on this edition of "our world with black enterprise," the state of black america 2009. how much has changed since the election of an african-american president. is black america really better off? that's up next. >> i think it is the best of times when you look at it from a political landscape, but it is the worst of times, you know. when america gets a cold, african-americans have pneumonia. captions made possible by the u.s. department of education and central city productions, inc.

hello, everyone. i'm ed gordon. at the dawn of barack obama's presidency, the dynamic relationship between black america and the political powers that be is flipped on its head. it became even more important to lobbies for better jobs, housing and education. the new report, the state of black america 2009, message to the president, pinpoints these critical issues and offers recommendations. national urban league ceo marc morial is inspired by the administration's vision, but does not discount the amount of work that still needs to be done. today, we'll look at key issues from the report and see what the future holds. joining us are william julius wilson, professor at harvard university and the author of the new book, "more than just race: being black and poor in the

inner city," warren valentine, attorney, author and nationally syndicated radio host, and finally, terrence samuel, deputy editor for "the root," a subsidiary of the "washington post." >> the state of black america is that these are the best of times and the worst of times. i put it that way because we do have this incredible, historical event with the election of barack obama as president, but on the other hand, the recession, the big "r," recession, as i like to call it, has plunged many african-americans deeper into economic misery. >> warren valentine, interestingly enough, the best of times, the worst of times. what do you think about what marc morial just said? >> i agree with marc. i think it is the best of times when you look at it from a political landscape, but it is the worst of times, you know. when america gets a cold, african-americans have pneumonia. and right now, we have pneumonia, swine flu and everything else that's going on,

because when you look at what's happening in our communities, we're losing our homes, unemployment is so high, and we have a big disparity between african-american men and women that's never been like this before as far as unemployment. when you look at -- and not even just with the economic point of view -- you look at the legal system and how it's set up and how it's put together to keep us in that system. because you go to jail to get rehabilitated, you come out, you have a felony, you can't get a job. you can't even get financial aid if it's a drug felony to go back to school to educate yourself. so, when you look at everything going on in this country, black america is probably 100 steps further back than what we were in the late '60s. >> professor, interestingly enough, i watched you as marc was talking about this, and we should note that much of what he is talking about you talk about in your book, "more than just race: being black and poor in the inner city." this is really not only the crux of the biggest issue the president faces, this economic tsunami, as some call it, but it really is the biggest issue that

african-americans face today. >> absolutely. african-american unemployment rates are reaching record levels right now. we don't have the latest figures, but once they come out, it will be quite clear that african-americans are really experiencing extremely high unemployment rates, not only official unemployment, but you know, people are dropping out of the labor force and giving up. and property rates are increasing significantly. so, in some -- you know, certainly, the recession is hurting all americans, but black americans, i think, because so many of them are concentrated near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, are hurting probably more. >> terrence, interestingly enough, we have seen, heard and talked about this for generations now with the idea -- and i sometimes have been not critical, but question whether or not we need another state of black america, whether we need to convene another town hall meeting, whether -- we know what these issues are. we know what these problems are. how can the community move now to correct them? >> the interesting thing, ed, is

that i think the way this country has evolved is nobody's disagreeing that the people at the bottom are getting slammed the worst in this recession. the fact that it happens to be african-americans brings in a whole history of discrimination and racial injustice that has obviously over time been -- had the results of keeping people at the bottom. the interesting thing now, though, is that the discussion is about how everybody moves this bottom up, and in particular, the expanded black middle class, what responsibility they have to actually kind of address this issue. >> what do you hear on a day-to-day basis, when you talk to your callers, in specific, warren, from across the country? what are you hearing from them? >> they're disappointed. they're upset. but one of the reasons that they're disappointed and upset is because they're understanding that now there's a time for them to be accountable and really not just say the word being accountable, because right now, we see what's going on in america, but we're not stepping

up to the plate. we're not saying, look, we don't want the drugs in our community. we're going to push our kids to go to school even if we have to beg, borrow, steal to get them in school. see, we can no longer use the crutch of the government. we can no longer say, government, come and save us. the government is not our daddy. we have to take the bulls by the horn and say, look, we know what's going on. we've known what's been going on my whole life, but we've never just stepped up and done something about it. that's the difference now, and i think this generation, my generation wants to do something. it's just a lot of them are afraid to do something because they're scared they're going to get knocked on the ground. >> professor from a historical perspective, and then follow up, terrence -- from a historical perspective economically, can what we've seen -- we tend toly of what one african-american can do from the white house -- are we being pollyanna with the expectation, this seat change, because we've seen the election of this man? >> listen, barack obama is going

to do more for the african-american community than many of the past presidents combined. i mean, he, for example, has a special office in the white house that deal with urban problems. that's so unlike the previous administrations. and he's gearing up to address issues of poverty and joblessness in the inner city. >> terrence, what did you want to say? >> the one thing i want to say about warren's point about people stepping up to the plate -- i think there's a whole history in black american of african-americans stepping up. and i think the barack obama issue is not one so much of being pollyannaish. i think african-americans understand more than most that we don't actually ascribe, you know, special political powers to barack obama simply because he's black. they understand that the job ahead of him is difficult and they're rooting for him, but i don't think they have any unrealistic expectations about that. >> just to piggyback on this, i think there is a little bit, and i'm going to tell you why.

for years, you would hear parents telling their young, black children, you could grow up to be the president, and they didn't believe that. now they actually believe it, number one. and number two, i think what president obama has done is he's made it cool to be smart. he's made it fashionable to want to get educated. and that was not always the case. it was always, when i was growing up, if you were smart, if you were educated, that was like a badge of dishonor, you know? when i graduated from undergrad, when i graduate ed suma cum lau, my friends were like, what's that about? because i hid it because i was ashamed of it. now it's something i am very proud of, and i think that's what president obama is doing for this next generation. >> let's take a break and we'll continue with a look at the state of black america, thanks to the urban league report as we take a wider look. back in a moment. >> the president of the united states puts our office of urban policy in the white house, that means something, and it means something important. ♪ our world ♪ ♪

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♪ our world president obama deserves our support when he's facing the kind of challenges and

difficulties. he's due an opportunity, and i think he's earned the right to have our support in these days while he tries to grapple with one of the most difficult set of circumstances any president has been handed. >> terrence, interesting there with what marc morial suggested about the need and want to support this president, also the need and want to see change quickly, because there are those who are in sinking boats that cannot hang on until the rest of us make it to shore. >> well, i'll say this about president obama -- he laid out in the campaign a vision of america that in some ways really became kind of a common vision for the country, which obviously, is why he got elected. and very quickly after his election, he has moved to implement these. if you look at his proposals in education, if you look at his proposals on the environment and how that might affect the job market, if you look at his proposals on college tuition,

you look at the stimulus package. there is some concern among some people that while the vision has been grand and grandly laid out, that the willingness to fight to move that forward has not been equally strident, and we're waiting to see. but i think at this point, he clearly gets high marks for following through on his promises. >> professor, is there a concern, as i call it, of this becoming a million man march moment? and that is that there is this euphoria, this zeal to change, this want to do better, but as the days move on and you move further away from that, that zeal does not go with you? >> of course black americans, all black americans, are basking in the glow of the obama victory. and there is a possibility that that could happen. but i think that obama's going to use the bully pulpit to rally the troops, to get people's faith in what he can do for

america, not only for all americans, but for black americans as well. i think -- you know, i think that if obama is re-elected, we could have eight years of a president prodding americans, all americans, to move forward, including black america. >> let me take it away from the white house and talk about the community within. i thought the subtitle being "black and poor in the inner city" was interesting in the sense of there is a tremendous difference in having both of those titles attached to who you are, being black one, and being poor, because even within our community, sometimes there is this class system. talk to me about being able to lift all those, including those on the lower level. >> well, it is true that during a boom, periods of economic boom, black americans from the bottom do experience improvements, improvements in jobs, improvements in income and so on. and during an economic downturn, they suffer tremendously.

and that's what's happening right now. >> what about the anger? i'm sure you hear from your callers, your listeners, the idea that there is, even with this man in office, anger, particularly if you believe that the urban setting, the urban agenda has not been addressed from this white house. >> well, yeah, i get that a lot, that this white house has not addressed the urban issue. and i use your analogy here, but i say it in a different way. i say, is this a moment or is this a movement? and if it's a moment, you have every right to be angry, but if this is truly a movement, then a movement takes time. you have to give him time. 100 days in office -- they're trying to grade him for 100 days. he's a four-year -- four years is his term, not 100 days. give him a chance to operate. give him a chance to lay his plan out. and after four years, let's look and re-evaluate again. >> what about other leadership? what about black leadership we've seen here quite frankly stumble and falter over the last

couple of years? you pick the number you want to start the clock on. we have not seen the leadership we have perhaps gotten used to. i liken it to the days of ali, those of us who lived through the great heavyweight days, now look at the heavyweight division and see a bunch of, quite frankly, bums in there. so, some suggest there's a lot of stumbling from black leadership. >> well, for me, ed, personally, i look at black america right now with the black leadership, and even within our communities, we have a case of the meisms. if it's not about me, i don't care. or the moneyisms. how much money am i getting out of this? there used to be a time where you had older generations who were teaching the younger generations, grooming them, getting them ready to become the next leaders. when you look at the civil rights movement, those guys were early 20s. these were not older individuals. you had some, like a. philip randolph, who was kind of like the mentor, the guidance counselor for them to go talk to, and we need to reinstate that. you have young people who want to do things, who have great creativity, who have great passion for the community, who

want to give back, but they need the doors open to get that into the community. >> do you, a, buy that there is a void in leadership today from the black community, and do you see it the same way that warren does? because i think that's a bit romanticized, that a. philip randolph and roy wilkins and others were so open to embrace these young people. i mean, i know at times there were fights within that, too. >> i think two things. one in answer to your million march moment question, i think it is not just a moment. i think this is such a huge more than symbolic event. i mean, it's like a home run, you know? you can never take it back. it's never going away. it's on the books forever, and that's never going to change. in terms of the leadership, i think you can clearly see places where black leadership has failed in the past. however, i think we were living a time where people were kind of straddling. they didn't know if they wanted to be black leaders or just leaders, and there was this huge debate about which problems got addressed, and i think, you know, obama is obviously the epitome of that.

but what i think you have happening here is obama addressing these issues. the president of the united states puts our office of urban policy in the white house, that means something, and it means something important. >> you know, you think president obama is going to create 20 promise cities around the country, patterned after the harlem children's zone. can you imagine any other president doing that? >> yeah, we cannot take away from the idea of, just the image of this family, this "all american family," far above what we saw with the fictional cosby family has really become a guiding post for us. now we'll take another break here. back with final thoughts in just a moment. >> the biggest thing that this president can do is not forget his promises to the people who got him into office. ♪ our world introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups.

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generation of economic proliterian, so we have to do something about public education. that's the biggest issue. >> terrence, that being said, what would you say is 1a, if you will, if you would take education as one of those? >> i would say the kind of underlying economic instability. the prosperity we thought we saw in the '90s was based on something completely fictional, which is, you make a fair amount of money, you go out and you borrow twice a fair amount of money, everybody gets rich, the economy is supposed to be chugging along. the mortgage crisis cost black americans the most amount of wealth that we've lost in the history of the united states. >> warren? >> i think it's disparities, whether you're looking at health care, whether you're looking at education, whether you're looking in the legal arena. and i think the biggest thing that this president can do is not forget his promises to the people who got him into office. i think that's the biggest thing that he can do. you know, if he does that, he'll be re-elected and his

educational agenda, his health care agenda and everything else will pass and we will all be in a better place. >> and he talked about self-sufficiency. how much do you believe we'll see that go from rhetoric to action within the community? >> i think what he's very good at is seeming really sensible and really reasonable and not that he's talking down to you or preaching to you or that he made this stuff up. it sounds very organic, like, oh, this guy used to be around the same kitchen table that i was. so, he does a lot of things that's sensible that would have seem daring for another president. >> professor, do you see it the same? >> i like the way he frames things. he says look, we're going to provide you with opportunities so you can help yourself. creating conditions so people can help themselves. that message resonates. >> warren, interestingly enough in 100 days, while it's an unfair report card for any president, you can see people who lose faith. we should note, we have not seen this to date. >> you know, i'll tell you what, my listeners love the president, but they also look at what is going on in their lives, and they are starting to lose faith.

so you know, i just hope that they give him some time and that he keeps his word and just realize, you know, one of the things -- we didn't touch on this, but one of the things that's going on in this country right now, too, is we have to understand that racism is alive and well. it's institutionalized now, and we have to be aware of that. that's why you have the market and the housing industry and all the other credit issues that's going on right now because it's institutionalized. >> we should note, as i sat down with him a couple of times and talked about that specifically, he will be the first to tell you that my election did not eradicate racism. that's still an issue and a problem, and i hope using that bully pulpit, as you suggested, we see more of that conversation from this white house. gentlemen, thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we'll take a break and be back to say good-bye right after this. ♪

gentlemen, again, thank you. greatly appreciate it. that does it for this edition of "our world with black enterprise." next week, we put another great roundtable together to continue the discussion of the state of black america. and remember, you can always look to us for up-to-date information on the issues that are important to you at blackenterprise.com. until next time, i'm ed gordon, and thank you for making "our world" your world.