Power Brokers Rising
Middle and Upper Class blacks prepare to rise and some even notice difference in treatment.
African-Americans have held top cabinet and presidential advisory positions before — most notably Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice in the Bush administration and Vernon Jordan, who was a close adviser and friend to President Bill Clinton. Both Mr. Jordan and Mr. Powell have advised Mr. Obama.
But now, the spotlight has shifted to a new cadre of African-Americans in their 40s and 50s. Their growing visibility is already changing the tone of Washington and creating new power matrixes. For example, Eric Holder — who helped conduct Mr. Obama’s search for a vice president and is considered by people close to the campaign as a candidate for attorney general — met Mr. Obama two years ago at a Washington dinner party organized by Ann Walker Marchant. Ms. Marchant is a black former Clinton administration official who is also the niece of Mr. Jordan and a cousin of Ms. Jarrett.
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Some blacks believe that a larger ripple effect is under way — that Mr. Obama’s ascendancy is affecting, for instance, things like the number of black commentators appearing on cable-TV news shows. Says Ms. Butts: “You will see changes in Washington, D.C., where people are making decisions about who is running a news bureau, who is heading up a lobbying shop,” bringing in more blacks to top positions.
While Mr. Obama’s political rise has augmented the role of many well-connected blacks, the country’s overall racial progress remains uneven, notes Mr. Rogers. As an example, he points to the financial sector in Chicago where there are virtually no African-American partners at the major investment banks, hedge funds or venture-capital firms.
This election “isn’t going to change everything,” says Harvard’s Mr. Wilkins. “But it is going to change the way people understand power. It changes the view of who could be an important person.”
Mr. Wilkins and other influential blacks say they have already noticed subtle changes in the way they are treated at upscale restaurants in Washington, D.C., and places like Martha’s Vineyard where affluent Americans — and the Obamas — vacation. “No one is quite sure who you are,” says Mr. Wilkins. “Now the assumption is you might know the next president of the United States.”
Again, no one is saying that everything is going to turn for the better just because of the election, but it certainly does change perceptions and the attitudes of many people in the corridors of power. Times are changing and it is time to get with it.
Filed under: Changing World
I believe this new ushering of power is good yet it may create a great divide among Blackamericans (we shall see, I was wrong about white men voting for Obama )
Anyway I’m sensing that it will be “only” the Blackamericans in Lawrence Otis Graham’s and Ward Connelly’s world of bourgeoisie who will benefit.
The light complexioned members of groups like the Boule’, The Links, Jack and Jill, and other groups like them, will get the most “visible” positions. This is the same group who abandoned the inner-city which Obama sought to organize.
Obama has more in common with the white liberals who followed a similar path as he, than the Blackamerican bourgeoisie, but sadly they the bourgeoisie are best positioned to take advantage of the new era it’s cool to be Black and achieve (though not necessarily give back)
So will there be real change or will we be introduced to those who carryout the previous policies while looking slightly different? Will we get transformation or “Animal Farm”?
What’s ironic about the article is that they position this as something foreign to the WSJ. People in various social and ethnic groups have been doing this forever. Especially in the Jewish culture.
Even though Black have always had it, Obama just helped our community and many others realize their dreams and potential.Far as the US and the world, Obama exposes the other side of positive Black America that is rarely or is never seen by most of the general public.
There are some of us in the black community who are now telling people that are no excuses for achievement and there never was( unless of course one is brain dead or have a is severely mentally challenged.). Now that a Black man is president, ANYBODY can be in anything that they want. There will be people out there who are ready to see him fall, but, he’ll make them look like fools with God’s help.May God bless him and his family with much protection and. prosperity.
[...] Over to Tariq Nelson- No one is saying that everything is going to turn for the better just because of the election, but it certainly does change perceptions and the attitudes of many people in the corridors of power. Times are changing and it is time to get with it. [...]