERO job growth WITH tax cuts, so that is not a panacea.  I guess, ultimately they would propose NO taxes on corporations and none on investments.  But these days, those untaxed monies will easily (and possibly, even preferably) find their way overseas into more lucrative investments, or to hide assets from the IRS - or to buy non-productive items, like gold, silver.

The Obama approach re: manufacturing is to select certain kinds of mostly-energy related industries and give incentives to businesses to do R&D and produce long-lasting batteries, wind turbines, etc.  The idea being that if the US can get a lead (or catch up; China makes more wind turbines than anyone) in these technologies, then US companies have a better chance to keep some of the manufacturing jobs and income (and tax base) at home.  Of course, while it seems like a reasonable approach, there is no guarantee this will work either.  The other important benefit of alternative energy sources is to decrease dependence on foreign oil, which retains dollars in the US to pay for domestically produced energy.

 

[Maroon and Gray]

We can get a sense of how this would work, right here on Onnidan.

Who is willing to contribute? 
What will the amount be?
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and the BIGGEST question
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whose going to manage the money?

Getting over that last question IS the stumbling block