(nydailynews.com) Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron vowed yesterday he’d take care of African-Americans – “unapologetically” – if he were elected borough president.
“Am I going to be a borough president for all the people? Absolutely,” the former Black Panther said. “But I’m letting y’all know now, I’m taking care of black folk. Unapologetically.”
Barron stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Rev. Al Sharpton and retired NYPD Sgt. Noel Leader, a co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, as he announced his bid for beep to supporters on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall. (source)
More on Barron (from Wikipedia)
You can read all about it here, but here are some excerpts that stuck out to me:
“Barron is on the left wing of the Democratic party. His major issues include affirmative action, reparations for slavery, and improving the living conditions for blacks through closing the wealth gap, reducing police brutality, and fighting racism. He has described himself as “pro-black” and has great interest in establishing more representatives for the black community, so that they can control their own economy and political future.”
Been there, done that! Check out surrounding cities in places like Philly, Baltimore, Washington D.C. Atlanta, New Orleans, etc. , etc. , etc.
He also believes the police and the government are enemies more often than allies, citing violence and surveillance by the police and the government departments as proof. He has often spoken against police brutality, saying that crime is not the fault of the black community. Rather, it is economic plight that brings crime, he believes, and crime can only be reduced by economic opportunities and advancement. In fact, he went on to say that without economic opportunities for blacks, “every black community is a powder keg.
Black on Black crime was never an issue between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights movement. Yet this was a period in Black American history where the Black community was at its poorest, less educated and faced life-threatening racism almost on a daily basis.
Barron has taken on an array of issues, such as voting for non-citizens, and has welcomed illegal immigration with the phrase, “don’t criminalize, legalize.” He appeared on the television program The O’Reilly Factor and said the entire “immigration problem” is really a black-white issue. He argued that Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, and Italians who immigrated to the United States during the late 1800s were welcomed because of the color of their skin, but now, “All of a sudden when the complexion of immigration changes, now it’s ‘these people’.”
It’s funny yet sad at the same time how some folks will drop the word “illegal” from the issue. It is also funny how these same folks will never mention how the Mexican government treats its illegals.
As far as the rest of his quote goes, man, watch some PBS documentaries on the subject–sheesh!
He criticized the City University of New York for increasing its admission standards through the use of entrance exams and the elimination of remedial courses, saying, “I think racism comes behind standards.”. Barron believed the universities had ulterior motives that drove them to raise the academic standards which restricted access to minority students. He went further, saying that college-age students shouldn’t be denied admission to four-year colleges because of failures in the school systems they grew up in. He also cited the fact that CUNY’s four-year colleges had open admission at one time, when admission was predominantly white. However, CUNY has reported that the number of black students at its four-year colleges increased in the three years following the end of open admission, while changes in the proportions of other ethnic groups were minimal.
And this…
Barron received reprimands and a certain amount of notoriety for a remark he made during a 2002 reparations rally:
“I want to go up to the closest white person and say, ‘You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing’ and then slap him, just for my mental health.”
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