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Dr. Maya Rockeymoore – the head of Global Policy Solutions, a Washington, D.C.-based policy firm – said in a recent opinion piece that Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute whitewashed the Black agenda.

Rockeymoore stated in her op-ed, “Amidst outrage about the Academy Awards whitewashing the Oscars, NBC News has managed to commit a similar misstep by largely whitewashing a Democratic presidential debate.”

Also included in her blistering critique of the debate, Rockeymoore blasted NBC News debate moderators Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell, saying they “committed a disservice to African-Americans and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. by failing to ask any questions — beyond gun safety, Black males, and police reform — that focus on the myriad of issues facing Black America.”

On Tuesday’s edition of NewsOne Now, Dr. Rockeymoore spoke with Roland Martin about her critique and why the debate led her to say the Black agenda was “whitewashed” at the Black Caucus debate.

Rockeymoore told Martin, “African-Americans are suffering, we’re suffering across a number of areas.”

“While the NBC moderators did ask about criminal justice reform … they ignored the myriad of other issues that face our community that need actually explanation and a proposal for doing something from these candidates,” Rockeymoore said.

She continued, “Likely on that stage was the next president of the United States — we want to know what they’re going to do for education — K-12 education actually needs improvement, particularly public education.”

Dr. Rockeymoore added higher education was “ignored completely,” later adding, “HBCUs are in decline and yet there was no question about the agenda for HBCUs.”

The president and CEO of Global Policy Solutions also cited the housing collapse and the great recession as other areas where the Black agenda was ignored.

Dr. Rockeymoore said, “African-Americans have been devastated by the housing crisis and the great recession and yet nobody asked about African-American wealth — we only have six cents for every dollar of White wealth and it’s absolutely a travesty what’s happened over this last decade.”

“Poverty was mentioned twice — it wasn’t mentioned by the moderators. They did not ask about the Black economic agenda, wealth building, the income gap — you name it, it was completely ignored, and then we were in South Carolina — no questions about health and health disparities in a state that did not expand Medicaid.”

As a result of everything left out, Dr. Rockeymoore said, “I was left very, very disturbed.”

Watch Martin, Dr. Rockeymoore, and the NewsOne Now panel discuss Rockeymoore’s opinion piece, titled Black Agenda Whitewashed at Black Caucus Debate, in the video clip above.

TV One’s NewsOne Now has moved to 7 A.M. ET, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

SEE ALSO: 

NewsOne Now Democratic Presidential Debate Recap: Are All Of Our Issues Being Fully Addressed?

The Black Agenda Was Whitewashed During Sunday’s Democratic Debate  was originally published on newsone.com

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