Presumably because they perceive the benefit not worth the cost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNz5XnvZHhk

Poverty and jail time are not the wages of being black, as DQ suggested above. They're the wages of dropping out of high school and committing crimes.

If that is the case, why are African-Americans or anyone else dropping out of High-School?

Poverty and jail time are not the wages of being black, as DQ suggested above. They're the wages of dropping out of high school and committing crimes. Claiming otherwise might have helped the black cause at one point, but today it's part of the problem.

My goal is not to trash Jackson or PUSH, both of whom have done a great deal of good. There a plenty of others who visit TMV who would be happy to do the trashing I'm sure. But, there is a history of questions and investigations that include:
- Jackson being fired as head of the Chicago branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by Ralph Abernathy for “administrative irregularities.” This is what led to the formation of PUSH, later Rainbow/PUSH.
- accusations of corporate blackmail/extortion based the practice of demanding “donations” to PUSH as part of agreements to end boycotts or forego boycotts of certain companies,
- accusations of working with one company to damage the business of another. The most well reported of these was the Nike/Reebok situation in which no less a figure than Michael Jordan disavowed PUSH's tactics.
- ongoing lack of standard accountability in financial matters leading to multiple legal disputes and investigations.

The upside of Rainbow/PUSH includes remarkable accomplishments in African American hiring practices by American corporations, educational advances in minority communities and traditional minority colleges and universities, improvements in minority home ownership and a wide range of socially conscious programs to improve the lives of the poor.

My sources include blackpast.org, wikipedia and Time

nor some of the tactics of Operation PUSH.

And those tactics would be?

That he is a thoughtful and engaging man in person does not excuse his occassional outrageous public statements (though we all say dumb things once in a while), nor some of the tactics of Operation PUSH. It's just another side of the man.

But for now I'll use your argument against itself: now that the Democrats have complete control, what are they doing against the war on drugs?

Not much, at best they are slowing it down by forgetting to enforce the laws, but then they are Democrats, and Democrats have not been known for their spine in the last few decades.

But if by some miracle, they were to acquire a spine and actively start the process of ending the “War On Drugs”, the Right would go ballistic…

Considering that Democrats support the drug war that causes most of that incarceration, and they introduced the mandatory minimum for drug offenses, yes.

Timeline: America's War on Drugs

July 14, 1969: In a special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon identifies drug abuse as “a serious national threat.” Citing a dramatic jump in drug-related juvenile arrests and street crime between 1960 and 1967, Nixon calls for a national anti-drug policy at the state and federal level.

June 1971: Nixon officially declares a “war on drugs,” identifying drug abuse as “public enemy No. 1.”

July 1973: Nixon creates the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies.
…
October 1986: Reagan signs the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which appropriates $1.7 billion to fight the drug war. The bill also creates mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses, which are increasingly criticized for promoting significant racial disparities in the prison population because of the differences in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine. Possession of crack, which is cheaper, results in a harsher sentence; the majority of crack users are lower income.
…
1989: President George H.W. Bush creates the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and appoints William Bennett as his first “drug czar.” Bennett aims to make drug abuse socially unacceptable. That same year, Forbes magazine lists Pablo Escobar — known for his “bribes or bullets” approach to doing business — as the seventh-richest man in the world
…
May 1995: The U.S. Sentencing Commission releases a report that acknowledges the racial disparities for prison sentencing for cocaine versus crack. The commission suggests reducing the discrepancy, but Congress overrides its recommendation for the first time in history.

In 1995 we had a Republican House and Senate…
I believe, and feel free to correct me if I am wrong, that between 2002 and 2006 the House, Senate and Presidency were in the hands of Republicans. During that six year period, did the Republican Party even attempt to repeal the tiniest part of the “War on Drugs”?

Couple that with policies that seem designed to discourage, rather than help, people from escaping poverty

And those would be?

No, Don, I didn't wonder that at all. Congressman Davis plans to vote his mind on the bill. That's baffling only to people like you and Dr. Jackson, who vote based on party lines, conspiracy theories and identity politics.

…because being black is all about being on the dole? WTF?

because being black is about living on the edge…

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — OCTOBER 2009

The jobless rates for adult
women (8.1 percent), teenagers (27.6 percent), blacks (15.7 percent), and
Hispanics (13.1 percent) were little changed over the month.

Poverty 2008 – PDF

In 2008, the poverty rate was 24.6 percent for African Americans and 23.2 percent for Hispan-ics. The recent increase in the poverty rate among Hispanics is significant.

The Criminalization of a Generation and the Oppression of African-American and Latino People

African-Americans are 13 percent of the general population, but over 50 percent of the prison population. Nearly 60 percent of all young Black men born between 1965 and 1969 who dropped out of high school went to prison at least once on a felony conviction before they turned thirty-five.

The Number of Uninsured Americans Is At An All-Time High

African-Americans (19.6 percent uninsured) and Hispanics (32.7 percent) were much more likely to be uninsured than white, non-Hispanic people (11.3 percent).

Let's see high poverty rates, high rate of medically uninsured, high unemployment rates and high incarceration rates, and you wonder why they vote the way they do…

Then again given the way things work these days perhaps most of them are 13 yr olds

“One of the reasons that I like and admire Rev. Jesse Jackson is that 21 years ago he inspired the idea that a Black politician would not be judged simply as a Black leader. The best way to honor Rev. Jackson's legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race.”

To say “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.” says:

1) Jesse Jackson is the keeper of the definition of “black man”
2) On at least some issues, no freedom of thought is allowed for “black men”, and specifically
3) “Black men” must be 100% behind whatever piece of legislation that the (mostly) white, (predominantly) liberal, (exclusively) Democrat coalition in Congress produces–sight unseen.

It's far more demeaning and insulting to black people than any childish accusation about wanting people to die if you are not a “healthcare reform” supporter.

Good thing a white guy didn't say it. It would have been racist . . . .

…because being black is all about being on the dole? WTF?

But how different is this from people saying if you vote against health care you want people to die ?