88 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographysays something about the directions for the future.” (John Huey, “How We Can Win the War on
Poverty,” Fortune, April 10, 1989)“POVERTY PIMPS, POVERTY-CRATS, POVERTICIANS,
BUREAUCRAT-POLITICIANS”
The same patterns can be observed in the history of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, a group
which billed itself as having been established in 1977 to advance the interests of the Puerto Rican
community. In 1981, the NPRC received about 90% of its funding in the form of a grant from the
US Department of Housing and Urban Development. By 1991, 50% of the funding came from
corporate grants, while 30% came from foundations, with the Ford Foundation leading the pack.
The Puerto Rican community generated numbers of militant leaders, but these were so extreme that
they had little or no impact on elections. Leaders who were moderate enough to be able to run for
office posed other crippling problems: these moderate leaders
were more concerned with good government goals than with poverty issues. These leaders,
variously referred to as “bureaucrat-politicians,” “poverty-crats,” “poverticians,” and “poverty
pimps,” were intensely focused on the acquisition of power. But instead of using it to improve
the economic condition of Puerto Ricans, they invested it in shoring up their organizations. At
times they did this under the guise that the quality of life for Puerto Ricans depended on the
resources they controlled, while in effect securing “nothing more than patronage troughs for
political opportunists.”’ (José E. Cruz, “Unfulfilled Promise: Puerto Rican Politics and
Poverty,” Centro Journal XV:1 2003)
Back during the Cold War, retired spies wrote books with titles like I Led Three Lives. An
honest autobiography by a foundation operative like Obama might thus have a title along these
lines:
“I WAS A POVERTY PIMP FOR THE FOUNDATIONS”
The role of poverty pimp within the framework of foundation-funded strategies for mass
political and social manipulation, with a view to keeping the American people in a state of apathy,
fragmentation, passivity, and oppression, is a very exact characterization of what Obama did during
his years as a “community organizer.” To talk about poverty pimps is of course politically incorrect
in the extreme, but it is the only way to convey the social reality of what we are dealing with in the
case of Obama. For further background, we read in Wikipedia:
Poverty pimp or “professional poverty pimp” is a sarcastic label used to convey the opinion that
an individual or group is benefiting unduly by acting as an intermediary on behalf of the poor,
the disadvantaged or other some other “victimized” groups. Those who use this appellation
suggest that those so labeled profit unduly from the misfortune of others, and therefore do not
really wish the societal problems that they appear to work on so assiduously be eliminated
permanently, as it is not in their own interest for this to happen. The most frequent targets of
this accusation are those receiving government funding or that solicit private charity to work on
issues on behalf of various disadvantaged individuals or groups, but who never seem to be able
to show any amelioration of the problems experienced by their target population.
This self-serving cynicism, in feeding off the plight of a group of desperate dupes who are
turned into a salable political commodity, is the essence of Obama’s career.