David on "Make It Plain" with Mark Thompson

On Feb. 12 I was on Mark Thompson's show "Make It Plain" (Sirius Radio channel 146) to discuss my article in BlackCommentator.com, Enough of This Bipartisanship Nonsense. Click here to listen to the program.

Enough of This Bipartisanship Nonsense

Color of Law
By David A. Love
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
February 12, 2009

I started to laugh when I heard that Michael Steele was selected as the first African American to chair the Republican National Committee. I don’t think much of the “new” Republican Party, but then again, that doesn’t prevent me from writing about it.

But don’t get me wrong, I think that the former Maryland lieutenant governor was the best person available for the job. Then again, given the paucity of talent in that once venerable GOP, once the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, now the party of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber, it isn’t as if the bar was set so high in the first place. Among the contestants for RNC chair was a man who quit an all-White country club to run for the position, and another who distributed CD copies of the songs “Barack the Magic Negro” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.” And the other Black candidate stole the 2004 presidential election in Ohio for Bush.

For a party which has earned a reputation as a White Southern racist party - due in no small measure to the fact that it is primarily a White Southern racist party - the Steele pick was an attempt to put a new face on an old story. This cynical form of window dressing was a response to the election of the country’s first Black president, and an acknowledgement that shifting national demographics do not bode well for a party whose core supporters are limited to a sideshow of hicks, jingoists, bigots and homophobes, religious zealots, oligarchs and the chronically greedy. The Steele pick was more of a signal to the White Obama moderates and independents that the GOP is a safe place for them once again. This sales pitch will likely fail. And as for people of color, Don Cheadle said it best in the movie Rosewood: “We ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

After all, a front man of color does not translate into a new policy and direction. Ronald McDonald is the face of McDonald’s, but no one ever thought he was actually running the company. And it can hardly be said that Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales or J.C. Watts did anything to make the GOP a better, more hospitable place. To the contrary, they decided to go along to get along, helping to shepherd the same misguided ideas and heartless, if not criminal, policies. After he became RNC chair, Steele declared that the GOP does not have a message problem, that there will be no change in the party’s stance towards immigration, and that the Republicans should look back to the Contract With America for inspiration. Steele claimed that government jobs aren’t real jobs, and the only real jobs are private sector jobs. He even suggested that people such as Sarah Palin are the future of the party.

What is most telling about this back-to-the-future Republican Party is their lockstep march against an economic stimulus package. Steele said the stimulus “is just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years ... to get a little bling, bling.” The GOP believes it has found its new calling, in the form of its stalwart opposition to any economic recovery package that consists of anything less than 100 percent tax cuts. They stand by the failed policy of tax cuts and trickle-on economics that have ruined the country for the past eight years, because it is all they have left. I will give them some credit, however - they stand committed to their ideals, even if those ideals originated in the test tube of some mad neocon’s scientific experiment, or in the alimentary canal of the party’s prized mascot.

The unanimous rejection by the House Republicans of the Obama stimulus package is proof that the current incarnation of the GOP cares far more about positioning itself for the 2010 election than in saving the nation from the next Great Depression. For these individuals, politics takes precedence over anything else. They are banking on Obama’s failure and the complete destruction of the economy, and then they will provide the cleanup crew. If they didn’t care about the state of the nation as they ran it into the ground under their watch, why should they care now?

Bipartisanship is a means, not an end unto itself. President Obama knew this when he extended an olive branch to his adversaries. By not taking the olive branch, they took his bait. He didn’t need their votes, and they fell into his trap. They failed to gauge the level of discontent and hopelessness in the land, and by failing to support measures that a majority of the public demands.

In the opinion of this humble political observer, you should expect the GOP to do more of the same. In all honesty, no one really expected conservatives to reject their ill-advised supply-side beliefs and join the Keynesian bandwagon. Ideology forbids them from signing onto the new New Deal that we ultimately will require to make people whole, to save the nation from the effects of unmuzzled, runaway capitalism.

True to their Southern orientation, the Republicans are an anti-labor, anti-union party. They oppose salary caps for CEOs who are receiving federal bailout money. They will oppose future economic relief programs and infrastructure investment, even though their constituencies desperately need it. They will oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, which will make it easier for workers to organize. They will oppose the nomination of the staunchly pro-union Rep. Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor. They will oppose new regulations for Wall Street and the environment, and they will oppose the greening of the economy. And thankfully they will continue to marginalize themselves and cement their status as a regional backwater party.

The GOP hopes that come 2010, the economic recovery fails, along with the President and his party. However, the more likely outcome is that with all of the retiring Republican senators next year, the Democrats are poised to win a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate. At that point, all Obama would have to do is channel his inner F.D.R. and, with the help of Congress, stack the Supreme Court with progressive judges who reflect the will of the people. It’s just a thought.

Bipartisanship sounded like a good idea, but in times of crisis you need willing parties to come to the table. In this case, the other side has nothing to contribute, and since they lost the last election under the weight of their failed economic and foreign policies, it is time to cast them aside. They unwittingly allowed Obama to make their bed for them, and now they must sleep in it. GOP, we got this, we will do it without you.

The whiteout on network television must stop

By David A. Love
Progressive Media Project and
McClatchy Washington Bureau
February 4, 2009

We need to see more people of color on TV shows. Even with our first black president, there is a virtual whiteout on network TV, and many people of color are unable to find a job – as a writer, actor or producer, much less an executive or decision maker. 

Although approximately one in three Americans is a person of color, Hollywood is, and always was, a white industry. Communities of color are not represented in proportion to their numbers. Even when minorities are portrayed, their storylines and characters usually remain subordinate to those of whites.

The NAACP is faulting Hollywood for this under-representation and is demanding that the industry step up and change the situation. The 100-year-old civil rights organization recently released a report called "Out of Focus – Out of Sync, Take 4: A Report on the Television Industry." 

Back in 2002, minorities were cast in a record number of roles on TV – 10,893, or 24.2 percent of the total, according to the report. Since then, there has been a steady downward trend in available television opportunities for qualified actors and writers. This has been due to the ever-increasing popularity of reality programming, which is diverse, but does not require scripts and actors. And performers, writers and producers of color are claiming a smaller and smaller portion of a shrinking pie.

In the 1999-2000 season, only 55 writers out of 839 working in prime-time television, or 6.6 percent, were black. Most of them were not working for one of the four major networks. Actually, 77 percent were working for UPN and WB, and a third of all black television writers in America worked on only two shows, UPN's "Moesha" and "The Parkers," both of which have been canceled.

And after the merger of UPN and WB to form the CW network, only 37 black writers remained in the 2006-2007 season, and minority programming has all but completely vanished since then.

"At a time when the country is excited about the election of the first African-American president in U.S. history, it is unthinkable that minorities would be so grossly underrepresented on broadcast television," said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

According to the report, the factors that stifle employment and promotion opportunities for minorities are highly subjective practices, including a closed roster system, lack of access through Hollywood agents and discriminatory guild membership requirements.

In the early days of television, it was common for blacks to run to the TV and call their friends when a person of color was making an on-air appearance. Today, such appearances should not be so rare.

And the roles minorities get need to be varied and rich.

In the 1987 movie "Hollywood Shuffle," Robert Townsend plays a struggling black actor who is faced with few job prospects except for demeaning stereotyped roles as jive-talking street hustlers. At the end of the movie, his character quits acting, declaring, "There's always work at the post office." 

Now, more than 20 years later, America can and must do more to end discrimination and ensure equal opportunity in Hollywood.

A Book Review of Wage Theft In America, By Kim Bobo

Color of Law
By David A. Love
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
February 5, 2009

Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is an Israelite or is a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

-Deuteronomy 24:1-15

And O my people! Give just measure and weight, nor withhold from the people the things that are their due.

-Qur’an 11:85

In this winter of economic discontent in America, many people feel as if they have been robbed, and in fact they have. Unscrupulous Wall Street investment managers run off with billions of dollars of hard-earned money. Retirement savings and 401k’s vanish without a trace and seemingly without a remedy. Unregulated markets allow banks to prey on the public with mortgages containing unconscionable hidden terms and penalties. Meanwhile, corporate beneficiaries of the taxpayer-financed bailout extravaganza plot with conservative activists to kill the Employee Free Choice Act - which will facilitate the formation of unions - in order to “save” American capitalism and prevent the U.S. from turning into France.

The free market run amok, combined with regulatory police asleep at the wheel, a decline in bargaining power for workers, and an upward redistribution of wealth, has been a recipe for disaster for ordinary people. Meanwhile, most people do not realize that each year, employers steal billions of dollars in wages from millions of hard working low and middle-income employees. Someone could face a year or two in jail for stealing $1000, yet a crime of this grand scale goes unpunished.

On this second anniversary edition of the Color of Law column, it is fitting that I review the book, Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid - And What We Can Do About It by Kim Bobo. Bobo is the founder and executive director of the Chicago-based nonprofit organization Interfaith Worker Justice, and a columnist for Religion Dispatches. And in this fascinating yet disturbing (and ultimately optimistic) book she provides the reader with nothing less than the anatomy of an invisible epidemic.

Car washers, wait staff, drivers, hotel workers, stock brokers, farm workers, department store employees, poultry workers, the list goes on and on. These are the victims of wage theft. The crime takes many forms. Some employees are paid below the minimum wage, which is against the law. Others have their tips stolen from them, or are forced to work off the clock, without the overtime pay they deserve. Many are denied workers’ compensation and other benefits to which they are entitled, or denied rest and lunch breaks, or made to pay a fee in order to work on the job. Some are denied their first or last week of pay. Many of the victims are immigrants, particularly undocumented, but the typical victim is native-born and White or Black.

Although the full extent of the damage in absolute dollars is unknown, even a pro-business source, the Economic Policy Foundation, estimates that companies steal $19 billion in unpaid overtime each year. And over the past few years, companies have paid over $1 billion annually to settle unpaid overtime claims. For example, in 2005 Allstate paid a $120 million settlement to 3,000 insurance adjusters in California. In 2006, Citigroup paid $98 million to 20,000 brokers who were shortchanged. UPS had to pay $87 million in 2007 for 20,000 drivers who were not paid overtime. That same year, Walmart settled with 86,680 workers for $33 million.

There are numerous factors which explain why wage theft is committed on such a large scale in the United States. Of course, there is racism and sexism, and the dehumanization of immigrant groups. Sometimes, the labor laws are so confusing that employers do not realize they are breaking the law. In addition, there are the global conditions which encourage wage theft. For example, globalization has created a downward shift in wages across the world. Some companies may not explicitly engage in wage theft as official policy, but may promote and fire managers based on how low they can keep costs. In a competitive environment where all companies are stealing from their workers, the company which does what is right, ethical, and legal is penalized. Meanwhile, many workers, unorganized and afraid to stand up for their rights, face retaliation and termination for demanding what is due to them.

Bobo provides a number of solutions to the problem, including stronger unions, providing incentives to businesses to do the right thing, substantial financial penalties for lawbreakers, and beefing up the Department of Labor with more enforcement staff.

In the book, the author takes a look back at the heyday of the department, when Frances Perkins was secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The first woman cabinet member under any president, Perkins played a major role in creating Social Security, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and many other programs. This proud legacy stands in marked contrast to recent years at the Department of Labor, where former DOL secretary under Bush, Elaine Chao, used every speaking opportunity to pat herself on the back and praise the state of the economy under that administration. Not once during her tenure did Chao, who lacked labor experience, advocate for higher pay, better benefits or reduced injuries for workers.

Bobo believes that community groups and religious groups have a role to play in fighting wage theft as well. The book decries the recent trend towards prosperity gospel among some churches, and acknowledges the important role that progressive religious organizations have played in the labor movement. After all, the major religions have much to say regarding the treatment of the poor and the rights of workers, if only people would dare to heed their words. Moreover, social justice-oriented scriptures from Islam, Judaism and Christianity that are quoted by Bobo are a welcome part of this book. The author notes that Moses, who led a workers strike in Egypt against Pharaoh, was one of the world’s first labor organizers.

As the product of a union household, whose father is a retired printing pressman, and whose mother is a municipal employee in New York, I appreciate and applaud Bobo for writing Wage Theft In America. At a time when the possibilities for a resurrected labor movement are stronger than in any time in decades, I trust that the ideas articulated in this book will find their way to the Obama administration.