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Dr.
Julianne Malveaux |
Hannaian
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Notess A former college professor, Malveaux was coeditor of the book Slipping Through the Cracks.- The Status ofblack Women (Transaction Publications, 1986), and is the author of a collection of columns, Sex, Lies and Stereotypes.- Perspectives of a Mad Economist (Pines One Publishing, 1994). Popular on the lecture circuit, Julianne Malveaux speaks to civic, academic, business and professional groups nationwide. Active in civic affairs, she was listed by Ebony magazine as one of the nation's I 00 most influential African American organization heads. She is president of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. Julianne Malveaux is a native San Franciscan who lives in Washington, D.C. The self-proclaimed "Mad Economist" takes to the streets in her latest book, Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street. LOS ANGELES, Ca.-When Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D. is asked why she calls herself a "Mad Economist" she says, "You've got to be either angry, crazy or some combination thereof to interpret economic data and keep a level head." In Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street.- A Mad Economist Takes A Stroll, Malveaux uses her sly wit and "in-your-face" trademark columns to explore the contradictions of surface clich6s like diversity and multiculturalism, the demographic impact on the minimum wage, morality as a scapegoat for conservative bigotry and stock market 40 1 -k millionaires. In cutting through the clutter of news, she diminishes cherished assumptions about Wall Street undermining the economy, economic growth versus job creation, truth in American culture and the power that really fuels the media. An economist, educator, writer and political pundit, Malveaux uses her "tell-it-like-it-is" weekly syndicated columns and blunt wit on Politically Incorrect, CNN and PBS to deliver her take on the news. In each colunm, Malveaux projects a profound conviction that economics is inseparable from politics and culture. She says, "everything is about who has, who doesn't, who will and who won't," with issues of race always "lurking in the background." And her onslaught on economic inequality and social meanness is gaining a wider audience as we approach the next millennium. Her columns range from the power of black consumerism and the gender gap to child labor abuse and homelessness. From the myth of educational equivalency and "Ebonics" to when the "N" word is relevant and why the Y2K fear is unnecessary. Malveaux's commitment goes far beyond the printed word. She's an activist whose efforts range from lifting the Cuban embargo to keeping local playgrounds open. As president of the National Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, she launched financial workshops across the country for underprivileged women in inner cities. "The time has come for Main Street and the Side Street to take on Wall Street," says Malveaux. JULIANNE MALVEAUX, PH.D. answers some questions Q. Why do you call yourself a "mad economist"? A. I'm either mad as in "crazy" or mad as in "angry or mad as in raving about disparities and injustices that have an economic basis and that our society simply seems to ignore." Seven- and eight-figure CEO salaries and IO million people eaming the minimum wage. An expanding economy and continuing poverty. It's enough to make anybody mad! Q. You've covered a lot of territory in your book. Where do your column ideas come from? A. They come from life. Sometimes they are snatched from the headlines; sometimes they come from that little stuff that Langston Hughes calls the "sweet flypaper of life." Sometimes they are long-simmering interests like the labor market, race relations, and the status of children. Sometimes something happens that is so sharp and so compelling that you literally exhale a column. Q. When is the last time you exhaled a column? A. A few weeks ago, after the shooting of Amadou Diallo, I wrote a piece called "Where is the Outrage," which expressed my anger that few white people have ever raised their voices about police brutality and the needless killing of black men. The Christian Coalition makes more noise about an allegedly gay Teletubby toy than about the execution of an innocent black man. Q. Do we still need affirmative action? A. Of course we do! African American people don't have equal representation in college enrollment or in power positions, and still earn less than whites do in many jobs. Affirmative action is about nothing more than opening doors and increasing applicant pools. What could possibly be wrong with that? Q. You're talking in black-white terms. Does your argument change when you take the growing size of the Latino population into consideration? A. Latinos are also underrepresented in the best-paying occupations, in college enrollment, and as entrepreneurs. People of color and women also benefit from affirmative action. Q. Do you call yourself a feminist? What does feminism mean to you? A. Feminism means including and considering the needs and status of women and reducing the power that patriarchy wields in our society. African American women, in my opinion, are the original feminists, and I refuse to yield feminism to white women, even though there are times when the interests of white and black women diverge. Q. What do you think of President Clinton? A. President Clinton is too centrist for a leftist liberal like me. I didn't support his "welfare reform" proposals, and think his race initiative was tepid. At the same time, he was better than any alternative we might have had in 1992 (unless Jesse Jackson had run) or 1996. And the attacks that he's drawn from conservatives have been shallow and unfair. I had Clinton's back on the impeachment issue because I don't think you impeach someone for being an adulterer. Given the choices I had in 1996, I'd vote for Bill Clinton again, I just wouldn't date him! Q. What do you think of the nation's current economic policy? A. I think that our economic policy favors the haves, not the have-nots. Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan seems to have more influence than anyone else in the formation of economic policy, and he is more interested in money markets than labor markets. Thus, our policy is already tilted against workers. President Clinton's obsession with balancing the budget has prevented sufficient investment in education and training, which is investment in the ftiture. The focus on international trade as a way of expanding the economy also leaves our nation very vulnerable to forces we can't control. There's nothing wrong with trade, but there is something wrong with our dependence on it, especially when it means that we tolerate exploitative labor conditions in other countries. Q. What is our nation's most pressing problem? A. In my opinion, it's economic inequality, especially race-based economic inequality. It is at the heart of most of our social unrest and much of our crime. Q. There are those who would rank the values crisis as more pressing than any economic problems, especially since the economy is doing so well. Do you agree? A. The so-called values crisis is a manufactured crisis on the part of the right wing, who would like you to believe that they have a monopoly on decency. Anyone who watched their hypocrisy in the Clinton impeachment, or their indifference to poverty, would have a very contrary opinion. Q. Are you worried about the Y2K problem? A. I'm more concerned about the technology access gap in the African American community, which is a bigger issue than Y2K. Q. Do black dollars make a difference? A. They can. African American people have over $400 billion at their disposal and can make or break the bottom line for all kinds of corporations. But people don't pay enough attention to black money, and black folks haven't come together to organize their dollars with collective or selective buying. That's why I'm a fan of boycotts-to make sure folks understand that black dollars matter. Q. You're pretty hard on Republicans. Do you have any criticisms of the Democratic Party? A. Of course I do! On some issues there is not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans. Neither party is especially progressive, and some Democrats are more committed to balanced budgets and tax cuts than Republicans are. Some white Democrats are running away from race matters, and would modify affirmative action if they could. Others are shaky on women's issues, on increasing the minimum wage, on non-exploitative foreign trade. While Democrats are more likely to support workers and people of color than Republicans are, some Democrats are content with the status quo.
If you love the political satire of Don Imus, the edge of Arianna Huffington, and the heart and mind of Susan Taylor, make room on your bookshelf for Julianne Malveaux. Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street: A Mad Economist Takes A Stroll, a collection of Julianne Malveaux's best columns from 1994-1998, is due to shake the shelves of bookstores from New York to California this spring. If you already clip, save and savor Malveaux's columns in dozens of papers from USA Today to the Detroit Free Press to the San Francisco Examiner or applaud her fiery debates on Politically Incorrect, CNN and PBS-you know that Malveaux is the most original, up-front, progressive critic on the scene today. But if you haven't yet met her, hang on to your hat. Incisive, intense and irreverent, Malveaux takes a razor to some cherished assumptions about American culture, gender, politics, economics and race. She cries foul play where she sees it-in the dismantling of affirmative action, in the socalled welfare reform or in CEOs' nine-figure compensation resulting from job layoffs and exportation. From Camille Cosby (the painful truth of racism in her son's murder) to Monica Lewinsky (victim or vixen?). Malveaux never comes down where you'd expect-her questions probe, provoke and spin your head around. Malveaux also speaks-loud and clear-for those we don't often hear-legal immigrants, minimum wage workers and anyone whose color, economic status or gender keeps them from power. With a sly wit, profound irony and fury fueled by compassion, Malveaux drives her main message home-that "the real deal is economics," that "401 -k millionaires" are working people whose pension investments have created large portfolios for them and "we won't all get along" until "we eliminate the double standards and triple meanings in the way the rich get richer, the poor, poorer and the rest of us get more complacent." So settle in for a great read-but don't settle down. Malveaux will raise your blood pressure, break your heart, then make you laugh-all faster than you can say "Mad Economist." Will you always agree with her? Probably not. Will you forget her? Never.
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