African American

Stellar

(5,644 posts) Wed Sep 23, 2015, 10:14 AM Sep 2015

Deputy Director For White House Education Initiative: Black Lives Matter...

Is “On The Tongues” Of The Obama Administration.

While Barack Obama has been increasingly vocal about issues affecting Black America in the last months of his presidency, his stance on the Black Lives Matter Network remains unclear.

But during an interview at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Legislative Conference, Khalilah Harris — Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans — told NewsOne that the Obama administration certainly “considers” what has become the largest Black liberation movement in decades.

“The administration definitely considers Black Lives Matter, because we agree that black lives matter,” Harris told NewsOne in an exclusive interview. “We understand the nuance of being clear that everyone is a valuable person the moment that they are born.”

Harris, who attended the CBC ALC conference to discuss the school-to-prison pipeline, made a clear delineation of how respectability politics — an idea that “indicates that in order for Black people to be seen as human and full citizens in this country, they are required to be respectable at all times” — often fuels the hyper-incarceration of Black youth. Respectability politics, she said, is an “insidious” issue that needs to be checked by both policy makers and the community that adheres to the long-held beliefs that saggy pants, for example, are the reason so many Black youths are held back.

She charged those in government with making sure they use “race consciousness” when considering policy, something she says the White House is currently doing.

More/Video: NewsOne