What’s a Black Caucus?

Ella Fitzgerald used to sing a tune that said, “I’m putting all my eggs in one basket…I’m betting everything I’ve got on you.” This may be great advice for the love game, but it’s a lousy way to play politics. If you put everything in one political basket, as African Americans in this state have largely done since Ted Mondale was knee-high to a voting booth, then what happens when the guys holding the other basket wins? We get goose eggs. And, should one of us happen to put our eggs in “the wrong” basket, then we as a group still come up with goose eggs—because the true brothers will ostracize the one who is perceived as being wayward.

Which brings me to Peter Bell. University of Minnesota regent. Veteran, Jesse Ventura’s transition team. Current member, Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty’s transition team. Republican. And last, but not least, African American. Now, one would think that our so-called community leaders would be happy to have a conduit to Minnesota’s power elite. Wrong. Four years ago, when then Governor-elect Ventura tapped Bell for his brain trust, many African Americans panned Ventura for not appointing a “real” black person.

When Bell ran for Hennepin County Commission a short time later, most African-American leaders enthusiastically campaigned against him.
During that election, Bell was asked to present his views at an Urban Coalition-sponsored candidates’ meeting. According to its website, the Urban Coalition is a grassroots community organization that works for social justice. I saw everything but justice at that meeting. I witnessed the verbal equivalent of a lashing. Prominent African-American ministers, community activists, and just plain folks vied to see who could inflict the most abuse on Bell. It was a sickening spectacle. Bell told the group something I will never forget. “My racial identity is too important to me to cede control of it to anyone—white people or self-appointed black leaders.”
After the meeting, one well-known community leader said in my presence, “Peter Bell is bad news. The white man will always keep us down as long as he has Tommin’ Negroes like that to do his dirty work for him.” Heads nodded in agreement. No one rose to defend Bell’s right to be a conservative, including me. I did not want to risk being labeled as another “black conservative,” which in that group would have meant “sell-out.” I now regret that moment of cowardly silence.

I knew then that Peter Bell could be conservative, support Republican candidates, and be African American. Just as importantly, I have come to appreciate how crucial people like Peter Bell are to the viability of the African-American community.

Like it or not, the Republicans won the mid-term elections, both nationally and here in Minnesota, big time. And Minnesota is drowning in red ink, big time. The GOP won office, and it comes attached to a major financial crisis. Republicans, like most successful politicians, tend to believe in the political adage that you dance with the one that brung ya. In other words, since Tim Pawlenty got elected governor with scant African-American support, guess whose political agenda will not be at the top of the Governor-elect’s to-do list?

Now, back to Peter Bell. Given the current political landscape, Bell should be on the speed dial of every African-American community group. Instead, Bell gets ignored. According to Bell, sometimes groups will quietly call him and take advantage of his contacts. Once they get what they need, they disavow any ties to him.

Here is my proposal: The Urban League should sponsor a political summit, bringing together black Republicans like Peter Bell and St. Paul’s City Council member Jerry Blakey with people like Spike Moss and mainstream African-American DFLers. The summit’s agenda would be figuring out how to best exploit the collective talent, contacts, and resources across the African-American political spectrum. Racial loyalty tests would get checked at the door. The objective would be developing a game plan for surviving the next years of budget cuts, which will almost certainly inflict disproportionate pain on black folks.

We are living in some tough economic times. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Like it or not, African Americans in this town have got to face the cold truth that we cannot afford to dis anyone—black Republicans or blue-eyed Scandinavians, who, like Peter Bell, are able and willing to help our community.