"Race plays an enormous role in the economic conditions of Americans," said Edwards. "We can pretend it's not true but decade after decade of slavery followed by decade after decade of segregation, followed by decade after decade of discrimination has an impact. It has an effect."
As many as 300 voters (about 20 percent of whom were African-American) listened inside the Penn Center - one of the first schools in America for freed black slaves - as Edwards listed off the statistics proving the disadvantages faced by African-Americans in the U.S.
"The average net worth of black families is about $8,000; white families is about $80,000," said Edwards with one of his more sobering statistics. "Let me tell you, we're not moving in the right direction."
"If John Edwards stays in the race, he might, in the end, become nothing other than the Southern white man who stood in the way of the black man. And for that, he would deserve a lifetime of liberal condemnation."
Lawrence O'Donnell actually had the nerve to say this about a man who has been fighting for the less fortunate his whole life and even started his candidacy in New Orleans to highlight the problems in our country.
That is why I am glad we have John Edwards speaking out, with the little microphone the media gives him, against poverty. While Edwards started his campaign in New Orleans, he also started his tour against poverty "The Road to One America" in New Orleans.
New Orleans showed America, briefly, that the problem of poverty is being swept under the rug as Tony Snow did on Bill Maher the other night.
He starts to bring up John Edwards. He's got Tony Snow on the show tonight. Bill asks a reporter why, considering the fact that John has been leading on the issues such as the economy, wasn't his message getting out there. The reporter starts to blame the media for not wanting the message to get out...
... Tony Snow JUMPS in to take over the conversation. He claims that the reason that people aren't getting John's message is that... and I quote...
AMERICANS KNOW THAT THE MESSAGE IS NOT TRUE, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY AND AMERICANS ARE HAPPY!!
He goes on and on about how swell everything is. More people with houses. More people saving. Less unemployment. Lies, lies and more lies.
How funny. Tony Snow left his White House job because he just couldn't get by making a measly $160,000 a year. Yet he declares that everyone is doing fine despite all the evidence to the contrary. If he didn't get a wake-up call during Katrina, he won't ever get one.
Tony does make a point, although not the one he meant to make. The media does not want to hear John Edwards message in part due to the view that Tony spouts. "I'm doing ok, so everyone should be doing ok." Well, as stated in the beginning sentence, some of us are doing better than the rest of us.
