Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee's first black chairman, told an audience last night in New York City that his party wants to help the black community but they need to do a better job of depending on themselves and not the government to create opportunities. The moderate-conservative Republican politico received a warm welcome from hundreds of black activists at the annual meeting of the National Action Network, an organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, a noted civil rights activist and former Democratic presidential candidate.
The audience reacted somewhat skeptically when Mr. Steele invoked Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice. Justice Marshall once said that while people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, a teacher or religious figure probably "bent down and helped us pick up our boots." Mr. Steele called that a Republican message. "The Republican National Committee wants to bend down and help," he said, drawing cries of "How?" and "Not the Tea Party!" Mr. Steele honored other civil rights leaders like Harriet Tubman and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and invoked slavery to encourage blacks to own their own businesses. "I want to own, I don't want to be owned," he said to applause.
Mr. Steele acknowledged that blacks still trail whites in education and employment opportunities but urged the audience to apply business- and community-oriented solutions to solve those problems. He said depending on government stifled black progress. "No child should be imprisoned in a failing government school," Mr. Steele said, urging activists to support charter schools and other innovations. He also criticized the federal stimulus program, saying he'd rather see stimulus funds go to a small business owner in Harlem than to a government agency.
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Michael Steele: "GOP Wants To Help Black Community"
