Critics Say Democratic Lawmakers Cater to White Agenda [View All]

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Critics Say Democratic Lawmakers Cater to White Agenda

Black, Latino voters said taken for granted in ‘business as usual’

by Michelle Chen
Progressives say the new Democratic legislature is already disproving the common perception that their party is particularly friendly to people of color.

Jan. 9 – After tipping the power balance on Capitol Hill, Democrats promise to reorient congressional priorities, but critics say that for all the talk of change, issues of race and income inequality are glaringly absent from the Democrats' initial agenda.

During their first 100 hours of leadership in the House of Representatives, Democrats say they are focusing on key domestic issues from last year's electoral campaigns: Medicare, the minimum wage, college education and energy policy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–California) announced last November that the new agenda would promote "prosperity, opportunity and security for all Americans."

But United for a Fair Economy (UFE), a group campaigning to reduce income inequality, questions whether that pledge rings equally true for communities on different sides of the so-called "racial economic divide."

In a report released today, UFE argues that although the new majority rode into office with heavy support from black and Latino voters, disproportionately poor communities of color will continue to be left behind under the new regime.

The Democrats' most concrete anti-poverty proposal is to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour by 2009 – the first federal increase in nearly a decade. In a statement issued after the election, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D–Maryland) hailed the initiative as "an issue of economic fairness and justice."

But, echoing the warnings of advocates for low-income communities, UFE points out that many blacks and Latinos will remain mired in poverty without more proactive approaches to broadening economic opportunity.

"There are larger structural issues in our economy that are not being addressed by this agenda," Meizhu Lui, executive director of UFE, told The NewStandard. "Lifting people out of poverty and closing the racial-economic gap will require far bolder and more-innovative thinking."

About one in four blacks and one in five Latinos lives in poverty, according to census data using conservative federal standards, compared to one in twelve whites.

Workers making less than $7.25 an hour are disproportionately black and Latino, so those groups would especially benefit from the wage hike. However, among the urban poor, $7.25 an hour will not sustain a typical family's basic needs, particularly in urban areas where poor people of color are concentrated, according to data compiled by the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute.

To give more economic leverage to people of color beyond the minimum wage, the UFE report recommended that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a proposal introduced in the last Congress to strengthen labor-organizing rights and ease the process for establishing unions. Union membership, which has dwindled nationwide, correlates with higher wages for workers of all backgrounds, but especially for people of color.

Advocates also point out that while millions of workers will gain from the wage increase, many others are struggling just to gain footing in the workforce. Blacks and Latinos face unemployment rates of 9 and 5 percent respectively, compared to 4 percent of whites. The UFE report called on Congress to connect communities of color with stable jobs through affirmative action and more-targeted economic supports.

The Democrats' agenda does make some overtures toward expanding educational opportunities, mainly through reducing the interest rate on college loans. But critics say that focusing on youth with the option of obtaining higher education does little to reduce deeper barriers facing black and Latino students – low family financial assets, failing public schools, and climbing tuition costs.

According to 2004 federal data, enrollment in post-high-school education among 18- to 24-year-olds varies from about 42 percent of whites to just 32 percent of blacks and 25 percent of Latinos. Meanwhile, the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds who have not completed a high-school education has remained significantly higher for blacks and Latinos compared to their white counterparts since the 1970s.
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