With government-sponsored affirmative action in retreat everywhere, you might think federal bureaucrats would hesitate before spending tax dollars to promote racially divisive programs. Wrong. Consider the annual “training and development” conference that will be held in Washington this August by Blacks in Government (BIG), an organization of black public-sector employees. According to BIG’s promotional literature, the conference has been ” recognized and endorsed” by President Clinton himself, as well as by a number of federal agencies.
What exactly goes on at a BIG conference? Last year’s meeting in Atlanta began with a “Freedom Vigil” held for the benefit of “all Americans who fear for the future of our country in the face of the conservative threat to the freedoms for which this country was founded.” Oscar Eason, Jr., BIG’s president, touted the vigil by denouncing “the efforts of a conservative Congress to turn back the clock on the progress of minorities and women in America.”
At one of the group’s earlier annual conferences, Louis Farrakhan gave a rousing speech in which he explained how “the white boys” -whom he described as “The Enemy” — had invented AIDS, injected thousands of black people with cancer, created inner-city street gangs, and secretly added chemicals to beef in an effort to control the black birth rate, among innumerable other crimes. Farrakhan ended his address by describing how greedy, clannish Jews “run the world.” The crowd erupted in applause.
Who pays for this nonsense? You do. Government employees who want to attend the BIG conference do so on salaried time, under the guise of “training.” Federal agencies pick up the registration fee, too, which is more than $ 300 per person. With more than 3,000 government employees expected to attend this year . . . well, you do the math. It’s quite a subsidy.
