By Lucius Gantt
Brothers and sisters, I know you are happy about how the 2020 election turned out. However, if you can try to slow your celebratory roll for a minute and let’s look at how we can really benefit from all the votes we cast for Democratic candidates.
Right now, African Americans are excited about the newest Black political symbolism. We have a Vice President that looks like us, we hear talk about diversity, inclusion and bolstering the Democratic “base”, we are excited about young poets but America’s political devils continue to get paid the big money, some of which came from Black political contributors.
I didn’t want to write about this this week but I had to. The Gantt Report is on a mission from God to reveal the truth about economics and politics that impact Black people and Black communities.
OK, former South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison has officially been elected the next chair of the Democratic National Committee and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is now in a DNC leadership position as the committee’s vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection.
What Jaime and Keisha do in their positions of leadership could help or hurt Black Americans for decades to come.
I believe the DNC Chair and Vice Chair are good people. They are both acceptable to President Joe Biden and other Democrats but they may have a lot to learn about how the political game is played in the United States.
Let me tell you about Debbie. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee in May 2011, replacing Tim Kaine. On July 28, 2016, Wasserman Schultz resigned from her position after WikiLeaks released a a collection of stolen emails indicating that Wasserman Schultz and other members of the DNC staff had favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries.
More important than that, Debbie was allegedly responsible for setting up the Democratic “loop” that basically required Democratic candidates that wanted funding from the DNC to hire consultants and staff that were acceptable to the Democratic leadership.
The national and statewide consultants and vendors that were hired by Debbie’s DNC are the consultants that had or got all of the experience, all of the opportunities and much of the Democratic money and contracts that exist right to this very day!
If African Americans didn’t get mad about the white people that Debbie hired and paid millions of dollars to, perhaps whites shouldn’t get mad if Jaime and Keisha demands that Black political professionals, contractors and vendors are hired by the current DNC leaders.
If you, Jaime and Keisha don’t know it, trust me, there are Black businesses and individuals that can do million dollar political printing jobs, million dollar political polling, million dollar robo-calling operations and there are Blacks that can produce and place million dollar advertising buys and much more!
Black political professionals do not want handouts, they want political chances, political opportunities and political respect.
Democratic candidates, like Ossoff and Warnock, will hire who the DNC says they should hire in order to get DNC campaign funding.
You tell me, why can’t Jaime and Keisha tell Democratic candidates nationwide they must have a diverse campaign staff that includes Black men and women that can make decisions in some purchasing transactions? Why can’t Black political professionals coordinate and supervise million dollar media buys? And, why can’t Black caterers and Black restaurants even cook the fried chicken purchased to feed campaign canvassers and other workers?
They can! Will they? Time will tell.
One more thing before I close. Jaime Harrison lost his recent Senate race in South Carolina. Keisha was elected Mayor of Atlanta but not in a landslide. She squeaked by her white female opponent.
The DNC Chair and the Vice Chair are both from the South, where many Black voters are, and also some of the most successful Black political professionals are.
Jaime Harrison recently appeared on the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC. He talked about how the DNC would utilize the Democratic Black base (Black Democratic voters). He talked about “door knockers” and “registering voters”.
Those comments led to the column you’re reading right now.
If the African Americans you honor, cheer and celebrate believe the only jobs Black people can have in politics are knocking on doors and registering voters, we have a problem!
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.