🚀 go-pugleaf

WASHINGTON � No sooner did President Barack Obama and a group of 
senators separately outline proposals to revamp the nation�s 
immigration system than the phone lines on several African-
American-oriented talk radio shows heated up with callers 
blasting the plans.

�Amnesty,� complained Frankie from Maryland recently on the 
nationally syndicated �Keeping it Real with Al Sharpton.�

A political payback to Hispanic voters that does little or 
nothing for African-Americans, reasoned Sam from Milwaukee on 
Wisconsin�s 1290 WMCS AM�s �Earl Ingram Show.�

�Our issues are not being highlighted and pushed, and things 
like gay marriage and (immigration) are being pushed to the 
forefront,� the caller said. �Hispanics are effectively 
organized. For us not to be organized and for us not to hold our 
leadership accountable is disheartening.�

Although the civil rights establishment, from the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the Urban 
League and Sharpton, squarely back Obama�s desire to tackle 
immigration, the president�s call has reignited complaints 
within the African-American community that he is addressing the 
specific needs of almost all major voting blocs � Hispanics, 
women, gays � except for the African-Americans who gave him 93 
percent of their vote.

Obama is expected to address the immigration issue again Tuesday 
in his State of the Union address and when he travels to 
Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday and visits Chicago and suburban 
Atlanta on Thursday to sell his second-term agenda.

�There (are) clearly different views in the African-American 
community around immigration,� Sharpton said on his radio show 
last month. �Some have said they�re (illegal immigrants) taking 
our jobs, they dilute our strength. Others have said we�ve got 
to have rights for everybody or we don�t have it for anybody, 
and this is not just a Latino issue because immigration laws 
cover the Caribbean, cover Africans, cover South Americans.�

Some angst over Obama addressing immigration and other issues so 
soon in his second term has boiled over into public criticism of 
the nation�s first African-American president by many African-
Americans, from the grassroots to the political levels.

Bernard Anderson, an Obama supporter and a former assistant 
labor secretary during Bill Clinton�s presidency, recently told 
an African-American economic summit at Washington�s Howard 
University that African-Americans should no longer give Obama �a 
pass� on dealing with issues that directly impact their 
community.

�He is not going to run again for anything. He does not deserve 
a pass anymore,� Anderson said. �Let him not only find his voice 
but summon his courage and use his political capital to address 
racial inequality. He owes that to the African-American.�

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are quietly 
seething because Obama hasn�t met with the 42-member group since 
May 13, 2011. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., vented to the 
National Newspaper Publishers Association last month. He said 
the black caucus sent the White House the names of 61 potential 
candidates for positions in a second-term administration that 
already is coming under fire for being heavy on white males.

�Not one of that 61 was selected � not one,� Hastings told the 
African-American newspaper publishers at a Fort Lauderdale, 
Fla., conference.

Obama administration officials reject assertions that the 
president is race-adverse. Obama has consistently said he takes 
a �rising tide lifts all boats� approach to governing and that 
his policies benefit all Americans, not just one group.

�I think comprehensive immigration reform is not about a 
specific community, it�s about a problem that we need to address 
as a whole,� White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last 
week.

But some African-Americans view Obama�s immigration drive as an 
overture to Hispanics who helped power his re-election in 
November with 71 percent of their vote.

�The amount of blacks who are impacted by this legislation is so 
small it�s infinitesimal,� talk show host Earl Ingram said. 
�Minuscule.�

A 2009 report by the Migration Policy Institute found that black 
immigrants from all regions of the world accounted for just 9 
percent of the overall immigrant population in the United States.

However, a 2011 report by the same group discovered that blacks 
from Africa, though just 3 percent of the U.S. foreign-born 
population, are among the fastest-growing immigrant groups in 
this country.

>From 1980 to 2009, the number of African blacks in the United 
States has swelled from 64,000 to 1.1 million, according to the 
2011 report.

If that growth trend continues, Africa will supplant the 
Caribbean as the major source region for the U.S. black 
immigrant population by 2020, the Migration Policy Institute 
study concludes.

Still, Ingram says many of his listeners see Obama�s attempt to 
push forward on immigration as a reminder of what the president 
hasn�t done to improve economic conditions for African-Americans.

�I would say a bulk of my listenership is anti-immigration,� he 
said. �You have to understand that in the community in which I 
live the percentage of African-Americans who are unemployed. 
They look at what�s going on with immigration as an affront to 
African-Americans who can�t pay their mortgages because many of 
the immigrants come here, they are hired at less than minimum 
wage.�

The African-American unemployment rate is at 13.8 percent, 
according to recently released government figures, nearly twice 
the 7 percent jobless rate for whites. The nation�s overall 
unemployment rate is 7.9 percent. For Hispanics, the rate is 9.7 
percent.

A 2009 study by George Borjas of Harvard University, Jeffrey 
Grogger of the University of Chicago and George Hanson of the 
University of California, San Diego, looked at 1960-2000 Census 
data and found that as immigrants disproportionately increased 
the supply of workers in a particular area, wages of African-
American workers in that area fell, the employment rate declined 
and the incarceration rate rose.

�Our analysis suggests that a 10 percent immigration-induced 
increase in the supply of a particular skill group reduced the 
black wage by 2.5 percent, lowered the employment rate of black 
men by 5.9 percentage points, and increased the incarceration 
rate of blacks by 1.3 percentage points,� the professors wrote 
in the study.

Todd Shaw, a political science and African-American studies 
professor at the University of South Carolina, believes �the 
concern that African Americans are hostile to immigrant workers 
is a bit overplayed.�

�It�s more a concern about the opportunity ladder than it is the 
perception that African-Americans don�t think there should be 
economic fairness to other groups,� Shaw added.

Many civil rights leaders also believe that African-American 
concerns about the White House and Congress pushing for new 
immigration laws are overhyped. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous 
said, �Four out of five black voters are in support of 
immigration reform.�

But some polls tell a different story. A Pew Research poll 
released in January found that 56 percent of African-Americans 
feel there are �very strong� or �strong� conflicts between 
immigrants and people born in the United States. But perceptions 
may be improving �January�s figure is a drop from 61 percent in 
2009.

A different Pew Hispanic poll found that while all groups of 
workers have seen gains in employment, Hispanics and Asians have 
experienced a faster rate of growth than African-Americans and 
whites.

Hispanic employment increased 6.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, 
compared with a 2.2 percent increase for African Americans and 
just 1.1 percent for whites.

The sensitivity of the immigration issue within the African-
American community isn�t lost on African-American and Hispanic 
leaders who are striving for a unified front.

Sharpton and Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of 
La Raza, an immigration advocacy coalition, walked together to 
their seats at Obama�s second inauguration ceremony last month.

Murguia has made strengthening ties with the African-American 
community a key component of her leadership. She was the first 
Hispanic leader to give the keynote speech at the annual Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast in Birmingham, Ala. She 
marched arm in arm with Sharpton, Jealous and Rep. John Lewis, D-
Ga., at last year�s Selma-to-Montgomery march, which focused on 
voter rights and anti-illegal immigrant laws like those in 
Alabama.

�I think they see echoes of their own civil rights movement in 
the struggle to bring equity and dignity to people who are in 
the shadows,� Murguia said of the black leaders.

They also see political opportunity, said Rep. William Lacy 
Clay, D-Mo.

�African-American leadership understands, and I understand this 
clearly, that we must come together with the Latino community 
and help them address some of their issues so that down the road 
they help us address ours.�

Email: wdouglas@mcclatchydc.com or fordonez@mcclatchydc.com; 
Twitter: @williamdouglas or @francoordonez

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/11/182697/many-african-
americans-concerned.html

--
Are you obligated as an armed civilian, to defend unarmed 
liberals while you are both under fire by foreign agents of the 
outlaw Obama administration?

No.  Shoot the liberals immediately so they can't stab you in 
the back while you are defending yourself, then return a 
controlled rate of aimed fire.  ��

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