On CNN’s State of the Union this morning, host Candy Crowley joined the ranks of white journalists who presume to speak on behalf of black Americans in expressing their alleged skepticism about Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Blaming racism for the economic gap between blacks and whites, Crowley asked Cain whether his success was due to “luck,” or a “loving family,” rather than skill and hard work, which apparently are never enough in our racist society. (Should the government redistribute luck and love?)
Cain took it in stride, pointing out that economic policy is at the root of unemployment for all Americans. While acknowledging that some racism exists, Cain highlighted more important causes of the racial economic gap, such as differences in education and the geographic concentration of blacks in failing cities. He also used Crowley’s questions as an opportunity to discuss his own 9-9-9 plan for tax reform and economic growth.
CROWLEY: We are back with Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. I want to play for our audience something that you said Friday. You were addressing the Values Voter Summit, and the subject was racism.
CAIN [clip]: I have achieved all of my American dreams, and then some, because of the great nation, the United States of America! What’s there to be angry about?
CROWLEY: And I would say to you an unemployment rate for blacks that is far higher–almost six percent higher, seven percent higher than for whites; a percentage of black incarceration in the nation’s prison systems that is far greater; a lack of–and for all of your skills, is there not some luck in that, I want to ask you that–but, you know, there–I would tell you that minorities, especially African-Americans, can name a lot of things that speak to a certain amount of racism that they can still complain about. And so I wonder if you are taking your good fortune and superimposing it over everyone else, when it doesn’t really apply? (more…)