President Obama is often accused of "ignoring" the disproportionate effects of things like unemployment and a dysfunctional health insurance system on people of color. I've long argued that the president doesn't ignore such things; rather, he recognizes that rhetorically, passing progressive legislation requires making a race-neutral pitch that can't be exploited as a giveaway to minorities (not that the GOP hasn't tried this tactic anyway). But in an interview with April D. Ryan, Obama doesn't mince words about the tangible improvements the bill will make for people of color in the U.S.:
I wrote about the de facto segregation of health care in the United States some months ago. Despite being flawed, the bill moving through Congress right now will go along way toward addressing health-care disparities. But it's not surprising to me that the president is making this pitch to a reporter from American Urban Radio Networks rather than CNN.This health care bill, I think people need to understand just how significant this is. We've got 30 million people who are going to get health insurance because of this bill. And disproportionately they will be African American as well as Latino. One out of five African Americans don't have health insurance -- that's almost double the general population. So right off the bat you're helping millions of people across the country.
After all, you still have people like Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham citing the cost of insuring the black population of his state as one of the reasons to vote against health-care reform:
GRAHAM: If you don't live in Nebraska, here's what's coming your way. Your state is gonna be required to cover more people under Medicaid because the eligibility, I think, goes up to 133% above poverty, which is an increase over the current system. So throughout the nation, there are gonna be thousands of more people enrolled in Medicaid. And every state except one is gonna have to come up with matching money. I have 12 percent unemployment in South Carolina. My state is on its knees. I have 31 percent African American population in South Carolina. How did they get the 60th vote? It was the weekend before Christmas and they were one vote short. Well, here's what they did to get that one vote...
It's true black people are disproportionately uninsured. But it's not like black people are the only people on Medicaid, and 47 percent of those who lack insurance coverage are white. As long as we live in a country where legislators think like this out loud, a political strategy that dodges the fault lines of race rather than confronting them directly may be necessary.
-- A. Serwer
