Black Caucus Kongres Ingatkan Obama pada Keberagaman di Kabinet
Congressional Black Caucus Warns Obama over Lack of Diversity in Cabinet
Editor : Heru S Winarno
Translator : Parulian Manalu
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Washington (B2B) - Kaukus Hitam Kongres mengkritik Presiden Barack Obama atas pilihan anggota kabinetnya yang tidak mencerminkan kebhinekaan setelah sang presiden gagal memajukan calon Afro-Amerika pada kabinet jilid duanya.
"Saat Anda melanjutkan pilihan untuk para pembantu penting Anda, kami ingin menegaskan pentingnya menjamin setiap komunitas punya satu kursi di meja," kata Ketua CBC Marcia Fudge yang adalah perempuan anggota Kongres dari Ohio, dalam suratnya kepada Obama.
"Ketiadaan suara yang beragam mengantar pada kebijakan dan program yang berdampak buruk pada warga Afro-Amerika," katanya lagi seperti dilansir RawStory.
Fudge menyebutkan, frustasi warga kulit hitam atas pilihan Obama untuk posisi-posisi penting dalam kabinet "sudah menggunung" mengingat 93% warga kulit hitam AS telah memilih Obama, melalui surat suara pada Pemilu, November lalu, tulis Fudge.
Satu-satunya anggota kabinet Obama yang berkulit hitam, Jaksa Agung Eric Holder, adalah peninggalan dari kabinet jilid satu Obama.
Dua penasehat penting Obama, yaitu Kepala Kamar Dagang dan Industri Ron Kirk dan Duta Besar AS untuk PBB Susan Rice, adalah kulit hitam. Kirk telah mengumumkan mundur.
Sebelumnya, Obama mencalonkan banyak warga kulit putih dalam kabinet keduanya, termasuk Chuck Hagel sebagai menteri pertahanan dan Jacob Lew sebagai menteri keuangan.
Obama juga memberi tempat pada John Kerry sebagai menteri luar negeri setelah Susan Rice menarik diri dari pencalonan di tengah kritik atas responsya pasca serangan maut terhadap korps diplomatik AS di Libya.
Januari lalu, anggota senior Demokrat yang juga anggota CBC Charlie Rangel mengatakan sangat memalukan melihat Obama gagal mencalonkan seorang pun warga kulit berwarna dalam lingkaran terdalam kekuasaannya.
Obama belum mengajukan calon untuk menteri perdaagangan, menteri perburuhan dan menteri perhubungan.
Washington - The Congressional Black Caucus complained to President Barack Obama on Monday about his lack of diversity, highlighting his failure to nominate any African-Americans to his second-term cabinet.
“As you continue choosing your critical advisors, we want to stress the importance of ensuring every community has a seat at the table,” CBC chair Marcia Fudge, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, said in a letter to Obama, the first black US president.
“The absence of diverse voices leads to policies and programs that adversely impact African-Americans.”
The frustration about his homogeneous handful of top advisors and department heads is “compounded” due to the overwhelming support from blacks — about 93 percent — that Obama received at the ballot box last November, Fudge wrote.
The only current black member of Obama’s cabinet, Attorney General Eric Holder, is a holdover from the president’s first term.
Two advisors with cabinet rank, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, are black. Kirk has announced he is stepping down.
Obama previously caught flak for nominating a string of white men to cabinet posts for his second term, including Chuck Hagel as defense secretary and Jacob Lew as head of Treasury.
The president also gave the nod to John Kerry as secretary of state, after Rice withdrew from the nominating process amid a political row over Rice’s handling of the aftermath of a deadly attack on the US mission in Libya.
In January, longtime Democrat and CBC member Charlie Rangel said it was “embarrassing as hell” that Obama had failed to nominate a person of color to his political inner circle.
Obama has yet to name replacements for the secretaries of commerce, labor and transportation.
