When I write a column, I try to focus on an idea or event that is relevant to Black America.
I have no scarcity of recent events to choose from; the release of the preliminary 2020 census data and the Senate passing a bipartisan trillion-dollar plus infrastructure bill. Both have profound implications for Black America.
But I’m choosing to address a different subject, Afghanistan.
I know someone just asked, ‘what does Afghanistan have to do with Black folks?’ What the United States is doing in the world, has a direct impact on what is or isn’t happening here.
“Many American police officers represent a greater threat to Black people than the Taliban.”
You should think about domestic and foreign policy issues as a Venn diagram. This is an illustration that uses circles to show the relationships among things, or finite groups of things. Circles that overlap have a commonality, while circles that do not overlap do not share those traits. Venn diagrams help visually explain similarities and differences between two concepts.
The fall of Kabul and earthquake in Haiti highlight a glaring weakness of national Black political leadership. There is a total absence of Black perspective in addressing global and international issues. Why do Black political leaders rarely, if ever, speak publicly about major foreign affairs issues? How can they never seem to have anything to say about American foreign policy impact on Black America?
And in the spirit of transparency, you won’t read much about foreign affairs in Black publications or hear it discussed on Black radio or podcast formats. I’m guilty of the same charge. But it’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.
This column is about foreign policy and the Black community. It’s important for Black political leadership speak to foreign policy issues from the perspective of the condition of Black America.
Tell me where you spend your time and your money, and I’ll tell you what’s important to you. Put another way, tell me where you don’t spend your time and money, and I know what’s not important to you. With that in mind, let’s talk about Afghanistan.
From 2001, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, until the close of the American Embassy in Kabul last weekend, 20 years passed. In those 20 years, the United States spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan. Remember, this nation has spent billions in Iraq over the same 20 years.
In that same 20 years, the U.S. Government has refused to fund adequately, health care, education (K-12 and higher education), affordable housing (the last president with a housing policy was Richard Nixon) or mass transit. It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say America has breached the Social Contract and shredded its social safety net.
What could the quality of life be in America today, if those $2 trillion dollars had been invested in improving working class and low-income communities?
Advocates and defenders of America’s foreign adventures will argue it’s necessary for national security and/or spreading and defending America’s democratic values. What does that mean if you’re a Black American?
Many American police officers represent a greater threat to Black people than the Taliban. There are more unarmed Black men, women and children killed in America by the police in a year, than have been killed by the Taliban in the last 20 years. So much for our national security.
The country that’s so concerned about democracy in Afghanistan has Republican state legislatures suppressing voting rights all over the country. Congress won’t, or can’t, pass the John Lewis and the For the People Voting Rights Acts. So much for America’s commitment to democratic values.
What about America’s concern with opportunity, health, and safety for women and girls in Afghanistan? America didn’t pass the Equal Rights Amendment or Violence Against Woman in America bill. When it comes to respecting the right of women to control their bodies, the Taliban has nothing on Republican white men in America.
There are over 50 African American members of Congress, and they represent at least 25% of the House Democratic Caucus. They are part of the Democratic leadership and the Democratic majority in the House cannot function without their cooperation and support.
They’re aware of everything you just read. What would happen if they began to call out America’s hypocrisy from the well of the House of Representatives? It would make managing America’s foreign policy agenda more difficult, more problematic. What if they said to America, ‘the cost of your empire is the maintenance of the health and welfare of the citizens of your republic?’
It’s called leverage, and it’s what serious politicians, as opposed to ambitious elected officials, use to make people say ‘yes,’ when ‘no’ is in their heart.