President Obama addresses the National Urban League.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Morning.

TGIF, and spend some of it here with us at JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

“Even Republicans say they aren’t voting Republican anymore,” the soft-spoken former technical writer says. “You have millions of unemployed people out there. If even half of them voted, they could swing a nationwide election.”

Remember, the Republicans said we, the Unemployed, were:

Lazy

Didn’t want to work

Drug-addicted,

and should go back to being Hoboes, like they had during the Great Depression.

Now, all that obstructionism will hopefully come back to bite them in the ass, because when they alluded to the unemployed, I think they thought they were targeting Democrats, while shooting their own Republican base in the feet.

Yeah, we’re so lazy, don’t want to work, drug-addicted and entitled, we’re not wasting time being hoboes.  Instead, according to the Washington Independent, the unemployed are organizing like a union for the mid-term elections.

People are angry at repubs calling them lazy or deficient in work ethic or skills even as they promote policies that benefit wealth over labor or create the conditions for arbitrage of labor.  And they appear to be organizing on the net.

To me this is great.  An awakening to the realization that the past 30 years of reactionary policy has sold out the American public.  I hope it destroys the urban myth that low taxes will make them rich or that free trade floats all boats.  30 million people have sunk below notice of our government and what remains of the middle class is barely afloat.  Perhaps people, thinking about low taxes and free trade are asking, in the words of a TV personality; “How is that working for ya?”

Yepper, that last comment about the “hope-y, changey; how’s that working for ya” Mama Grizzly Queen Grifter looks like its going to get turned on its head.  While the Democrats appear to be going in the right direction by tying the Tea Baggers to the GOBP (“one and the same”), I remain skeptical that some DLC Blue Dog is going to come along and gum up the works.

However, if all us unemployed vote for better Democrats and remember that we couldn’t pay our bills and the entire summer sucked because the GOBP blocked the passage of an extension of UI benefits, maybe we can get a more responsive government working for us, the American people.

Remember when I said this?

And when I’m back on my feet, I will make it my PERSONAL mission to personally target each and every Democratic Senator who helped the ReThugs block unemployment benefits and continue to engage in the ugly secret of continued VICTIMIZATION.  If that’s the best these mofos can do in representing our best interests, maybe unknowns like Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene will start to look better and better to US. 

My post got tweeted and picked up by those very internet blogs doing this organizing.  So, I’ve contributed a little, but, boy, am I ready to fire it up for more!  I’ve already signed up with their activism blogs (google: SUPPORT FOR THE UNEMPLOYED and several sites will appear, suggesting organization, newsletters and listing the Congress members who blocked the benefits, while paying homage to BP.)

I said I refused to go out THAT EASY. 

As our own CPL said – it’s about time!

Why not use the Tea Baggers as an anvil; tie it around their necks, and toss them in the ocean and allow them to DROWN.

The Tea Baggers are a gift horse that the DNC can’t afford to ignore.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

I’m so happy to be here at JJP, and hope to contribute on a regular basis. For those who don’t know me, I am a minister, activist, and the President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund.

Our Hip Hop Caucus movement got started in 2004. I was the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons and we were registering voters and getting out the vote at the time. I also was a co-creator of the “Vote Or Die!” campaign with P. Diddy, and I ran an operation out of AFL-CIO called Hip Hop Voices through which we were registering voters in target states, all in 2004.

Some of the folks who were working with me at the time and I knew, however, that there needed to be a sustainable political institution for the Hip Hop generation and the Hip Hop community to plug into. So in September 2004, the first Hip Hop Caucus was held at Howard University, and from there our movement grew. Today the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund has nearly 700,000 members around the country.

Here is a short video that talks about our movement work in the 2008 election: POLITICO on the Hip Hop Caucus movement

I look forward to sharing more with you and hearing from you as well.

For Future Generations…
Rev Yearwood

This year, Glenn Beck covered the NN10 conference Monday with a vengeance literally. He was clearly aroused by just how many people — particularly, especially black people — mentioned his name at the conference. I’m not only on the Board of Directors of Netroots Nation the organization, but I also sat on the Agenda committee this year and helped recruit some of the panelists seen in Glenn Beck’s video. A lot of people mentioned Beck’s name as an example of the worst messaging the right has to offer. Yet, you’d think from his telling of it, that only mainly black people wanna take him down at Netroots Nation. And for the first time I can remember as a regular viewer of his very strange show, he actually referenced James Rucker of Color of Change directly and talked about the campaign that you’ve helped with here at JJP — asking advertisers to stop supporting a racist TV program. But don’t believe me — see if you see the pattern yourself:

Know that your efforts to hold Beck accountable for his racist and distorted diatribes are having an effect on the man. Otherwise, he wouldn’t go to so much trouble to listen to everything every black person had to say at Netroots Nation. The only reason I’m not included: I never actually said his name at NN10 — not even once! Sorry Glenn — maybe next time…

Here’s what Beck had to say about James Rucker, btw:

JAMES RUCKER, COLOR OF CHANGE CO-FOUNDER: Unfortunately, Glenn Beck is in my brain all the time. It’s bad for your health — psychological health.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Gee, that’s too bad, James. I haven’t spent a single moment thinking about you and my business has never been more successful. We’re having our best year of all time. But Rucker knows that we’re exposing the progressive agenda to the light of day and he doesn’t like it:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUCKER: No one knew what Tides was until Glenn Beck started — I mean people outside of our political world knew what Tides was until they were on Glenn Beck’s blackboard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Why would you want the American people to know about Tides? Aren’t they helping people? Aren’t they working for “social justice?” Isn’t that what all of your progressive friends are working towards?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUCKER: One of the campaigns we ran last year, Color of Change, was basically going after Glenn Beck’s advertisers where we thankfully stripped him of normal brands, companies you’d recognize. But the reality is — and we knew this — we weren’t trying to — well, we were trying to, actually, we were trying to marginalize Beck. We didn’t expect we would get him off the air. We wanted to make him untouchable to a certain degree.

Being on the other side of Beck it can be kind of a stressful thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Gosh James, I’m sorry. I’m sure that barely being mentioned on my show is much more stressful than four advisers to the president of the United States running smear and boycott campaigns against you. I can’t imagine how hard one or two mentions on my show has been for you.

Somehow, Beck thinks that the fact that a black man was rightfully elected in America (just: not by the majority of white people) means that we’re about to “crown a new earthly king”? How is it exactly that black and brown and red and yellow people plus the white people who love them voting successfully for their champion using the same ballot boxes as everybody else equals communism or socialism? Can someone please explain that me? Because I’m pretty sure Beck can’t. Apparently democracy is different when you and I apply it – now ain’t that strange?

Rep. Donna Edwards was also there up front – she’s super-nice. Fortunately I had only one heckler — I threatened to release the Krakken on her! :-)

And as for the Speaker herself, well, she’s all sincerity, sugar & smarts with a little steel. Cuz ya needs that if you’re gonna be the Speaker, sista. She’s an amazing woman who left us with the call for American women to “Know Your Power” – if you want to be successful in the world of politics. That’s also apparently the title of her autobiography, which I’m definitely planning to download to my Kindle with a quickness.

It was very cool to meet Christine Pelosi, activist, mom and the Speaker’s daughter. She gave me a super-nice shoutout in her wrapup HuffPo post re: NN10 that looks back to NN05 aka YearlyKos:

Having participated in this movement for several years, I’m particularly proud of our progress on the “pluribus” front. I can recall Howard Dean running for President and DNC chair talking about having to diversify the online progressive movement to bring in people on the other side of the digital divide. At the first netroots convention in June 2006 — called Yearlykos — there was a question “should more women and people of color be blogging?” By 2010 we had a woman of color — Cheryl Contee, aka Jill Tubman of www.jackandjillpolitics.com –interviewing America’s first woman Speaker of the House – Nancy Pelosi – as well as expanded ranks of women bloggers, presenters, and candidates.

[...]

What leaders survive in this bold new world? Those who have the guts and grit to pick up the banner, stand for the cause, and keep their word. Those who aren’t uncomfortable with being uncomfortable, who can channel their inner FDR and say to netroots activists what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Frances Perkins about Social Security “you’ve convinced me; now make me do it.” Those who can successfully navigate the inside maneuvering and outside mobilization. Lately much has been made of whether activists pull parties to the left or right — my impression from the trenches is that activists pull them from the pragmatic to the ideal. Over and over I heard people say we shouldn’t start in the middle or water down our values — we should start with the ideal not the lowest common denominator.

Anyway, thanks so much for all of your love, support and prayers. I’m needing those now more than ever.

Former Secretary of State Condi Rice and Aretha Franklin teamed up for charity.

Condoleezza Rice is no stranger to the whims of royalty. So when the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin, decided the two should get together to play a song or two for charity, it was decreed.

The former U.S. secretary of state and Franklin took the stage Tuesday evening at Philadelphia’s Mann Music Center in a rare duet for Rice, the classically trained pianist, and Franklin, the divalicious voice of a generation. Their aim was to raise money for inner-city youth of Philadelphia and Detroit and awareness for music and the arts.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Morning.

As you go through your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

President Obama on Citizens United: “Imagine the Power This Will Give Special Interests Over Politicians”

Good Morning.

As you make it through Hump Day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

Hardball: Willie Brown and E. Steven Collins discuss the media’s role in Sherrod story

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

Jack And Jill is going to the White House tomorrow for a discussion on how the Wall St. financial reform will affect on the African American community. They want to know what questions our audience has. So please leave a question in the comment box on what you would like to know about Wall St. reform and we will take the best questions and ask them tomorrow. We will be live streaming the Q&A at some time next week.

Five months after President Obama announced a $1.25 billion settlement for black farmers who faced overt discrimination by the USDA in the eighties and nineties — and several days after the Sherrod case brought the issue up again — Congress again refused to authorize the money.

On Thursday, the Senate quietly stripped the funding for the Pigford II settlement and several other programs from a supplemental war funding bill. Senators then unanimously passed their version of the bill, which will go back to the House.

Conservative opposition to the settlement came to light last week in the aftermath of the Shirley Sherrod scandal. A farm collective founded by Sherrod and her husband that was forced out of business by the discriminatory practices received a $13 million settlement as part of Pigford last year, just before she was hired by the USDA. Some, including Rep. Steve King (R-IA), have called the settlement a fraud.

Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed Republicans for the failure to pass Pigford.

“I hoped that tonight the Senate could finally right a wrong that has been left unresolved for far too long. But Republicans stood in the way,” he said in a statement. “As recent events have reminded us, the fact that justice and fairness were denied to black farmers for so many years continues to have ramifications today. … Republicans should be held accountable for standing in the way of justice for those affected.”

But several Democrats — including Sens. Evan Bayh (IN) and Tom Carper (DE) — also voted to block the bill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Morning.

As you go through your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

WALSH: — is class as much as race. I’m not giving her a pass. But I think the idea that she shouldn’t be able to say Fox or Breitbart is racist preposterous. She gets to say that because it’s true, and because from her vantage point it’s especially true.

KURTZ: Well, in fairness, it’s certainly debatable.

Excuse me, but WTF, Howie? There is nothing fair about that statement. This is a woman who has endured INSTITUTIONALIZED racism her whole life–watching the murderer of her father go free by a white grand jury, who organized and was then denied the ability to create a cooperative for black farmers, who ultimately lost her family farm because of Lester Maddox denying loans to black farmers, who was part of the largest successful civil rights violation lawsuit in the US, whose husband was a leading member of non-violent coordination in Georgia during the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, as the visibly seething Joan Walsh points out. Shirley Sherrod has lived with and tried to rise above the oppression and bigotry that you can’t even contemplate, taking responsibility to make the world better for those who come after her.

But privileged Caucasian Howie Kurtz, sitting comfortably in his DC digs with his Republican fundraiser wife, can decide that it’s “debatable” whether Shirley Sherrod, who has spent her life trying to help those who are poor and oppressed (rather than navel-gazing on the role of the media), knows racism when she sees it.

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

Next segment of Reliable Sources had 3 African Americans, a new world record? Toward the end they got around to Sherrod but they discussed the overall dearth of black faces in MSM, a much better discussion IMO. Intro & snippet:

KURTZ: Something really striking happened when I tried to book the segment you’re about to see about minorities and the media.

I talked to several very prominent African-American journalists who said they would love to come on the program but the subject was just too sensitive to discuss publicly, or their bosses did not want them speaking out in public.

Look at the people who have gotten the latest primetime hosting jobs in cable news: Lawrence O’Donnell at MSNBC; Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker at CNN. They join people like Sean and Bill and Keith and Rachel and Anderson. They join the Sunday show hosts and the evening news anchors and the principal network morning hosts. Not an African-American face among them except for GMA’s Robin Roberts.

Good Morning.

As you begin a new week, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate.

Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

This Week’s Roundtable

US First Lady Michelle Obama applauds as 10-year-old Christina McCray throws a ceremonial first pitch at Camden Yards in Baltimore on July 20, 2010 before the Baltimore Orioles take on the Tampa Bay Rays. Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association and the White House announced a new joint initiative as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program.
—-NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Good Evening.

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend with family and friends.

Drop by JJP in between enjoying family and friends.

Continue to have a peaceful day.

Good Morning.

As you spend this weekend with family and friends, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

Drawing closer and closer towards the 2010 electoral season, President Obama used this week’s address to make a clear distinction between Democratic efforts of the past year and a half and their Republican opposition. The President warned that we can either continue moving forward with Democratic initiatives or take a step backwards by electing Republicans. Listing several Democratic achievements (ranging from Health Care Reform to Financial Reform), President Obama discussed the choice Americans will have to make when considering this country’s economic future:

“This is our economic plan — smart investments in America’s small businesses, America’s clean energy industry, and America’s middle-class. Now, I can’t tell you that this plan will bring back all the jobs we’ve lost and restore our economy to full strength overnight. The truth is, it took nearly a decade of failed economic policies to create this mess, and it will take years to fully repair the damage. But I’m confident that we are finally headed in the right direction. We are moving forward. And what we can’t afford right now is to go back to the same ideas that created this mess in the first place. Unfortunately, those are the ideas we keep hearing from our friends in the other party.”

It was a topic of discussion during a separate address earlier this week:

In his weekly address, the President challenged the opposition, saying a vote for their return to power would equal, not only a return to the same old habits that got us into trouble, but also the loss of some gains that have already been made so far under this Democratic Congress. President Obama characterized the Republican agenda as such:

“This week, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives offered his plan to create jobs. It’s a plan that’s surprisingly short, and sadly familiar. First, he would repeal health insurance reform, which would take away tax credits from millions of small business owners, and take us back to the days when insurance companies had free rein to drop coverage and jack up premiums. Second, he would say no to new investments in clean energy, after his party already voted against the clean energy tax credits and loans that are creating thousands of new jobs and hundreds of new businesses. And third, even though his party voted against tax cuts for middle-class families, he would permanently keep in place the tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans — the same tax cuts that have added hundreds of billions to our debt. These aren’t new ideas. They’re the same policies that led us into this recession. They won’t create jobs; they will kill them. They won’t reduce our deficit; they will add $1 trillion to our deficit. They will take us backward at a time when we need to keep America moving forward.”

President Obama’s Weekly Address:

Van Jones at Netroots Nation

Good Morning.

As you spend this weekend with family and friends, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

One day, a Republican operative offers $100 to anyone who’ll punch me in the nose.

The next day, I get a death threat.

After Fox News spewed its usual clownish hatred about me yesterday, my office received a call. The caller told our receptionist – a young intern – that “10 people are going to kill the Congressman within 24 hours.” We gave the information to the Capitol Police; they are investigating.

Fox. You’d think that they would have learned their lesson after Dr. George Tiller was killed. And they did learn a lesson: a lesson in killing.

And why? Because I told the truth: the truth that by stalling on unemployment insurance, right-wingers revealed themselves to be heartless, selfish wretches, who have been taking food out of the mouths of children.

To Grayson’s credit, he said that if anyone tries to punch him, they’re going to get a knuckle sandwich.  LOL.  Grayson may also want to exercise his 2nd Amendment rights and start packing heat until someone is arrested for threatening him (I understand it is a felony to threaten an elected Federal official, but someone correct me to be sure.)

Same old shyt.  When the GOBP thugs can’t argue on anything of substance, they resort to bullying and violence to get their way.

When you can’t discredit a venerable organization like the NAACP – you make up shyt to discredit them, and in turn, discredit the Administration of the first African-American POTUS.  In the past few days, I admit to being angry, because Shirley Sherrod is ME, and any other sista who is in the trenches trying to do the right thing.  Why the other hostesses at “The VIEW” didn’t slap the taste out of Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s mouth for trying to concern troll in attacking Ms. Sherrod this morning goes beyond the pale (I quit waiting for Whoopi to do anything, since she’s always defending pedophile rapists (Roman Polanski) or anti-Semetic, racist engagers in domestic violence (Mel Gibson).

When you want to get a community organization defunded and disbanded, because one of the things they do is make sure POC are legally registered to vote, you make shyt up about them, too.

And Fake Noises (I refuse to call them a news organization) not only aides and abets the Brietbarts of the journalistic world, they are woefully complicit and dares anyone to call them on their shyt.

Does another innocent person has to be fired; or an organization be shut down; or an abortion doctor MURDERED before the media will engage in their own Circular Firing Squad and ask Fake Noise and Rupert Murdoch, “Sir, have you NO SHAME?”  What has to happen before we can see the shut down of this propagandist organization worthy of the Third Reich, and looking more like something out of George Orwell’s “1984″? 

Fake Noises is the McCarthy Witchhunt Propaganda Organization.  Not a News Organization. Let’s keep that clear.  Andrew Breitbart needs to have his shyt taken from him IN A COURT OF LAW.  Let’s be clear about that, too.  And I understand Ms. Shirley is going to do JUST THAT.

Lest we forget, the owner of Fake Noises,  Rupert Murdoch, who is allowing the stirring up of the shyt pot on patriotism, is an AMERICAN CITIZEN who forfeited his Austrialian citizenship in order to be able to own media outlets here.  Think about THAT.  An Austrailian comes to America and turns upside down what used to pass as the 4th Estate of our land – the MEDIA, because he’s a vile, bigoted pig – who makes Austrailia look bad for having spawned his ass; and he wants to get phat PAID for being a vile, bigoted PIG.

So much for the “truce” that was allegedly negotiated between him and the Obama Administration:

In early summer 2008, a “tentative truce” was brokered during a once secret meeting between Barack Obama, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes (President of the Fox News Channel) at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.^[47][48] Obama had initially resisted Murdoch’s propositions, despite senior News Corp. executives having recruited the Kennedys to act as go-betweens.^[48]

In the past few days, I have seen what it REALLY GOING ON.  And while President Obama is not to blame, he does bear some responsibility for failing to protect his flank and making his Achilles’ heel known to the enemy.  The knee-jerk reaction of Tom Vilsack, with White House backing (I know the WH is saying they didn’t pressure for the resignation, but in this instance, I’m believing Shirley Sherrod – she has no reason to lie) exposed a major weakness of the POTUS, and that is his reluctance to take a stand or be willing to discuss race in a comprehensive, tactful and difficult way.

BTW, has anyone seen or heard from Vilsack’s undersecretary, Cheryl Cook – the cow that blew up Ms. Sherrod’s cell phone and told her to pull off the road and text in her resignation?  Unlike Osama bin Laden, I think Ms. Cook will be easy to find – they just better not try to deal with her ass in private, when they were so PUBLIC about firing  Ms. Shirley.

If he has trouble, that’s where a Shirley Sherrod comes in.  She can help and equip this brotha to be courageous to takethe matter of racism on head first.  A beer-summit ain’t going to cut it.  Racism has not gone away because this nation elected an African-American to the Oval Office, so America needs to quit patting herself on the back.  Personally, I think the POTUS was elected because if he lost, the rest of the world would call America a racist nation – one so racist and bigoted, they couldn’t get past that to elect a POC to the White House.

Mr. Obama’s election was not the end to racism – on the contrary, it heated up the pot, and is spilling over to where any Congress member daring to tell the truth, and stand up to the bullying , as Alan Grayson did, now receives DEATH THREATS.

Who promoted the TEA PARTY?  Who continues to give the microphones to anyone spouting racist, bigoted bullshyt on the air waves?  Who continues to hand over a platform to incite 25% of this nation to acts of sedition, violence and tells them that it’s their GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to do so by any means necessary?

FOX CHANNEL aka “McCarthy Witch Hunt Propaganda Organization”.  Repeat, Rinse, and Spit.

All the way to the Midterms and beyond, if necessary.  Think of John Boenher replacing Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker, if you need motivation to do something.

When an elected official is shot and killed….ah, jeez, I don’t want to GO THERE.  And Unca Clarence and the Supreme Court has ensured that Fake Noises can keep this shyt up.  I have no faith that these buffoons on the Roberts Court will actually do their Constitutional duty and uphold THE LAW.

Death Threats, Courtesy of Fake Noises.  And I’m not going to ask if it can get any worse.

Everybody from President Obama to Glenn Back has offered a lesson to be learned from the frenzy surrounding Shirley Sherrod. But just about all of them have reinforced the notion that racism is nothing more than personal prejudice, as plausibly found among blacks as it is among whites. In that, Breitbart has succeeded in shaping our conversation about race.

What the right wants us to forget is that race relations are rooted in systems, and that not all racism is individual, intentional and overt. Individual bias plays a role, to be sure, but it’s the institutional rules, written and unwritten, that enable such racism, not the other way around. You can’t “heal” a system; you have to rebuild it.

This is where the left often loses its way on race. I was surprised, for instance, to read the following in Joan Walsh’s Salon.com column on Wednesday: “People are spending a lot of energy to get folks like the Spooners and Sherrod to think they should be enemies, when the real issue is class.” Walsh, who has a solid history of responsible reporting on race issues, goes on to say that’s what the left should remember from this debacle, because the right wants us to forget it.

I take the opposite lesson: The intersection of race and class is a complicated thing, deserving of more attention, not less. Treating class as the “real issue” means treating race only as a function of it, which amounts to colorblindness for leftists. It’s a highly limited answer to working-class white resentment of working-class black people. Progressives’ over-reliance on the “same boat” argument doesn’t help keep multiracial alliances together. Rather, it stumps us when we need to explain exactly how racism works, not just in the economy, but also in education, prison, health and, yes, agriculture. Liberal silence on race is what allows Breitbart to distort the definition of racism, to strip it of all discussions of power, history, policy or collective responsibility such that the notion of reverse racism has enough merit to be taken seriously in the first place.

There was a lot of bad to this situation, and apologies are definitely appropriate. But setting up competing points of focus between personal prejudice and class indicates to me that leftists–and not just white leftists–think of classism as systemic but racism as individual. The depth and consistency of racial disparities in every arena, even when well-intentioned people make and implement the rules, suggests that individual intention is only a small part of this story. The left understands that about class, so why not about race? When was the last time we heard progressives call for projects that heal the class divide? No, on class we get it.

There’s much to gain from getting it. In my book The Accidental American, I wrote about the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), which has expanded nationwide. In the aftermath of September 11, the group organized immigrant workers of color who occupy the low-wage, dangerous back-of-the-house jobs in high-end restaurants. Five years later, when white waiters asked for help because managers were stealing their tips, ROC-NY had its own Shirley Sherrod moment of hesitation.

Rather than turning the white workers away, however, organizers insisted that they reach out to the back-of-the-house. Together, they won ROC-NY’s biggest victory to date–millions of dollars in back wages and damages, and a whole lot of new rules, including some addressing racial discrimination explicitly. The organization successfully addresses the economic, racial and gender hierarchies embedded in the industry, even though everyone doesn’t occupy the same rung on the ladder. That’s what real solidarity looks like.

Both the Obama administration and news media should be looking for the same sort of systemic, rather than interpersonal, review–like, say, a thorough racial impact assessment of federal regulations, practices and proposals. When we focus on all the things that cause inequality, true reconciliation can begin. Otherwise, it’s just talk therapy.

Originally posted on Colorlines