Claude Allen’s Fall: From Jesse Helm to George Bush, in the Company of Republicans
 Simond Griote
3/23/06

Last week, Claude Allen, the highest placed Black official in the Bush White House and one of the highest paid persons there, at $161,000 per year, was charged with carrying out a felony theft scheme. He is accused of having gone to department stores over 25 times and bought items, took them to his car, and thereafter go back into the store select an identical item and go to the Return Item section and request a refund on the new item he had not paid for. In 2005, the charge alleges that he received over $5,000 through this scheme. 

What would cause Allen to disgrace himself and his family in this way? Allen was an attorney, he had been the Deputy Secretary of the Health and Human Service Department; just three years ago, he had been nominated for a federal judgeship; and his current position in the White House was as the president’s top adviser on domestic affairs. 

Everyone was surprised at his low level of criminality. Shoplifting from Target stores is low-level, poor people’s crime that a man of his education and salary rank should not need to engage in. While Abramoff was handing out large sums of corrupt money freely, why would he risk disgracing himself, his family, losing his job, and possibly going to jail for so little money? The options for generating legitimate money in Washington, DC are almost endless—resigning and lobbying, writing a tell-all book, lawyering in the most lawyer-ridden city in the world, lecturing, the public speaking circuit, etc.

Maybe his actions indicate the low level quality of competence in this White House and this is the only option he could creatively devise to secure more than his $161, 000 a year. Allen is a Black man who worked for Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a man not known to believe in equality of the races in this nation. Allen was a Black Republican and they have not necessarily been known as the most creative after becoming Republicans. For many, becoming Black Republicans became a cottage industry unto itself, and usually they are paid for becoming Republicans—lauded as intelligent, given lucrative positions, placed in conspicuous positions, and given easy media access.  

These and more were avenues Claude Allen seemingly could have exploited. But he did not; instead, he disgraced himself, assuming the charges are true, for chump-change, as it were. This ghetto-level crime spree was unbecoming of a man of his salary or his position. But maybe Claude Allen had seen others who went against the Bush-Republican machine harmed and intimidated, ala  Ambassador Wilson, Colin Powell--just to name two--and he was afraid that if he optioned for the tell-all book or some other legitimate money-making scheme outside the White House they would bring negative glare he could not afford. Or maybe, those Democrats who blocked his successful nomination to the Federal Appeals Court detected something we the public did not. Or maybe he had been so demoralized after many years of working with conservative Republicans that he actually thought these were his only race-appropriate options.

There are so few Black persons in this Bush-Republican White House that can call Bush and the Republicans’ attention to Black concerns that even to lose one as Jesse Helm-tainted as Claude Allen is too much to lose in the cause of Black equality in this nation.

But certainly, a brother who falls so low for so little is someone who has mental problems that should be treated. At least Allen did one honorable act, although ironic in the face of this White House sandal-plagued reputation; he resigned to not embarrass the White House. The only embarrassment is that Allen fell for so little—Target and not  Saks Fifth Avenue? But this is DC not Hollywood. 

Finally, it does not escape our attention that the president was willing to quickly lament Allen's alleged criminality, whereas he either said nothing about other criminally charged in his administration or defended them throughout. Did he expect this low level criminality from Allen and therefore acknowledged it so quickly?  

We are troubled by this earthy criminal act, but Claude Allen’s hands were not tied; he had options. Yet in America, the case normally is this: when a high or low Black official falls from grace, that fall is freely attributed to all Black America. Yet Leroi Jones, in his Dutchman answers that freely attributed issue through the words of Clay, the main character: “My people; my people. They don’t need me. They have hands and legs of their own.”

Responsible Black parents usually teach their children that birds of a feather flock together. More than anything else, Mr. Claude Allen’s behavior may have been fashioned by the company he kept—from Jesse Helm to George Bush and the company of Republicans is not very good company for learning to practice what good parents teach.[]

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