The Final Call

Black Caucus meets with President Trump on public policy in first and unpopular step

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Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, third from right, accompanied by Rep. Karen Bass, Dcalif., fourth from right, Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., second from right, and Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., right, speak after members of the Congressional Black Caucus meet with President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Mar. 22, in Washington. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond felt meeting every 60 days might be overkill, but there was talk of meeting every other month.

What was an apparently respectful meeting March 22 was controversial before it even happened with some Black congressmen, friends and even family members saying the caucus should not meet with the CEO of America, Inc.

Rep. Richmond said a decision was made to send the Black Caucus executive committee and approach it as a business meeting. Participants included Karen Bass (D-Calif.), James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), André Carson (D-Ind.) And Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.).

“We brought him a 130- page document that started off with a brief synopsis of African American history because we think this administration needs a little history on that,” said the Louisiana Democrat. His is the Second Congressional District in the state and stretches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

“We started off with the fact that Frederick Douglass is dead, that HBCU’s were not established for school choice because there wasn’t any choice; that slaves didn’t come over as immigrants searching for a better way of life. And that no immigrant worked harder or cheaper than slaves. Because in order to work cheaper than slaves that means that you had to be paying somebody to do work,” he added.

Next came sharing some history about the Black Caucus, formed in 1971, and talking to the president about likening Chicago violence to Baghdad, blasting former President Obama as the worst ever and similar words and expressions.

“We told him that he creates such a mistrust that if he can’t change his rhetoric we can’t work with him because our community won’t allow us to,” said Rep. Richmond during a March 23 luncheon on Capitol Hill held jointly by the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the National Association of Hispanic Publications during Black Press Week. Journalists and publication owners heard from nearly 20 congressmen over several hours in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Caucus members talked about policy issues that impact the Black community and why having brilliant neurosurgeon Ben Carson as secretary of housing and urban development—though he knows nothing about housing policy might not be a good idea, said the caucus chair.

“In the process of the conversation, violence in Chicago came up for example. And we said nothing unique—we can solve it. I said you can start with summer jobs for youth,” continued Rep. Richmond. “I said because summer jobs increase the chance of kids graduating from high school by 50 percent; increases the chances of him going to college by 50 percent.”

“Every study shows that if you just increase the average grade level in a community by one grade level you reduce violent crime by 30 percent which means that would be 200 less dead people in Chicago,” Rep. Richmond said.

The Congressional Black Caucus has 49 members who are subject matter experts, which is much different from meeting celebrities or entertainers about Black concerns, he argued.

It appeared as if the president had not heard solid policy analysis, said Rep. Richmond. So Mr. Trump’s public statements don’t connect with certain realities.

“If you want to talk about law and order or crime in inner-cities than you can’t cut early childhood education, you can’t cut after school programs. The most vulnerable time for our children is three to five. Because at three they get out of school—five the parents get home from work. So what sense does it make to do those things? And I don’t think that anybody ever drew those connections for him,” the Black Caucus chair said.

The president has two Black staffers in his legislative shop and Blacks in his circle, but they’ve never been policymakers, he observed.

The last part of the meeting was devoted to a 100-plus page policy document titled “We Have A Lot To Lose.” The report is a response to Mr. Trump’s election declaration to Blacks that they should give him a chance, proclaiming “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Plenty, according to Rep. Richmond.

If the president kills Community Development Block Grants from the federal government to the states, less money will be available for neighborhood revitalization, after school programs, meals on wheels for seniors, and aid that helps poor people pay utility bills, he said.

“You tell me how that is a New Deal or a good deal for the African American community or any poor people?” asked Rep. Richmond.

The president was also told the Black Caucus represents 78 million constituents and only 17 million people in their districts are Black, according to Rep. Richmond.

“The majority of the people that we represent are not African Americans although we represent 41 percent of all African Americans in this country. We fight for everybody,” he said. “We fight for poor rural people, we fight for poor White people; we fight for everybody who needs to get to a better station in life or who gets a raw deal from government. And to that extent I think that he heard things that he had not heard before and it was very important for us to have that meeting. We’ll see what happens from there.”

But there are big issues to discuss, such as criminal justice reform hurting our communities, investment in HBCU’s, college aid programs as well as government advertising in Black and Latino publications, he said.

In an interview following the lunch presentation, Mr. Richmond said the next step is meeting with heads of federal agencies over the document presented to the president.

“But in the meantime, we’re going to keep holding his feet to the fire. Nothing has changed on our side. We think the budget is a raw deal for African Americans and poor people around the country,” he said.

Lastly the congressman admitted the Democratic Party also has some work to do. “We did our own poll and we found that 68 percent of African Americans feel that the Democratic Party takes them for granted and we share that sentiment,” he said. “And the Democratic Party needs to start putting its money where its mouth is in terms of advertising, in terms of African American consultants and diversity within their spending. They spend billions of dollars every four years and their base gets very little of it and that has to change—and we’re fighting to make that change.”