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UglyGreed

(7,661 posts)
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 07:46 AM Dec 2014

Obama: U.S. less racially divided now than in 2009

Despite police shootings and demonstrations in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., President Obama says the United States is less divided by race now than it was when he took office in early 2009.

"I actually think that it's probably -- in its day-to-day interactions -- less racially divided," Obama tells NPR News.

NPR provided a couple of clips from the interview to be broadcast next week.

In a discussion about his legislative outlook for 2015, Obama says the new Republican-run House and Senate must prove to voters that can get things done.

"Now you've got Republicans in a position where it's not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me," Obama tells NPR News.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/12/26/obama-npr-news-race-relations-ferguson-new-york-congress/20913057/

52 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Obama: U.S. less racially divided now than in 2009 (Original Post) UglyGreed Dec 2014 OP
I wish it were true, Mr President... kentuck Dec 2014 #1
I disagree. SamKnause Dec 2014 #2
Obama has a point, what is scaring the cops also is the protest are VERY racially diverse uponit7771 Dec 2014 #3
+1 The diversity of the protestors should frighten them. Live and Learn Dec 2014 #8
cameras also. there is more chance of them being caught JI7 Dec 2014 #12
Very true. The cameras are really irritating the cops that don't follow laws an procedures. nt Live and Learn Dec 2014 #13
No, the see people with money as people they work along side of.. in poor white and black communitie uponit7771 Dec 2014 #14
This message was self-deleted by its author Live and Learn Dec 2014 #26
Perhaps in the Washington DC bubble... 99Forever Dec 2014 #4
In the real world this stuff was going before there JI7 Dec 2014 #9
That has what to do with... 99Forever Dec 2014 #19
it has everything to do with it JI7 Dec 2014 #46
Really? 99Forever Dec 2014 #47
that's what you are doing. racists are more open JI7 Dec 2014 #49
WTF is that supposed to mean? 99Forever Dec 2014 #50
The racists are more open about it now JI7 Dec 2014 #5
Facts - the black community is worse off than when he came into office. Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #6
racism against blacks is his fault ? JI7 Dec 2014 #7
The economic challenges transcend race...nt Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #15
Everything is his fault. JoePhilly Dec 2014 #43
That is simply not true. Live and Learn Dec 2014 #10
Across the board the middle and working class is worse off than before he came to office. Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #17
What was the unemployment rate then vs now? JaneyVee Dec 2014 #21
Most of those not working in the black community are not counted as unemployed. Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #23
And whites not working are counted? JaneyVee Dec 2014 #38
"Black unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008." Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #39
Still BS. We all know the 1% is getting the best of this recovery but your premise Live and Learn Dec 2014 #24
"Even the middle class is doing better than it was at the end of the Bush fiasco" Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #27
Statistics and economic indicators that I have seen along with common sense Live and Learn Dec 2014 #29
You must live in a different world from the america I live in. Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #31
Nope, same world, same country, same state Live and Learn Dec 2014 #40
"(and in fact, same county)" Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #41
Is that an admission that you have no idea what you are talking about? Live and Learn Dec 2014 #42
He once told me to stop worrying about racism and watch 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' bravenak Dec 2014 #51
Unemployment rate in 2009 Nov, 9.9%, Nov 2014 5.8% Bluenorthwest Dec 2014 #28
Thanks to unprecedented obstruction, organized on the night of his inauguration, the people randys1 Dec 2014 #32
Could be. That doesn't change the fate of the middle and working class Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #34
Isnt it TERRIBLY IMPORTANT to point out who did it and that it was done INTENTIONALLY? randys1 Dec 2014 #37
That is of course NOT TRUE LordGlenconner Dec 2014 #48
Intentional or not... kentuck Dec 2014 #11
The racists had been hiding their hate for decades. JoePhilly Dec 2014 #44
WOW!!!! The sky is polka dot and grass is purple.... fuck facts hunh? they have a liberal bias? uponit7771 Dec 2014 #16
Your word salad makes it hard to reply... Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #20
Must you bring facts into this discussion? kentuck Dec 2014 #22
It's not just facts it's my experience but its worth re-quoting Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #25
I think it is well-documented... kentuck Dec 2014 #30
The plan worked, oppose EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN THING the man tries to do randys1 Dec 2014 #35
^^^This^^^ Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #36
I think the U.S. is less racially divided... Stellar Dec 2014 #18
The socioeconomic divide has greatened over the last decade. NCTraveler Dec 2014 #33
The only thing that has changed is that he has lived in a bubble since 2009. liberal_at_heart Dec 2014 #45
This message was self-deleted by its author doc03 Dec 2014 #52

uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
3. Obama has a point, what is scaring the cops also is the protest are VERY racially diverse
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:24 AM
Dec 2014

... the cops can't say it's JUST a black thing with so many white and brown faces in protest crowds.

Also...


Statistically America is one of the MOST racially tolerant and aware nations on Earth (I wish I had the link showing what made it one of the most tollerant, it had something to do with awareness etc)

... not only that in History I don't count one time where a pluralistic vote chose a minority hue (skin color) as the leader of a US level affluence in the Earth...

Usually people choose as leaders those who look like them...

Iowa introduced black America to the United states of America's first black president...

There's 23 black people in Iowa... 13 are my wifes cousins lol.....

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)
8. +1 The diversity of the protestors should frighten them.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:51 AM
Dec 2014

Not sure it does, since I am not sure they don't just see us all as the enemy instead of the people providing their jobs and paychecks.

JI7

(89,182 posts)
12. cameras also. there is more chance of them being caught
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:57 AM
Dec 2014

They would have made up a bunch of crap about tamir rice and others like the man in the Wal-Mart .claiming they threatened them or ran after them without video.

uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
14. No, the see people with money as people they work along side of.. in poor white and black communitie
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:09 AM
Dec 2014

...communities they don't work along with the communities, just in them...

This attitude is nationwide... imho...

Not enough LEO leadership segmenting off the stupid people and allowing themselves to have a relationship with those communities

Response to uponit7771 (Reply #14)

JI7

(89,182 posts)
9. In the real world this stuff was going before there
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:52 AM
Dec 2014

Were so many cameras and social media to capture it for all to see

99Forever

(14,524 posts)
47. Really?
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 01:10 PM
Dec 2014

Then you should have absolutely no problem stating and proving exactly that, correct? If you prefer to simply play the "is, isn't" game, I'll pass.

JI7

(89,182 posts)
49. that's what you are doing. racists are more open
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 01:15 PM
Dec 2014

With their views now. But it was all there before.

99Forever

(14,524 posts)
50. WTF is that supposed to mean?
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 01:21 PM
Dec 2014

If you've got something to say, say it. Innuendos are for cowards without the moxie to be forthright.

JI7

(89,182 posts)
5. The racists are more open about it now
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:42 AM
Dec 2014

But yeah, all the shit going on now is not new. There are more cameras now .

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
6. Facts - the black community is worse off than when he came into office.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:46 AM
Dec 2014

Like the rest of the middle and working class regardless of race.

It's a bitter pill to swallow.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
17. Across the board the middle and working class is worse off than before he came to office.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:11 AM
Dec 2014

There is little to argue about that. It's not about race it's about class. Dow Jones 18,000 is not an indicator of anything but wall street getting rich, it has no reflection on main street.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
23. Most of those not working in the black community are not counted as unemployed.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:33 AM
Dec 2014

I assume you know the unemployment rate only reflects those collecting benefits. In one swoop millions lost their unemployment benefits under the obama administration due to unemployment being cancelled. The official unemployment rate is largely meaningless one needs to look deeper to get a sense of the un and under employed.

Definition: The real unemployment rate (U-6) is almost double the widely reported rate (U-3) issued in each month's jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports on both each month, but there isn't as much media attention paid to the real unemployment rate. However, it may paint a clearer picture of true unemployment in the United States.

In the widely reported unemployment rate (U-3), the BLS only counts those who have looked for a job in the past four weeks as unemployed. They're included in the labor force, because their jobless situation is only temporary (hopefully).

Once they haven't looked for a job in the past four weeks are no longer counted as unemployed or in the labor force. They are added to a group the BLS calls marginally attached.


http://useconomy.about.com/od/suppl1/f/real_unemployment_rate.htm
 

JaneyVee

(19,877 posts)
38. And whites not working are counted?
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:00 AM
Dec 2014

Black unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008. Basically Obama recouped all Bush's job losses but somehow they're doing worse?

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
39. "Black unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008."
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:04 AM
Dec 2014

Only as far as collecting benefits. Lets agree people are collecting less unemployment benefits since 2008. Are you really arguing there has been a middle and working class job renaissance in america.

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)
24. Still BS. We all know the 1% is getting the best of this recovery but your premise
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:37 AM
Dec 2014

is simply bs. Even the middle class is doing better than it was at the end of the Bush fiasco.How in the hell can you blame Obama for any of this, when he has done everything in his power to help the lower and middle classes?

The ACA, while far from perfect, was a remarkable success and boon to both classes.

Please tell me what you think Obama has personally done to worsen the states of these classes?

I have always been one to hold Obama's feet to the fire on things I thought he could or should have done better but in all honesty, he has done a heck of lot better than any President in recent memory.

And in all honesty, your posts do come about as sounding a bit racist.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
27. "Even the middle class is doing better than it was at the end of the Bush fiasco"
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:45 AM
Dec 2014

Just not true, there was no u turn it's a continuation of long term trends.

I'm not saying it's his fault, but to deny that it happened under his administration doesn't correlate with economic indicators.

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)
29. Statistics and economic indicators that I have seen along with common sense
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:51 AM
Dec 2014

suggest you are wrong.

Please provide some proof for your character assassination or join a board that will take your word as proof alone.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
31. You must live in a different world from the america I live in.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:54 AM
Dec 2014

Why America’s middle class is lost

One day in 1967, Bob Thompson sprayed foam on a hunk of metal in a cavernous factory south of Los Angeles. And then another day, not too long after, he sat at a long wood bar with a black-and-white television hanging over it, and he watched that hunk of metal land a man on the moon.

On July 20, 1969 — the day of the landing — Thompson sipped his Budweiser and thought about all the people who had ever stared at that moon. Kings and queens and Jesus Christ himself. He marveled at how when it came time to reach it, the job started in Downey. The bartender wept.

On a warm day, almost a half-century later, Thompson curled his mouth beneath a white beard and talked about the bar that fell to make way for a freeway, the space-age factory that closed down and the town that is still waiting for its next great economic rocket, its new starship to the middle class.

They’ve waited more than a decade in Downey. They’ve tried all the usual tricks to bring good-paying jobs back to the 77-acre plot of dirt where once stood a factory that made moon rockets and, later, space shuttles. Nothing brought back the good jobs.

ABOUT THIS SERIES:
Liftoff & Letdown: The American middle class is floundering, and it has been for decades. The Post examines the mystery of what’s gone wrong, and shows what the country must focus on to get the economy working for everyone again.
Chapter 2: The devalued American worker
Chapter 3: The college trap that keeps people poor
Chapter 4: A black hole for our best and brightest
Chapter 5: What’s killing entrepreneurship?
Chapter 6: What went wrong, and how to fix it
Those jobs aren’t coming back. Not at the old North American Rockwell plant, and not in thousands of similarly socked towns.

Yes, the stock market is soaring, the unemployment rate is finally retreating after the Great Recession and the economy added 321,000 jobs last month. But all that growth has done nothing to boost pay for the typical American worker. Average wages haven’t risen over the last year, after adjusting for inflation. Real household median income is still lower than it was when the recession ended.

Make no mistake: The American middle class is in trouble.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/12/why-americas-middle-class-is-lost/

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)
40. Nope, same world, same country, same state
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:05 AM
Dec 2014

(and in fact, same county) and pretty much the same reality but certainly a different conclusion on who or what is to blame.

Blaming Obama for the current economic problems, which he has done his best to fix and has made some headway, is not only misguided but will only enable a republican Presidency and Congress that will simply tighten the screws they have already put in place (that Obama alone couldn't remove).

Please tell me what your candidate of choice would have done differently to improve the current situation?

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
41. "(and in fact, same county)"
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:08 AM
Dec 2014

Im living in Japan right now and it's midnight. Lemme get back to you mañana.


Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)
42. Is that an admission that you have no idea what you are talking about?
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:18 AM
Dec 2014

After midnight here to, by the way.

 

bravenak

(34,648 posts)
51. He once told me to stop worrying about racism and watch 'Real Housewives of Atlanta'
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 02:35 PM
Dec 2014

And that everything is OK now for blacks financially 'cause Dr. Dre is a billionaire. Jesus Malverde said that. To me.
Strange how he's changed his tune.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
28. Unemployment rate in 2009 Nov, 9.9%, Nov 2014 5.8%
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:47 AM
Dec 2014

When Obama came into office we were seeing massive growth in unemployment after the Bush crash. The growth was stopped and the trend has reversed. That's jobs for actual people.
Where are your supporting figures? All I see is rhetoric, blather crafted from a dated and editorial lexicon.

randys1

(16,286 posts)
32. Thanks to unprecedented obstruction, organized on the night of his inauguration, the people
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:54 AM
Dec 2014

who have done this need to be arrested for dereliction of duty.

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
11. Intentional or not...
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:57 AM
Dec 2014

I think the Obama Presidency has brought out the racists in our society, like locusts rising from underground.

Some of us voted for Obama primarily because we thought he would be the conduit to better race relations in this country. However, and especially after his re-election, the racism and the hatred became more vocal and more volatile.

Many Americans have no historical memory of the 1960's and their racist seeds are more recent, although very much resembling the Jim Crow days of the old South.

Just my opinion.

JoePhilly

(27,787 posts)
44. The racists had been hiding their hate for decades.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:24 AM
Dec 2014

Electing Obama caused them to flip out.

So when the GOP started to use the Southern Strategy, it worked better than they expected ... the racists now feel empowered to be as racist as they want.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
20. Your word salad makes it hard to reply...
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:22 AM
Dec 2014

Here are some facts

According to the Sentier research, households headed by single women, with and without children present, saw their incomes fall by roughly 7%. Those under age 25 experienced an income decline of 9.6%. Black heads of households saw their income tumble by 10.9%, while Hispanic heads-of-households' income fell 4.5%, slightly more than the national average. The incomes of workers with a high-school diploma or less fell by about 8% (-6.9% for those with less than a high-school diploma and -9.3% for those with only a high-school diploma).

To put that into dollar terms, in the four years between the time the Obama recovery began in June 2009 and June of this year, median black household income fell by just over $4,000, Hispanic households lost $2,000 and female-headed households lost $2,300.

The unemployment numbers show pretty much the same pattern. July's Bureau of Labor Statistics data (the most recent available) show a national unemployment rate of 7.4%. The highest jobless rates by far are for key components of the Obama voter bloc: blacks (12.6%), Hispanics (9.4%), those with less than a high-school diploma (11%) and teens (23.7%).


This is a stunning reversal of the progress for these groups during the expansions of the 1980s and 1990s, and even through the start of the 2008 recession. Census data reveal that from 1981-2008 the biggest income gains were for black women, 81%; followed by white women, 67%; followed by black men, 31%; and white males at 8%.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323324904579042830303535934

The economy under President Obama has not been kind to the black community. Those invested in banks, the stock market and finance have done much better under President Obama.

A Pew survey in January 2010 indicated that the percentage of black Americans who thought blacks were better off than they were five years before had almost doubled since 2007. There were also significant increases in the percentages who believed the standard-of-living gap between whites and blacks was decreasing. No wonder they love the president.

There was only one trouble with these assessments. They weren't true. African Americans, as a group, are far worse off now than they were when Obama came to power and the gap between whites and blacks in terms of wealth and income has increased under Obama's tenure. The overall rate of unemployment may be close to where it was when Obama took office, but black unemployment is up 11%. Meanwhile the wealth gap has doubled during this recession with the average white American now having 22 times more wealth than their black counterparts. So too has the educational achievement gap with the rate at which white Americans graduate from high school growing at a far faster clip than black students.

"We haven't seen much of the stimulus trickle down to our people here," Mark Allen, a Chicago-based community organiser who used to work alongside Obama, told the Washington Post. "I liked the community organiser Obama better than President Obama … Democrats say Barack has got 90% or whatever of the black vote wrapped up. What they don't tell you is it's 90% of those who actually come out and vote. What if it's 90% of just 30 or 40% who vote?"

In short, Jacob's odds of getting a decent job when he gets older actually got worse since he felt the president's hair, while the gap between his life chances and his white schoolmates widened and his odds of going to prison remained pretty much the same. In empirical terms "the change that [has been] possible" for Jacob and his family under Obama has been change for the worse. One can argue about the cause of those changes and the degree to which Obama bears any responsibility for either creating them or fixing them. But one cannot argue about the fact of them: the ascent of America's first black president has coincided with the one of the steepest descents of the economic fortunes of black Americans since the second world war both in real terms and relative to whites.


Discussing this dilemma within the black community can be tantamount to heresy. Wagons circle, messengers are shot, ranks close, critical faculties are suspended. "Too many black intellectuals have given up the hard work of thinking carefully in public about the crisis facing black America," Princeton professor Eddie Glaude told fellow academic Fred Harris recently. "We have either become cheerleaders for President Obama or self-serving pundits." Not only are criticisms shunned but even constructive critiques are unwelcome. At times it seems like questions as to how his tenure has affected black communities either should not be asked or, at the very least, should not be answered honestly.


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/03/obama-african-americans-paradox

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
25. It's not just facts it's my experience but its worth re-quoting
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:42 AM
Dec 2014
Discussing this dilemma within the black community can be tantamount to heresy. Wagons circle, messengers are shot, ranks close, critical faculties are suspended. "Too many black intellectuals have given up the hard work of thinking carefully in public about the crisis facing black America," Princeton professor Eddie Glaude told fellow academic Fred Harris recently. "We have either become cheerleaders for President Obama or self-serving pundits." Not only are criticisms shunned but even constructive critiques are unwelcome. At times it seems like questions as to how his tenure has affected black communities either should not be asked or, at the very least, should not be answered honestly.


Go to any average black community and ask anyone are you and your family better off than before President Obama came to office

It may be congresses fault, it may be the racist devils, but the answer ultimately will be no.

Amnesty for the hispanics who reside in the united states illegally was one more betrayal of the black community,

I write to remind you of the disastrous effect of illegal immigration on the employment of all Americans, but particularly black Americans. Any grant of legal status will serve as a magnet to prospective illegal immigrants and further depress employment opportunities and wages for African Americans. Given that the labor force participation rate is at an historic low, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, and there has been a precipitous decline in household wealth, the timing for such a grant of legal status could not be worse.


http://blackcommunitynews.com/is-amnesty-for-illegal-aliens-bad-for-black-americans/

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
30. I think it is well-documented...
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:53 AM
Dec 2014

....that almost all of the 99% have lost purchasing power in the last 6 years? Almost entirely, the gains in the economy have gone to the top 1%.

Even with the economy now improving, the jobs being created are not making up for the losses of the Great Bush Recession.

So, in that sense, the black community is like the rest of us. We were all washed downstream and we have not yet made it back home.

randys1

(16,286 posts)
35. The plan worked, oppose EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN THING the man tries to do
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:57 AM
Dec 2014

and destroy the american economy and the people will blame Obama

it almost worked, he was reelected

I mean it worked to destroy the lives of tens of millions of Americans

 

NCTraveler

(30,481 posts)
33. The socioeconomic divide has greatened over the last decade.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 10:54 AM
Dec 2014

Unfortunately, not many in Washington want to talk about the root of the problem and how institutionalized it is. They have absolutely fucked us into thinking it is cops verse blacks. This has truly hurt progress. It is rich verse poor and the cops are simply a tool of the rich man. Race relations have regressed, not progressed. Even we are completely wrong in how it is being discussed. It is economics, not blue verse black.

liberal_at_heart

(12,081 posts)
45. The only thing that has changed is that he has lived in a bubble since 2009.
Sat Dec 27, 2014, 11:26 AM
Dec 2014

It was a long time ago when he was a community organizer. He no longer mingles with the community. He mingles with rich DC insiders and no longer has any idea what happens to the communities outside of the White House.

Response to UglyGreed (Original post)

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