‘Poverty tour’ stirs debate about whether Obama policies have helped African Americans

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

CHICAGO — Kyshandra Jackson was in the laundry room drying a load of clothes when the debate over President Obama’s efforts on behalf of African Americans arrived at her West Side apartment complex. Her predominantly black neighborhood was among the first stops on a week-long road trip that media personality Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West are calling “the poverty tour.”

The bus tour, which is drawing large crowds and media attention, ups the stakes on the continued criticism of White House policy toward blacks by Smiley and West and provides a window into how their complaints are playing on the streets of the city Obama calls home.

At the two stops they made in the heart of Chicago’s black community over the weekend, the men and women fell into two camps: those who think Obama needs the push and those who see it as piling on.

Jackson, a 26-year-old single mother who recently found a hospital housekeeping job after nearly a year of unemployment, said, “They are not really giving him a chance.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poverty-tour-fuels-debate-on-obamas-policies-and-african-americans/2011/08/08/gIQA7yZD3I_singlePage.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Glad this poverty tour is going on. Not enough people take the time to

listen to what those who are living in poverty think, want, or need.

[Enrique]

2. a great article

kudos to the reporter Krissah Thompson, and thank you for posting it. k&R

[madrchsod]

3. "the magical mystery tour"

nothing will change until people can find a job. right now there`s no jobs and there`s none on the horizon.

[classysassy]

4. If you are a rich black person

you have been helped,but the rich don't need help it's the poor from all ethnic groups.

[jwirr]

5. Hell have they helped most anyone who is poor?

[indepat]

6. President Obama's policies have helped some African-Americans: those who have the skill,

ability, and determination to have excelled in professional athletics, show business, or as tycoons or in a few other professions. Not so much for most of those not meeting this criteria. :patriot: