African-American leadership has always had two main driving forces: challenging the larger community and its treatment of minorities, and bettering ourselves. President Barack Obama recognizes this two-pronged approach as well as anyone.
After his recent, headline-grabbing speech at the centennial conference of the NAACP, Obama’s tough love, self-empowerment message was much discussed. “No excuses,” echoed the headlines, as the ultimate overachiever challenged African Americans to succeed.
However, there is a difference between making excuses – which is indeed unacceptable – and providing explanations, which remains necessary and important, given the disturbing racial disparities that still exist in this country, state and city.
As Obama said to the NAACP, “We know that too many barriers still remain.” He then listed some of them – a widening African-American unemployment gap, enduring shades of the “last hired, first fired” syndrome; race-based disparities in health and access to health care and insurance; the startling fact that “an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison.”
No excuses, indeed. But the persistent disparities and inequalities that emerge when we compare Americans by race still demand to be explained. And the majority community would be wise to listen to these explanations and remain patient with the frustrations of African Americans trying to succeed in a country where they are less likely to be wealthy and healthy and much more likely to be incarcerated than their non-black counterparts.
So, while we join the president in challenging our black citizens to work diligently and seize every opportunity offered to them, we also must remind the larger community of what Obama described as “structural inequalities” and the continuing need for programs and initiatives that address them.
Perhaps the most important remains Affirmative Action, and we commend the many institutions and individuals proving once again prepared to battle Ward Connerly as he continues to target Affirmative Action programs provided by the State of Missouri with another constitutional ballot initiative.
We also applaud, again, a new set of workforce inclusion goals designed to diversify the labor force on public works projects in the City of St. Louis valued at $1 million or more. Under the new law, the St. Louis Agency for Training and Employment (SLATE) will set goals for 25 percent of all labor hours in City projects of this scale to be worked by minorities, 5 percent to be worked by women and 20 percent to be worked by city residents.
Even this promising new legislation, however, leaves us with the same two persistent needs: to challenge the larger system and to better prepare ourselves. A mayoral appointee (the director of SLATE) retains the authority to reduce or waive these inclusion goals on any project, so the community must remain vigilant to see that power is not abused. And, once the opportunity comes to report to work for a job, it remains the responsibility of the individual worker to show up on time, ready to work hard – no excuses.