Will the Black Caucus put African-Americans back to work?

Courtesy – AP

This week the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) launched a five city “For The People” jobs tour from Cleveland, Ohio. The real question coming out of the first stop is, who will actually lead the people during the “For The People” Tour?

On Monday, thousands of would-be employees flocked to the campus of Cleveland State University as early as 4 am to pitch themselves to one of over 200 employers. In addition to the job fair, the CBC provided job readiness counseling and an area where those looking to transition to a new profession or to the next level in their present one, could receive options on continuing education.

Over the next month, more than 30 members of the CBC will travel to Detroit, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles to replicate and hopefully expand their engagement with communities that are in need of education, direction, opportunity, and most importantly, employment.

In addition to the job fair activities, each tour stop includes a town hall meeting to discuss jobs and the related economic issues of the day. As the moderator of the Cleveland town hall, I made several observations:

First, if there was a demon in the room that received the brunt of the blame for all that is wrong in America, it was the Tea Party. I don’t think that many on the left or in the progressive movement would argue with the assertion that the Tea Party tactics during the debt ceiling debate and their overall methods of engagement have created an environment where compromise and bi-partisan cooperation is nearly impossible. Furthermore, the Tea Party’s war on the federal government is actually weakening the capacity of states they claim they want to empower.

But there I go, sounding like a partisan patriot. The real issue as I see it is that despite the reality of the damage caused by the Tea Party, productive politics has always been about casting a vision further than the net of fear and negativity toward your opponents. This is the largest challenge for the CBC.

As many in the black community and beyond challenge their relevance and effectiveness, many in the CBC are actually pushing within their districts and in Washington D.C., for policies that are in the best interests of the poor and middle class. The issue however, is that their messaging is weak, and the troops that would gladly fight that battle with them keep waiting for President Obama to lay out an agenda that, for a multitude of reasons that can be debated at another time, is not coming.

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