Les dirigeants afro-américains livrent l'ordre du jour pour un second mandat d'Obama par Elizabeth Flock

Following a four-hour closed door meeting Monday, the leaders of four African-American advocacy groups emerged looking pleased to announce a collective wish list they plan to deliver to President Barack Obama for his second term.

L' “black agenda,” as the groups have called their wish list on Twitter, starts with ensuring the fiscal cliff doesn’t disproportionately hurt black Americans. That’s something Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, a worried about before. But Morial also listed five new priorities that came out of what he called Monday’s “historic gathering.” Those include: working for parity for blacks in education, health care and the economy; reforming the criminal justice system; and protecting and defending voting rights.

The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment about whether the president would make these priorities a focus during his second term.

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But according to Morial, the voting rights priority is key. “When our community was challenged by voter suppression…they reacted with power, with dignity and with force,” dit-il.

Despite allegations by liberal advocacy groups that voter suppression tactics by the right hindered minority voting, blacks represented 13 percent of the electorate in 2012, a percentage about equivalent with 2008.

But Al Sharpton, the founder and president of the National Action Network and a liberal commentator for MSNBC, warned Monday that “the voter suppression tactics we saw this year are still in front of us.”

Sharpton a également comparé le nouvel agenda noir avec la Mars droits civils de Washington, une grande manifestation par des groupes de droits civiques afro-américains dans 1963 qui a conduit à deux pièces majeures de la législation: le Civil Rights Act de 1964 et le Voting Rights Act de 1965.

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“C'est dans cet esprit d'un demi-siècle plus tard, nous disons que nous allons travailler ensemble, que nous nous réunirons, pour essayer d'établir un programme,” Sharpton a dit. Alors que la nouvelle liste de souhaits est peu susceptible de conduire à une telle législation historique, unité par divers groupes de pression afro-américain peut s'avérer importante.

Un Octobre étude de l'Université de Washington à St. Louis a constaté que certains groupes noirs américains, Noirs savoir conservateurs et religieux, se sentaient profondément déçus par le président. These groups said they felt less free when it came to political participation than they had under previous administrations, because of ideological differences they had with the president.

Morial acknowledged the importance of unity, though none of the four main advocacy groups involved in Monday’s talks are headed up by conservative leaders. “Against the backdrop of… a great deal of hope and promise that we have in our president’s second term,” dit-il. “We felt it was important for us to come together.”

Source: usnews.com