Capehart: The latest manifestation of the Obama-doesn’t-care-about-black-people whine
from Jonathan Capehart at WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/stop-waiting-for-and-start-paying-attention-to-our-first-black-president/2012/06/03/gJQAxQGCCV_blog.html
Stop waiting for and start paying attention to our first black president
____ The latest manifestation of the Obama-doesn’t-care-about-black-people whine comes from Fredrick Harris. In a piece for The Post’s Outlook section headlined “Still waiting for our first black president,”which was adapted from his new book, the Columbia University professor makes a stunningly false argument.
Obama has pursued a racially defused electoral and governing strategy, keeping issues of specific interest to African Americans — such as disparities in the criminal justice system; the disproportionate impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities of color; black unemployment; and the persistence of HIV/AIDS — off the national agenda. Far from giving black America greater influence in U.S. politics, Obama’s ascent to the White House has signaled the decline of a politics aimed at challenging racial inequality head-on.Those are all important issues. They must be addressed. The problem for Harris is that they are being addressed by the president. Not in the theatrical way Harris would like. But in the actions-speak-louder-than-words way of Obama.
By searching for marquis moments, Harris and others appear not to care about the myriad actions Obama has undertaken that affect the lives of all Americans, yes, but also of African Americans more directly. And I certainly don’t advocate for Obama to burst into the East Room clad in Kente cloth and brandishing a definable “black agenda”or whatever else so many blacks seem to want from him to prove that he cares.
Someone who started his career on the south side of Chicago, whose wife is also from Chicago and who also has two young black daughters, doesn’t wake up one day and say, I don’t care about African Americans. That’s why it bothers me to no end that those who are “still waiting for our first black president” seem unwilling to pay attention to what the first black president is actually doing . . .
read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/stop-waiting-for-and-start-paying-attention-to-our-first-black-president/2012/06/03/gJQAxQGCCV_blog.html
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simply by existing, he is being labeled a "radical," a "black activist," and of course, "deeply racist against white people." His opponents insist that their idiot arguments cannot be challenged, because apparently every challenge of their idiot arguments is "calling us racists!" - yeah, you can't criticize their criticism because he's black. Stunning, but that's how they see it.
he has to battle his own party half the time to get even modest measures seen by Congress, much less passed. The opposition party has declared their specific intent to destroy him as their sole goal during his term.
When he noted that if he had a son, that son would have looked liek Trayvon martin, he was torn apart by the media. when he called the arrest of a black professor "stupid" because the man was arrested for being black and walking into the door of his own home, Obama was lambasted and mangled for that, too.
Even completely non-racial issues get shit like this;
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Now think for a moment. If King - who despite his great oratory skills and many followers, was still just an Alabama minister - if King got his head blown off for talking about race in america, what would happen to the nation's first black president, who is already labeled as being a radical and dangerous black supremacist terrorist just for the fact he exists started really getting vocal about the still-existing racial chasm in our nation and society? Dude already gets more death threats than any previous president.
No, they're not unimportant issues. yes, I have to admit it'd be very satisfying to see Obama tackle them headon and do so vocally and make the racial components crystal clear to the nation. I'd love it. However, I'm pretty sure he'd make exactly ONE speech on it before Biden gets sworn in in an emergency ceremony.
It's a hell of a thing; here's a man who would be really good for doing that, who's in a position to actually get the lifting done... and he's paralyzed by the reality (and fantasy) surrounding him.
I just could not believe that anyone wrote it, let alone the Wash Post decided to publish it.
My first alarm bell went off when brother man said Obama wasn't paying as much attention to blacks as he was to other groups, "particularly gays." He then went on to congratulate the gay rights movement for co-opting much of the message and energy of the civil rights movement and then suggested that black groups imitate the gay groups that were imitating the black rights groups. 
From a presidential perspective, it is much simpler for a president to do away with immoral/unconstitutional laws such as DADT or DOMA. But if someone can explain to me exactly how a president is supposed to make police officers stop hunting black people; make employers stop discriminating against applicants with names like Shawanda and Raypheus, no matter how fantastically awesome their skills and experience may be; make banks stop crippling blacks with higher interest rates while halving our chances of actually acquiring a home or business loan in the first place, I'm all ears.
I agree with Mr. Capeheart in that the president has done much for black folks in the actions category, no so much in the "let's talk about doing stuff" category. There is still so much to do. We are still STRUGGLING, and as usual like no other group. And I also completely agree with what he said here: "Someone who started his career on the south side of Chicago, whose wife is also from Chicago and who also has two young black daughters, doesn’t wake up one day and say, I don’t care about African Americans."
