SELMA, Ala. — South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott holds the distinction of being the first black senator elected in the South since Reconstruction. So it was fitting that he co-chaired this past weekend’s Congressional Pilgrimage to Selma, where leaders from around the country gathered to honor the civil rights pioneers of the 1960s and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march.
President Obama and former President George W. Bush were both in attendance, as were over 100 members of congress from both parties.
But while the national media focused much of their attention on the optics of some top Republican leaders choosing not to attend the events in Selma, there was relatively little coverage of Sen. Scott’s remarks that focused on the actual impact the Obama Administration’s policies have had on racial minorities.
“When you look at all the statistics, I don’t know that the last six years have been particularly good for people of color,” said Scott bluntly. “And when you look at race relations, I think you could say at best they’re where they were before six years ago…I don’t know that you can lay that on the shoulders of one person, but when you look at the policies [of President Obama, they] have had a miserable impact on the country.”
A recent CBS poll found that the percentage of blacks who believe there has been real progress in getting rid of racial discrimination in America has dropped significantly since President Obama took office.
One NAACP leader says she believes this is a result of many Americans opposing the president’s agenda in large part because he is black.
“For many people it feels worse because we have seen such a reaction to this presidency that has been really alarming and without question from many quarters has been based in part on his race,” Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told the New York Times. “His candidacy suggested we had reached a new moment in America, and I think some people overestimated the meaning of that moment.”
But to Sen. Scott’s point that the president’s policies have simply not helped racial minorities, black Americans have experienced the slowest unemployment recovery of any group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“If you look at the challenges faced specifically by black America, the last six years have been challenging,” Sen. Scott said from Montgomery on Sunday. “The unemployment rate is near 12 percent overall. The poverty rate is near 28 percent. The last six years have not been good for most folks.”
Scott said that, in contrast to the president’s liberal agenda, conservative policies would benefit “the black community and America as a whole.”
(Video below: Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) interviewed from Montgomery on “Face the Nation”)
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
