Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Could an Obama Presidency Hurt Blacks?

TwitThis



I don't do reactionary. At least I try not to. Its draining tiresome and 
I think it predisposed your body for fatal diseases.

So, when I read the paper, I think about the way that I am perceiving
information, especially when it is in the news about African Americans.

Why wouldn't Obama's support of a negro agenda fall under the
guise of change?

Why couldn't Obama support a anti poverty agenda, that is 
necessarily targeted towards Blacks but all low income folks? 
Wasn't that the Bobby K. Plan? What Matt has implied, yet DID not 
state overtly is that Obama will have to move with fear of being 
accused by Middle Class Whites of favorite Low Income Blacks.

Matt Bai
writes,
The argument here is that a President Obama, closely watched for signs of parochialism or racial resentment, would have less maneuvering room to champion spending on the urban poor, say, or to challenge racial injustice. What’s more, his very presence in the Rose Garden might undermine the already tenuous case for affirmative action in hiring and school admissions. Obama himself has offered only tepid support for a policy that surely helped enable him to reach this moment. In “The Audacity of Hope,” he wrote: “Even as we continue to defend affirmative action as a useful, if limited, tool to expand opportunity to underrepresented minorities, we should consider spending a lot more of our political capital convincing America to make investments needed to ensure that all children perform at grade level and graduate from high school — a goal that, if met, would do more than affirmative action to help those black and Latino children who need it the most.”
Matt goes on to argue that the visibility of Obama as a THE black men,
will arguably make the lives of the incarcerated, undereducated,
 underemployed Black men FURTHER invisible?
Then there are the issues that Ben Jealous and others might raise: black men incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white men, black joblessness more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans. Just talking about such disparities as systemic problems could be harder for an African-American president — for any African-American, really — than it was before. “If Obama is president, it will no longer be tenable to go to the white community and say you’ve been victimized,” Artur Davis told me. “And I understand the poverty and the condition of black America and the 39 percent unemployment rate in some communities. I understand that. But if you go out to the country and say you’ve been victimized by the white community, while Barack Obama and Michelle and their kids are living in the White House, you will be shut off from having any influence.”
When does one Black man's experience negate the lives of 800
thousand others? (There are 800 thousand Black man in prison, many
for non violent drug offenses).

So basically, we will be told "You have your Black President, now go
shut up
?"

Obama's presidency as an accelerator of White Middle Class apathy?

Where is the change in this? What agenda, if any, is Matt pushing here?

If this is the case then WE NEED to put faces on our stat's otherwise
our children are going to perish and/or turn on us, and what will 
have have to say to them in the end?

4 comments:

fortyoneacres said...

I'm beginning to hear this argument a lot and I can see what Matt is talking about. But I disagree to the point that I think the opposite. Yes if Obama does become president, then yippy. We, as African Americans, will have ONE African American president. But one out of 43? Not good stats. We need to do better...and I think an Obama in the White House will bring more questions to light.

Like African Americans have brought one man as a serious contender for President? What is not working in their community? And further more I think an Obama in the White House will further to inspire African Americans to work harder. No longer can we say we can't do this or we can't do that. Because America has selected an African American to lead it to a new future. What's more inspiring to a young black man then seeing someone that looks like him in the highest position in the land?

For a lighter view check this link...
Larry Wilmore's Thoughts

M.Dot. said...

B. I am going to push you a bit here.

And further more I think an Obama in the White House will further to inspire African Americans to work harder. No longer can we say we can't do this or we can't do that. Because America has selected an African American to lead it to a new future.
====
One could also say, "He ain't me, I didn't go to Harvard, he had more opportunities"....Blar, Blar, Blar,....true changes starts from the inside. Not out. From the inside its sustainable.

From the out...external motivators ALWAYS let you down.

Imma check out Larry....and correct my typos:(

Anonymous said...

“What Matt has implied, yet DID not
state overtly is that Obama will have to move with fear of being
accused by Middle Class Whites of favorite Low Income Blacks.”

Obama has been doing this, with extreme deftness, sense day one. In most of mainstream society the truth is seen as favoritism, so utilized his immense skill set to overly appease the majority of both often conflicting constituencies

“his very presence in the Rose Garden might undermine the already tenuous case for affirmative action in hiring and school admissions”

It will to some extent, but that is only if we fall to the pressure of ascribing to the zero sum.”He did it, so anybody can do it” illogic, that many feel applies in each and every case regardless of circumstances.


“if limited, tool to expand opportunity to underrepresented minorities, we should consider spending a lot more of our political capital convincing America to make investments needed to ensure that all children perform at grade level and graduate from high school — a goal that, if met, would do more than affirmative action to help those black and Latino children who need it the most.”

I can’t argue with Obama about this, for its about as good as we are going to get in present day America. Of course it would not provide the drastic aid and rearrangement needed in school systems and structures in need of dire improvement, but if couched in the right vernacular it could proverbially sucker White America in to co-signing measures that will help hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Black and Brown youth.


“If Obama is president, it will no longer be tenable to go to the white community and say you’ve been victimized,”

Once again we Gotta call out mainstream society on there illogical b.s
We are a very short sighted socity that loves to jump quick and easy to accept conclusions, we must fight the inherent intellectually laziness within us.

“(There are 800 thousand Black man in prison, many
for non violent drug offenses)”

Wow….that is just crazy to ponder about for a min.

“If this is the case then WE NEED to put faces on our stat's otherwise
our children are going to perish and/or turn on us, and what will
have have to say to them in the end?”

Hopefully that we didn’t sell them out for racial symbolism .


We are presently at the same juncture that we usually always are every four years, a pragmatic fork in the road. Going against my true political leanings Obama is going to get my vote, but I just hope that millions don’t use his ascension to bolster their false beliefs.

Also .

I would suggest listing to this interview

http://will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters080224.mp3

of Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, he speaks on a lot of the same issues you just hit.

M.Dot. said...

Man. I think your comment is longer than my post.

Hi.

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