Listen Up

Instead of bellyaching about the lack of politicians reprsenting young African Americans, two Washington, D.C.-based lobbyists have opted to help create them. Chaka Burgess and Isaac Fordjour [from left] both DC lobbyists in their thirties, teamed up to form the Legacy Political Action Committee in a effort to groom the next generation of black leaders. "Everyone lumps the 18-to-34 age group together, but my issues are very different from an 18-year-old's," says Fordjour. "Nobody asked our opinions, so we decided to create a platform to support candidates who think and look like us."

After witnesssing a resurgence of political interest -w hich Fordjour and Burgess attribute to the increasingly politicized war in Iraq, the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the results of the last two presidential elections - the duo says their biggest challenge has been fighting the misconception that htis generation is apolitical. "The biggest opposition is dispelling myths that we are apathetic, that we don't write checks. We care, and the turnouts at our fundraisers has been huge," says Burgess.

Continue reading this story and more from Real Life in the November ‘06 issue of KING (#37)