Black America Feels the Sting of Ex-President's Comments

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Clinton Touts Plans for Economy

Hillary Clinton spoke about her plans to rejuvenate the economy in an attempt to rise above primary rhetoric Thursday in Greenville, S.C.

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"People say a lot of things when they're embroiled in battle, and often they wish those things hadn't been said," Stevenson said. "I think I wish he hadn't said it."

Others are not as forgiving.

Anthony Peppers, a buyer for a manufacturing firm who lives in South Carolina, said Hillary Clinton's reputation among black voters will suffer for her husband's outbursts.

"I'm offended, because I thought she would not have dipped to this level," Peppers said. "You think she didn't agree for him to do that? If you have someone that close to you saying that, then it's her. She's got to live with it."

Wider's views were even sharper. "He can identify with us as much as he wants, but unless you're black, you don't know as much about it," she said. "I guess he's part of the old-boy system, too."

In New York, Sharon Toomer, founder and managing editor of BlackandBrownNews.com, is not so sure that black people will turn out for Clinton. In a column, Toomer said she disagrees with novelist Toni Morrison's tongue-in-cheek characterization of Clinton as a black president, and with pundit Donna Brazile's statement that Clinton was a soldier for black people.

The crime control act signed by Clinton led to a disastrous spike in the black prisoner population, and the welfare-to-work legislation he signed was damaging to black families, Toomer wrote.

Clinton's tone toward Obama "was demeaning," Toomer said in a telephone interview. "He was calling him a boy, a kid, living in a dream land. I don't think he deserves the title of being a friend or being the first black president."

Ron Walters, a University of Maryland political science professor, asserted that Clinton did nothing to stop the massacre in Rwanda during his administration and failed to act as AIDS decimated southern Africa. Walters, too, is not sure black voters would go to the polls for Hillary Clinton in the general election.

"[Bill] Clinton is the leading edge of this campaign, whether he wants to be or not," Walters said. "To the extent that his image declines in the black community, it's bound to have an effect on the entire enterprise."

During radio shows where Walters has appeared, he said: "Black people were calling saying, 'How dare they?' I don't believe any of this was accidental. I think they panicked because Barack had caught up . . . in the national polls."

Clinton attempted damage control while appearing on Sharpton's radio show. "I think he clearly was hurt by it," Sharpton said of the criticism. "I think part of his legacy is having a good relation ship with African Americans, and he didn't want to go down in history as having broken that relationship."

Tom Joyner, whose syndicated radio show is among the most popular on black radio stations, recently released a statement criticizing Clinton after an appearance by the former president. "When he spoke this morning, some people thought he was saying, I've done so much for black people, how dare you question me?" Joyner said.

Even with the criticism of Clinton, however, some in the black community believe that it will make little difference. Black voters will overwhelming support the Democratic nominee, no matter who it is, they say.

"I don't think the Clintons are the enemy to most black people," said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. "If Hillary succeeds, black people are going to vote for her. They might not be excited."