When George W. Bush appointed Colin Powell to his Cabinet, as the first African American Secretary of State, a friend who happens to be a Bush fan called me to gush. "See, I told you it wasn’t going to be so bad," she said. He is reaching out to your community. I had to laugh. If 4-star General Colin Powell is the best-qualified person to be Secretary of State, then Bush is hardly reaching out to the African American community by appointing him. Instead, he is both serving his administration and our nation by choosing the best. Too, General Powell deserves at least a little payback for being the campaign-long example of Mr. Bush’s decent relations with at least one (or two, if Dr. Condoleeza Rice is counted) African American.

I’m neither heartened nor saddened by George W. Bush’s selections of Powell and Rice to his team. AS much as he’d been talking to them in the past six months, indeed, I’d have been stunned if they both had not been selected. But the selection of two African Americans in top foreign policy positions, while glass-ceiling shattering, hardly constitutes "outreach" to the African American community. I’m waiting to see where African Americans fit in on the domestic policy front.

A week after he was named President-elect, Mr. Bush has provided some answers. He convened a highly visible meeting of African American ministers in Austin, and talked to them about ways he might reach out to the African American community. The problem? He chose not to include some of the more visible ministers who represent large constituencies, instead hand-picking a group more amenable to him. The group included the Houston pastor of Windsor Village Baptist Church, Rev. Kirbyjohn

Caldwell, who introduced him at the Republican convention this summer, Rev. Floyd Flake, who supports his vouchers initiatives, and Boston based Rev. Eugene Rivers. It’s not surprising that members of the National Baptist Convention weren’t present. After all, many of them used their pulpits to get out the vote that was 9-1 against Bush. And the Rev. Jesse Jackson, organizing an inaugural day protest of Mr. Bush’s presidency, would not have been expected at the table. But by assembling a group so visibly and quickly, without including some of the better-known African American clergy, Bush gives the impression that he will attempt to circumvent the civil rights establishment to create "his own" black religious leadership. It makes a good photo opportunity, but it doesn’t go over well with many African Americans.

Those African Americans who support Mr. Bush caution that we should "wait and see" what happens with his appointments and efforts. Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State, who is also African American, says that he expects Bush will appoint African Americans at the undersecretary and assistant secretary level, and that people should not rush to judge him. But we have been waiting, we have been looking and we have seen the man who says he will be president of all Americans already work to cut some folks out of the mix with, for example, this ministerial meeting.
The fact is that African American voters can count as well as Mr. Bush can, and have virtually no expectations of the incoming President. Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus expect to have a fight on their hands when it comes to preserving programs that positively impact African Americans, though the fight may be easier because the new Chair of the CBC is Eddie Bernice Johnson, a moderate Texas Democrat who may find some common ground with Bush.

Still, Bush has an opportunity in these next four years. He can pleasantly surprise a group of people whose expectations of him have been shaped by his wonton executions in Texas, his insensitivity to victims of hate crimes, and his conservatism, which few see as especially compassionate. These folks will not be swayed by foreign policy appointments or meetings with preachers that push Bush’s faith-based social service agenda. African Americans will be swayed, instead, by Bush’s ability to improve the quality of life in inner cities, and his economic policies that stimulate wealth creation in African American communities. They’ll be influenced less by symbolism than by substance.

"Give him a chance", says Ken Blackwell. "He was met with skepticism when he first became Governor of Texas. But his vote count among African Americans went up the second time he ran." With expectations as low as they are, a chance is all Bush gets. But he may change the relationship that African Americans have to the Republican Party is he is able to do the right thing by a community that rebuffed him in this last election.

JULIANNE MALVEAUX COMMENTARY DECEMBER 12, 2000

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