- I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Speech
- I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Election
- I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Inauguration
In his 2014 grand jury testimony over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson described Brown less like a human being than a possessed animal. “He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked.”
The image he conjured of Brown, even after he shot him, was of a man both physically superhuman and emotionally subhuman. “He was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I’m shooting him. And the face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn’t even there, I wasn’t even anything in his way.”
The black American male in the white American gaze has long been an object of fear: excessively sexual, insufficiently cerebral, physically imposing, instinctively criminal. It’s no mystery where these assumptions came from: if you enslave people, break up their families, humiliate, brutalize and denigrate them and spend far more on their incarceration than their education, then the mere prospect of them reaching their full human potential will strike fear in you.
Barack Obama's original sin: America's post-racial illusion
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Barack Obama hoped his presidency would shift the dial in this regard. When he was trying to persuade his skeptical wife about what could be achieved by becoming president, he said: “The day I take the oath of office the world will look at us differently. And millions of kids across this country will look at themselves differently. That alone is something.”
When it comes to black masculinity in particular, the world has certainly seen something new these past eight years. The most prominent black man in the world is a nurturing father and dutiful, faithful husband, who is intelligent, measured and even-tempered. His successor is a self-proclaimed sexual harasser given to impulsive flashes of anger, with five children from three different women.
If you want to know what white male privilege looks like, then take a look at the podium on inauguration day. No black man could be elected with Trump’s life story (what levels of personal propriety a black woman would have to attain to be taken seriously don’t bear thinking about).
Far from the pathologies routinely assumed to be inherent in the black male condition – rage, impetuousity, venality – Obama rarely displayed much in the way of fury. Often negotiating with himself before he negotiated with others, he was serene to a fault, even when openly and brazenly disrespected by those facing him – from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his congressional opponents.
In fact, many wished he did a better job of giving voice to the frustration that Congress was failing to do the work of the country. “You get the sense that this president, while intellectually engaged, is not emotionally engaged with what the American people are going through,” Michael Fletcher, the Washington Post’s former economics correspondent, told me in 2011. “People want to feel there’s someone out there fighting their corner even if that person doesn’t win.” This would appear to be more consistent with his actual personality than any calculation about what a black male in public office could or couldn’t do.
Often negotiating with himself before he negotiated with others, he was serene to a fault
Paradoxically, pointed out Salim Muwakkil, a Chicago-based journalist and activist who has seen Obama develop politically long before he was nationally renowned, his style arguably conforms to another black male stereotype. “It’s like the pimp from Iceberg Slim,” he told me. “The guy who was not perturbed by anything. Murders would happen in his vicinity and he’d carry on as if nothing happened. He brought that sensibility to the office in a way that others haven’t. It’s ironic especially now people are urging him to warm up, to leave that icy demeanor behind, to become that angry black man – that other stereotype. I don’t think he can escape these stereotype expectations.”
The irony goes deeper when one considers that, as president, Obama was responsible for far more murders of innocent people through drone strikes than Biggie or Tupac ever could have been during the east and west coast rap feuds.
Stereotypes are just that: stereotypes
But the fact that Americans have seen something new in the White House doesn’t mean that what they are seeing is actually new in terms of black masculinity, or that they necessarily see black men differently as a result. The stereotypes that Obama has been ostensibly defying were always just that: stereotypes.
It is true that black people are less likely to marry than whites and black men are less likely to live with their partners. But according to the National Center for Health Statistics, when children are under five, black fathers are more likely to feed or eat meals with them, bathe, diaper or dress them, and read to them daily than fathers in any other racial group, whether they live with them or not. As their children get older, black fathers are more likely to take children to and from activities daily, talk to them about their day and help them with their homework. Black men are also disproportionately likely to be single parents than other racial groups.
As such, Obama was less of an example for how black men should live their lives – especially in relation to their kids – as an illustration of how many actually live their lives (albeit in less fortunate circumstances and with less cultural capital).
This is why it was so disappointing when Obama leaned on the stereotypes about the negligent black father during his Father’s Day speech in 2008, when he was first running for the White House: “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it .. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception,” he said specifically addressing the black community as though it, specifically, were remiss. “We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child – it’s the courage to raise one.”
Obama was less of an example for how black men should live their lives .. as an illustration of how many actually live
Nothing one could argue with this, content-wise. But it’s a speech he’d never have delivered to a white church even though the facts suggest they need to hear it at least as much.
It is also true that black men are more likely to be in prison for drug offenses than any other racial group. But black people are no more likely to actually use drugs (as Obama, incidentally, did as a young man) than any other group; they are just more likely to be criminalized for it. This is why it was so heartening to see Obama sign a bill reducing the sentencing gap between convictions for powder cocaine and crack cocaine and his former attorney general pursue more lenient sentencing for non-violent drug offenders. This will have a major impact on the degree to which black men are able to fulfill their obligations to family, community and society like other men.
Whether white Americans see black men differently as a result of his presidency is more difficult to quantify. Given the success of Trump’s race-baiting campaign, it seems unlikely. Of all the thoughts running through Darren Wilson’s mind that fateful day when he unleashed his bullets on Michael Brown, it doesn’t seem it ever occurred to him that he might be shooting the future president of America.
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By Lauren Victoria Burke
This weekend, ever-opinionated billionaire candidate for president Donald Trump lowed the boom on President Obama on the often discussed issue of what the first black President has done for African Americans.
'He has done nothing for African Americans. You look at what's gone on with their income levels. You look at what's gone on with their youth. I thought that he would be a great cheerleader for this country. I thought he'd do a fabulous job for the African-American citizens of this country. He has done nothing,' Trump said.
'They have problems now in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment numbers. And you have— here you have a black president who's done very poorly for the African Americans of this country,' Trump added.
But is Trump correct? It depends on whether you can blame the President for every single role the federal government may or may not have in the specific lives of all Americans. It's also hard to deny the role of discrimination in hiring and opportunity in America -- a point that was made by Hillary Clinton at the National Urban League Conference last week.
Let's take a statistical look at seven major issues that have always been important in the African American community and what the numbers were as President George W. Your using outdated license file ragnarok list. Bush left office and what they are now.
Unemployment -- According to the Department of Labor, when President Obama took office in January 2008, the Black unemployment rate was 12.7 percent. The best Black unemployment number during the Obama Administration so far was in June 2015 at 9.5 percent. The best Black unemployment rate during George Bush's presidency was 7.7 percent in August 2007. The worst number under Bush was 12.1 in December 2008. The worst Black unemployment under Obama was 16.8 in March 2011 -- a 28 year high -- according to the Department of Labor.
But the landscape is a bit more complicated than the numbers. In 2011, evidence of a so-called 'Black Manession' emerged. In September 2014, reports on the Black female unemployment rate showed at 10.6 percent, the same as it was the year before. Many assert that hiring discrimination and the fact that many have left the job market all together are factors for high Black unemployment overall.
Poverty -- The poverty rate for African Americans has become worse over the past few years. It was 25 percent when President Bush left office. It rose to 28 percent in 2013 -- the most recent stat available. One out of three black children, 38 percent of all African American children, lived in poverty in 2013, as reported by PEW on July 14. Overall, there are more people living in poverty in the U.S. than at other time in U.S. history at 45 million people.
Education -- There has been major progress underPresident Obama in education with regard to high school dropout rates. According to the Department of Education, High School dropout rates are at a historic low, with the greatest progress seen among African Americans and Hispanics. Overall the national high school graduation rate hit an all time high in 2013 of 81.4 percent.
Between 2010-11 and 2012-13, graduation rates for Hispanic students increased by over four percentage points from 71 percent to 75.2 percent, and Black students increased by nearly four percentage points from 67 percent to 70.7 percent. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.
Health Care -- President Obama's victories in Congress for comprehensive health care coverage as well as his recent win in the Supreme Court, means that many African Americans will benefit. By March 2015, over 16 million Americans had enrolled in Obamacare. Because of Obamacare, the rates of uninsured Americans have fallen to 11.9 percent after being at 16 percent when President Bush left office.
Over 3 million poor Americans, including hundreds of thousands of African Americans in the South would be covered if not for Republican governors blocking the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. In 2014, many health care advocates worked to get around the the attempts to block coverage.
Justice -- President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010 which narrowed the penalty between crack and powder cocaine from 1:100 to 1:18. Last year, President Obama established a task force on policing and this year he rolled back the use of certain military equipment by local police -- a Black Lives Matter related demand.
During the Obama presidency, the Department of Justice has investigated several police departments including Ferguson, Cleveland and Philadelphia under former Attorney General Eric Holder and current Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Income Inequality -- Income inequality between black and white is at its widest point in 25 years. According to a study by PEW in 2014, the average white household is worth $141,900, while the average black one is worth $11,000.
I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Speech
The foreclosure crisis that hit hardest in 2007 and 2008 disproportionately hurt black homeowners because they were targeted by banks for subprime loans. (In 2008, the cities of Cleveland and Baltimore sued Wells Fargo over those practices.)
Focus on Black Males -- In February 2014, President Obama introduced My Brother's Keeper, to specifically focus on improving the lives of young African American males. The initiative is encouraging nonprofits to raise $200 million in five years for programs focused on young men of color. Though My Brother's Keeper is not a federally funded government program, no such effort has existed before under any American President. President Obama is said to be planning to make My Brother's Keeper a major part of leaves office.
Trump's critique of President Obama comes at a point when the President is entering the fourth quarter of his presidency. In recent months he has spoken bluntly on racism and the lack of opportunity in America and he has announced programs and initiatives geared toward minority communities. With 16 months left, President Obama appears to be well aware that he needs to push more on African American issues.
Lauren Victoria Burke is a writer, strategist and political analyst. She appears regularly on Hardball with Chris Matthews and weekly on News One Now with Roland Martin.
I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Election
In 2008, 96 per cent of black Americans voted for Barack Obama; in 2012, 94 percent of us did. We have been his most loyal constituency. As a prominent black Republican, even I voted for Obama in 2008, partly because of the historical significance of his candidacy, but also because I believed he had a better programme than John McCain and Sarah Palin.
What a disappointment the past eight years have been! Despite Obama’s mantra of “Hope' when he first ran for President, on any objective measure, blacks have fared poorly.
The black poverty rate was 25.8 per cent in 2009 and had climbed to 27.2 per cent five years later, according to the Pew Research Center. The earnings gap between blacks and whites is wider than it was in 1979, according to the Economic Policy Institute. As median incomes rose with the recovery last year, they went up more slowly for black people.
Black liberal organizations and individuals have begun to criticize Obama publicly. “Black America remains in crisis when it comes to jobs and the economy… Black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment. Wages are stagnant. Many people who are working are simply not earning what they need or should earn to make ends meet' said Marc Morial, director of liberal black think tank The National Urban League in its 2015 State of Black America report.
Meanwhile the 30 US cities with the highest murder rate strongly correlate with those with near-to-majority black populations, run by liberal Democratic mayors in Obama's mould. This is in the context of an uptick in murders last year, the biggest single-year percentage jump since 1971, concentrated in just ten big cities. Obama’s liberal policies have only exacerbated the problems these areas face.
In his home town of Chicago, the most racially segregated city in America, the number of shootings until the end of September this year was already 10 per cent higher than for the whole of 2015, following a 13 per cent increase in shooting incidents and a 12.5 per cent increase in the number of murders in 2015 on the previous year.
'I'm not the president of black America' Obama told an interviewer in 2012, in response to criticism that he had not done enough to support black businesses.
Yet he has done so much to support America's gay community - for example, by signing executive orders to allow homosexual couples to receive social security benefits that have historically been reserved for those in traditional marriages - that in 2012 Newsweek magazine dubbed him “The First Gay President”.
And by signing executive orders to allow those in the country illegally to stay indefinitely and giving them the legal right to work despite not being US citizens, he has become a hero to many Latinos.
“When I reflect on the breadth and depth of what he has done for Latinos, it really makes him, in my mind, and in the minds of so many others, the first Latino president,” his Labour Secretary Tom Perez was quoted saying by Politico.com.
If I hear one more black person tell me that Obama cannot do anything to address the specific concerns of the black community because he doesn’t want it to appear like he's doing special favours, I am going to scream.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been ridiculed for his attitude to minorities. Yet he has laid out the terrible effects liberalism has had on the black community more effectively than any Republican since Nixon, and spent more time addressing black community issues in speeches than all Republican candidates of the last generation put together.
The solutions he puts forward - school choice and vouchers; increased access to capital for small businesses; more funding for black colleges and universities - are a good start.
He hasn't had strong enough black advisers around him to build bridges with black communities, while the Republican Party establishment has repeatedly shown itself to be clueless about why and how it should court black electors.
Lesson to take away: after almost eight years, the black community must finally come to terms with the fact that the first black president really sees very little value in the black vote. Rather than the politics of identity, black Americans should look to those candidates who will diligently address their needs and concerns.
While making history makes us feel good, only solving the problems afflicting the black community will make us feel better.
I Am Not The President Of Black America In 2012 Obama Inauguration
Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC