"You have this 21st-century plantation that has been out there. Where the Democrat Party has forever taken the black vote for granted and you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation."

And, who are the owners of the plantation?

And, note: "But West, the only Republican member of the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus)..."

I think it would be more accurate to say politicians have let Blacks down. They have not made it a level playing field for everyone of every race, particularly when it comes to the ability to get a solid education. Truth is, not enough people have wanted to foot the total and true cost of educating and empowering a once slave population, to be playing on the same field as Whites, going all the way back to the Reconstruction Era. Much money has been spent, but few care if it was being spent effectively. It was not spent in ways to empower Black people, but rather just to placate them; keep them down on the plantation, so to speak, and not to be too "uppity!" It seems that I remember a politician getting reamed for that remark, several years back.