The Black Agenda: Wealth-Building Must Top the List - Dr. Boyce Money

I recently attended the "Measuring the Movement" national leadership forum, hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. The event was extraordinary, with a multitude of strong African American figures in attendance: Marc Morial, Ben Jealous, James Clyburn, Michael Eric Dyson, Charles Ogletree, Jeff Johnson, Warren Ballentine, Chuck D, Judge Greg Mathis, and the list went on and on. I was honored to be among those invited to speak on the panel and I felt the event to be a glowing success. To be honest, we would be hard pressed to find a stronger gathering of black public figures at any point in American history. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network should be applauded for their outstanding work.

Also in attendance at the black leadership summit were many figures from the Obama Administration, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Assistant Secretary of Labor, William Spriggs, in addition to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, The Rev. Jesse Jackson and even Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (the only guest who was actually booed by the audience).

As Roland Martin and Tom Joyner pushed the leaders in attendance to be held accountable for their commitments to the community, one of the recurring themes was financial inequality in black America. African Americans have been hit the hardest during this recession, with unemployment rates that are nearly double those of white America. Our teens have unemployment rates of over 42%, and many large urban areas have black male unemployment rates of nearly 50%. Also, as respected black British commentator Lola Adesioye notes, black women have a median net worth of only $5 dollars, and black family wealth is significantly less than that of White America. What gives?

As the only Finance Professor in attendance, I felt the need to comment on the issue. Under the presumption that President Obama also watches MSNBC, I first made the clear point to him that he should immediately remove his top two economic advisers, Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner. I've held to this point for months, and I continue to believe that no matter what academic training you have, if your heart is not connected to an issue, you are not going to be equipped with the intellectual tools necessary to solve the problem. Neither Geithner nor Summers has shown an ability to empathize with the African American community and neither of them have a background that implies that they have any reason to be loyal to anything or anyone who is not located on Wall Street.

The second point I made was that President Obama must let go of the argument that "the rising tide will lift all boats." That's silly, and has been proven to be as empirically invalid as trickle down economics. Under this argument, President Obama presents the belief that if he helps all of America, he is going to help urban and black America too. The argument communicates that when the mainstream financial boats rise from the lifting of the economic tide, nearly all of the African American boats will rise as well. The problem for President Obama is that many boats in the black community have holes in them, don't possess oars, or are not even in the economic water (black companies get almost none of the stimulus money being spent by the government). If you don't supplement your "rising tide" policy by helping boats get into the water and become part of our broader economic system, then your strategy is not going to work. Finally, "the proof is in the potato salad." The fact that black unemployment continues to rise while white unemployment has stabilized makes the clear point that a more complex and thoughtful set of policies is warranted.

Third, any funding for African American issues must be put into relative context in order for the numbers to have meaning. The first thing that many die-hard Obama supporters will do when defending their president to the death is present a long list of spending items that the White House has pursued: "The Obama Administration has spent $10 billion on youth programs. They allocated $20 billion toward HBCU funding, etc." The problem is that numbers may sound very good, but they mean nothing without being put into context. For example, I could say, "Our government plans to spend $80 billion dollars on the military next year." That number may sound impressive, but it would be a terribly low commitment to our military and make our nation immediately unsafe. So, when spitting out numbers, we need to have something to compare them to - even President Bush can say that he spent billions of dollars on HBCUs.

When discussing the black agenda, it is important to understand that it is both deeply connected, yet subtly disconnected from the broader American agenda. The black experience itself presents a set of unique hurdles, some of which are imposed by structural racism. Therefore, to create a truly equal society, we must be willing to engage in heterogeneous resource allocation. All boats do not rise to the same tide.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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