Prometheus 6

Black Matters: Where Do the Parties Stand on Issues Important to Black America?, at BlackAmericaweb.com. They didn't seem to find a lot of Republican positions to reflect on...

Interesting piece, though. I spotted this

"We found through much of our polling that many African-Americans are feeling like it just shouldn't be this hard," Amaya Smith, deputy press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"These are people who work hard, play by the rules and are trying to raise their family in a country where rising health care costs, skyrocketing tuition and high energy prices are making it that much harder to make ends meet," Smith said.

...immediately before this.

Peter C. Groff, executive director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver and publisher of Blackpolicy.org, said the November election is a critical moment in history for black Americans, a chance to examine issues such as home ownership, small business opportunities and financial literacy classes in public schools.

"A main concern is that it's difficult for the African-American electorate to collectively focus on issues beyond the traditional civil rights paradigm," Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com Wednesday.

"We can now say, with confidence, that the black community has reached a tremendous level of political and socio-economic maturity. Therefore, we have the capacity to examine a diverse array of domestic and foreign policy issues -- to go beyond those topics which simply strike an emotional chord."

"In 2006, the political stakes are high, so we'll need take a closer look at the public policy landscape beyond the usual hot button issues for African Americans on Election Day," Groff said.

"Certainly issues such as affirmative action, voting rights, racial profiling and the death penalty are all significant issues worthy of continuing discourse," he added.

"But," Groff said, "how can the black body politic expect to dominate the course or outcome of these issues if there is a failure to recognize the need for a coherent and organized public policy agenda or strategy? Whether or not we have comprehensive voting rights or preservation of affirmative action ultimately rests on our ability to accumulate political power and leverage."

In the article it's all contiguous. think I broke the text along the class divide, you know what I mean? I think considering the two reasons as representing different (sub?)communities is more accurate, and more likely if you break it up or separate them in the text flow somehow.

Yeah, I know, it's like talking politics with Schrodinger's Cat.

On the real, the pressure is on the second group of guys to connect with the first. You really can't expect folk in a position where life is too hard to divert a lot of energy into a collective effort unless they can see some benefit from it pretty quickly (tradition demands acknowledging the benefit need not be financial; reality demands acknowledging it would be the most effective form...).