Campaigning as an unapologetic progressive, the Rev. Jesse Jackson reframed, renewed and refashioned US politics with a pair of campaigns for the Democratic presidential nominations of 1984 and 1988. Those campaigns broke new ground in American politics, showing that it was possible to leap lines of race, gender, sexuality and class to form coalitions that had not previously been imagined possible. Jackson’s presidential runs also brought hundreds of thousands of new voters–especially young and African American voters–onto the rolls. The legacy of those campaigns, and those coalitions, formed the basis for a new politics that helped elect Barack Obama America’s first black president. This video tells that story. As we celebrate our progress, it is vital to recall the campaigns that brought us to this place.
Despite claims to the contrary, Barack Obama’s presidency does not herald a post-racial America or a new black politics, according to United States Studies Centre visitor, African-American cultural expert, Professor Kevin Gaines. Professor Kevin Gaines is the Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, and Professor of History at the University of Michigan and visited the United States Studies Centre to discuss the topic of Barack Obama and African American politics.
Complete video at: fora.tv Bruce Bartlett and Casey Lartigue question whether the Republican Party will ever have a chance at challenging the Democrats’ overwhelming success among African-American voters. —– “Race and the State,” featuring Bruce Bartlett and Casey Lartigue. Is government more likely to be the friend or adversary of minority groups? Has it been liberals, conservatives, or libertarians like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass who have been the most consistent defenders of everyone’s rights? What does history suggest would be the best public policy for racial minorities in the 21st century? Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan administration economist with a provocative new book, and Casey Lartigue, coeditor of Educational Freedom in Urban America and a controversial former XM 169 talk show host, will discuss these questions – Cato Institute Bruce Bartlett is an economist associated with supply-side economics. He was a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was a treasury official under President George HW Bush. Casey Lartigue is a former policy analyst with Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom. His research expertise includes school choice, teacher quality and minority education. His writings have been published in USA Today, Ed. magazine published at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Education Week, the New York Post, the Washington Times, Asian Week and the Washington Post.
