Want to know Obama's next move? Ask Valerie Jarrett

By: Hazel Trice Edney/NNPA Editor-in-Chief

Posted: 12/28/08

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Valerie Jarrett, who will likely become a household name very shortly as she serves as a senior advisor and public liaison for President-elect Barack Obama, said the landscape of activism may drastically change under the Obama administration as those who have traditionally fought to be heard will likely have seats at the table.

"You do not need to have demonstrations in front of the White House to convince this president that there is a disparate impact in the African-American community around issues such as health care and education. He's got that," said Jarrett in a telephone interview with the NNPA News Service.

This may mean a mixture of people at the table of solution seeking, Jarrett said - those from all generations, races and walks of life.

"You don't have to convince him that there's a problem. You have to just work with us to come up with the appropriate solutions," she said. "And his strategy is, 'Look if we all come to the table and we have a common goal of trying to solve a problem … we can do extraordinary things together.'"

Particularly during the Bush administration, protest marching surged. Iconic Black activists the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have led thousands of people in numerous marches over the past several years, pertaining to everything from economic injustice, inequities in the criminal justice system, to specific cases of police misconduct and racial unrest.

Jarrett, a Chicago business woman who is already called the "first friend" to the Obamas, has not ruled out the possibility of even Jackson and Sharpton at the table in the White House.

"This administration is about inclusion and not about exclusion," she said when asked whether Jackson, Sharpton and the Rev. Joseph Lowery might possibly be among those at the table. "The basic foundation of his philosophy is that too many people have been excluded for too long; the special interest groups and the lobbyists have dominated Washington. And as a result, the voices of every day people have been drowned out."

Jarrett knows how the president-elect thinks. It is often said that talking to Jarrett is the same as talking to Obama. That assertion is close to the truth, she conceded.

"Obviously, he is his own person, but we are very close," she said. "I've had the pleasure of knowing both the president-elect and his terrific wife, Michelle, for over 17 years now. They are my very dear friends, so I think we understand each other."

Preparing to lead, they hash out issues daily in the transition office deliberating over the selection of his cabinet and analyzing agency reviews.

CEO of a real estate development and management company, Jarrett brings to the table a plethora of educational and professional experiences that have prepared her for this moment, including degrees from Stanford and the University of Michigan and she has worked for two Chicago mayors, Harold Washington and Richard Daily.

Citing the racially disparate economic impact on job losses and disparate health and health care statistics, Jarrett acknowledges, "They are far more rampant in the Black community than you see in the general population…So, if you're going to say that front and center is the economy and we take initiatives to jump start the economy and the Black community is most fragile, it's going to inure to the African-American community," she said.

Jarrett says Obama's inclusive leadership style will naturally remind America that what's good for African-Americans is good for all.

Still, there are enemies even to that vision. Jarrett laments news of reported racial hate crimes and attacks that have happened in response to Obama's election.

"He has absolutely no tolerance for racial injustice, regardless of the race that it's been directed toward," she said. "He feels very strongly that we have to come together and stop the racial injustice that has ravaged our country in the past." Despite it all, Jarrett is optimistic.

"Our challenges are so immense. We haven't been in this kind of economic crisis since the great depression. We have two wars going on. We have our climate that's in peril, we have our public school system that needs an enormous amount of help, we have an energy crisis in our country, we have a health care problem in our country," she stated. "Change does not come easy. There will be many forces that will want to continue the status quo. We have to rise above that."