From the stern way that President Obama dismissed the Congressional Black Caucus last month, you’d think the CBC had insisted that every last dollar of job-creation money go to African-Americans. And from the way some conservative pundits responded (columnist Michelle Malkin, for instance, called it a “shake down”), you’d think the CBC had demanded that the Secret Service round up White folks and force them to empty their bank accounts and hand the money over to Black folks.
The CBC made the very reasonable suggestion that 10 percent of the stimulus be targeted to the poorest urban areas, where so many African-Americans live. Given that African-Americans are about 13 percent of the US population, 10 percent is a pretty modest request.