By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
CINCINNATI – Behind the speeches, appearances by presidential candidates, celebrity appearances, concerts and receptions, 1,300 delegates are busy conducting the business of the NAACP.
“The part of the agenda that people see is the entertainment and other political and social events,” said Richard McIntire, NAACP spokesman. “But there are legislative sessions and other sessions where policy and marching orders for the following year are set.” He added, “The NAACP sets the political agenda for people of color on issues of education, poverty, access to health care, the youth, economics and more.”
“The NAACP sets the political agenda for people of color.”
This year, delegates conferred over more than 40 resolutions, including a hastily added measure calling for the group’s condemnation of a controversial New Yorker cover depicting Sen. Barack Obama, dressed in Muslim garb, bumping fists with his wife Michelle, who sports military fatigues, an afro and an assault weapon slung across her back while an American flag burns in the fireplace. A key focus of the group is fighting back voter identification laws—like the one recently passed in Indiana despite no evidence of voter fraud involving ID cards.
Hilary Shelton, chief of the NAACP Washington Bureau, said such laws become another obstacle to voter participation, especially among the poor and elderly who don’t drive and may not have driver’s licenses.
“We still have problems making sure that every American has the right to vote,” said Shelton, who oversees the organization’s Capitol Hill efforts. “We won the right to vote but we did not win the right to make sure all those votes are counted.”
Another item high on the organization’s agenda is the housing crisis.
The NAACP filed suit against 17 mortgage companies a year ago, alleging discriminatory lending against African Americans. And on July 2, 22 NAACP branches participated in a National Day of Action against discriminatory lending. “This is about the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history,” said Angela Ciccolo, NAACP interim general counsel at a forum celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act and the current housing crisis.
Ciccolo’s declaration was culled from United for Fair Economy’s report, “Foreclosed: The State of the Dream 2008.” According to the report, people of color have lost between $164 billion and $213 billion in subprime loans taken during the past eight years. And racial bias accounted for a 40 percent difference in the wealth losses for people of color compared to Whites. “Do you see how bad things are? We clearly have so much more to do 40 years after the Fair Housing Act,” Shelton said.
The NAACP has been working with members of Congress to craft legislation to fix the problem, he added, including bills that would create a housing trust fund, increase oversight of lending agencies, allow homeowners to restructure loans and eliminate early payment penalties, etc. Delegates also considered measures to end environmental racism, increase educational opportunities for young adults, decrease the number of youths tried as adults, support sovereignty for several Native American nations, increase minority business participation in government contracts and urge the international community to solve the Darfur crisis.
John Dau, one of the “lost boys” of Sudan’s North-South war, told the AFRO: “People have been talking but they’re not doing anything. The international community is neglecting us while people are being killed, women raped and children abducted.”
One resolution opposed outsourcing of jobs to prisons and would require such companies to pay wages into a victim’s fund, pay child support and give the rest to the prisoner upon release. Companies would also be asked to hire that offender for two years upon his release. Another called for a push to make hanging a noose and burning a cross illegal.
Since September 2007, in the wake of the Jena Six case in Louisiana, the number of reported noose incidents nationally jumped to nearly 80, according to the DiversityInc Noose Watch.
Several states, including Louisiana, New York and Connecticut, have made hanging a noose a crime punishable by imprisonment.
“In the South, this is a reality for us,” said one delegate from Mississippi in support of the measure.
The item that generated the longest and most vehement debate, however, was a resolution that called for opposition to Wal-Mart’s treatment of employees.
Some delegates felt the bill unfairly targeted the retail giant.
“Is Wal-Mart the only sinner? No. Is labor all that clean? No. [Let’s] not engage in selective morality on issues of justice,” said one delegate.
A representative of the Michigan Conference, which submitted the measure, rejoined: “We can name all the retailers but it will be a very long bill. It will also mean that we’ll have to be ever vigilant with all of these retailers and stop shucking and jiving.”
Such enforcement may be compromised since the Wal-Mart is a major contributor to the NAACP, many argued.
“If we can take their money then what the heck are we doing [here]?” one middle-aged woman said. “By taking monies we are sending a message that we’re talking the talk but not walking the walk.”
Ironically, the argument came just before a press conference releasing the results of the Economic Reciprocity Report—an annual survey that assesses corporate America’s relationship with the Black community—in which Wal-Mart scored the highest in its class.
In the General Merchandising category, Wal-Mart scored a C-plus along measures of diversity in employment, marketing and communications, supplier diversity, community reinvestment and charitable giving.
Some of the issues raised in the resolution were likely not addressed in the survey, explained Dennis Hayes, the NAACP’s interim president/CEO. And the retailer probably needs to do more to publicize its efforts.
“Wal-Mart is doing better than people understand,” Hayes said. “That’s a challenge for Wal-Mart—to let people know.”
Even on the last day of the conference, delegates are ruling on legislation and others are attending legal and other workshops geared to support grassroots problem-solving. Said Shelton, “One of the geniuses of our convention is that everyday people from communities all over the nation are looking at issues and looking at ways to solve those problems.”