A Point of View

Gwendolyn Grant
President & CEO
Urban League of Greater Kansas City
January 25, 2008

Obama or Clinton?

As is the case with all of my columns, the content herein is my personal point of view and does not reflect the opinion of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.

As an African American woman the choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is easy for me. It is Obama hands down. When you compare their records, measure the depth of their commitment and assess the nature of their experience, Barack is better suited to be President.

Upon graduation from Harvard Law School having been the first African American head of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, instead of earning millions on Wall Street, he became a street organizer in Chicago. There, he was a community organizer empowering people to improve their lives at the grassroots level. He planned, organized, and implemented initiatives that: added over 100,000 people to the voter rolls; opened early childhood education programs; provided food and clothing for the homeless; and offered job training to the unemployed.

Hillary lacks comparable experience. Her qualifications consists primarily of being a corporate lawyer, first lady of Arkansas, first lady of the United States and a term in the United States Senate. As far as I can know, she does not have any experience working directly to improve conditions for people most in need of help or support.
Some Blacks contend that we have to support Hillary because her husband was good to Black people and we must be loyal to the Clintons. There is no factual basis for such obsequious deference.

After twelve years of Republican control of the White House, the Clinton Presidency was intoxicating. But on sober reflection, it is clear that Bill Clinton’s pronounced affinity for Blacks is not consistent with his practices.
He signed draconian, right wing, so-called welfare reform legislation that punishes underprivileged children. He supported the death penalty and executed a mentally retarded Black man. He failed to address the disparity in sentencing laws, which result in a disproportionate number of African Americans receiving longer sentences for drug-related crimes than Whites. He did not appoint an African American to a senior cabinet position. (The current President Bush has appointed two.) There were no African Americans in his inner circle and rather than appointing a second Black to counterbalance ultra-conservative Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, he chose to appoint a second woman and a sixth White male. All with Hillary at his side.

If she was an influential presence in the White House as she claims, why didn’t she prevail upon him to do right by African Americans in at least one of the aforementioned matters?

Her failure or inability to do so speaks volumes and should make it clear that she does not deserve our support. Barack Obama is competent, capable and ready to be elected President of the United States.

Finally, the ridiculous notion that Bill Clinton was the first Black president must be put to rest. He may have grown up around Blacks in Arkansas and may claim an affinity for Blacks, but he has never walked in the shoes of a Black man and he never will.

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