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I've seen, and heard, so much on the Clintons' great track record with African-Americans. I'm wondering what record is being cited?
The 1990s were tougher on African-Americans (in particular) than any decade since the Civil Rights Act was passed...worse even than the Reagan years. I find nothing substantial that was done by Clinton's administration to remedy the situation during the 90s.
Some context:
65% of metropolitan area African-Americans live in central cities. Central city poverty grew, during the Clinton years, to nearly double the suburban poverty rate (16.1% vs. 9.1% nationally). 75% of all new jobs created during the Clinton years were created in the suburbs. 65% of those jobs, including low-skilled jobs, are unreachable by any form of public transportation. Central city joblessness increased 15%, while suburban joblessness decreased .3%. African-American unemployment reached an historical peak at 41.6% in 2000, before Bush Jr. took office.
Hispanic support for the Clintons is equally confusing to me, since much of the above applies to them (as a group) as well (Hispanic unemployment also reached an historic peak at 32.8% in 2000).
The economic realignment of the 80s and 90s was especially harsh on African-Americans (and Hispanics to a lesser degree), and, again, I can't find any evidence of a Federal policy to counter the effects. ...it's not like they didn't know it was happening.
To be fair, all of this did start before Clinton came into office, but his administration doesn't seem to have helped any. Why would any African-American or Hispanic person think a Hillary administration would be any different? Barack was in Chicago at least trying to help before and during that period.
Hillary was talking about job retraining, etc. to counter effects of deindustrialization and off-shoring the other day. Where were those policies during the 90s? Why should anyone believe her now?
The rust belt was hit hard by economic realignment, and we have two Democratic candidates who seem to care. The trouble is that one has experience helping, and the other has a speech. Now, where have I heard that before?
