As President Barack Obama begins his second term, there is something noticeably different about his new cabinet - the absence of African-American leaders and advisors.

The Congressional Black Caucus chair, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio recently sent the president a letter stating, “You have publicly expressed your commitment to retaining diversity within your cabinet. However, the people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.”

When one compares President Obama to his predecessors, the decrease in African-American appointments is astounding.

In American presidential history, President William Jefferson Clinton has been, by far, the most transformational leader.

Clinton appointed seven African-American cabinet members, the most of any president in history: Ron Brown as Secretary of Commerce; Mike Espy as Secretary of Agriculture; Hazel O’Leary as Secretary of Energy; Alexis Herman as Secretary of Labor; and Jesse Brown as Secretary of Veteran Affairs. President Clinton also appointed Togo West as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Rodney Slater as Secretary of Transportation.

Compared to Obama, President George W. Bush also had more African-Americans in his cabinet, including the first African-American secretary of state and secretary of education, Colin Powell and Rod Paige, respectively. Bush also appointed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and Alphonso Jackson as secretary of housing and urban development.

For Obama, Eric Holder is the first African-American attorney general and the only African-American cabinet member of Obama’s administration.

In sum, when one compares the first African-American president to his recent predecessors, the number of African-Americans in senior cabinet positions is very disappointing: Clinton (7); Bush (4); and Obama (1). Obama has not moved African-American leadership forward, but backwards.

Moreover, while having African-Americans in senior cabinet positions does not guarantee an economic agenda that will advance Black people, it at least is a starting point and puts us in the driver’s seat. With President Obama, we are not in the driver’s seat - or even in the car.

For me, the absence of African-Americans in a second term is not only disrespectful to the Black community—who voted 96 percent for President Obama in 2008 and 93 percent in 2012, but also underscores a larger problem of economic and job opportunities for the Black community.

Indeed, if we objectively look at Obama’s presidency, African-Americans are in a worse position than they were before he became president. At the end of January 2009, unemployment for African-Americans was 12.7 percent. Four years later, the situation is worse, and unemployment is higher at 13.8 percent.

For those of you who have read my articles in The Philadelphia Tribune, you know I have been a very strong supporter of the president and worked hard to get him elected in 2008 and 2012.

Shortly after Obama announced his candidacy to run for the office of President of United States, in 2008 I hosted the first clergy breakfast in Philadelphia to encourage religious leaders to support his candidacy. This was a major gathering at the time, because both Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter were strong supporters of then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and were encouraging the clergy to support her and not Obama.

I supported then-Senator Obama not because he was Black, but because I truly believed in my heart that he was the best candidate to empathize, understand, and develop policies to help the African-American community, the poor, and previously under-represented communities.

To my disappointment, the president has not only failed the Black community, but also has failed to surround himself with qualified African-Americans who could develop policies to help the most disenfranchised.

The president’s agenda appears to be for everyone except Black people—his most loyal constituency.

In 2012, two prominent Philadelphia lawyers convened a meeting between White House senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, and a cross-section of Philadelphia’s African-American leadership. The purpose of the meeting was to candidly discuss the president’s re-election strategy and policies toward African-Americans.

The meeting was initially cordial until I mustered the courage to ask Jarrett a question I have heard repeatedly in the African-American community, “Over the past four years, what has President Obama done to help Black people?”

After the question was raised, you could hear a pin drop in the room. Jarrett, who is known as the chief loyalist to the president, did not mince words when she responded to my question and proceeded to fire off the administration talking points: the passing of Obamacare, the increase in PELL grants, etc. She concluded her remarks by saying that we should support the president because “we are family.”

Moreover, when I raised additional questions about persistent high unemployment in the Black community and the lack of appointing an African-American to the United States Supreme Court (a move that could have real and lasting impact on the future of our community), Ms. Jarrett then went for the jugular and said, “The president is the president of all people and not just Black people.”

Jarrett is right. The president is the president of all people, but aren’t Black people part of the “all”? In the words of Langston Hughes, we “too sing America.”

Given the president’s poor record in catapulting an economic and empowerment agenda for the African-American community, we must begin asking the questions:

• Why are we so loyal to a president who is not loyal to us?
• What is it about our community that we continue to support candidates nationally and locally just because their skin has been “kissed by nature’s sun”?
• And more importantly, why are we loyal to a Democratic Party that often ignores us and takes our votes for granted?

My questions do not suggest that we should necessarily change political affiliation, but they do suggest that the African-American community must hold political leaders accountable and change our strategy to ensure that we are fully engaged in the political process beyond November elections.

George Burrell, a member of my church, a well-known lawyer, and someone I respect, recently told a group of leaders that having an elected Black politician is not enough. He argues that having an African-American mayor, governor, or president does not guarantee, in and of itself, that the Black elected official’s agenda will be the same as the Black community. After much reflection, I agree with him.

In order for the African-American community to become “real” players in the political process, shaping a politician’s agenda, Burrell argues that the Black community must do what every other community is doing - control the politicians through money.

In the past, the African-American community has relied exclusively on our voting power to advance their agenda. However, voting power is meaningless when politicians are perpetually thinking about their next election and the financial resources they will need to win.

If Burrell is right, then this would be more of a reason why the president should have made appointments that would not only make a difference in our community but further break down barriers in our beloved country. President Obama is not running for re-election, and should have felt empowered to appoint a diverse cabinet and not one reflected of the status quo.

Hence, this is the main issue I have with President Obama and his second term: Obama is more of a historical leader than he is a transformational leader for the African-American community.

If President Obama does not make some changes soon, at the end of his presidency he will be known as a historical leader - the first African-American president, but not a transformational leader - the president who truly uplifted and catapulted Black people from cycles of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and despair.

As we observed across the nation the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, I hope that President Obama and others are reminded that we, too, have dreams that should and must be fulfilled.

As always, keep the faith.

Kevin R. Johnson, Ed.D. is the senior pastor of the Bright Hope Baptist Church.

Ask Americans how race relations have changed under their first Black president and they are ready with answers.

Ashley Ray, a white woman, hears more people debating racial issues. “I know a lot of people who really thought we were OK as a nation, a culture, and now they understand that we’re not,” she says.

Karl Douglass, a Black man, sees stereotypes easing. “White people deal with me and my family differently,” he says.

Jose Lozano, who is Hispanic by way of Puerto Rico, believes prejudice is emerging from the shadows. “Now the racism is coming out,” he says.

In the afterglow of Barack Obama’s historic victory, most people in the United States believed that race relations would improve. Nearly four years later, has that dream come true? Americans have no shortage of thoughtful opinions, and no consensus.

As the nation moves toward the multiracial future heralded by this son of an African father and white mother, the events of Obama’s first term, and what people make of them, help trace the racial arc of his presidency.

Shortly before the 2008 election, 56 percent of Americans surveyed by the Gallup organization said that race relations would improve if Obama were elected. One day after his victory, 70 percent said race relations would improve and only 10 percent predicted they would get worse.

Just weeks after taking office, Obama said, “There was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination.”

Then he joked, “But that lasted about a day.”

Or, rather, three months.

By July 2009, the Black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for yelling at a white police officer who questioned whether Gates had broken into his own home. Asked to comment, Obama said he didn’t know all the facts, but Gates was a personal friend and the officer had acted “stupidly.”

The uproar was immediate. Obama acknowledged afterward, “I could’ve calibrated those words differently.”

Ed Cattaneo, a retired computer training manager from Cape May, N.J., points to that episode as evidence of how Obama has hurt race relations.

“He’s made them terrible,” says Cattaneo, who is white. He also sees Obama as siding against white people through actions such as his Justice Department’s decision to drop voter intimidation charges against New Black Panthers and in a program to turn out the Black vote called “African Americans for Obama.”

Larry Sharkey, also white, draws different conclusions from the past four years.

“Attitudes are much better,” Sharkey says as he slices raw meat in a Philadelphia butcher shop. He remembers welcoming a Black family that moved next door to him 20 years ago in Claymont, Del. A white neighbor advised him not to associate with the new arrivals, warning, “Your property values are going to go down.”

That kind of thing would never happen today, Sharkey says.

As Obama dealt with fallout from the Gates affair during the summer of 2009, the tea party coalesced out of opposition to Obama’s stimulus and health care proposals. The vast majority of tea partyers were white. A small number of them displayed racist signs or were connected to white supremacist groups, prompting the question: Are Obama’s opponents motivated by dislike of the president’s policies, his race — or both?

As that debate grew, Obama retreated to the race-neutral stance that has been a hallmark of his career. An October 2009 Gallup poll showed a large drop in racial optimism since the election, with 41 percent of respondents saying that race relations had improved under Obama. Thirty-five percent said there was no change and 22 percent said race relations were worse.

The president has discussed race in occasional speeches to groups such as the National Urban League or the National Council of La Raza, and in interviews with Hispanic and African-American media outlets. But he usually walks a careful line, allowing the nation to get used to the idea of a Black president without doing things to make race seem a central aspect of his governance.

“There is a totally different psychological frame of reference that this country has never had,” says William Smith, executive director of the National Center for Race Amity at Wheelock College.

He cites evidence of progress from the mindset of children in his programs to new history curriculums in Deep South schools.

“To me, that’s a quantum leap,” Smith says.

Douglass, a real estate agent from Columbus, Ga., says white people seem less surprised to see him with his wife and daughter in places such as an art museum or a foreign language school.

“I think white people deal with me and my family differently since an African-American man is leader of the free world and a nuclear Black family lives in the White House,” he says.

But Steven Chen, an Asian-American graduate student in Philadelphia, points to racial rhetoric he has heard directed toward Obama, in person and online, as proof that race relations have deteriorated.

He also has observed a more visible sign of division: fewer Obama T-shirts.

“When he was elected, it was an American thing. People of all races wore them,” says Chen. “Today it’s a distinctly Black phenomenon.”

Ray, a graduate school administrator from Chicago, is uncertain whether race relations have remained the same or gotten worse.

It’s good that people are talking about race more, she says, “but I know quite a few people who are sick of those discussions and blame him for all of it.”

In the summer of 2010, race and politics collided again when Arizona Republicans passed an immigration law that critics said would lead to racial profiling of Hispanics.

Lozano, the police sergeant, remembers that when Obama visited Arizona and met with the governor, who supported the law, she wagged an angry finger in the president’s face.

“That was ugly, I’ve never seen anything like that,” says Lozano, who also is vice president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers. “There’s no way that would have ever happened to a white president.”

By the fall of 2010, Republicans had triumphed in the midterm elections and made history by electing Hispanic and Indian-American governors in New Mexico, South Carolina, and Nevada. Two Black Republicans also went to Congress, from South Carolina and Florida.

Less than a year later, an August 2011 Gallup poll showed a further decline in racial optimism: 35 percent said race relations had improved due to Obama’s election, 41 percent said no change, and 23 percent said things were worse.

Around this time, some African-American lawmakers and pundits openly complained about the president’s refusal to specifically target any programs at high Black unemployment. An interviewer from Black Entertainment Television asked Obama why not.

“That’s not how America works,” Obama replied.

Then came this February’s killing of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is from Peru. Authorities initially declined to charge Zimmerman with a crime, causing a polarizing uproar.

This time, when asked about the case, Obama delivered a carefully calibrated message. He said all the facts were not known, the legal system should take its course — and that “if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.”

The comment was factual, but it still strikes Cattaneo as a coded message to Black people that Obama is on their side. “A lot of people I talk to can’t understand why a man who’s half-white and half-Black is so anti-white.”

This April, in a poll by the National Journal and the University of Phoenix, 33 percent felt race relations were getting better, 23 percent said they were getting worse, and 42 percent said they were staying about the same.

So where are we now?

Four years after Obama smashed the nation’s highest racial barrier, and less than four months before America will decide whether he deserves a second term, the nation is uncertain about the meaning of a Black president.

Recently, Obama was asked in a Rolling Stone magazine interview if race relations were any different than when he took office.

“I never bought into the notion,” Obama said, “that by electing me, somehow we were entering into a post-racial period.” — (AP)

DAVENPORT, Iowa — President Barack Obama asked the Iowans who first voted for him as president to give him another chance to accomplish his goals, including the immigration overhaul that he predicts Republicans will want to accomplish if they are defeated in the White House race.

Summer jobs program, payroll tax cut could put many back to work

As the recession looms and families figure out how to pay the bills and keep their homes, no other segment of society has been hit harder than Black people. For more than 1.4 million African Americans, weeks have turned into months, and months into years.

It’s no secret, throughout President Barack Obama’s term in office, he has been criticized incessantly by pundits and those within the Congressional Black Caucus, who feel that he has not done enough to help African Americans in general.

So when he went before Congress last week with his $450 billion jobs bill, many wondered how this bill — providing it passes the GOP-controlled House intact — would significantly help people of color, particularly African Americans.

“It will be an extraordinary benefit to well over a million and half African American people…who are unemployed, because of the way the program is structured,” said U.S. Rep. Chaka Fatah, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s second congressional district. “It will provide benefits to the long-term unemployed. There is a tax benefit to a company that hires someone who has been unemployed for more than six months. The bill also focuses on veterans and there are parts of the program that will help young people who are out of work as well.”   

Here are some reasons why the president’s new Jobs Bill can help African Americans:

• The extension of unemployment insurance will benefit 1.4 million African- Americans and their families. At the same time, the president is proposing bipartisan reforms that will enable that — as these families continue to receive benefits — the program is better tailored to support re-employment for the long-term unemployed.

• Targeted support for the long-term unemployed could help the 1.4 million African-Americans who have been looking for work for more than six months: To help them in their search for work, the president is calling for a new tax credit for hiring the long- term unemployed.

• A commitment to rebuilding and revitalizing communities across the country will target investments to the communities hardest-hit by the recession. The president’s investments in infrastructure include a school construction initiative with a significant commitment to the largest urban school districts, an investment in revitalizing communities that have been devastated by foreclosures, and a new initiative to expand infrastructure employment opportunities for minorities, women, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

• Support for subsidized jobs and summer/year-round jobs for African-American youth — for whom unemployment is above 30 percent. In an environment with an unemployment rate of 32.4 percent for African-American youths, the president is proposing to build on successful programs like the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund to create jobs and provide training for those hardest-hit by the recession.

• An extension and expansion of the payroll tax cut for nearly 20 million African-American workers. By extending the payroll tax cut for employees next year and expanding it to cut payroll taxes in half, the president’s plan will help increase the paychecks of nearly 20 million African-American workers.

The early response to the bill has been favorable amongst Blacks, who had grown weary with the president throughout the years. Many felt he was indifferent to their needs.

Many hope the president’s Jobs Bill will translate into reduced misery for them over the coming months. While the country's unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, Black unemployment has hit 16.7 percent, the highest since 1984. Unemployment among male blacks is at 18 percent, and black teens are unemployed at a rate of 46.5 percent.

“Particularly in the African-American community, which often times has been expected to flourish and thrive without any investment at all and have done so in spite of a lack of resources, I think this (jobs bill) will be something that will be welcomed in our community and will be significant,” said Cindy Bass, the nominee for City Council for the Eight District. “I think it will be beneficial when it comes to employment readiness and opening up job opportunities for people of color. More than we have seen in quit sometime."

Prominent African-Americans like Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express and Mayor Michael Nutter, quickly applauded the plan. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has been one of the most vocal advocates for dealing more effectively with Black unemployment, was enthusiastic.

For the president, it was a welcome change in tone after a steady drumbeat of criticism from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who held their own job fairs and town hall meetings while protesting that Obama's jobs tour across America last month bypassed black communities.

The caucus' urban blitz cleared a path for the country's first Black president to act, Waters said.

"I can see that our handprint is all over it," Waters said of Obama's plan. "We upped the ante a little bit by pushing, being a bit more vocal. This was not done in a way to threaten the president but to make it easier for him. We think we helped him to be able to formulate a response."

The jobs plan was praised by Ralph Everett, president and chief executive of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a nonpartisan black think tank.

Although the president did not specifically mention high unemployment among blacks, black people "are sophisticated enough to understand" how their communities will benefit, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Friday.

"Obviously there is a debate raging, saying that we should come out and say this expressly for the Black and Latino community," Kirk said. "But this president got elected spectacularly on his premise that we are not a black America, a brown America, a white America. We are one America."

The White House moved quickly to capitalize politically on the good will, emailing an extraordinary blast of supportive statements from elected officials, union leaders and interest groups within minutes after Obama spoke Thursday night.

On Friday, while the president pushed his American Jobs Act in Richmond, Va., his aides promoted targeted relief to Hispanics, teachers, police officers, construction workers, small businesses and others.

Administration officials said the plan would extend unemployment benefits and provide support for 1.4 million blacks who have been unemployed six months or longer. It also would provide summer and subsidized jobs for youth; help boost the paychecks of 20 million black workers through an extension and expansion of the payroll tax, and benefit, in some way, more than 100,000 black-owned small businesses.

"With over 16 percent of African-Americans out of work and over 1 million African-Americans out of work over six months, I think the president believes this is a serious problem and the onus is on us to do everything we can to tackle this," Danielle Gray, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told reporters.

White House adviser Valerie Jarrett promoted Obama's plan on Steve Harvey's syndicated morning radio show, saying it would help "every part of our country, but particularly those who are the most vulnerable, who have been struggling the hardest, who have been trying to make ends meet and all they need is a little help from their government."

A factor in the early enthusiasm in Obama's plan with blacks is that most accept that, as the country's first black president, there are limits to what he can do about their specific problems — especially as he heads into the 2012 campaign.

“Obviously the president cares about the African American community as he does all Americans,” said Fattah. “This bill will benefit the African American community and the broader community as whole, because the minute someone goes to work, they start spending money. And that’s what stimulates the economy. It will have significant benefits in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago and the likes. I think what the president has done is structure a program that deals with the hardest hit communities.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Some argue agenda to revise state’s Electoral College will undermine Democrats

Many Democrats see the drive to change the way Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes are counted — a movement that seems to be gathering momentum — as a blatant attempt to block President Barack Obama from winning Pennsylvania in 2012. Republicans tout the plan as a way to give individual voters more power in the voting booth.

“They are determined that he is going to be a one term president,” said state Rep. Ron Waters (D-Philadelphia/Delaware), head of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus. “Many of my colleagues believe that voters gave them a mandate to carry out their agenda — not the voters’ agenda, but their agenda.”

Since 1804, Pennsylvania’s electoral votes have all gone to the candidate who won a popular majority in the state. In 2008 that was Obama.

Now, state Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-Chester/Delaware) wants to change that.

Pileggi suggested changes to Electoral College rules earlier this week and is expected to introduce legislation that would allocate electoral votes by congressional district rather than through the winner-take-all system.

“There is no question that our current winner-take-all system for choosing electors does not reflect the diversity of Pennsylvania,” said Pileggi when he announced his plan. “This proposal will more fairly align Pennsylvania’s electoral college votes with the results of the popular vote.”

Pennsylvania will have 20 electoral votes in the 2012 presidential election; one for each member of the U.S. House of Representatives and one for each senator. Pileggi’s plan would give voters statewide the chance to choose two presidential electors. The others would be chosen based on the vote for president in each congressional district.

“There is no mistaking that this is nothing other than a blatant attempt by Republicans to have a lopsided, unfair playing field for national elections,” said state Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery).

Hughes went on to add to his concerns that by breaking up the block of Pennsylvania electoral votes the move would sideline Pennsylvania in national elections.

“Doing so makes Pennsylvania, a state that is at the forefront during national elections, irrelevant,” he said.

With its 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is among the six most influential states in presidential elections ranking with: Illinois, which also has 20 votes; New York and Florida, which have 29 each; Texas, which has 38; and California, which tops the list with 55. Obama carried all but Texas in the 2008 election.

Only two states currently break up their electoral votes: Maine and New Hampshire with four votes each.

But at the moment, the idea seems likely to sail through the state House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, and has the governor’s support.

Gov. Tom Corbett, also a Republican, said this week that he would support the measure.

“It will allow the people across the state to be better represented when it comes to the vote for president,” Corbett said during a radio interview Thursday on WPHT-AM (1210) in Philadelphia. He added that the issue was not driven by partisanship but intended to give a wider voice to Pennsylvania voters.

This is a talking point shared by Pileggi.

“It will also make individual votes across the state more important, giving voters a more significant say in presidential elections,” he said.

The timing has raised suspicion among Democrats.

“Why change it now, except for there is an agenda,” he said. “It’s been good enough thus far.”

If adopted, the new system would dilute influence of Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, all Democratic strongholds.

“If they vote strongly like they did for Obama, [Republicans] know that once we set our minds and vote for a candidate that for the most part we can drive what takes part in Pennsylvania,” Waters said. “They want to do everything they can to minimize that power.”

Waters also cautioned that Republicans have more voting changes in mind — including voter identification cards.

“Why are we doing this?” he asked. “It’s only a way, in my opinion, to disrupt voters and say they are not even going to get involved.”

Contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

DURHAM, N.C. — Wilma Dillard took over her family's barbecue restaurant in 1997, after her father's death. But this spring — with her blue-collar customers cutting back, and the banks unwilling to extend the usual credit — she was forced to close the 58-year-old Durham eatery and lay off her dozen employees.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Southern Baptist leader apologized this week for any hurt caused by explosive remarks accusing President Barack Obama and other Black leaders of exploiting Trayvon Martin's death for political gain.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will nominate Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, tapping an attorney with broad experience in prosecuting white-collar crimes to lead an agency that has a central role in implementing Wall Street reform.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama would announce White’s nomination during a ceremony in the State Dining Room Thursday afternoon.

“She’s got an incredibly impressive résumé,” Carney said. “The president is very pleased to be able to nominate her.”

At the same event, Obama will renominate Richard Cordray to serve as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a White House official said. The president used a recess appointment last year to circumvent Congress and install Cordray as head of the bureau. That appointment expires at the end of this year.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the nomination before the president announces it.

White spent nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, building a reputation as a tough prosecutor with an expertise in pursuing white-collar crimes and complex securities and financial fraud cases. White House officials say that experience makes her well-positioned to implement Obama’s Wall Street reform legislation.

While serving as U.S. attorney, White also won convictions related to the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would take over the helm at the SEC from Elisse Walter, who is serving out the rest of former SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro’s term. Schapiro resigned in December.

In 2000, White led the criminal prosecution of more than 100 people — including members of all five New York crime families — accused of strong-arming brokers and manipulating prices of penny stocks. The action was called one of the biggest crackdowns on securities fraud in U.S. history at the time.

White’s office also won a record $606 million in restitution from the securities arm of the Republic New York Corp. bank in 2001. That year, the bank pleaded guilty to conspiring with an investment adviser to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from Japanese investors.

Cordray has run the consumer bureau since last year, when Obama used a recess appointment to install him in the job. Senate Republicans had opposed Cordray, as well as the concept of the consumer bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., first conceived of the idea of a consumer protection bureau. Obama considered naming her to lead the bureau, but her nomination would likely have run into deep opposition on Capitol Hill.

White, 65, currently heads the litigation department at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

She was the first woman to hold the position of U.S. attorney in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious positions in federal law enforcement. During her tenure from 1993 to 2002, White won convictions of white-collar criminals, drug traffickers and international terrorists. The most notable was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

She also led the prosecution of mob boss John Gotti when she was acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in 1992. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would be the first prosecutor to head the 79-year-old SEC. Most SEC chairmen traditionally have come from Wall Street or the ranks of private securities lawyers. The choice of White is likely intended to bolster the agency’s enforcement profile in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

White’s background differs sharply from that of Schapiro, who stepped down last month after guiding the agency in the four years after the crisis. Schapiro worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry’s self-policing organization. Some consumer advocates have said that Schapiro’s experience as CEO of FINRA made her more likely to seek compromise and less likely to aggressively pursue misconduct.

During Shapiro’s tenure, the SEC reached major settlements with the biggest banks on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. But critics said the penalties were small compared with the banks’ revenues. And they complained that no senior executives were held accountable.

White would be expected to give high priority to expanding the enforcement efforts.

At the same time, much of the pressing work facing the agency involves writing new rules. The SEC is seeking stricter rules for money-market mutual funds and must get into shape the so-called Volcker Rule, which would bar banks from making certain trades for their own profit.

As head of litigators at Debevoise & Plimpton, White has represented a number of financial institutions likely to have crossed swords with the SEC in enforcement cases. Her clients also included former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, whom she represented in a 2010 civil lawsuit by then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accusing Lewis of misleading shareholders in the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch.

White also represented the largest U.S. hospital chain, HCA, in the insider-trading investigations by the SEC and the Justice Department of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, whose family owned HCA. The investigations were closed in 2007 with no charges filed against Frist. — (AP)

Long-term unemployment impairs recovery

The Black unemployment rate has surged to a 27-year high.

The U.S. Labor Department recently reported that Black unemployment rose to 16.7 percent in August, while the rate for whites fell to eight percent.

Black unemployment has risen to its highest level since 1984.

Christian E. Weller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says there are varying reasons why high rates of unemployment continue to persist among African Americans.

Weller said the phenomenon of high unemployment spans across all subgroups of African Americans — whether you look at it by gender, age or educational attainment.

One reason has to do with economic impact on sectors that traditionally employed African Americans. For instance, Weller noted that Black men tend to be disproportionately employed in manufacturing, while Black women traditionally work in the areas of teaching and administrative jobs in local governments.

“To some degree this is a story about sectors — the sectors where African Americans have found job opportunities in the past — but those sectors are suffering more than other parts of the economy where African Americans are less represented,” said Weller.

“The other part is that unemployment sort of creates a vicious cycle. We have now had about 10 years of very high long-term unemployment. Once people lost their job, they were out of a job for long periods of time,” he said.

Weller says that when people are out of work for a long period of time, they start falling behind in terms of using their skills and keeping up with the latest technology being used in their fields — making them even less attractive to potential employers.

Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, Economy Policy Institute is concerned that government budget cuts could lead to more job loss for African Americans.

“Because the federal government wants to join in and make cuts, we’re going to continue to see shrinking employment in the federal, state and local levels,” Austin said.

“African Americans are disproportionately in the public sector — particularly Blacks with college degrees. I am worried about job loss for the Black middle class going forward.”

Economist Bernard Anderson says that there are both short-term and long-term solutions to the problem of high unemployment for African Americans.

He said the short-term solution is to get the economy growing faster.

“If it’s one thing we know about the variability of employment in the Black community, it is that there is a direct relationship between the rate of growth in Black employment and the rate of growth in the economy as a whole. They will be employed if the economy is growing faster and there is a significant increase in the demand for labor,” said Anderson.

“The long-term solution is for Black workers to become more employable in those industries that are likely to grow fastest,” he said, noting this will require more education and more training.

“There aren’t many jobs available in this economy for people who don’t have a good education.”

According to the Labor Department, the nation’s general unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — was six million in August and accounted for 42.9 percent of the unemployed. There was zero net increase in jobs during the month of August. 

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a major overhaul of the nation's patent system to ease the way for inventors to bring their products to market. "We can't afford to drag our feet any longer," he said.