Jonathan Allen, Congressional Quarterly, July 9, 2009
Black aides are so scarce on some House committees that the Congressional Black Caucus surveyed the panels. Their conclusion: black staffers are most prevalent when African American chairmen do the hiring.
The 31-person Democratic staff of the House Agriculture Committee and the 24-person Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee, for example, each have a single black aide. Conversely, the Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform Committees—both run by African American chairmen—have Democratic staffs that are 45.5 percent and 44.4 percent black, respectively.
The caucus is comprised entirely of Democrats, and the group gathered data only on the rosters of the majority party. Republicans on each committee have separate staffs.
{snip}
The Black Caucus’ data, which has not been publicly released, begins to paint a portrait of staff diversity in an institution that has not traditionally kept records on racial representation.
The caucus’s effort mirrors formal and informal diversity initiatives under way in Washington lobbying shops and in the Senate.
{snip}
Overall, the survey found that African Americans account for a percentage of committee staff—18.7 percent—that is higher than the 12.8 percent of the national population that is black.
That average is skewed upward by the hiring practices of black chairmen, whose staffs range from 35.3 percent black on Michigan Rep. John Conyers Jr.’s Judiciary Committee to 45.5 percent on Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson’s Homeland Security Committee .
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which is chaired by a white woman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, ranks third-highest with African Americans accounting for six of the ethics panel’s 16 aides. Lofgren took over for an African American, former Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, when Tubbs Jones died in the last Congress.
The staff of the House Administration Committee , where white Pennsylvania Rep. Robert A. Brady holds the gavel, is 34.4 percent black. Brady comes from a majority-black district in Philadelphia and he succeeded the late Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., who was black.
{snip}
Black aides comprise 10.5 percent or less of the staffs of nine House committees, all of which have white chairmen.
Four committees with white chairmen—Budget; Education and Labor; Financial Services; and Veterans Affairs—occupy a middle ground, with African Americans holding between 16.9 percent and 21.7 percent of the staff jobs.o
The Small Business Committee, run by a Hispanic lawmaker, Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York, did not participate in the Black Caucus survey.
Black lawmakers argue that the absence of black staffers can have an impact on the choices that are made in the course of a committee’s work—choices about what to put in bills and about what bills to make a priority.
Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., offered as an example the difficulties black farmers have had in getting timely information from the Agriculture Department. “Those black farmers aren’t getting their fair share,” he said, suggesting that they would fare better if there were more black staffers at the Agriculture Department and on the Agriculture Committee.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on July 10, 2009)
Comments
Intelligence is the key factor for top Capitol Hill aides along with political loyalty. A white congressman wants top graduates from top schools. Few blacks there. That congressman wants someone who will not betray him-who understands the culture that sent him to Congress. Not too many blacks qualify there either.
My first impulse was to post something about black congressmen having a disproportionate number of black staff, but then I remembered a call I made to maxine “dumb as a brick” waters office, and it was answered by a white male. Black folk might be stupid, but they are smart enough to hire whites to do the brain work.
Guess what? When AA was forced into law, Congress exempted themselves from it. I wonder why. Maybe someone should enlighten them?
With the new BO Health Care, Congress has already made sure the language is in the bill once again exempting them from it!
“Black staff in Congress are “overrepresented,” but black congressmen still not satisfied.”
The shame of it all is that not even 1 out of 20 are qualified and have been hired strictly as a matter of trying to appease blacks and leftist ding-a-lings.
So, if you get a written response that is worded like a child, it isn’t the Congressman’s kid, it’s one of his aides.
45.5% and 44.4%? How does any thing get done in those committees?
The only acceptable figure for blacks is 100%. They’ll never stop making demands. Whites should just refuse.
Hilarious how when over-representing is considered a fair playing ground but if under-representin, then its an outrage. It serves every politician right. More dumbing down of the standards in our country. Only one thing has kept parallel to this decline: the rise in minorities. Period.
The Congressional Black Congress won’t be happy until EVERY committee chairman and aide are black. And then they still won’t be happy. Pandering & appeasement never works.
Rhetorical question: Doesn’t anyone have the courage to get right back in the faces of the complainers and throw their own ball back into their court by asking how they justify having a disproportionate number of blacks on the committees run by black chairmen? I’m not for racial bean counting, but if they are, then I would point out their double standard and emphatically tell them that they have no case. If enough people would begin to stand up to these intimidators and their liberal and often white accomplices in the media, this nonsense would soon end. Think about it: once a fishing spot has been depleted of fish, people stop going there to fish.
It’s very simple if they would just follow the racial make-up of almost every kids/young teens television shows and many commercials: Have one White, one Black, one Hispanic, one Asian, one Native American, one Puerto Rican, etc. You know, just like in real life.
M. obama seems to be emulating Marie Antoinette—another reckless spender while the country was breaking apart.
The real problem is that she has a pass from the hostile elites who control the msm. Did you notice this story is out of Canada (of all places)?
The msm refuse to report the un-earned benefits m. obama has received—courtesy of ‘the essential decency of the White man’s culture.’ (quote from Hunter S. Thompson). Madame obama, due to racial preferences, has been repeatedly lifted her out of her intellectual league.
From her own mother:
“… ‘She was disappointed in herself…She used to have a little bit of trouble with tests’ …”
And ‘friend’
“…’She recognized that she had been privileged by affirmative action and she was very comfortable with that’….”
And this, from newsmax.com:
“…For years, the press excoriated Nancy Reagan for borrowing clothes and jewelry from designers. Yet Michelle Obama has been doing the same thing — without any outcry from the media.
Accountants say that the first lady’s practice of borrowing both clothes and jewelry raises major tax and disclosure issues, not to mention ethical questions…”
Finally, from the British Press:
“…Michelle is very much like Cherie Blair…. She is a middle-class girl who has discovered that money is nice and doesn’t see that as a contradiction with having radical beliefs…”
Yeah, another White-hating black taking advantage of White-created comforts and White-bestowed privileges in a White-created culture. It is far past the time for us Whites to privilege others with our ‘essential decency.’
Would non-Whites EVER do the same for us?
And again, where would we be if not for the White-created internet?
Bon
I think the Congressional BLACK Caucus has a disproportionate number of blacks in it.
This article is a perfect example of why American Whites will lose control of their nation. They have been successfully programmed to believe that there is no such thing as race, and accordingly have zero group allegiance. The minority groups on the other hand are fully aware of race and are willing to work for group advantage by, for instance, using the specter of “unfairness” to force more Blacks into the halls of power.
A White man looking at the Congressional aides would only have noticed things about their makeup that are advantageous to himself or close friends / family members - e.g., which aides leak information, which ones are particularly good at their jobs, which ones might be up for some illicit sex, and which offices might have a patronage spot for a good buddy or family member in need of quid pro quo.
It would NEVER occur to the vast majority of Whites to look at the aides and wonder, “Hey, why aren’t there more Whites in this job classification?” It occurs right off the bat to the Blacks though, and that’s why we are losing our grip on this great nation.
People cast the Blacks as complainers, but it’s more than just continued whining. They are working brazenly in their group interest, and it is WORKING GREAT.
A group can’t win a battle when it refuses to admit there is fighting underway. Whites had better wake up to reality quickly and start building some ethnic solidarity with our White brothers and sisters, or we will lose our nation.
The statement: “The survey confirms what members have noticed anecdotally—the lack of African American staffers on Capitol Hill, particularly in senior positions,” is placed early in the Yahoo article, only later in the article is it revealed that “overall, the survey found that African Americans account for a percentage of committee staff — 18.7 percent — that is higher than the 12.8 percent of the national population that is black”. This is done so that people who just scan the article will conclude that there are very few Black staffers on the hill when, in fact, Blacks are over-represented among hill staff.
If WHITE Congressmen have fewer aides than Black Congressmen, it just might possibly mean White Aides do a better job quicker than their Black counterparts. Duh, has THAT ever occurred to Black whiners?
There may be fewer black aides, but according to statistics there is way more black AIDS.
Slightly off topic and completely irrelevant but then so is the issue of proportional racial representation. Plus it’s funny ‘cos it’s true.
This is beyond absurd, but the more I hear about this kind of thing, the more mind-numbing it truly becomes. Blacks will never truly be happy in this country, *ever*. A “black” president is elected - nothing changes. Black senators, black supreme court justices, black congressmen, black cabinet members, black ambassadors, it doesn’t matter. Blacks have been conditioned by their “leaders” to reject any charity bestowed upon them by white Americans as insufficient. And do not be fooled - most of those blacks in the positions being discussed are their as a result of charity, not because of any merit.
I say just stop trying. A century and a half after supposedly being “liberated”, after being given the right to vote, after being showered with welfare, having easier access to higher education, easier access to employment, and the black American community cannot escape it’s wretched state. I switched my major from psychology a while back, but to quote Freud, “anatomy is destiny”.
So Congressional staffs are overrepresented with blacks yet they still complain? What else is new? Has anybody been to a United States Post Office lately? High pay, cush retirement, and disproportionately non-white. Yet they will still complain because the management ranks aren’t filled with minorities at the same disproportionate numbers as the rest of the post office is.
The Congressional Black Caucus has no problem with their own staffs mirroring what every post office in the nation looks like. They just need to get their white democratic collegue’s on-board, hiring blacks at levels far in excess of their representation in the U.S. population. Anyone doubt that white democrats will oblige them?
