In 1994, during the first democratic elections in South Africa, I joined other international observers as we witnessed the historic victory of the ANC. I'll never forget how a woman from Soweto emphatically professed that she was going to the suburbs to claim her mansion now that apartheid was over and the ANC was in power. This poor woman seemed perplexed as everyone around her began laughing at her unrealistic expectations. Today, in the United States as African Americans continue to bear the brunt of socio-economic hardship, there are some who similarly have unviable expectations of our first Black president. But instead of innocent naiveté as the root cause of their questioning, sadly, many of these individuals' objections towards the president are based in a much more vain agenda like publicity.
Prior to President Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate, polls indicated that some 40% of Republicans doubted his American citizenship status. When nearly half of the electorate on the right vilifies you by implying that you are not even one of us, how can we begin to expect the president to continuously address only the Black community and only issues affecting us? Do we really believe that if he made a major policy speech on the Black agenda, these same people on the right would somehow be swayed with our struggles and our concerns? Before we provide ammunition for his adversaries salivating at any opportunity to undermine his authority, we must maintain practical goals for our 44th president.
I will be the first one to say that there are very real, very troubling and very complex obstacles facing the Black community in the United States. From health care disparity to unequal access to education, to high incarceration rates and more than double the national average unemployment percentages in many areas, we as a whole have every right to question policy and government. The need for President Obama to address these issues and more cannot be underscored, nor should it be. But what we cannot begin to do is blame Obama for many institutional barriers that were in place long before his presidential aspirations were even a thought. We cannot deal with them in a way that unfairly targets him or our concerns. These issues must be undeniably dealt with -- but they must be dealt with strategically.
My colleagues in the civil rights community and I focus on many of these dilemmas on a day-to-day basis. For example, last year we orchestrated a massive demonstration in Arizona against a draconian immigration bill, and in the nation's capital tens of thousands marched with us as we held a 'Reclaim the Dream' rally to commemorate Dr. King and counter Glenn Beck's distortion of his legacy. And throughout the decades, we've successfully conducted countless protests against police brutality, unemployment, gun violence and more. It is absolutely fascinating however, that the president's most vocal critics at this juncture were not present with us during those rallies and were not in the trenches with the people. They want to assign the masses to do the tough work so that they may go to the halls of power themselves.
Early last year, leaders from the National Urban League, the NAACP and National Action Network (represented by myself) met with the president. Some weeks later, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) did the same, and this year, our commander-in-chief addressed National Action Network's 20th anniversary gala awards dinner in NY. A few weeks following our convention, the president met again with the CBC. The message has been unanimous: we need more jobs, more opportunities and equality across the board.
Throughout my years in the civil rights struggle, I have had my conflicts and will continue to have them, but at the end of the day I take solace in the fact that we have diligently fought to end police misconduct and discrimination in all facets of society, while pushing for an increase in diversity in the corporate and business world. And it's a fight we will continue regardless of who is in the White House. But as we call attention to inequities, we must be careful in ensuring we are not impractical in our demands. And we must be equally as weary of those that will attack the president on anything and everything for their own self-gain.
It's interesting that both the CBC and civil rights groups agreed on many of the same principles and much of the same agenda. Perhaps it's because we were all in the trenches trying to resolve the problem, and not sell a book.
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And that was the that was the point.... to shut down any and all struggle for economic and social equality,
The president IS the ‘Jackie Robinson’ of American politics. For us to expect him to pump the preverbial ‘Black Power’ fist up in the air, and concentrate just on African American issues would make him the most popular one term president in Harlem. No, he’s got to get us ALL back to work.
Frankly, that generation’s behavior from the beginning has sickened me. I guess Newt isn’t the only politician from the 90’s who needs to sit down and retire… or at least shut up already!
In 1971 when I was 6, my family moved to an area in Detroit called Sherwood Forest / Palmer Woods. We’re all grown and gone but Mom still lives there. It is an upper class African American community were Detroit’s Cornell West / Tavis Smiley, Doctors, Lawyers, blah, blah, blah live. Many were active forces in Detroit’s civil rights era. I grew up loving to listen and learn from these guys… they were the parents of my buddies etc, etc, etc.
I now live in Chicago, and I’m a member to Trinity United Church of Christ. Yep, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and My Man, Reverend Otis Moss. Now that I’ve laid that all out, that’s enough history.
I went home during the Jessie Jackson ‘Talking Down to Black People’ incident that happened shortly after the Rev. Wright ‘I’m still relevant and upset caused I didn’t swear him in’ incident. All these guys from my mom and dad’s generation that I grew up around who I respect still to this day feel that the president needs to in my opinion, fall on his sword… accept 1 term… and push a high profile black agenda cause “He probably won’t be reelected so we better get it while we can”.
Yep, I’m quoting here…
If Cornell West had his way, Obama would lose in 2012. Hence… Shut Up!
The problem is that these socialist mined people have aliened themselves with liberals, and in turn, bash us for not being socialist enough.
I applaud Bernie Sander for claiming his political affiliations, but yet, works in the realm of what is possible. He needs to teach his followers this fact, because, fascism, as what the republicans want to turn America into, is more likely.
The goal as I see it should not be to elevate a few more blacks into the ranks of the rich, and Mr. Sharpton is not calling for that, I realize. He wants to improve conditions for all Black Americans. While this is an admirable goal, it does not seem likely to succeed because it does not go far enough. The problem is that it singles out a select group for special relief of their particular suffering, when the suffering of all the poor and downtrodden is in my view the much larger and more important problem.
If people here have not read the Autobiography of Malcolm X I strongly recommend you do. In this book it X reveals that towards the end of his life he reappraised his own position and came to understand that our problems were not centered on race as he had long thought. Instead his view enlarged to be concerned for all people of all colors.
Framing things as black versus white divides us all.
The black employment rate is almost double that of whites :
Among white people, the unemployment rate dropped in December to 8.5 percent -- hardly acceptable, but manageable
For black Americans, the unemployment rate was 15.8 percent.
That would be termed a catastrophe if it was so for whites!
Whites with less than a high school diploma had a 13.9% unemployment rate in 2010.
Blacks with less than a high school diploma had a 22.5% unemployment rate in 2010.
Whites with a Bachelor's degree or higher had a 4.3% unemployment rate in 2010.
Blacks with a Bachelor's degree or higher had a 7.9% unemployment rate in 2010.
In addition whites have double the number of Bachelors degrees , and many times more financial assets ( housing , stocks, cars, and families with money ) than blacks do , meaning they are much less hard hit by this depression
No doubt there is racism and lack of opportunity that disproportionately hurts blacks. I do not dispute that. The thing is that this racism is also part of a bigger scam, a divide and conquer scam that encourages racism as a way of preventing all of the poor and down trodden from working together to improve our lot.
My point is that blacks and whites are being oppressed to keep rich elites on top. This is more glaringly apparent to blacks because their numbers in the rich elites are smaller.
So long as the rich elites manage to divide the poor into separate factions that fight against each other, these factions will remain weak and nothing will change. What I am suggesting is not that blacks feel no pain, but that there are others who are not black who have also known this pain more than you might imagine and its time we stopped blaming each other or debasing each other or despising each other and focus on how to change the big picture that would prefer to keep us all down.
I think that the problem of racism will only really start to go away when we stop seeing people as deserving different treatment due to their race. What is needed is a massive enlargement of opportunity that corrects the larger immbalance in the system.
he used his jr senator approach to the presidents job.
it did not work. plus the leader in the senate was weaker than obama. two weak ones and change has come to america ended up being more of the same.
the demos have great fear of the repubs, this can only mean the repubs have something on them or they the demos are in bed with the same corp america as the repubs. maybe both.
Part of the deal was that putting an inarticulate rube in the Oval office made it seem like the perpetual disasters were accidental.
Go track down PNAC, the pre 9/11 draft. this document was before Bush ran for office by the people who put him there and it explcitly lays out the blueprint that the Bush administration pursued.
Three worst presidents in Order
Obama Hussein
Carter
Bush
Deal with it
What is most amazing of all is that this plan was published. Go track down PNAC, but made sure you read the pre-9/11 draft because Cheney and his friends revised the later version to try and downplay certain aspects of their plan.
Bush was an incredibly effective President if you judge him by how well he achieved the goals he set out to achieve. Evil, disastrous and destructive, but also effective.
Thius distinction is crucial because if you by into the myth that his problem was incompetence, then you ignore the reality that another GOP presdient would do something different. Bush gave them precisely what they wanted.
Does Obama even have an agenda? The fact that we are left guessing when I ask this is evidence that he is weak indeed.
Advances in relief for which the president has worked in the realm of Health Insurance reform and school loan reconfiguration, plus stimulus money to save teachers and schools--not just for blacks or Latinos--(not just red states or blue states) but for every class citizen--these cannot be discounted-- form a foundation later administrations and organizers can build upon, and should be mentioned in the same breath with every faltering initiative you can bet is caused by GOP-embraced corporatism.
Blacks and other minorities have been the canary in the American coal mine forever. They have always first paid the the price of Constitutional deficits and showed where it's promise is lacking.Their ongoing economic struggle for survival in a country hardwired against them has forced them to be the vanguard of those who fight for economic justice and racial equality. That struggle provided one of the few places where white and blacks could interact and has been seen as extremely threatening to the dominant power structure, no matter how small.
Obama's campaign effectively silenced black criticism of the shredding of Constitutional guarantees as well as muting their voice against the economic war being waged on all but the most rich,in order to advance their own racial progress.
The left has been fractured by the accusations of racism whenever Obama was criticized.Obama and the Corprate Democratic Party depend on black silence to further the agenda of the plutocracy.
because the left depends on black leadership to help point out where the cracks are
"....last year we orchestrated a massive demonstration in Arizona against a draconian immigration bill, and in the nation's capital tens of thousands marched with us..."
I think that "ILLEGAL Immigration" has had a negative impact on Black Communities/Black Americans in particular.
All the money being spent on Schooling, Health Care, Social Services, Incarceration....for ILLEGALS.....is money that would have been better spent on Re-vitalizing Black Communities, Neighborhood Schools,Providing Job Opportunities, etc.
Americans are Americans...regardless of color. I wish we could concentrate on taking care of our own first. Just because I am a Caucasian American...does not mean that I have a "disconnect" from issues that concern my fellow Citizens and Neighbors of Color.
I do not understand how Sharpton's support for Illegal Immigration is a thing for him to brag about.
Illegal aliens vote democratic.
Perhaps you can show me proof otherwise ?
But his continuation of Bush civil right and corporatist policies affect them inordinately , as poverty is racialiized in the U.S .That does not mean people of all color do not suffer from poverty and injustice - but that black people suffer it at a much higher rate.... in fact it is basically the status quo.
The problem is Obama has eliminated the word poverty from his vocabulary and jobs as a priority
This should be everyones concern and for Sharpton to chide black people for demanding special treatment is disingenuous. The truth is black people have excused Obama for way too long,in his disregard of Main ST issues in preference to help out Wall ST because they understand the racist challenges he faces. But someone can only stand on your foot so long before you can't ignore the pain and say OUCH!
Obama has failed to stand up for progressive positions time after and time and in fact AGREEs with conservatives over and over that their premises are legitimate and worth working for.
And the truth is I have come to believe that he wants much more than 75% of what Republicans want!
Look at the health care debate. You people whined about a public option, as the be all. The goal was universal health care, not a government run public option. President Obama didn't take the route of Clinton, in which gave the republicans enough wiggle room to kill it. Never mind that it opened up a venue that 30 million more people would have health insurance, or now you can't be kicked off when you actually need it. You progressives screamed that it wasn't enough. How liberal of you.
Most of the voters in this country are not liberal, or conservative, they are somewhere in between, and without them, you lose elections, period. We liberals understand this, and frankly, after the 2000 election debacle, are tired of listening to your tirade.
Obviously to him that means they are no longer his concern. Their mistake - assuming he represented them , not their class.