Should the CBC Change Colors?

"...there has been an unofficial Congressional White Caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join 'the club.' ...we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives."

-Rep. William Clay, Jr. (D-MO) January 2007

The above quote was Rep. Clay's response to White Rep. Steve Cohen's (D-TN) attempt to join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Almost two years later, a Republican Vietnamese-American, Joesph Cao defeated incumbent William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson by 3% to be elected as the US rep. for Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District - a district that is mainly comprised of Black constituents. Leutisha Stills of Jack and Jill Politics posed the question: Should non-Black representatives who represent African-American constituents " join or engage in the caucus that would educate them about the needs of their district and allow them to effectively represent their district?"

ALBC poses the following as our response: Is the CBC's purpose to be a coalition for general black issues or are they a coalition focused on issues inherent to black constituents?

The Congressional Black Caucus's Mission Statement reads as follows, "Our mission is to advance the global black community by developing leaders, informing policy and educating the public." If the mission statement is taken at face value, the answer to our question would be that the CBC is a coalition for general black issues. With this understanding, our stance would be no, the CBC should not be integrated.

However, when a closer look is taken at the means by which the CBC says it will achieve it's mission, which includes: "Facilitating the exchange of ideas and information to address critical issues affecting [Black] communities," then the CBC is operating as a coalition focused on issues inherent to Black constituents. The issues that Black communities face do not change based upon the race of the elected officials serving those communities and it could possibly be a disservice to such communities if their representatives are not educated on the issues from the "inside" of the CBC.

Perhaps, as Kweisi Mfume, National President of the NAACP suggested in a Baltimore Sun article published today, the ways by which the CBC will achieve it's mission will change under the Obama presidency because "...the CBC [is] now faced with the welcome prospect of a White House that's less of an adversary and more of a partner,"and the inclusion of non-Blacks in the CBC will not thwart the mission of the caucus.

In practice, to add non-Blacks contradicts the mission as CBC members have upheld it in the past and it potentially dilutes the potency of the coalition as a voting block in congress; this is because if Cao is granted membership as a Vietnamese rep from Louisiana, not only is he a Republican but he also has a lot of Vietnamese constituents whom may not be affected in the same way by legislation/law as Blacks, making him more prone than any other member of the CBC to not vote with the group. The legitimacy of the CBC is that they consistently stick together on major issues with close votes.