Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh participated in a webinar on January 31, "Why Communities of Color Should Care About Social Security Reform" with members of the Committee to Modernize Social Security.

You can find slides of the webinar and other resources at insightcced.org.

The isolation of being African-American and Republican rang clear to Sam Bain when he joined a group of about 100 other sign-waving protesters at a 2010 speech by President Barack Obama at Ohio State University.

“I was called a sellout, a racist, and one person even came right up to me and called me a house Negro. And they were black people. I was being attacked for being a black Republican,” he said.

But Bain stood his ground.

“It didn’t faze me,” said the 23-year-old senior at Wright State University in Ohio. “I’m not one to follow the herd. I’m not going to vote for a man just because he is black. I don’t agree with Obama’s policies. I judge a man by his policies and the content of his character, not the color of his skin. That’s what Martin Luther King Jr. would say.”

---

“So if you are a young, black Republican, you are totally and completely eccentric,” said David A. Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C.

“The base of the Republican Party is Southern, white and conservative,” he said. “I suppose it is a kind of rebellion.”

“They (black Republicans) certainly are individuals, because among black people, they are not the norm,” he said. “They are way out on the tail.”

Read more at the Kansas City Star.

This week, a Washington Post study published a portrait of today’s African American women, offering the adjectives strong, independent, religious, and highly educated to illuminate our experiences. Yet, juxtaposed against these adjectives were words that included unmarried, non-romantic, and financially over-extended.  Meant to paint a portrait of women whose self-esteem is finally creating dividends in their professional circles, the article appeared to chronicle the sequel to the sequel of Black women’s experiences – lives that often pair career success with personal deprivation.

As I read the article, I was inspired by the achievements of Black women, yet hardened by the continuing sacrifices of success.  Why can’t a Black woman have it all – the career, the man, the one and a half children, and the healthy self-esteem that makes all of these benefits possible?  How is it that, in the Black woman’s universe, strong cannot co-exist with romantic or independence with relationships?

These questions are part of the ongoing conversation that not only exists in the minds of Black women, but also in Black men and others that witness and or contribute to the double bind of our sisters.

Read more at politic365.com.

Not that long ago, President Obama seemed destined for defeat in November. The economy showed few signs of improvement, unemployment continued to hover at historically high levels and Obama’s job approval ratings reached historic lows. Lately, however, things are starting to look up.

According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday, for the first time in seven months more people approve of the president’s job performance, by a margin of 48 percent to 46 percent. That’s not all: 37 percent said they believe the economy will improve in 2012, the highest level in more than a year.

President Obama also seems both more confident and buoyant these days. He’s shed his cloak of conciliation and is standing firm against Congressional Republicans. That’s given him some political victories and helped channel that 2004 feeling, when anything seemed possible.

It’s a stark contrast to Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, who, when they’re not slamming the president, are bashing each other. While Obama proposes job creation strategies and argues for economic fairness, the two Republican frontrunners are debating who’s more like former president Ronald Reagan and criticizing how each earned his wealth.

David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says Americans are watching the GOP presidential hopefuls on the campaign trail and in debates and not liking what they see, in part because the primary process has forced the candidates to move so far to the right.

“The debates have been a disaster for the Republicans because they’ve exposed all sorts of things about what the candidates and their supporters believe,” said Bositis, citing their boos at a gay veteran’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” query and cheers when Gov. Rick Perry crowed about how many executions had taken place in Texas.“What do they see in Obama? Someone who is even-tempered and rational, and always reaching out — even to his enemies,” said Bositis.

Read more at BET.com.

The U.S. Census Bureau will host a forum with the National Urban League on the black population at Black Entertainment Television studios. This event will highlight statistics from the 2010 Census, providing a portrait of the black population in the U.S. Following the presentation, an expert panel will discuss the statistics and their implications.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO )

When:

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012; 9 a.m. to noon (EST)

Who:

Robert Groves, director, U.S. Census Bureau Marc Morial, chief executive officer and president, National Urban League

Chanelle Hardy, senior vice president/executive director, National Urban League

Nicholas Jones, chief, Racial Statistics Branch, U.S. Census Bureau Tallese Johnson, Racial Statistics Branch, U.S. Census Bureau

Kristal High, editor, Politic365

Margaret Simms, fellow and director, Low-Income Working Families project, Urban Institute

Roderick Harrison, Howard University professor, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Patricia Coulter, chief executive officer, Urban League of Philadelphia

Tracey Webb, founder, Black Gives Back Blog and Black Benefactors

Odis Johnson Jr., assistant professor, African American Studies, Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland

Julianne Malveaux, president, Bennett College

Read more at Yahoo! News or investors.com.

A year before the housing bubble burst and the economy nearly flat-lined, the National Urban League declared a housing state of emergency in America. In response, NUL president Marc Morial recalled during an event his organization hosted with the Census Bureau Monday, the media and others compared the organization to the fairy tale character, Chicken Little, whose claims that the sky was falling down also were met with disbelief. As it turns out, however, the group was right. It was able to predict the future based on information compiled in a Census Bureau report.

Many people’s eyes glaze over at the mere thought of such statistics, Morial observed, but that information can provide a picture of where the nation is going and its future challenges.

The Urban League and the Census Bureau hosted a forum on Wednesday to crunch Black population statistics in the 2010 census. In addition to experiencing 15.4 percent growth between 2000 and 2010, the Black population is projected to grow from 42 million in 2010 to 65.7 million in 2050. The annual median income in Black households was $32,068, a decline of 3.2 percent from 2009, and 27.4 percent were living in poverty.

---

Roderick Harrison, a research scientist at Howard University and Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies fellow, said that as a result of migration, the direction of politics will have to center more around the formation of multicultural voting blocs around common issues.

“Ninety percent of the Black and Hispanic agenda overlap. So there’s no reason as ... many of these areas Hispanic populations grow that you shouldn’t be able to form coalitions that would push as effectively for some of the education, housing, health and employment issues that a Black population alone has been fighting for for decades,” he said.

Read more at BET.com.

North Carolina State Senator Eric Mansfield was born in 1964, a year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote for African-Americans. He grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and moved to North Carolina when he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He became an Army doctor, opening a practice in Fayetteville after leaving the service. Mansfield says he was always “very cynical about politics” but decided to run for office in 2010 after being inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential run.

He ran a grassroots campaign in the Obama mold, easily winning the election with 67 percent of the vote. He represented a compact section of northwest Fayetteville that included Fort Bragg and the most populous areas of the city. It was a socioeconomically diverse district, comprising white and black and rich and poor sections of the city. Though his district had a black voting age population (BVAP) of 45 percent, Mansfield, who is African-American, lives in an old, affluent part of town that he estimates is 90 percent white. Many of his neighbors are also his patients.

But after the 2010 census and North Carolina’s once-per-decade redistricting process—which Republicans control by virtue of winning the state’s General Assembly for the first time since the McKinley administration—Mansfield’s district looks radically different. It resembles a fat squid, its large head in an adjoining rural county with little in common with Mansfield’s previously urban district, and its long tentacles reaching exclusively into the black neighborhoods of Fayetteville. The BVAP has increased from 45 to 51 percent, as white voters were surgically removed from the district and placed in a neighboring Senate district represented by a white Republican whom GOP leaders want to protect in 2012. Mansfield’s own street was divided in half, and he no longer represents most of the people in his neighborhood. His new district spans 350 square miles, roughly the distance from Fayetteville to Atlanta. Thirty-three voting precincts in his district have been divided to accommodate the influx of new black voters. “My district has never elected a nonminority state senator, even though minorities were never more than 45 percent of the vote,” Mansfield says. “I didn’t need the help. I was doing OK.”

---

Unlike the Republican Party, which is 95 percent white in states like Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the Democratic Party can thrive only as a multiracial coalition. The elimination of white Democrats has also crippled the political aspirations of black Democrats. According to a recent report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 4.8 percent of black state legislators in the South serve in the majority. “Black voters and elected officials have less influence now than at any time since the civil rights era,” the report found. Sadly, the report came out before all the redistricting changes had gone into effect. By the end of this cycle, Republicans in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee could have filibuster-proof majorities in their legislatures, and most white Democrats in Alabama and Mississippi (which haven’t completed redistricting yet) could be wiped out.

Read more at thenation.com.

WASHINGTON, DC – Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies President and CEO, Ralph B. Everett released the following statement after President Obama’s State of the Union Address:

We applaud the firmness and resolve with which the President outlined his vision for an economic recovery that is based on American values such as fairness and rewarding hard work. His stated determination to strengthen the middle class through support for education and job creation will be welcomed by those who are striving against the odds to find economic security for their families.

As the economic recovery continues to take hold, the American people want to know that we are not going to fall back onto the policies that brought the economy down in the first place. This evening, the President did a good job outlining how he intends to lead our nation to a prosperity that will be more enduring and broadly shared because it is based on real work and value delivered. We think Americans will respond to that message, so long as their government sticks up for them, points the way to opportunity and ensures that everyone plays by the rules. The President’s vision is worthy of support.

The Justice Department's rejection of South Carolina's voter ID law probably won't prevent other states from adopting similar measures, analysts say.

"Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to have a significant chilling effect," said Wendy Weiser, a voter ID opponent and lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University law school.

The South Carolina law would have required voters to show one of five government-issued IDs — such as a drivers license or passport — before casting a ballot.

---

Most states can change their election laws without having to get advance approval from the federal government. And those that do need approval can turn to the courts if the Justice Department says no, noted David Bositis, an analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

He said many states already have passed tougher voter ID laws or other measures — such as shortening early-voting days — that critics say have a discriminatory impact.


Read more at USA Today.