Larry Elder, a libertarian-conservative Republican commentator in California, ponders their absence: "As 'Person of the Year,' Time magazine named 'The Protester.' The subhead read, 'From the Arab Spring to Athens, From Occupy Wall Street to Moscow.' Well, yes, but what about the lack of American black protesters? Good Lord, where is the racial diversity/inclusion/proportional representation? Back in the day, the tea party's alleged lack of black participants was beyond worrisome to the media. The lack of black faces in the crowd allowed the major media to describe the tea party as racially exclusionary, if not....racist!"
He continues his commentary: "So the formula is set: Lack of blacks plus 'overwhelmingly white' equals racism. Right? Not so fast. This formula does not apply to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is as white as an Idaho picket fence. A Washington Post opinion piece cites a survey that found 'African Americans, who are 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, make up only 1.6 percent of Occupy Wall Street.' And blacks are 25 percent of New York City's population. Occupy Wall Street was a home game for them. By contrast, 6 percent of tea party supporters, according to an April 2010 Gallup poll, are black. That's almost four times the number of blacks who make up Occupy Wall Street."
He argues that the real question is not why so few blacks belong to the Occupy movement. The real question is why so many blacks still belong to the Democratic Party.: "Then there's the President Barack Obama factor. For some blacks, joining the Occupy protests would be an admission that Obama has failed to deliver on his promises to make things better, to squash special interests, to diminish the influence of lobbyists, etc. It's not hard for a black Obama lefty (redundancy intentional) to rationalize: 'I thought a black president would make a real, actual, touchable difference in my life. He has not. But he's trying. He inherited a mess that those awful Republicans left him. So, he deserves re-election.' How else to explain that while 57 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, 86 percent of blacks approve?"
The Black Occupy Protester -- Missing In Action
