Project 21: Press Releases

This statement was issued today by Bob Parks of the national black leadership network Project 21: "President Obama's almost-constant apologies to the world for the our nation's actions and his socialist economic policies at home have energized a normally lethargic American people into gathering in American cities and storming the steps of the Capitol in protest.  Senator Whitehouse would have us all just shut up and give Obama his political victories unchallenged.  Not doing so makes us all guilty of unprecedented rudeness and - dare I say it - racism. "Despite liberals' historically dismal and revisionist civil rights history, when ...
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Washington, DC - Recent race-related comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are highly offensive and historically inaccurate, say members of the Project 21 black leadership group. "Harry Reid has resorted to the most shopworn trick in the liberal playbook.  He deployed the race card in the ugliest way while debating health care reform," said Deroy Murdock, a Project 21 member and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.  "It is astonishing and outrageous to equate those who seek the defeat of Reid's 2,074-page, $2.5 trillion legislative monstrosity with those ...
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Washington, DC - If the White House jobs summit is more than a publicity stunt, says Deneen Borelli of the Project 21 black leadership network, Obama should abandon efforts to implement a cap-and-trade policy, as it would kill jobs. "If Obama is sincere about finding ways to fix our country's employment crisis, he should start by putting the brakes on job-killing cap-and-trade legislation," said Deneen Borelli, a Project 21 fellow. Obama is promoting today's summit as a gathering of experts to "jumpstart" hiring and create new jobs.  Unemployment recently rose to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since 1983. Commenting on ...
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Washington, DC - Members of the Project 21 black leadership network have risen to condemn Jesse Jackson for saying of Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), "You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man," calling Jackson's statement divisive and likening it to the mental tactics of a antebellum slaveowner. Declining to respond in kind, Rep. Davis told The Hill newspaper, "The best way to honor Reverend Jackson's legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race." Project 21 members were less restrained. "Shame on Jesse Jackson for using the race ...
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Statement of Project 21's Deneen Borelli Washington, DC - This statement was issued today by Deneen Borelli of the national black leadership network Project 21: The left-wing jihad against Rush Limbaugh is un-fair and un-American. Rush is being targeted simply because he is a conservative and a leading critic of President Obama’s wealth redistribution policies. With conservative blood in the water, it’s predictable to see the “race card duo” – Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton – circling the victim. Since the election of the first black president, they have been searching for some white meat to feed on and Rush ...
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Washington, DC - This statement was issued today by Deneen Borelli of the national black leadership network Project 21: "There they go again.  Now Jimmy Carter has joined House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, Texas Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, New York Governor David Paterson, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, the New York Times' Maureen Dowd and others on the left in claiming racism is behind criticism of President Obama's big-spending policies. The public is outraged about the president's policies -- the spending, the budget, the deficit -- not his skin color. President Obama was not elected only with black votes.  ...
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Washington, D.C. - The Project 21 black leadership network is condemning New York Times liberal columnist Paul Krugman for scurrilously pinning racist motives on critics of President Obama's health care proposals. The group is calling upon President Obama to condemn all efforts to derail legitimate public debate, specifically including this effort to stifle debate with race-baiting tactics. "Paul Krugman is the one with race on the brain," Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie charged. "Specifically, he is using race in the lowest and most repulsive declinations. He is using it because every other argument to stem the growing tide of condemnation ...
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Washington, D.C. - An examination of the 1018-page "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" (H.R. 3200) - the official Obama health care bill - finds several cases in which grant money for medical training can be awarded solely on factors of race and class. Project 21 member Bishop Council Nedd II, an Anglican bishop and director of the Ecumenical Institute for Health Policy Research based at Valley Forge Christian College, is condemning the addition of racial preferences to the President's legislation. "The U.S. Supreme Court just struck down racial preferences.  So why does a newly-introduced bill want to perpetuate ...
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Washington, DC - Contending with political realities such as the election of the first black president, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is understandably struggling to justify its continued existence.  At its centennial convention, it clearly moved in the wrong direction by allying with environmental lobbyists to promote economically devastating climate policy opposed by the majority of black Americans. "I'm all in favor of the nation's oldest civil rights group redefining its mission and agenda; however this indicates that the NAACP continues to struggle with current realities that face the nation's black communities by promoting policies ...
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Washington, D.C. - An apparent effort by the Congressional Black Caucus to deter ethics investigations of its membership is drawing sharp criticism from members of the black leadership group Project 21. CBC members reportedly are considering changes to the law authorizing the House Office of Congressional Ethics, or OCE, in retaliation for the OCE referring allegations against several CBC members to the House Ethics Committee. CBC members reportedly also have complained that the OCE does not have enough minority staffers, adding a racial element to the apparent retaliation. "What does the racial or ethnic makeup of the Office of Congressional ...
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Washington, D.C. - An apparent effort by the Congressional Black Caucus to deter ethics investigations of its membership is drawing sharp criticism from members of the black leadership group Project 21. CBC members reportedly are considering changes to the law authorizing the House Office of Congressional Ethics, or OCE, in retaliation for the OCE referring allegations against several CBC members to the House Ethics Committee. CBC members reportedly also have complained that the OCE does not have enough minority staffers, adding a racial element to the apparent retaliation. "What does the racial or ethnic makeup of the Office of Congressional ...
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Washington, DC - Democrats risk alienating one of their most important constituencies by advancing the Waxman-Markey climate change bill this week or any time before an economic recovery is underway, according to the non-partisan National Center for Public Policy Research. The National Center for Public Policy Research bases this conclusion on the results of a nationwide poll it commissioned of African-Americans.  The poll, released today, suggests anxiety in the black community over Waxman-Markey-style regulations.   The survey of 800 African-Americans included 640 self-identified Democrats (80%) and 32 Republicans (4%).      Among the poll's key findings: * 76% of African-Americans want Congress ...
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Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate resolution apologizing for slavery and segregation will be used as a lobbying tool to acquire reparations payments, say members of the black leadership network Project 21.  The group urges the Senate to "move on," saying the apology will do little to heal perceived racial gaps. On June 18, senators unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and segregation in the United States.  While the resolution was written with the intention that it could not be used to support claims for monetary reparations, reparations activists Randall Robinson told the Washington Post the legislation constitutes a ...
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Washington, D.C. - On the occasion of “Juneteenth,” the oldest and most recognized annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, members of the Project 21 black leadership network suggest the civil rights-themed holiday be used to celebrate freedoms that have been won and as a warning of how easily freedom can be threatened by an overbearing government. Project 21 members have called attention to the Juneteenth since 1999, urging black Americans to use Juneteenth to embrace their inherent talents and strengthen their ties with family and community. Now, when the Obama Administration and Congress are increasing ...
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Justices Note “Serious Constitutional Concerns,” Yet Do Nothing to Fix Problem Washington, D.C. - A failure by the U.S. Supreme Court to act decisively to fix an inherent problem within the Voting Rights Act is drawing the condemnation of the chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network. "As with affirmative action, the Court recognizes the unconstitutionality at issue but refuses to go the distance to make things right," said Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie.  "The only certainty of this ruling is that the problem will continue to fester.  The question to be pondered now is how many aggrieved voting ...
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Washington, DC - In light of a Washington Times report today that political appointees at the U.S. Department of Justice forced career prosecutors to drop and/or reduce charges against men observed intimidating Philadelphia voters last election day, Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie is calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate this alleged obstruction of the Voting Rights Act by the Obama Administration. "From all accounts, this was a clear-cut violation of peoples' right to vote without fear and intimidation, but the Obama Administration appears to be trying to sweep it under the rug," said Massie.  "After all ...
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Washington, D.C. - With President Obama's nomination of U.S. Circuit Court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the vacancy being created by U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter's impending retirement, Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, is urging senators to take a very close look at her record before commenting on her fitness for the job. "Of all the possible nominees suggested over the past few weeks, it appears Obama selected the most radical one," said Massie.  "The U.S. Senate has a duty to scrutinize Judge Sotomayor's record to ensure she has the demeanor and aptitude to be ...
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Washington, DC - As the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in the voting rights case Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, the Project 21 black leadership network is joining with other organizations to ask that this outdated portion of the Voting Rights Act be found unconstitutional. "The racist boogeyman of the past is just that - a thing of the past," said Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie.  "I think most people realize this, but the civil rights special interest lobby has been strong enough to keep this boogeyman alive to the legal detriment of our post-racial ...
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Washington, DC - This year’s edition of the liberal National Urban League's annual State of Black America report fails to effectively challenge the Obama Administration, is unnecessarily dreary and makes recommendations that would be harmful, say members of the conservative Project 21 black leadership group. "It is long past time that groups such the National Urban League should be given a pass as they blame poor personal decisions, lack of personal preparation and the realities of life on a phantom bogeyman of conspiratorial dictates designed to impede black progress," said Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie.  "If they are going to ...
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Washington, D.C. - Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie today hailed a new U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting the use of the Voting Rights Act to supercede other laws to create predominantly black voting districts, saying the decision is a new protection against the abuse of civil rights laws for potential partisan gain. "It continues to confound me that those whose party is responsible for preventing blacks from voting until 1964 now want to illegally redefine voting districts because it serves their best interest," said Massie.  "It should go without saying that creating special black voting districts - for partisan gain ...
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