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Want to know Obama's next move? Ask Valerie Jarrett
Hazel Trice Edney/NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 12/28/08 Section: Politics
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Valerie Jarrett, who will likely become a household name very shortly as she serves as a senior advisor and public liaison for President-elect Barack Obama, said the landscape of activism may drastically change under the Obama administration as those who have traditionally fought to be heard will likely have seats at the table.
"You do not need to have demonstrations in front of the White House to convince this president that there is a disparate impact in the African-American community around issues such as health care and education. He's got that," said Jarrett in a telephone interview with the NNPA News Service.
This may mean a mixture of people at the table of solution seeking, Jarrett said - those from all generations, races and walks of life.
"You don't have to convince him that there's a problem. You have to just work with us to come up with the appropriate solutions," she said. "And his strategy is, 'Look if we all come to the table and we have a common goal of trying to solve a problem … we can do extraordinary things together.'"
Particularly during the Bush administration, protest marching surged. Iconic Black activists the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have led thousands of people in numerous marches over the past several years, pertaining to everything from economic injustice, inequities in the criminal justice system, to specific cases of police misconduct and racial unrest.
Jarrett, a Chicago business woman who is already called the "first friend" to the Obamas, has not ruled out the possibility of even Jackson and Sharpton at the table in the White House.
"This administration is about inclusion and not about exclusion," she said when asked whether Jackson, Sharpton and the Rev. Joseph Lowery might possibly be among those at the table. "The basic foundation of his philosophy is that too many people have been excluded for too long; the special interest groups and the lobbyists have dominated Washington. And as a result, the voices of every day people have been drowned out."
"You do not need to have demonstrations in front of the White House to convince this president that there is a disparate impact in the African-American community around issues such as health care and education. He's got that," said Jarrett in a telephone interview with the NNPA News Service.
This may mean a mixture of people at the table of solution seeking, Jarrett said - those from all generations, races and walks of life.
"You don't have to convince him that there's a problem. You have to just work with us to come up with the appropriate solutions," she said. "And his strategy is, 'Look if we all come to the table and we have a common goal of trying to solve a problem … we can do extraordinary things together.'"
Particularly during the Bush administration, protest marching surged. Iconic Black activists the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have led thousands of people in numerous marches over the past several years, pertaining to everything from economic injustice, inequities in the criminal justice system, to specific cases of police misconduct and racial unrest.
Jarrett, a Chicago business woman who is already called the "first friend" to the Obamas, has not ruled out the possibility of even Jackson and Sharpton at the table in the White House.
"This administration is about inclusion and not about exclusion," she said when asked whether Jackson, Sharpton and the Rev. Joseph Lowery might possibly be among those at the table. "The basic foundation of his philosophy is that too many people have been excluded for too long; the special interest groups and the lobbyists have dominated Washington. And as a result, the voices of every day people have been drowned out."
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Fred Harvey
posted 1/10/09 @ 2:36 AM EST
This statement is all well and good for the blacks, but there is no mention of the gay community. How does Obama feel about the gay community? Gays have marched for civil rights for blacks historically but the blacks completely sold the gays to the dogs by voting against gay human rights in California recently. (Continued…)
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