What do the campaign platforms of the two main contenders have to offer on the subject of racial inequality? Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign Web site lists 10 issues that lead her agenda in a Clinton presidency. At the very top of her list is “Strengthen the Middle Class.” There then follow nine other Clinton concerns. They are providing affordable healthcare, ending the war in Iraq, energy independence, fulfilling our promise to veterans, supporting parents and children, restoring America’s standing in the world, being a champion for women, comprehensive government reform, and strengthening our democracy.
These admirable goals, aimed as they are at the white American heartland, offer little specific appeal to the aspirations of most African-American voters who, in their choice of a presidential candidate, hope for a strong and explicit executive program to defend and advance the life chances of African Americans. Ever since the 1960s when blacks won the legally protected right to vote, they have always counted on a Democratic platform that addressed some of their most serious problems. But Hillary Clinton’s platform offers nothing.
It is true that Senator Clinton’s campaign speeches include expressions of support for the plight of poor blacks. But it is her formal political platform that tells the story. The words “black” or “minority” never enter the text of her official program for America. Given Hillary Clinton’s well-known progressive views on social and racial issues, one would have expected to find key words in her platform such as “inner-city schools,” “reduction of poverty,” “revitalizing America’s cities,” “increased access to job training,” and “support of Head Start programs for youngsters from low-income families.” One would have expected too that Senator Clinton’s platform would address such issues as community development programs for inner cities, increased support for minority college students, support for black farmers, programs to create capital and encourage entrepreneurship in black communities, and tougher penalties for hate crimes. Yet all of the standard campaign promises that a liberal Democrat typically offers to blacks are completely absent from her announced program.
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