Former Democratic presidential candidate, Reverend Al Sharpton, set the atmosphere for the morning discussion declaring that African Americans need to rethink their loyalty to the Democratic Party.
By Ruth L. Tisdale, Howard University
Wednesday February 16, 2005
African American turnout surged approximately 25 percent in the 2004 election, with President Bush increasing his share of the Black vote to 11 percent compared to 8 percent in 2000. These results raise important questions about the future of African American voting. Prominent African American commentators, both progressive and conservative, met on Wednesday at Howard University to debate these questions in a panel titled: “Beyond 2004: The Future of the Black Vote.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate, Reverend Al Sharpton, set the atmosphere for the morning discussion declaring that African Americans need to rethink their loyalty to the Democratic Party.
Sharpton said that while 88 percent of the black vote went to Democrats in 2004, only one African American sits on the executive board of the Democratic National Committee.
“We must begin to demand something for our vote,” said Sharpton, founder of the community development organization, National Action Network. “We are still in a political climate where we can go to the booth and pass out flyers, but we cannot have a say. We must stop plantation politics.”
Alexis McGill, executive director for Citizen Change, agreed with Sharpton, asserting that it is not only about asking for a seat at the table, but knowing what’s on the menu.
“It’s important that we have leverage in our community to sustain new policies,” said McGill.
Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams agreed with his progressive counterparts, but took the discussion a step further by saying that African Americans should switch their vote to the Republican Party.
“The over concentration of the black vote in the Democratic Party has caused the black vote to lose its power,” Williams said. “The black vote will go a long way in the Republican Party.”
Williams, who has come under fire in recent weeks for accepting consulting fees from the Bush administration while he was vocally supporting the No Child Left Behind law, added that the right to vote would wither if African Americans continue to cast for the same party.
Gregory Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund said that when talking about the African American vote, many people forget to look at political mechanisms and maneuvers that can cause the black vote to decrease.
“In Ohio, balloters were denied [their vote] because they couldn’t stand in line for 4 or 5 hours,” said Moore. “In 2000, it was the Secretary of State in Florida. In 2004, it was the Secretary of State in Ohio. The power of a state official is a major contributor for what we have going on today.”
While the topic of the day was the future of black voting, the conversation quickly turned to which party is better for African Americans.
“The alternative is not the Republicans,” said Sharpton. “We need to make a change in the Democratic Party or make some kind of independent formation.”
When Williams responded by saying that the Republican party is responsible for putting notable African Americans such as Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas in power, Sharpton responded by saying that Clarence Thomas votes in along the same conservative lines that would have made it impossible for him to be where he is today.
“Many of us are proud to see black people in high places, but are tormented with what they represent,” said Sharpton. “They are results of the struggle that put them there in the first place. For Condoleezza Rice to say that the civil rights movement wasn’t necessary and that people were naturally getting better is a spit in the face.”
The discussion again shifted when moderator Clyde Williams, a Vice President at the Center for American Progress, asked Armstrong Williams why Republicans do not want to discuss affirmative action in its totality.
Armstrong Williams responded by saying President Bush is not against affirmative action and then preceded to tell the audience that affirmative action is no longer needed.
“Affirmative action has not worked in thirty years,” Armstrong said. “This is an elite program. If you are going to put something in place, base it on socio-economic[factors]. If you can’t get there on your merit, you don’t need to be there.”
Audience member Erslynn Holmes said that the discussion showed that the younger generation has to do something to empower the black vote.
“In my state of Texas, we have Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, but we don’t empower her to help the black vote,” the 18-year old accounting major said. “I learned that we cannot sit back and relax and do nothing.”
Senior political science major Aaron Nelson said that while he agreed with Armstrong about the importance of considering economic factors in affirmative action, he was disgusted to hear Armstrong’s views that African Americans should think of themselves as individuals.
“We can never distance ourselves from our community,” said Nelson. “No matter how much money we may have, we have to remember the community and reach down and help those who are less fortunate than us.”
Ruth Tisdale attends Howard University and edits The Hilltop, the campus paper.