Pioneering publisher Hermene Hartman ruffled feathers last week when she openly questioned Pres. Obama’s loyalty to Black supporters. Now that the president is heading back to Chicago to kick off his 2012 reelection campaign, rolling out asked Ms. Hartman her view of the race.
Here’s what she had to say:
“The Campaign of Change becomes the Campaign of Track Record, and they say things are improving, but I have no idea who it is improving for. The South Side of Chicago, and the West Side of Chicago, has one Black restaurant. Black business people are going out of business, faster than they can go in.
So, what are the matrix of judgment?
That’s what 2012 looks like, when you are running on promise, that’s one campaign, and that was a campaign of change. If you are running on track record, the change has occurred, so now it will be, what change has occurred? Did we get out the war, or did we get into another war?
Did you pull GM out, or did GM improve? Did the auto industry improve? Did you save it? Yes you did, and the bank industry, those were two big measures. And now what? How does the little guy measure up to that? Where’s middle class America in the mix, in the matrix?
Pay attention, if you can save GM because they were too big, save small Black businesses because they are too small.
Pay attention to the home team. Pay attention and have a memory, people like politicians with memories, memories more than promises. Promises are what you do to get in, memories are what you do to stay in. Be accountable and responsible, you will come this way again.
To this day, the person who has the best record for Black business was Richard Nixon. He had a program dedicated to Black capitalism. He wanted to make some Black millionaires. He wanted some entrepreneurs, he said, we’ve got to get Black people into the American mainstream and capitalistic system and I’m going to set up a program to do that, so SBA (Small Business Association) was made easy not hard.
I think with a Black president that Black America should be better off after his service than before his service.
And if you are president for all the people, then all the people should benefit. We have to get into reality politics as opposed to dreamland politics. I want to see some change.”
