| Both presidential candidates who accepted the invitation to address the National Association of Black Journalists, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, were immediately put to the test on the record: Are you black enough to secure the support of minority voters? And both candidates knew they wouldn't be able to duck a candid examination of their aspirations to lead America when they faced the National Association of Black Journalists at their annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. More than 3,000 NABJ members attended the conference, which focused on changes in the news and communications industry, the resulting employment issues for journalists of color and the growing lack of diversity in newsrooms and corporate America. "Madam President has a nice ring to it," Clinton said taking the podium after NABJ Past President Condace Pressley on Thursday. However, her presidential candidacy has nothing to do with being a woman, a former First Lady, or any of the special categories political pundits are trying to ascribe to her campaign, Clinton said. "Democratic voters don't have to be against anyone. We can support whom we believe in. But, it's going to be difficult to follow George Bush and Dick Cheney. Let's just be honest about it," Clinton added, drawing laughter with her candor. "I believe that I am the best qualified candidate," Clinton said. "But I don't deserve your vote. I have to earn it." The American Dream is receding for many Americans and policies are making its pursuit harder for both middle class and working class families, Clinton said. But the current state of America's minority communities also is of key importance to the welfare of the entire country, she added. As a female lawyer, her idol was Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund and the first woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. "In my 35 years as an advocate for children and families, I have never seen a child without potential," Clinton said. But now she sees too many people without hope. "Like many Americans, she is tired of hearing the same discussions about America's problems from unemployment to falling behind in the worldwide education arena while nothing gets done. American politicians have written off more than 1.4 million people who are caught in dead-end policies that limit their options for education, health care, employment, training and other basic quality of life choices and assigning them to a permanent American underclass. "The writing off of 1.4 million people is not just an urban or African American crisis," Clinton said. "It is an American crisis. We need to ask everyone 'what will you do about this crisis?' Rhetoric is not the answer, Clinton declared, action must be taken. She pledged to be held accountable for addressing the growing gap between America's social classes. Delving further into her policy plans, Clinton said she supports same sex schools so that youth can work with gender appropriate role models and mentors. Seventy percent of all jobs are obtained by personal connections, she added. "We have assigned our inner city youth to not having these connections by lack of exposure," she said. Also, the politics of violence need to be stopped. "It will be difficult because there are a lot of embedded reasons in people's minds as to why we shouldn't or can't do it." If elected, Clinton pledged to create jobs at a pace comparable to the job growth of the 1990s, retool industry to better compete in a global economy, rescind destructive policies and close corporate loopholes. Both presidential candidates vowed to insist on more diversity in the national press corp if they are elected to the White House. On Friday, Senator Barack Obama broke the ice with NABJ members by pointing out his late arrival. "I want to apologize for showing up a little late, but you guys have been wondering if I'm Black enough," he said to uproarious laughter and applause. Obama began his candidate's statement by describing a day spent shadowing a 61-year-old in-home caregiver who needs two jobs to survive while trying to raise her grandchildren. Common people have no voice in Washington, D.C., where lobbyists and corporate lawyers write them out of the rules, Obama said. "Americans are tired of a senseless war, impossible health care costs and pitiful inadequate education," he said. "And we've got to tie the specific stories of the African-American community to the larger struggles and issues of this society." The 2008 election is about more than party politics, Obama said. It's about policies, he said, adding that it's the job of journalists, especially NABJ members, to report the impact of bureaucratic policies on their communities, which is why undiversified newsrooms are a problem. Like Clinton, Obama pledged to call for greater diversity in the national press corp if elected. However, if a black president like himself and his wife, Michelle, were living in the White House, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, were playing on the White House lawn, it would go a long way toward changing the tone of Washington, he said. But the Black press has always embraced his issues, said Obama, who represents all of Illinois, including Chicago. He would not forget who focused on the issues regardless of popularity or prominence, he added. "If y'all were covering me when no one wanted to cover me, then you can cover me when everyone wants to cover me," Obama said. On immigration, Obama said it is a political ploy to pit African Americans against Mexicans and Latinos. "It is my firm opinion that we make a mistake by pitting young Mexican and Latino workers, who are trying to work and take care of their families, against young African Americans who are trying to do the same thing," Obama said. However, he added that something has to be done about the current dynamics of illegal immigration. If immigration isn't controlled, illegal workers cause the system to work against itself because they are outside the protection of the law, he said. They need to become citizens and subject to the law, which will then protect them and give them a voice in their own welfare. Pundits and politicians have labeled him naive on foreign policy, Obama said. But the Bush administration uses politically immature tactics, like refusing to even talk to a country's leaders unless they agree with American politics up front. "I'm not afraid to talk to anyone," Obama said. "They may not like what I'm going to say, but I don't believe we can be so arrogant as to refuse to talk to someone unless they agree with me. Being experienced is not enough. The question is what have you learned from those experiences?" The difference is judgment, Obama continued. Bush/Cheney is the most embarrassing and disastrous team to lead the White House in a generation, he said. America's discussion on race needs to be concrete, not just rhetorical, he said. "My strong impression is that people will vote for me if they believe there is something I can do for them," Obama said. "Am I Black enough? This is a puzzling question. Why do we assume that if I appeal to Blacks and Whites, something must be wrong?" In other news, NABJ announced that it is partnering with the National Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. (IRE) to finish the story Oakland news editor Chauncey Bailey was investigating when he was gunned down by a 14-year-old connected to the case at the Alameda County courthouse on Aug. 2. A longtime writer and activist in the San Francisco Bay Area and editor of the Oakland Post, Bailey previously worked as a reporter for The Oakland Tribune and the Detroit News. |
| National Association of Black Journalists'Annual Convention Clinton and Obama answer "Are you black enough?" By Valeria Davis |