Obama's complicated relationship with black America
President Obama held a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a campaign stop in Florida. Mr. Obama promised to do anything necessary to bring this "heinous crime" to justice.
(CBS News) President Barack Obama's speech before the National Urban League Wednesday in New Orleans is an opportunity for the president to address his most faithful constituency: African-American voters. But the relationship between the nation's first black president and the black community is a complicated dance of devotion and disappointment.
While African-American leaders point to numerous accomplishments that benefit the black community, including the passage of the health care law and the Justice Department's aggressive actions against voter ID laws, there's a desire for Mr. Obama to do more for the black community.
Like most of the rest of the country, black Americans have had a tough four years: the unemployment rate among blacks is 14.2 percent, much higher than the national average of 8.2 percent. Even more alarming, the jobless number for blacks younger than 20 is 39 percent.
"People know he walked into a great crisis. At the same time, people are understandably very nervous about their own jobs, their own homes," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told CBSNews.com in an interview last Friday. "Still, the current level of unemployment is much too high."
The president has come under harsh criticism from even his staunchest supporters for not doing more to directly benefit black Americans. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., offered this scathing attack as the president embarked on a bus tour of the Midwest last summer: "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. ... The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the [president's] strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community."
Also in 2011, numerous black leaders demanded a meeting with the president at the White House. They presented a policy wish list to spur economic advancement that included a teen summer jobs program and job training and placement programs. Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League, attended that meeting and said he went to tell the president "there is so much more that needs to be done."
"He heard us, listened and acted," Morial said. He said the president's jobs plan, which he proposed under pressure from African-American leaders and Democrats in Congress, included five of the provisions Morial and others suggested. The legislation has been stalled in Congress.
"Do we want the president to do more?" Morial rhetorically asked. "Our organization will press this president on jobs and the economic opportunity issues."
Many in the community say it's not the policies they are concerned about, but the president's lack of leadership and that he doesn't use the bully pulpit more often to talk about the challenges plaguing the black community.
In lieu of publicly talking directly about African-Americans outside of his speeches to black organizations, he instead suggests that he's working for all of America.
"The most important thing I can do for the African-American community is the same thing I can do for the American community, period," the president said in 2009.
Another issue crippling parts of black America is violent crime. In Chicago, homicides have increased 38 percent since last year. More than 250 people there, many African-American, have been killed in the first 6 months of the year, and that does not include the number injured by bullets or knives. This past weekend, 38 people were shot and 7 were killed. The president has not visited the families of the victims in Chicago or addressed the issue. He has, though, visited his hometown to fundraise.
"That he hasn't taken this opportunity" to address the crisis "is incredibly frustrating," Cathy Cohen, a University of Chicago political science professor who specializes in African-American politics, told CBSNews.com. "It's one of these moments I don't understand why he doesn't take leadership."
Philadelphia is another city plagued with violence, witnessing a 23 percent increase in homicides this year, and Philadelphia Mayor Nutter has focused his second term on reducing violent crime. He has been very blunt with the African-American community, urging black youth to shape up and telling their parents to be more responsible.
"We must be willing to have an honest conversation about the things that are holding us back as a nation and ask ourselves, 'what are we prepared to do about them?' together," he said recently. And during a speech last summer at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church, he said flash mobs have "damaged your own race" and parents need to be more than a "human ATM."
Nutter said Friday that he was reluctant to criticize Mr. Obama, saying he doesn't "advise the president," but said it would be important for the president to speak about the issue.
"The yearly death toll is enormous, is significant and needs to be addressed at a national level," Nutter said.
The president's supporters, however, including Nutter, are quick to note that he's not the president of black America but of the entire country. It's an argument those more critical of him don't dispute, but they say the president, especially the first black president, has a unique role in history that is being overshadowed by political expediency.
"I don't think there is any kind of worry about losing the black vote to [Mitt] Romney, but I think he does want to make sure he can energize that community," said Cohen.
In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama won 95 percent of the black vote, which usually overwhelmingly votes Democratic, a larger margin than any previous candidate. Possibly more important than the percentage of votes Mr. Obama received is that the number of black voters who voted increased 4.9 percent to its highest level. A 6 percent increase in voter turnout in North Carolina, for example, a state with a large black eligible voter base, was enough for him to carry the state by only .4 percent. It was the first time a Democrat has won there since 1976.
"History writes Barack Obama's story. He rode away to the White House in 2008, I'm not sure if he can recapture that story," South Carolina state representative Bakari Sellers, an African-American Democrat considered a rising star in South Carolina politics, told CBSNews.com.
But Shelby Steele, conservative author and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford, said Tuesday the president is not concerned just with the black vote, but with the white vote and white perception.
"If whites see him spending too much time at the NAACP and at the Urban League, they won't see them as post racial and they will be alienated by that," Steele said. "On the other hand, blacks say we've been your most loyal supporters...and you are ignoring us in order to seduce whites. We're hurt by that."
"He's kind of a bound man in that regard. He's in a position that's hard to win," Steele said. "He could have a leadership role if he wanted one. He's afraid of that."
Interestingly, Mr. Obama has limited his appearances to these groups, not having addressed the NAACP since 2009 and is making a return to the National Urban League's conference Wednesday after skipping last year.
Both the president's critics and supporters point to moments of pride that have meant a great deal to African-Americans, including the speech on race he gave in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign, the speech about his grandmother after she died, also given during the campaign, his Father's Day speech calling on African-American fathers to be more active in their children's lives and the speech he gave after the death of Trayvon Martin earlier this year.
"I want to see him draw the nation's attention to these issues and I also want to see him use the resources of the presidency to address the issues," Cohen said.
As the president speaks directly to the Urban League Wednesday, he can address the issues of concern to all Americans, or he can heed the advice of some of some black leaders: Have a direct and honest discussion addressing the concerns of his most loyal constituents.
A Democratic congressional aide added in an interview with CBSNews.com that not speaking about issues important to the African-American community "ultimately may get you reelected, but is not the best thing for the country."
Popular in Politics
- FBI director acknowledges domestic drone use 144 Comments
- Obama and Berlin: Faded echoes meet new realities
- Obama on NSA programs: Americans "not getting the complete story" 259 Comments
- GOP Sen. Murkowski backs same-sex marriage
- House Republicans pass 20-week limit on abortions 567 Comments
- Smooth, on-time Obamacare rollout no sure thing: GAO
- Immigration reform would cut deficit, analysis shows 80 Comments
- IRS readying to pay $70M in employee bonuses, senator says
"...absolutely false. This President has made it possible for renters to purchase their first home..."
But what has been done about the insurance redlining, discriminatory zoning ordinances, or the other manifestations of intentional discrimination that disproportionately and negatively affects "black" Americans, nor has any sanctioning been directed towards those lending institutions who insisted that "black" mortgage applicants, who qualified for conventional mortgages, instead be given ARMs, which were adjusted to unaffordable levels within the first months of the payment periods.
"...This President has made student loans more available. This President continues to extoll the value of education and has initiated training programs and back to school programs with financial assistance..."
Which is basically like throwing a spit-ball into the sun, as the training and education prepares recipients for a non-existent market, businesses who will hire "black" people, and among those who will, there is nothing done to address the glaring disparity in pay, or promotion. There has been no attempt to address the lack of access to capital for starting our own businesses, even for those whose qualifications are equal to, or even exceed those of "white" entrepreneurs.
"...These things serve as the underpinning to a successful life in this country..."
Actually they don't, as can be seen in the numbers of "whites" whose only qualifications consisted of a relative in the lending institute, or some political connections. It can also be seen in the numbers of well-educated, and well qualified "black" people (contrary to the conventional stereotype, there is in fact a large number of such people. The poor amongst us are not all poor simply because they have no education or training) still being denied jobs, and/or the capital to start our own businesses.
"...Racism cannot be legislated because the hearts of men cannot be legislated. What are you suggesting that he do to in this regard?.."
I could care less about what may be in a man's heart, if there are people not yet evolved to understand the reality of the human species, this is their problem, but what we can do is make sure that their discriminatory nature is not allowed to become more of our problem, they must not be allowed any more to affect our effort to arrive at a proportionately representative distribution of wealth, and we should, without "judges' discretion", levy severe sanctions on those who so choose to express their ignorance through public discrimination.
"...The disproportionate distribution of American assets has been what his presidency is all about..."
Again, Mr. Obama has allowed, without any noticeable resistance or insistence, the right wing to dilute, if not altogether derail any and all efforts so far to mitigate the effects of discrimination, from health care to education. He has not defended the unions who took us from the days of near-slave labor, and has allowed the right to continue that which Reagan started, the decimation of the labor unions. He has done this even to his own disadvantage.
"...If an individual is able to purchase a home, and obtain training and an education that will aid him in obtaining a better life, what more can this President do?.."
If the same individual has been forced, by colluding banks and lending institutions, into unaffordable ARMs, and the education offered prepares the recipient for a market that doesn't hire "black" people, and for a capital market that excludes "black" businesses, I then ask, what use is that which has been done?
Where have you been?
Watching and waiting for him to finally stand up and speak forcefully against racism, and address the real underlying problems of a failed trickle-down economy, which has disproportionately affected "black" people.
Like I said, at any rate, he will still get my vote as by far the lesser of two evils.
Sort of like another crook known as Tricky Dicky!
With a president like Obama the Judas goat, blacks don't need the Democratic formed KKK to help keep them down but they still love him because he is black half.
I guess they just tolerate his white half since he looks more like them than his mother.
It seems that Mr. Obama still hasn't had enough of turning the other cheek, only to be hit with the other fist.
As far as the ills plaguing the "black" community, they can be eliminated by a true and unbiased application of the existing laws, with severe penalties for businesses and government entities caught afoul of those laws.
Then we need to get back to doing that which made America such an economic presence, our own economic middle class growth.
We need to re-design, upgrade, and rebuild all of America's metropolitan areas, and the interconnecting infrastructure, using the most modern tech available.
There would be more jobs created almost overnight, than there are unemployed Americans to fill them, the only thing left then is to ensure that jobs, pay, tenders, and other such ways of introducing currency into the economy, are not determined with the influence of racism.
Health care? Bring back the public hospital, and subsidize med school for anyone whose scholastic achievements merit it, but whose family income cannot afford it, in exchange for a four-year bond to work, at reasonable pay, in the public health care facilities. Make the private concerns and colleges compete with a profit-neutral public system, which will force them to lower prices, upgrade services, or, preferably both.
It would be quite a rude awakening for a provincial American bagger, who still harbours the delusion that America is "the greatest country in the world", to see Xiamen, or Guanzhou in China, experience the South Korean internet, or see the standard of living in Singapore, where the poorest live better than most of the American middle class.
We know that there are powers greater than the president controlling the US, and there is not much any president can do against them, indeed, the GOP openly admits that they want those entities to have even more control.
But the issue of racism, and the disproportionate distribution of American assets, and the influence of Racism in the national discourse, is indeed something Mr. Obama could address and affect for the better, but so far, he has chosen not to do so.
I will vote for him again however, as he is still by far the lesser of two evils.
..........absolutely false. This President has made it possible for renters to purchase their first home. This President has made student loans more available. This President continues to extoll the value of education and has initiated training programs and back to school programs with financial assistance. These things serve as the underpinning to a successful life in this country. Racism cannot be legislated because the hearts of men cannot be legislated. What are you suggesting that he do to in this regard?
The disproportionate distribution of American assets has been what his presidency is all about. If an individual is able to purchase a home, and obtain training and an education that will aid him in obtaining a better life, what more can this President do?
Where have you been?
Greater opportunity is the long-term solution to poverty. Creating a permanent welfare state will simply perpetuate dependency and poverty. Yet Obama's policies are stiffling opportunity and creating dependency - the exact opposite of what is needed.
************************************
Hey CaptainSmollett,
When is the Current House of Representatives under the control of Republicans going to pass a Bill Eliminating the food stamp program?
Or, are they too busy passing the 'Revoke ObamaCare' bill again and again.
There are already statistics pointing at crime in the argument from the left about 2nd Amendment/gun control issue.
Crime stats in some cities show black people responsible for a lot of it.
Welfare receipt: Commentators sometimes point to the preponderance of Welfare recipients who are black.
I understand why Pres Obama steers away from the topic. He is black!
The USA went through a lot in the 1960s, and the country has changed since then...a lot!
If the figures are right, and 95% of black voters voted Obama in 2008, they, like any other bloc should look at how the country is faring today!
$TRillions debt burden, GM Bailout, Obama care (tax)!
The situation affects ALL AMERICANS!! If Pres Obama was to err onto the path of seeming to "help" blacks over other parts of the US Community, even the black community would cry foul. (Apart from those individuals and organisations who are so "angry" at the past that they expect preferential treatment all the time on ANY topic.
THAT is why Obama will not publicly display preferential treatment.
(And if he did, he would be INSULTING lots of the African American Community, as they do not want preferential treatment, they just, like their white and latino Countrymen want:
1. Fairness and
2. Honesty and a bit of work to solve the financial mess from the folks in Washington!
After all they`ve been stalling on the deficit for YEARS!
So, Pres Obama cannot count on getting 95% of the black vote in November, for in thinking they can just count on blacks to vote Obama because he is a black President, maybe Washington and WH
have been complacent, which may have resulted in Washington leaving the real problems hoping they will go away.
Well, early this week the ratings agencies downgraded USA (again).
Perhaps Washington should refocus on what it is employed to doe...For ALL Americans!(And FORGET RACE ISSUES.....PLEASE!!!)
Keep dreaming,keep dreaming.
you are going to hump your way to a majority status.....that is hillarious.
and what about the hispanics mixing with those of european decent?
****************************
by EmpireGeorge______--,
Did you read about the latest poll where 19% of Hispanics Registered to vote support Mitt Romney? Are you telling me that this 19% group are Hispanics mixed with European decent?
Please clarify because I never heard of this category been critical in politic.
if I said "mixed" that would mean that it already happened..then your question would make sense......when I said "mixing" that means, it hasn't happened yet, but will happen, since it happens all the time.
and, hispanic woman, prefer men of european decent, according to them, hispanic males are too controlling, the fake machismo is a problem.
Obama just gutted Clintons signature welfare reform so one does not have to work. To be eligible you can say you gave a massage, or drove a friend on her errands, scooped your dogs poop.......the ridiculist goes on and on.
*********************************
Hey Barry-been-inhalin,
What is the name of the 'Bill' passed by Congress or Executive Order where Obama gutted Clintons signature welfare reform? A date will be fine.
One example, Food Stamps create dependency.....CaptainSmollett is right....who would want to get-off or stop the government giving me free food for doing nothing.....it's a cycle of dependency, and it's criminal.
***********************************
Amigo EmpireGeorge______--,
Are you saying Ex-House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich did not fix the Welfare including the Food Stamp program in his 'Contract with America' of 1995?