Old article: Obama’s scolding tone with black audiences is getting old...and a few comments
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/to-critics-obamas-scolding-tone-with-black-audiences-is-getting-old/2013/05/20/4b267352-c191-11e2-bfdb-3886a561c1ff_story.html?utm_term=.1398abb33d71#comments
Trevor Coleman thinks it’s time for President Obama to get a new speech for black audiences. The personal responsibility finger-wagging, delivered most recently Sunday at Morehouse College’s commencement, is getting old.
During the speech, Obama admonished black men to take care of their families and their communities and told the graduates that despite the lingering legacies of slavery and discrimination, “we’ve got no time for excuses.” Obama also used the occasion to talk about his own life, touching on the fact that he was raised by a single mother and that growing up he sometimes blamed some of his bad choices on “the world trying to keep a black man down.”
The half-hour speech in Atlanta drew a rousing response from those who had sat in pouring rain waiting for the president to speak.
Coleman, a former speechwriter for former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, said that although parts of the talk were strong and lofty, including passages honoring Morehouse graduate Martin Luther King Jr., he was disappointed that Obama almost always defaults to the clean-up-your-act message when talking to predominantly black audiences. First lady Michelle Obama issued a similar tongue-lashing last week at Bowie State University’s commencement ceremony. She told graduates at the historically black Maryland school that too many young people are “fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper.”
“The first couple of times, it was okay, but I and a lot of other people are beginning to grow weary of it,” said Coleman, adding that the message was particularly galling at Sunday’s event at the historically black Georgia school. “What made it so gratuitous was this was Morehouse College! In the African American community, the very definition of a Morehouse man is someone who is a leader, who is taught to go out and make a difference in his community.” (The White House declined comment.)
Obama has been making this point — and stirring controversy — since he was a candidate in 2008. Jesse Jackson Sr. was incensed by what he saw as Obama’s “talking down to black people,” yet it was Jackson who was criticized. Many in the black community believed that Obama’s chastisements were necessary to make himself politically palatable to white voters.
The president’s most recent such remarks — there were only a few Sunday, but they were widely reported — triggered a debate on blogs and social media that, in part, asked why Obama continued his lecturing.
Leola Johnson, an associate professor and chair of the Media and Cultural Studies Department at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., said the Obamas’ speeches “are actually not aimed at black people.”
“They’re actually for white people, liberals especially,” she said. Liberal bloggers were brimming with praise for Obama after the Morehouse speech. “It’s the legacy of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that whole group of white liberals who want to say it’s not just about structural problems that black people aren’t doing well, it’s about their own values.”
Kevin Powell, an activist based in New York who travels the country encouraging black men to take responsibility for their lives, said he has no problem with Obama challenging the black community, but . . .
“You also have to challenge the system, just as you challenge the people. It’s not an either/or,” said Powell, president and founder of BK Nation, an organization focused on education and civic engagement.
The Morehouse speech offered an instance of Obama discussing race, a topic he has been criticized for avoiding given his unique vantage point as the country’s first African American president. Some African Americans have been disappointed at Obama’s frequent refrain that he is president of all Americans when asked why he hasn’t specifically addressed problems that afflict many black communities, including chronic unemployment and failing schools.
On this front, A. Scott Bolden, a Washington lawyer and Morehouse graduate, and Coleman, the former speechwriter and Detroit-based writer, offered finger-wagging lectures of their own.
“It’s interesting that President Obama is always asking black people to take responsibility for themselves,” Bolden said. “It would be really nice if he’d take responsibility for black people in his second term.”
Coleman says he’ll find the president’s next commencement speech, scheduled for Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy, particularly instructive. “That will be interesting given the reports of sex harassment in the military,” Coleman said. “Is he going to chide those cadets about addressing the social pathologies in that population?”
Trevor Coleman thinks it’s time for President Obama to get a new speech for black audiences. The personal responsibility finger-wagging, delivered most recently Sunday at Morehouse College’s commencement, is getting old.
During the speech, Obama admonished black men to take care of their families and their communities and told the graduates that despite the lingering legacies of slavery and discrimination, “we’ve got no time for excuses.” Obama also used the occasion to talk about his own life, touching on the fact that he was raised by a single mother and that growing up he sometimes blamed some of his bad choices on “the world trying to keep a black man down.”
The half-hour speech in Atlanta drew a rousing response from those who had sat in pouring rain waiting for the president to speak.
Coleman, a former speechwriter for former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, said that although parts of the talk were strong and lofty, including passages honoring Morehouse graduate Martin Luther King Jr., he was disappointed that Obama almost always defaults to the clean-up-your-act message when talking to predominantly black audiences. First lady Michelle Obama issued a similar tongue-lashing last week at Bowie State University’s commencement ceremony. She told graduates at the historically black Maryland school that too many young people are “fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper.”
“The first couple of times, it was okay, but I and a lot of other people are beginning to grow weary of it,” said Coleman, adding that the message was particularly galling at Sunday’s event at the historically black Georgia school. “What made it so gratuitous was this was Morehouse College! In the African American community, the very definition of a Morehouse man is someone who is a leader, who is taught to go out and make a difference in his community.” (The White House declined comment.)
Obama has been making this point — and stirring controversy — since he was a candidate in 2008. Jesse Jackson Sr. was incensed by what he saw as Obama’s “talking down to black people,” yet it was Jackson who was criticized. Many in the black community believed that Obama’s chastisements were necessary to make himself politically palatable to white voters.
The president’s most recent such remarks — there were only a few Sunday, but they were widely reported — triggered a debate on blogs and social media that, in part, asked why Obama continued his lecturing.
Leola Johnson, an associate professor and chair of the Media and Cultural Studies Department at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., said the Obamas’ speeches “are actually not aimed at black people.”
“They’re actually for white people, liberals especially,” she said. Liberal bloggers were brimming with praise for Obama after the Morehouse speech. “It’s the legacy of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that whole group of white liberals who want to say it’s not just about structural problems that black people aren’t doing well, it’s about their own values.”
Kevin Powell, an activist based in New York who travels the country encouraging black men to take responsibility for their lives, said he has no problem with Obama challenging the black community, but . . .
“You also have to challenge the system, just as you challenge the people. It’s not an either/or,” said Powell, president and founder of BK Nation, an organization focused on education and civic engagement.
The Morehouse speech offered an instance of Obama discussing race, a topic he has been criticized for avoiding given his unique vantage point as the country’s first African American president. Some African Americans have been disappointed at Obama’s frequent refrain that he is president of all Americans when asked why he hasn’t specifically addressed problems that afflict many black communities, including chronic unemployment and failing schools.
On this front, A. Scott Bolden, a Washington lawyer and Morehouse graduate, and Coleman, the former speechwriter and Detroit-based writer, offered finger-wagging lectures of their own.
“It’s interesting that President Obama is always asking black people to take responsibility for themselves,” Bolden said. “It would be really nice if he’d take responsibility for black people in his second term.”
Coleman says he’ll find the president’s next commencement speech, scheduled for Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy, particularly instructive. “That will be interesting given the reports of sex harassment in the military,” Coleman said. “Is he going to chide those cadets about addressing the social pathologies in that population?”
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sellingpencils
5/23/2013 4:18 PM EDT
Obama is the one who should start taking responsibility for his work environment: administration and federal government employees.
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KJames86
5/23/2013 11:17 AM EDT
Alright first off - I'm a black male. I do not mind the conversation, but I do mind using it over and over again. I don't think that it is wrong to tell those that are failing to "clean up their act." But when you're at Morehouse College graduation, that's not necessarily the audience for that speech. Why? Because CLEARLY they aren't trying to be rappers and ball-players. CLEARLY. So its honestly, a waste of a speech. Its chastising the honor student for the failures of the troublemakers.
That being said, a lot of you people are extremely prejudiced...please check your hate at the door.
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lilrav111
5/24/2013 2:38 PM EDT
To those that much is given, much is expected. As a graduate of an HBCU myself, the President's speech was spot on, as was his wife's at Bowie State. What I would like to see during this final Obama administration is The President challenging parents and stakeholders in children's education to turn off the Xbox, the TV and the mobile phones between Sunday night and Friday afternoon. Have expectations of excellence in academics and behavior that is above reproach.
That is what he and his wife do in their household and I am confident they will go to elite universities and not because they are legacies of their parents, but because they are the first priority of their parents.
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NickShaw1
5/22/2013 7:21 PM EDT
Why should he stop lecturing black audiences?
You're saying Skeeter was wrong in telling black males to "clean up their act"?
What's the matter? The truth beginning to sting a bit?
Did you want him to use his other speech? The one where you're all victims and you should punish anyone that makes money or isn't ideologically pure liberal?
He only has the two speeches you know.
Or do you?
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Grandma of Four
5/22/2013 6:38 PM EDT
Last time I checked, Mr. Obama is NOT black in the traditional sense of the word. He is bi-racial. He had NOT had the truly Black experience...EVER. Our country needs to give serious thought into ADDING bi-racial to ethnic grouping.
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jhrclbpmar
5/22/2013 6:22 PM EDT
As far as Obama's tendency to lecture black college grads on personal responsibiltiy one wonders when he will begin to lecture white college grads in the same manner. Is the fact that he has never done so indicative of a desire to please white audiences, or simply an indication that he doesn't believe white people ever blame their lack of success on events or persons beyond their control? In the first case he's an obsequeous panderer, and in the second stupid. Since I don't believe Mr. Obama is stupid, the first case seems more likely. Bolsering the first case is the response of the majority of people on this site to the article by Ms. Williams, who seem to have been very pleased by the President's rather condescending demands of black graduates to take responsibility and measure up - something that they've already presumably done by graduating from one of the top universities in the country. Underlying this outpouring of support for scolding educated and able black folks is the idea that white people are presumed to be independetly competent and responsible until proven otherwise, and that black people that have demonstrated competence and achivement are presumed to owe it to white people's help. It's an idea that has a very long history in the United States, and it doesn't seem to have gone out of style among the kind of people that read the Washington Post.
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Jp Everyman
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
This summation of Obama's speech doesn't even breach the surface of the entire speech. In it he addressed working towards a goal greater than money, being a better parent, husband, and/or partner. Using your career in a capacity that helps those who can't help themselves. He also discussed being a leader and a role model to those who do not have them. Ms. Williams, you have been writing to long to tell such a skewed story.
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wills1111
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
Ludicrous -- why shouldn't he lecture college graduates about responsibility? If all the "black community" wants to hear about is how they're victims, there are plenty of people who will serve up that pablum for them.
The reality is that since the civil rights era, the black family has largely dissolved, crime has become rampant, and government dependency has become endemic. If this is what follows the granting of long overdue civil rights, what possible reason is there to think it's due to institutionalized racism? That makes exactly zero sense.
Whites think that constantly being labeled "racist" and "privileged" is getting really, really old. Are Asian immigrants privileged? Hispanics? Were the Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles?
Obama, while saying the right thing here, is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Holder and Perez pursue a disparate-impact "justice" which is unjust on its face -- there's no civil right to a home loan if one's debt-to-earnings ratio is high. "Hate crimes" are really speech crimes or thought crimes. The New Black Panther Party shouldn't be allowed to threaten people on the basis of race, regardless of what color they are. And on, and on...
This is not an issue of "blaming the victim" -- it's an issue of people who choose to separate and group themselves by the color of their skin taking a hard look at their self-defined group. MLK pleaded for a color-blind society. The vast majority of whites are more than happy to be part of one. But the divisive identity politics, race-baiting, and constant attack on "white men" is more than tiresome -- it's toxic.
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KJames86
5/23/2013 11:24 AM EDT
Firstly - MLK did not want color-blindess, he wanted equality. THOSE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Whites are happy to be color-blind because it frees them of the guilt of having to deal with the fact that this country was built on a system of oppression for anyone not White.
That is not to say that we haven't come a long long way. But we still have a long long way to go. Equality doesn't mean denying difference. It means accepting differences and not being penalized for those differences. We have different cultures, different histories, different stories. Its easy to speak about color-blindedness when your culture has not been defined by someone else, when some other culture has told you what you can and cannot be. I'm not taking responsibility away from those that play towards negative stereotypes, what I am saying is that in chastising them, we must also chastise those that tell them this what they are supposed to be (BET isn't owned by Black people). We ALL have responsibility here, and WE ALL need to stop pointing fingers.
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PanhandleWilly
5/22/2013 9:29 AM EDT
“They’re actually for white people, liberals especially,” she said.
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If this is a pervasive belief among black intellectuals, then I can only say…Huh?
White people see the consequences of 'black values' constantly in the news: groups of black teenagers waltzing into 7-11s and stealing stuff in numbers and then beating any store owners who try to stop it, black metro riders whomping on people for minor annoyances, groups of black youth wandering through crowds at state fairs beating on white people for the crime of being white, groups of black teens rioting at the local mall, black people beating on white people because they needed gas and made the mistake of pulling off the interstate in the wrong section of Montgomery. Is it any wonder that white people reflexively avoid groups of blacks? White people aren't the ones who need the lectures. It's not for nothing that people are arming themselves in record numbers. The frequency at which this violence happens is increasing the probability of it happening to you.
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ascpgh1
5/22/2013 9:05 AM EDT
I have tired of him remind me with these fatherly talks to black audiences that he identifies himself as black, prefers the company/appreciation of blacks, thinks any news subject who is black "looks like my son", and generally patronizes the black community for their skin tone support with no connection but for his creepy, absent, Kenyan dad.
Why do democrats have to segregate Americans into discriminated, homogenous groups for public address?
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Jp Everyman
5/22/2013 9:43 AM EDT
Maybe because he was speaking to a college that is predominately black and all male. Maybe.
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wills1111
5/22/2013 9:45 AM EDT
And if he was speaking to a college that was "predominantly white" should he have spoken about "white issues"? -
your thoughts?
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Biggest sellout in black history
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Sounded very different in front of ? and AIPAC
Obama was good, not perfect, I disagreed with him on plenty. -
Yeah the beginning he had a problem with his messaging to the Black Community but he did pivot all the way during his presidency.
He is/was still a Very Good president , like Marcus said "not perfect". -
So what he said something less than flattering about the state of our community? What's wrong with encouraging strong male-headed families, education and morals? It was a suggestion at best, not a mandate. If you don't want to live like that then don't. What happened to freedom of speech?
Obama is not president anymore, turn the page. -
He should of told those crackas to stop being racist
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man who reading all that unformatted mess?
AP sho'll as hell aint -
Everybody loves telling us to take personal responsibility but when has America ever taken responsibility for its actions against us
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It seems like no one wants to have a mirror put to our collective problems. Everything in the black community is great, right?? At some point, we have to start looking at ourselves and saying how can we improve ourselves from within. Why is it that the first thing we say when blacks bring up things we've done is "well, u ain't saying this to whites". The ? ?? When have whites ever did anything to help us??
It's ? on this site with multiple baby mommas, extensive criminal records, pimps, gang members, etc but genuinely ask what can another man (the president) do for them. How about u improve your situation for you and your immediate family? It's ? that I grew up with that's still in the same condition they were in from high school. No one can give u drive. But it's these sensitive ass Drake generation that can't take criticism.
? stay complaining about what Obama didn't do but they didn't go out and vote for democratic representatives to help put legislation through Congress. Y'all the same ? that's gone ask why Westbrook can't win a championship this year with no real help lol. Y'all got it. I'm off my soap box. Catch feelings.... -
manofmorehouse wrote: »It seems like no one wants to have a mirror put to our collective problems. Everything in the black community is great, right?? At some point, we have to start looking at ourselves and saying how can we improve ourselves from within. Why is it that the first thing we say when blacks bring up things we've done is "well, u ain't saying this to whites". The ? ?? When have whites ever did anything to help us??
It's ? on this site with multiple baby mommas, extensive criminal records, pimps, gang members, etc but genuinely ask what can another man (the president) do for them. How about u improve your situation for you and your immediate family? It's ? that I grew up with that's still in the same condition they were in from high school. No one can give u drive. But it's these sensitive ass Drake generation that can't take criticism.
? stay complaining about what Obama didn't do but they didn't go out and vote for democratic representatives to help put legislation through Congress. Y'all the same ? that's gone ask why Westbrook can't win a championship this year with no real help lol. Y'all got it. I'm off my soap box. Catch feelings....
Why do you ? ass ? keep putting us in one bag? While leaving yourself out of it.
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Just imagine it was Bill Cosby and you'll give him a pass...
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KingFreeman wrote: »manofmorehouse wrote: »It seems like no one wants to have a mirror put to our collective problems. Everything in the black community is great, right?? At some point, we have to start looking at ourselves and saying how can we improve ourselves from within. Why is it that the first thing we say when blacks bring up things we've done is "well, u ain't saying this to whites". The ? ?? When have whites ever did anything to help us??
It's ? on this site with multiple baby mommas, extensive criminal records, pimps, gang members, etc but genuinely ask what can another man (the president) do for them. How about u improve your situation for you and your immediate family? It's ? that I grew up with that's still in the same condition they were in from high school. No one can give u drive. But it's these sensitive ass Drake generation that can't take criticism.
? stay complaining about what Obama didn't do but they didn't go out and vote for democratic representatives to help put legislation through Congress. Y'all the same ? that's gone ask why Westbrook can't win a championship this year with no real help lol. Y'all got it. I'm off my soap box. Catch feelings....
Why do you ? ass ? keep putting us in one bag? While leaving yourself out of it.
Lol oh u took offense to something I wrote?? Speak on it. I never claim to be perfect but I also have never went out of my way to ? up my life and blame others for it. I've stated this before and I'll continue to believe it: whites are the devil that will NEVER have our best interests at heart.
So now that we've established that since being in America, should we just die?? Should we continue to disenfranchise ourselves?? What can u do specifically to change your circumstances?? It's ? that I've done that are missteps. Everyone has. But multiple kids by multiple women?? Going to jail?? Not getting an education?? Then complaining about low job prospects? That's never been in my make up bruh. All 3 of those things increase the likelihood of poverty. Obama wasn't gone change that for u
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My only issue with Obama was him not doing anything about these race soldiers unjustly killing black people. Imagine if we had an Asian, Jewish, or ? president and we see race soldiers murdering any of those groups at the rate black people were getting murdered, and them not doing anything to help their own. They would've done something about that ? . And if Obama can give criticism of the black community then I can give criticism about his presidency.
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Has America taken corrective action for an African-American (descendant of a slave) to be president?
Does it mean going to a private high school, inheriting $500k from a grandmother which means that you'd gotten financial help throughout your life, having a father as an Harvard alum so you can check that box
On the other hand, Michelle's life story is the African American story
Just questions for a debate, don't go for my head, pause -
5th Letter wrote: »My only issue with Obama was him not doing anything about these race soldiers unjustly killing black people. Imagine if we had an Asian, Jewish, or ? president and we see race soldiers murdering any of those groups at the rate black people were getting murdered, and them not doing anything to help their own. They would've done something about that ? . And if Obama can give criticism of the black community then I can give criticism about his presidency.
I'm not trying to make excuses for Obama. Dude was nowhere near perfect, but did the best job anyone in his position could've done. One could make the argument that the people that voted Obama in didn't do their job in voting in reps and Senate members to make sure things that affect African Americans could get passed.
It's a large portion of ? republicans and republicans with ? relatives. It's a gang of Jewish republicans, it's a gang of Asian republicans. It's a tiny percentage of African Americans that are republicans. Do the numbers. Our issues aren't even on their radar to address.
Just to put it in context, Obama had a special task force to investigate every police shooting after Ferguson. Our current attorney General just disbanded that task force. -
MarcusGarvey wrote: »Has America taken corrective action for an African-American (descendant of a slave) to be president?
Does it mean going to a private high school, inheriting $500k from a grandmother which means that you'd gotten financial help throughout your life, having a father as an Harvard alum so you can check that box
On the other hand, Michelle's life story is the African American story
Just questions for a debate, don't go for my head, pause
America will never get to the point where it's progressive enough to take corrective action for slavery. That's a pipe dream, bruh. Is it necessary for blacks to completely heal?? Definitely, but it ain't gone happen.
If argue that having a black man with an ivy league educatiom that played "their" game and won is just as progressive as the person that bucks the system and wins. Overcoming oppression is having the freedom to be what u want when u want, regardless of the dominant opinion. Again, Obama wasn't perfect, but going back to 2008 to what Trump inherited, the ? walked on water -
manofmorehouse wrote: »MarcusGarvey wrote: »Has America taken corrective action for an African-American (descendant of a slave) to be president?
Does it mean going to a private high school, inheriting $500k from a grandmother which means that you'd gotten financial help throughout your life, having a father as an Harvard alum so you can check that box
On the other hand, Michelle's life story is the African American story
Just questions for a debate, don't go for my head, pause
America will never get to the point where it's progressive enough to take corrective action for slavery. That's a pipe dream, bruh. Is it necessary for blacks to completely heal?? Definitely, but it ain't gone happen.
If argue that having a black man with an ivy league educatiom that played "their" game and won is just as progressive as the person that bucks the system and wins. Overcoming oppression is having the freedom to be what u want when u want, regardless of the dominant opinion. Again, Obama wasn't perfect, but going back to 2008 to what Trump inherited, the ? walked on water
When I mentioned inheritance and private school those are the things that obama got and whats needed if you want to compete at the elite level. Most African Americans barely compete at the median
People can laugh at Mayor Berry but at least he made sure blacks got contracts from DC - I believe in patronage.
One of the areas that was disappointing was the low SBA loans - ? was embarrassing -
babelipsss wrote: »So what he said something less than flattering about the state of our community? What's wrong with encouraging strong male-headed families, education and morals? It was a suggestion at best, not a mandate. If you don't want to live like that then don't. What happened to freedom of speech?
Obama is not president anymore, turn the page.
I think part of the issue was when/where he did some of that. Like when he gave the speech at Morehouse. That's not really the time/place for what he was saying in that speech. -
manofmorehouse wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »My only issue with Obama was him not doing anything about these race soldiers unjustly killing black people. Imagine if we had an Asian, Jewish, or ? president and we see race soldiers murdering any of those groups at the rate black people were getting murdered, and them not doing anything to help their own. They would've done something about that ? . And if Obama can give criticism of the black community then I can give criticism about his presidency.
I'm not trying to make excuses for Obama. Dude was nowhere near perfect, but did the best job anyone in his position could've done. One could make the argument that the people that voted Obama in didn't do their job in voting in reps and Senate members to make sure things that affect African Americans could get passed.
It's a large portion of ? republicans and republicans with ? relatives. It's a gang of Jewish republicans, it's a gang of Asian republicans. It's a tiny percentage of African Americans that are republicans. Do the numbers. Our issues aren't even on their radar to address.
Just to put it in context, Obama had a special task force to investigate every police shooting after Ferguson. Our current attorney General just disbanded that task force.
You say you're not making excuses for Obama, then go on to make excuses for Obama. I understand that since we as black people have little power or unity so I didn't expect him to do anything for black people. But considering that the people of his race are getting slaughtered how could he sit back and do nothing? He was the got damn president. -
We scold because we love. If you don't give a ? you don't waste your breath.
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I understand the backlash in the slew of comments, even if the speech was supposedly well-intentioned.
It does get repetitive and perhaps unnecessary / counterproductive talking at Black people all the time in some accusatory / derogatory tone, especially when not having assessed that it's the appropriate audience being addressed, or even that your statements are correct / generalizing / stereotypes.
For instance, one person says to a Black man: "Black men need to stop having multiple baby mamas on welfare, living in their mama's basement, with they pants sagging, on listening to Lil' Wayne"... not even considering that the Black man they're talking to might be taking care of his one kid (or doesn't have any kids), never received public assistance, doesn't listen to Lil' Wayne, has a college degree, has his own place, etc.... etc... and even knows several other responsible Black men.
So then it becomes, "Look, who the ? are you talking to ? Why I gotta listen to this ? everyday ? Talk to those Black men you're referring to and stop talking ? as if all Black men are like this - that ? is played. Do people address all white men by saying, Y'all need to stop shooting up schools ? dammit." -
5th Letter wrote: »manofmorehouse wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »My only issue with Obama was him not doing anything about these race soldiers unjustly killing black people. Imagine if we had an Asian, Jewish, or ? president and we see race soldiers murdering any of those groups at the rate black people were getting murdered, and them not doing anything to help their own. They would've done something about that ? . And if Obama can give criticism of the black community then I can give criticism about his presidency.
I'm not trying to make excuses for Obama. Dude was nowhere near perfect, but did the best job anyone in his position could've done. One could make the argument that the people that voted Obama in didn't do their job in voting in reps and Senate members to make sure things that affect African Americans could get passed.
It's a large portion of ? republicans and republicans with ? relatives. It's a gang of Jewish republicans, it's a gang of Asian republicans. It's a tiny percentage of African Americans that are republicans. Do the numbers. Our issues aren't even on their radar to address.
Just to put it in context, Obama had a special task force to investigate every police shooting after Ferguson. Our current attorney General just disbanded that task force.
You say you're not making excuses for Obama, then go on to make excuses for Obama. I understand that since we as black people have little power or unity so I didn't expect him to do anything for black people. But considering that the people of his race are getting slaughtered how could he sit back and do nothing? He was the got damn president.
This seems to be the primary issue people have when talking about things Obama didn't do for black people. That's the killing of unarmed blacks by STATE police officers. The issue is on a state level. So while the president can speak on it, give recommendations, send the justice department in AFTER the killings, police departments are city and state level issues. Are your issues with Obama the same that u have for your police chief, mayor, state legislators, and senator?? -
manofmorehouse wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »manofmorehouse wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »My only issue with Obama was him not doing anything about these race soldiers unjustly killing black people. Imagine if we had an Asian, Jewish, or ? president and we see race soldiers murdering any of those groups at the rate black people were getting murdered, and them not doing anything to help their own. They would've done something about that ? . And if Obama can give criticism of the black community then I can give criticism about his presidency.
I'm not trying to make excuses for Obama. Dude was nowhere near perfect, but did the best job anyone in his position could've done. One could make the argument that the people that voted Obama in didn't do their job in voting in reps and Senate members to make sure things that affect African Americans could get passed.
It's a large portion of ? republicans and republicans with ? relatives. It's a gang of Jewish republicans, it's a gang of Asian republicans. It's a tiny percentage of African Americans that are republicans. Do the numbers. Our issues aren't even on their radar to address.
Just to put it in context, Obama had a special task force to investigate every police shooting after Ferguson. Our current attorney General just disbanded that task force.
You say you're not making excuses for Obama, then go on to make excuses for Obama. I understand that since we as black people have little power or unity so I didn't expect him to do anything for black people. But considering that the people of his race are getting slaughtered how could he sit back and do nothing? He was the got damn president.
This seems to be the primary issue people have when talking about things Obama didn't do for black people. That's the killing of unarmed blacks by STATE police officers. The issue is on a state level. So while the president can speak on it, give recommendations, send the justice department in AFTER the killings, police departments are city and state level issues. Are your issues with Obama the same that u have for your police chief, mayor, state legislators, and senator??
Okay fine let's take another approach.
What has the justice department done since "discovering" that these police forces are corrupt?
