Today's Date: March 28, 2024
Government of Canada signs two bilateral agreements with Quebec to support initiatives to improve health care   •   The Home Depot Announces Agreement to Acquire SRS Distribution, a Leading Specialty Trade Distributor Across Multiple Verticals;   •   Latest U.S. Soybean Field Trials by Texas Crop Science Deliver Average Yield Increase of More Than 20%   •   Cardinal Tobin Blesses New Open-Air Mausoleum of the Holy Spirit Site   •   Lenzing strives to drive beneficial transformation across the value chain   •   Clean Energy Appoints Patrick J. Ford to Board of Directors   •   The Lenserf Group Launches Emotional Intelligence Academy for HBCU Interns   •   Stora Enso publishes Green and Sustainability-Linked Financing Report 2023   •   Netcracker Continues Its Support of the U.S. Paralympic Ski and Snowboard Team at Adaptive Spirit 2024   •   PRIVATE SCHOOL VILLAGE (PSV) AWARDS INAUGURAL ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS   •   Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Palantir Partner to Create Safe Conditions for In-Person Education in Schools   •   Lightshift Energy Raises $100 Million From Greenbacker Capital Management to Expand Utility Scale Battery Storage Across North A   •   Nutrex-Hawaii Introduces Its #1 Selling BioAstin® Hawaiian Astaxanthin® in a Retail-Ready, Sugar-Free, Vegan Gummy Forma   •   Apogee Enterprises Schedules Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call   •   Avnos and Deep Sky Forge Path to Gigaton-Scale Carbon Removal in Canada   •   Parental avoidance of toxic exposures could help prevent autism, ADHD in children, new study shows   •   3EO Health Announces the First Point of Care Molecular Test Under $15   •   Chris Diehl Returns to 101 Mobility as Director of National Accounts   •   Guo Guangchang: "Focus on building sustainable, predictable and enterprise with stable profit growth "   •   Fox Lake Grade School District 114 Selects Varsity Tutors for Schools to Provide Students with Additional Learning Resources
Bookmark and Share

Obama's Sr. Advisor: Blacks Growing Impatient

  Michael H. CottmanBlack America Web, New America Media
 

WASHINGTON - Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, sat inside the stately Secretary of War Suite in the White House and looked to the future for young African-Americans.

“The emphasis on strengthening education and the public school system is an important part of the president’s vision for preparing our children for the future,” Jarrett told seven African-American journalists who gathered at the White House.

“One of the challenges in the African-American community, with regards to college, is that many don’t have the resources to pay for it, so making improvements in Pell grants to have funds going to directly to students and improving our community colleges is important particularly for African-Americans,” Jarrett said. “And this is a core part of the president’s agenda. We’re working to design curriculums that lead to real jobs.”

Jarrett, who is perhaps Obama’s most trusted confidant, said the administration understands the growing impatience among Americans – and African-Americans in particular, who are faced with a 15.8 unemployment rate. The problem is this: The black unemployment rate is rising as the overall unemployment rate is dropping.

Seated behind a long hardwood table, Jarrett said the administration is working diligently with the private sector and putting initiatives in place to create jobs as quickly as possible – but not fast enough for many unemployed African-Americans. 

“We can’t underestimate the devastation of the economic crisis that the president inherited," Jarrett said. “Never in our lifetimes have we gone through anything that severe. In many parts of the African-American community, people were already struggling before the crisis.”

The Obama administration is listening carefully to the black electorate, particularly as Obama gears up a rough-and-tumble 2012 re-election campaign. 

Behind the scenes, Jarrett said the president’s economists and other senior advisors are busy working with corporations trying to find creative ways to get Americans back to work.

“We share that anger and their frustration,” Jarrett told the black journalists.

Jarrett said one major challenge facing the administration is convincing U.S. companies to keep its jobs in the United States and not outsource to places like China and India. She said there are recent positive signs that some business leaders are coming around to Obama’s way of thinking, but she agreed that it’s a work in progress. 

But Jarrett cautioned that Obama cannot fix these problems alone.

“Good ideas need to come from all sources,” she said.

Jarrett echoed what Obama has been saying for months – that the recovery efforts will take time. It’s true – but many African-Americans have grown weary of the phrase.

During his State of the Union Address, Obama was sobering, and, at times, uplifting. Jarrett said Obama “spent a good deal of time personally working on this speech” to make sure his vision for the nation was conveyed effectively.

“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back,” Obama said. “Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”

Some companies are slowly starting to hire again, just not fast enough. But Obama did get some good news this week: His job approval ratings are up — in some polls, higher than 50 percent, which shows that some Americans are still trying to support the president even during the toughest of times.

Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, echoed the feelings of his fellow black Democrats who support Obama.

“His attitude now is, ‘Let’s get jobs moving, and a rising tide lifts all boats,’” Watt said.

The hope, however, is that Obama’s rising tide will lift the many black boats that have taken on too much water.

But inside the White House this week, Jarrett was direct, forthcoming and optimistic. 

“We need to do better,” Jarrett acknowledged. “We all know that so many people of color are working in small businesses, and they’re really the economic engines of our country, so creating an incentive to help them grow and continuing to support them is the president’s priority.”


STORY TAGS: BLACK NEWS, AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWS, MINORITY NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS NEWS, DISCRIMINATION, RACISM, RACIAL EQUALITY, BIAS, EQUALITY, AFRO AMERICAN NEWS

Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News