The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation’s Black Women’s Roundtable has received responses from a questionnaire that was given to all U.S. presidential candidates on issues directly affecting black women. The focus of the ten questions was on healthcare and economic opportunity.

Receiving seven responses from six democrats and one republican, the purpose of the questionnaire was to determine how these candidates’ plans to close the economic and health disparities in the black community if they were to be elected.

The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) is a national, non-profit organization that serves as a coalition for over 80 organizations and affiliations in 12 states whose purpose is to ‘address the disenfranchisement of Black Americans and other marginalized communities.’ The Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) is one of the main programs of the NCBCP, whose focus is on promoting the unification of diverse voices of black women in order to promote heath, economic and social justice issues. They also are active in ensuring the involvement of black women in policy discussions that concern issues surrounding women voters and participating in issues that surround women’s rights.

The seven respondents to the BWR questionnaire were campaign representatives for senators Joe Biden, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barak Obama, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, former Senator John McCain, and U.S. Congressman, Dennis Kucinich.

Here are some responses from the questionnaire:
Respondent: Joe Biden
Question: What is your candidate’s policy solution to stimulate the economy that will eliminate economic disparities and close the wealth gap between women and men?

Senator Biden would make three things a priority to stimulate the economy and eliminate wage disparities: (1) take back the Bush tax cuts from the very wealthy; (2) invest in Health Care and education; and (3) protect workers rights to organize.

Respondent: Hillary Clinton
Question: What mechanism does your campaign have to provide access to this group to help inform the candidates about the issues that we identify as important to the constituencies we represent?

There are a number of mechanisms through which the Black Women’s Roundtable can help inform Senator Clinton on issues of common concern. First, you can continue to have the kind of discussions that took place on March 30. This campaign will always appreciate the opportunity to have senior level members from this campaign to participate in and be informed by, those discussions…….

Respondent: Dennis Kucinich
Question: Does your candidate support Affirmative Action?

Yes. As long as we have such stark differences in wealth, income and opportunity, it is necessary to take affirmative actions to help disadvantaged Americans. “Disadvantaged” refers to the fact that no American’s future should be as dependent on the family they are
born into as it is currently is. The American Dream should not become an impossible dream. No American that is willing to work hard should be denied a job or living wage or school opportunities.

The Black Women’s Roundtable has also prepared a document about how to become party delegate to the National Convention which is found near the end of their survey results and their sample survey.

As a Canadian who probably should be paying a little more attention to the ’08 Election, I thought that in theory, the fact that six of the presidential candidates responded was a good thing. However, some of the responses seemed to simply follow a standard response, which somehow the candidates were really not recognizing the specifics of what the BWR was looking for. Yes, the questions were a bit general however addressing the issues that the BWR is focused upon – I just felt that they (or their representatives, that is,) could have focused more on who was asking them the questions, and maybe took their viewpoint into consideration before answering them. Anyway, I suggest you take a look at the responses from the candidates. I think what the BWR is doing to encourage black coalitions and individuals to get more involved in the electoral process is terrific.