CBC MONITOR

Towards African America’s Interest: Assessing and Challenging the Congressional Black Caucus.

We hope that this document critiquing the CBC will be a catalyst for a dialogue among African Americans on ways to make our political and civil rights leaders more accountable to the African-Americans that contribute to their campaigns, vote for them and more importantly to the African-Americans they say they represent.

This campaign and subsequent documents deal with several issues we feel the CBC has not worked hard enough to find resolution for –if at all. It discusses the role of Corporations in the caucus, Africa Policy, the Criminal Injustice System, Predator Lending in our communities and African-American Community Self Reliance in the face of a government that is failing the majority of us. The document is by no means a complete criticism of the CBC, much more can be said. For example, we are inviting other groups to add to the paper a critique of the Caucus’ in-actions where Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean are concerned.

We are also aware that the CBC as a body of representatives may not have been as effective in champion certain issues in the congress because of the current structure of our government and party politics, but we feel that the CBC has not made this clear to their supporters, nor have they articulated how their supporters can help them to do the job they are sent to the Congress to do. In short, the majority of the CBC members are not involved in any grassroots organizing in their community outside of when it is time to elect them to the Congress.

Let the dialogue begin.

[ Download Document] - pdf format