Did Rep. West seek a hypocritical handout from the CBC?
theGRIO REPORT - Given the conservative politician's obvious disapproval of the CBC's actions, asking the group and its leader to help bail out a family member seems like contradictory behavior...
It looks like the self-proclaimed “modern-day Harriet Tubman” may need some help from the very people he was leading others away from.
A day after lashing out at Democrats, or “perceived leaders in the black community…who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation,” in a segment on Fox News, Florida Republican Allen West encouraged his unemployed brother, Arlan, to attend the Congressional Black Caucus’ job fair in Atlanta to search for a job.
Arlan West went to the “event”:http://www.thegrio.com/politics/black-caucus-jobs-tour-town-hall-heads-to-atlanta.php; the third leg of the CBC’s “For the People Jobs Tour” at Atlanta Technical College, and personally introduced himself to Rep. Maxine Waters, who West accused of being the “overseer” of the “21st century plantation” of black Americans who support the Democratic Party, during a rant on the O’Reilly Factor on Wednesday.
In a recent interview with MSNBC, Waters addressed West’s initial comments and said that she was taken aback by the congressman’s decision to send his brother to job fair despite being so outspoken about his disdain for the Congressional Black Caucus.
WATCH MSNBC’S COVERAGE OF ALLEN WEST’S COMMENTS HERE:
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“As a matter of fact, Mr. West’s brother is here. He found himself out of a job. And he asked his brother to help him, and his brother told him to come to me, to come to us. He came up and introduced himself.”
“That’s why I said that, you know, those statements are rather ridiculous and they don’t make good sense. But I guarantee him this: We’re going to do everything we can to help his brother get a job,” Waters said.
Given the conservative politician’s obvious disapproval of the CBC’s actions, asking the group and its leader to help bail out a family member seems like contradictory behavior. Could this be humbling experience that will make West apologize for his “plantation” comments and make him reconsider his stance on the Caucus’ role in the black community?
Or does Arlan West’s story, not being able to find work despite his despite being part of a well-connected family, illustrate the difficulties that African-Americans from all walks of life are facing while trying to find employment? It also leads many to question why the politician can’t help his own brother find work without the help of Congressional Black Caucus.
Arlan West was one of the thousands who showed up at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Job Fair in Atlanta. With black unemployment at Depression-era levels, the group decided to launch their own cross-country job fair that includes town hall meetings, job readiness programs and seminars as part of their “For the People” jobs initiative resolution.The organization has been very vocal about the need for job creation, and over the last two years, they have introduced more than 40 bills to the House of Representatives to address unemployment.
Despite these efforts, West said black Democrats have done little to address the high unemployment rates in the African-American community and during his appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, he said that liberal politicians have grown accustomed to getting buy-in from black Americans.
“So you have this 21st Century plantation…where the Democrat party has forever taken the black vote for granted, and you have established certain black leaders,” he said.
West said. “And now the people on that plantation are upset because they’ve been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about.”
One person who is not upset about what these black leaders are doing is his brother, Arlan. When asked about his thoughts on the CBC’s job fairs, he said that this event addressed a dire need and that it was only helping individuals who need any type of support that they can get.
“Congressman Maxine Waters and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus saw that need and they sponsored the event,” he said. “The responsibility of our elected officials is to service our constituents in any capacity that they can and this was a primes example of them doing that.”
In January, Allen West became the first Republican to join the liberal CBC in a decade. Both he and Tim Scott of South Carolina were chosen as the first GOP members to be elected to join the group since J.C. Watts departed the organization in 2003. Scott declined the invite, but West joined and claimed that he wanted to help the group do more than just fight for social welfare programs and big-government solutions.
Months later, West finds himself at odds with the CBC, and with the Democrats who make up the group. While he did issue a statement after it was discovered that his brother had gone to the event in need of a job, he still remains defiant about what he perceives to be a lackluster attempt at employment creation by the president and the liberals in Congress.
“Clearly with my own brother out of work, the struggling economy is very personal to me,” he said. “I am encouraged by any job conference which helps individuals find jobs, however the underlying problem remains. The economic policies of President Obama have not set conditions for job growth, especially in the black communities.”
While it is yet unknown whether attending the job fair helped Arlan West land a job, it may be good news that at least a few politicians are doing something to actively facilitate job creation across the nation.
Karen Hunter, a contributor on MSNBC, put the entire controversy into perspective with her recent comments.
“I wouldn’t follow Allen West to supermarket, let alone where to? The Tea Party?” she said. “The problem that he faces is that there are a lot of politicians making political hay as opposed to helping the American people. It’s not a partisan issue. This is about doing things that help Americans get back on their feet.”
