Rep. Maxine Waters ignited a few tremors in a state known for earthquakes when she told a crowd at a Kitchen Table Summit in Inglewood, Calif., that the tea party “can go straight to hell.” The California Congresswoman also lobbed a few more verbal grenades at President Obama because his high-profile jobs bus tour did not venture into the black community, the demographic most negatively impacted by the economic crisis.
At the community summit in suburban Los Angeles, Waters unfurled fighting words at the tea party during a forum designed to address her home state’s abysmal 12 percent unemployment rate. It is the second worst rate in the nation behind Nevada, and Waters accuses the tea party of purposely blocking measures that would lead to a legitimate economic recovery.
“I’m not afraid of anybody,” Waters told the packed facility. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the tea party can go straight to hell.”
Waters made headlines this past week in Detroit and Atlanta during the Congressional Black Caucus’ “For the People” jobs tour when she implored African Americans to “unleash” the CBC to level criticisms on the Obama White House. She also sent a zinger at Obama for his bus tour through the Midwest.
“We don’t know why on this trip that he’s on in the United States now, he’s not in any black community,” she said at a jobs forum in Detroit. “We want to give him every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment [rate] is unconscionable. We don’t know what the strategy is,” she continued. “We’re supportive of the president, but we getting tired, y’all, getting tired.”
She’s not the only one weary from keeping their mouths shut regarding Obama’s policies and disposition. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., echoed Waters’ sentiments, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley that African Americans are “totally frustrated, and people need to know that the president feels their pain,” he said. “Almost every African American person I spoke to said he needs to fight, and fight harder.”
Thus far, Waters and her CBC colleagues have escaped unscathed despite their very public criticisms of the Obama administration in recent weeks and months. Conversely, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have been excoriated in certain quadrants of the black community for what is viewed as Smiley and West carrying out personal agendas in response to ego-injuring slights after not being invited to major White House events.
West and Smiley, however, have raised legitimate points of conversation that perhaps shouldn’t be wholly disregarded, regardless of what people believe their motivation is. –terry shropshire
