While Barack Obama toured rural parts of the Midwest this week, the Congressional Black Caucus drew thousands of people to job fairs in Detroit and Atlanta. Driving the turnout was a sobering fact: The unemployment rate among blacks hovers around 16% Among the most prominent voices in this week’s discussion has been California Rep. Maxine Waters, a former Black Caucus chair. In a series of interviews with TIME, she explains the potential ways to create jobs in cities, the President’s relationship with blacks, and what’s at stake as Congress prepares to consider more cuts in federal spending. Here’s an edited excerpt:
On the heels of the Justice Department’s controversial dropping a case of voter intimidation against the New Black Panthers and, as Marc Ambinder notes, the Skip Gates beer summit, the Administration – indeed, the entire Executive Branch – seems sensitive to any accusations that the first black president might in an way favor black people. [...]
