ANALYSIS/OPINION
Marcia Fudge, the congresswoman from suburban Cleveland, ventured into the Land of Bootstraps during last month’s annual Congressional Black Caucus weekend.
A progressive, she deserves hearty hallelujahs for urging black Americans to be more self-reliant, community-minded and involved on the local level.
“I hope you will spend this much time with your local elected officials. I guarantee you most people in this room have not done that. With your school board, with your city council, and so then you won’t be calling me talking about somebody didn’t come and pick up your trash. You need to call your city council person for that,” Ms. Fudge said.
“And I say it that way because, I need you to understand we all have a role to play and the Congressional Black Caucus cannot do it all by ourselves. Everybody has to do their part. … The black caucus fights for you every day. Even when you won’t fight for yourself. We fight for you. Whether it’s immigration or education, whether it’s food stamps or housing, we fight for you every day. So my message to you is to contain your complaining.”
The town hall-like audience applauded her message, and well they should have.
It’s not often that an elected black Democrat, let alone a congressional leader who supports progressive ideology, gets publicity for touting self-help and grass-roots empowerment to a black audience.
Bill Cosby made strikingly similar cultural remarks a decade ago, when in 2004 he said at an NAACP event that poor black folks weren’t doing enough to better themselves. Mr. Cosby He was nearly crucified.
That doesn’t mean Ms. Fudge’s remarks were not misconstrued, too. Indeed, Robert Gehl on downtrend.com said regarding videotaped remarks, “How insulting is it that Fudge is telling black people they should quit their bitching because they get housing assistance and food stamps? Sounds like a slavemaster telling his slaves to stop complaining because life on the plantation could be so much worse, doesn’t it?
No, it doesn’t.
Congresswoman Fudge’s self-help message is worth repeating — even among liberals and progressives who don’t want blacks to help themselves.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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