Bush Takes First Step to Woo Blacks: Ten Thousand More Steps to Go

What does it take to change a relationship fraught with betrayals,

half-truths, neglect and downright antagonism? More than words. More
than jokes. More than promises.

President Bush attended the 97^th National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention for the first time
in his five and a half year presidency on July 21, after rejecting five
consecutive invitations from the nation’s oldest civil rights
organization. Though fraught with minimizations of the tensions between
himself and the African-American community, it was a start.

“Now,” Bush confessed, “I understand that many
African-Americans distrust my political party.” 11 long seconds of
applause erupted throughout the D.C. Convention Center.

“I want to change the relationship,” Bush declared.

So, Bush called the NAACP to partnership on two
primary initiatives: Improving education and economic development in
the Black community.

Yet, I’m reminded of Matthew 5:23-24:

“So when you
are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother
or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the
altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then
come and offer your gift.”

Though he took the first step, reconciliation is a
long way off. Bush minimized his personal role in the polarization
between the Republican party and Black Americans, 8 in 10 of whom plan
to vote for a Democratic candidate in the November mid-term election,
according to a recent Gallup Poll:
He said he feels it’s a tragedy that Lincoln’s party has written off
the African-American vote, yet he personally led the charge in 2000
when he marched to the presidency on the backs of thousands of Black
citizens whose votes were never counted in the state of Florida.

“History has prevented us from working
together,” Bush said in his 33 minute speech. Yet, it wasn’t just
history. Bush made choices in the first years of his presidency that
defined his relationship with the African-American community: He
crossed the boundaries between the executive and judicial powers to
advocate for anti-affirmative action rulings in two Supreme Court cases.
He pulled Colin Powell from the September 2001 United Nations
Conference against Racism; in part to avoid discussions of reparations
for U.S. Black slavery. He launched a war in Iraq that has created 33 percent of the nation’s current debt. He has ceaselessly authorized tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest
citizens (increasing the debt by another 50 percent) then advocated
cuts to vital public services that make up only one percent of current
U.S. debt.

Jokes, words and promises won’t cut it. According
to Matthew 5, these breaches in trust must be dealt with through a true
reconciliation process, which Biblically requires confession and
repentance followed by action in a new direction.

32 seconds of applause erupted throughout the
NAACP Convention, cutting the audience’s luke-warm response, when Bush
announced he wanted the Voting Rights Act to pass through the Senate
without amendment so that he could sign it into law. It passed without
amendment later that day.

It was a start; only ten thousand more to go.