Subject: Many Black Voters Broaden Their Agenda Beyond Civil Rights Date: Published: 10/13/92 (241 lines) Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. New Diversity: Many Black Voters Broaden Their Agenda Beyond Civil Rights --- Leaders' Strains With Clinton Obscure Significant Shift To Middle Class Concerns --- Economic, Not Racial, Issues ---- By Dorothy J. Gaiter Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Jesse Jackson makes a point of not clapping at some of Bill Clinton's speeches. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, a veteran black leader, says Mr. Clinton avoids kissing black babies on television. Both men, along with some other traditional black leaders, complain that Mr. Clinton is ignoring black voters to better pursue disaffected white Democrats. The result is a great deal of media attention to the apparent split between blacks and Mr. Clinton. But black voters clearly like Bill Clinton. In the primaries, when the Democratic field was crowded, they gave him half their vote in New York, around 60% in California, about three-quarters in Florida and Georgia and even more in Texas. And he's poised to get a huge number of black votes in the general election. What goes on here? The views of the traditional black leadership are diverging from those of the larger black community. While the black leadership continues to focus on civilrights issues, a great portion of the black community -- especially younger and more affluent blacks -- has widened its perspective. And Mr. Clinton has let his campaign go with that flow. In front of black audiences, he tends to talk generally about the economy -- as he does in front of white audiences -- instead of tailoring his speech exclusively to civil rights. That's a big change for a Democratic candidate -- one that cannily reflects the change in the community itself. "Clinton couldn't be more in touch with black public opinion," says David Bositis, senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based black research organization that joined with Home Box Office in June to survey blacks on their views of the issues. The survey, he says, "basically shows that there is wide and broad issue agreement in the black community with Bill Clinton's platform," including his planks on crime and welfare reform, which in many cases differ from the views of black leaders. A plurality, for instance, said they supported capital punishment; Mr. Jackson and other black leaders strongly oppose it. "While civil rights is still a major item on my agenda, at the same time I think there's the realization on my part and other professional people like me that, OK, the law is on the books, you're always going to have this subtle, covert racism that exists," says William L. Thompson, owner of a group of Boston-based businesses called the Summit Group Inc. "So let's get beyond that and talk about ways we can make some money." Adds Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who was jailed and beaten repeatedly while demonstrating in the South for equal rights in the 1960s: "In 1992, we don't need a candidate singing `We Shall Overcome' or carrying a sign." Black voters overwhelmingly still identify themselves as Democrats, but more are questioning traditional party ties and even rejecting previous Democratic nostrums for black community problems. Building on an expanded participation in the electoral process that owes much to Mr. Jackson's runs for the White House and his voter-registration drives, they have gained new acumen in assessing what is in their best interest. "Most issues should not be defined as black or white," says Terry Tate of Terry Tate Realty in Atlanta. "We all need jobs, we all need safety, we all need to be rid of the scourge of drugs." Indeed, blacks' progress into the middle class has made their concerns more in tune with the white middle class. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, since 1967 the number of black families it classifies as middle class or "affluent" has nearly quadrupled. Those blacks "behave economically a lot more than racially," says Claibourne Darden Jr., an Atlanta pollster who works for both parties. They are more concerned than ever with mainstream issues such as the economy and health care as well as the problems of the poor and inner cities. "We should be in a unified way talking about the bigger issues, as opposed to isolating ourselves and talking about one group of issues," says Howard Dabney, chief lending officer for Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York City. "Education, jobs, health care-these are not ethnic issues." None of this has been lost on the Republicans, whose leaders, after all, have been saying for some time that the best thing a president can do for blacks is improve the economy generally, creating a rising tide that lifts all boats. "In the past, you would think that the only issues concerning black Americans were civil rights and social issues," says Clarence Carter, the National Republican Committee's director of African-American Affairs. "We've come to understand that the black voter is very much a part of everything that is America. So we speak to black Americans through the same campaign issues through which we speak to the rest of America." The change is somewhat analogous to candidates realizing that support for Israel alone was no guarantee of Jewish support. In the case of blacks, the shift has been fairly quick. After all, it was less than 30 years ago that blacks were presented with a stark civil-rights choice between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, not only have more blacks moved into the economic mainstream, but "the black voter has gained a higher level of sophistication about elective politics," says John E. Jacob, director of the National Urban League, stressing that his comments are nonpartisan. Mr. Jacob says a key was Douglas Wilder's successful gubernatorial campaign in Virginia, "where Doug had to send very complicated signals in order to mount a very difficult campaign." Mr. Wilder did not want Mr. Jackson's help in his campaign for governor and hewed to a mainstream agenda that was controversial among some blacks, including Mr. Jackson. Mr. Clinton has sent complex signals of his own-his public criticism of rap singer Sister Souljah at an event sponsored by Mr. Jackson, for example, and his signing a death warrant allowing execution of a lobotomized black convict despite Mr. Jackson's pleas. In the past, that might have spelled deep trouble for a Democratic nominee. Not, apparently, this year. Polls have shown high black support for Mr. Clinton. To be sure, Democrats usually get a massive share of the black vote anyway; Michael Dukakis received about nine out of 10. But the name of the game with the black vote is turnout. Instead of voting Republican, many blacks just don't vote when the Democratic nominee is uninspiring. Black voter turnout dropped more sharply than white voter turnout from 1984 to 1988. But there are indications that the black vote this year could be big, giving Mr. Clinton a huge portion of a larger pie -- and that could be critical in some Southern states with big black populations. One reason is simply that some blacks feel President Bush is not sensitive on civil-rights and economic issues. In addition, a record number of blacks are running nationwide in several important races. If Carol Moseley Braun wins in Illinois, for instance, she would be the only black in the Senate. That kind of contest is likely to energize black voters. Mr. Jackson, for his part, dismisses the idea that his agenda differs from that of mainstream blacks. Civil rights, Mr. Jackson insists, is still African-Americans' foremost issue. "When a neighborhood is red-lined, it's a civil-rights issue, a race issue that locks us out of economic development," he says. "The lack of affirmative action locks us out of jobs." He disagrees that, now that the civil rights laws are on the books, it's time to move on, saying: "The Indian treaty is on the books, too." Mr. Jackson says Mr. Clinton's platform is fine on most issues, but he faults his strategy, which he sees as appealing to whites by pushing away blacks. "When I raise my voice, it is not a personal appeal for a personal relationship with Mr. Clinton or attention," Mr. Jackson says. "It is an appeal to the campaign to employ strategies that maximize enthusiasm for the ticket." Rep. Rangel agrees that Mr. Clinton is pushing away blacks. "You don't see him on television picking up black babies and kissing them," he says. "They plan what gets on television." Aides to Mr. Clinton say that he has kissed black babies, including one with AIDS, and that it's not their fault if TV has never aired that. Mr. Clinton's first event yesterday was a walk down a West Philadelphia street in a predominantly black neighborhood, and his last event of the day was scheduled to be a speech kicking off a bus tour through the South aimed mostly at getting blacks to vote. In between, Mr. Clinton fielded a hostile question from a reporter about whether he was neglecting the black vote in favor of suburban and blue-collar white voters. Mr. Clinton called the charge "baseless" and reeled off the inner cities he has visited as well as the black organizations he has addressed. There's an irony in all this for Jesse Jackson: Even while so many blacks credit him with broadening the black political agenda, they're increasingly unlikely to march in lock-step with him. "Rev. Jackson haf*d his day," says Charles U. Smith, dean of graduate studies at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and, in 1978, the first black Democratic county chairman in Florida. "We've got to get away from single figure leadership for black people. I like Rev. Jackson, but he cannot be a controlling factor on this." Dr. Smith says some of the split in black reactions to Mr. Clinton's approach is another reminder that the black community itself is increasingly diverse. A recent Census study showed that the gap between the most affluent and poorest blacks grew tremendously between 1967 and 1990. "There are those who are quite sophisticated and you don't have to play the race card so strongly with them," says Dr. Smith. "But there are others for whom very little has changed. They want to hear what will be done to alleviate their condition." Adds Phyllis Atwater of New York City, a business consultant who worked for former Sen. Paul Tsongas in the Democratic primaries: "The basic functioning of the economy is going to be the thing that makes it possible for employment to happen -- that people have jobs, health care, day care, so they can have solid families and hopes for the future. These are the things that are missing now, and that's beyond the cities and beyond being black. It's an American problem." Even the reaction to Mr. Clinton's way of not tailoring his speeches to particular audiences reveals a split in black attitudes. "I think the idea of having to be courted is a patronizing posture that I find demeaning and insulting," says the Rev. Joseph Roberts, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. But a frequent Clinton critic, Ronald Walters, chairman of Howard University's political science department, disagrees. "The black agenda is an urban inner-city agenda," he says. "The black community is suffering. At least the poorer part of it has been debilitated from the last 12 years of massive withdrawal of resources, and they want to hear something more than `I'm with you.' They want to hear relatively specific appeals, the same kind that he's giving the middle-class business community and other segments of society." Instead of talking about education in general, he says, "I want to hear something about black colleges." In addition, he says, if Mr. Clinton doesn't make specific promises to blacks, he can't be held accountable to them. New Advisers Mr. Clinton's approach to blacks may reflect two factors. One is his set of advisers. Rep. Rangel and other elected black officials complain about what they perceive as a lack of black insiders advising Mr. Clinton. Mr. Clinton's people say that's not true, pointing to Rodney Slater, a senior campaign adviser, Avis Lavelle, the press secretary, and a variety of informal advisers. Says Mr. Bositis of the Joint Center: "The fact that he's turning to Bobby Rush a Chicago Alderman, candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives and former Black Panther and Rep. Maxine Waters a California Democrat who represents riot-torn areas in Los Angeles and Emanuel Cleaver mayor of Kansas City rather than Joseph Lowry a veteran civil rights activist and the traditional civil rights leadership means he's turning to a newer generation." The other factor that might define Mr. Clinton's approach is his roots in the South, where there's familiarity among whites and blacks who share a common culture, with all its complexities. The relationship "may have been denigrating to us, but you've got to get to the bottom line, which is that there was a relationship and that's something to build on," says Jacqueline B. Dickens, who with her husband Floyd works with corporations to make multicultural workplaces more effective. "It's less condescending, especially for those of us who are a little bit more educated, a little bit more enlightened and who are really serious about what is important to us and not the play-acting." (See related letter: "Letters to the Editor: Never Fear, Blacks Are Still United" -- WSJ Oct. 28, 1992) 921013-0140 [This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]