Black support high for Obama's race-neutral stance

[Number23]

"Black support high for Obama's race-neutral stance"

"In this banking center walloped by the Great Recession, where unemployment just hit a 20-year high and as many as one in three black people are out of work, blacks could easily be frustrated with President Barack Obama's insistence that a rising economic tide for all will lift African-American boats.

Yet despite surging discontent among some black advocates over Obama's refusal to specifically target rising black unemployment, it's hard to find average black folks here who disagree with the president's approach.

"He has been addressing the black agenda as far as health care, education, all that," said Tamera Gomillion, a bill collector who has been struggling to pay her own bills." "It took eight years to get into this mess, so it's going to take time to get us out," she said. "I voted for him, and I'll do it again."

...(The mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx) said Obama should get credit for many policies that helped blacks. "There are schools not closed, bellies that are not empty because of that support," he said. "People don't think about the disaster that didn't happen."

I know that a few folks in the black media have been screaming for Obama to craft a Black Agenda. And while I will certainly concede that the practices of slavery, Jim Crow, and institutionalized racism have created an environment in which black folks have to work five times harder in order to succeed, I personally agree with the folks in this article who state that by addressing jobs, the economy, the uninsured, racial discrepancies in prison sentencing etc., that Obama HAS effectively crafted a Black Agenda, and is just smart enough to not call it such.

The pragmatism and wisdom of black folks... God, I love it. :)

[Cha]

1. I agree with Tamera Gomillion. who is looking at the whole picture.

In your face Tavis.

[Number23]

2. Me too. Tavis has had his ass handed to him by so many people lately

that the platter he gets it served on is starting to rust.

You know, I'm waiting for the DUers who always act as though they have the best interests of the black community at heart when they repeatedly trash Obama to respond to this post. Will the words of actual regular black people be taken into consideration?? Stay tuned! :)

[tishaLA]

10. LOL the first thing I thought of was Tavis and his hucksterism

He needs to find a new enemy he can profess he loves.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Have you read this:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595581030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269139761&sr=8-1




From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama's political success and Oprah Winfrey's financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control (More African Americans are under correctional control today... than were enslaved in 1850). Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Most provocatively, she reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice: most Americans know and don't know the truth about mass incarceration—but her carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable book should change that. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Explosive debut…alarming, provocative and convincing.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Michelle Alexander’s brave and bold new book paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools. With dazzling candor, Alexander argues that we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow.“
—Lani Guinier, professor at Harvard Law School and author of Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice and The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy

“For every century there is a crisis in our democracy, the response to which defines how future generations view those who were alive at the time. In the 18th century it was the transatlantic slave trade, in the 19th century it was slavery, in the 20th century it was Jim Crow. Today it is mass incarceration. Alexander's book offers a timely and original framework for understanding mass incarceration, its roots to Jim Crow, our modern caste system, and what must be done to eliminate it. This book is a call to action.”
—Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP

“With imprisonment now the principal instrument of our social policy directed toward poorly educated black men, Michelle Alexander argues convincingly that the huge racial disparity of punishment in America is not the mere result of neutral state action. She sees the rise of mass incarceration as opening up a new front in the historic struggle for racial justice. And, she’s right. If you care about justice in America, you need to read this book!”
—Glenn C. Loury, economist at Brown University and author of The Anatomy of Racial Inequality and Race, Incarceration and American Values

“After reading The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander's stunning work of scholarship, one gains the terrible realization that, for people of color, the American criminal justice system resembles the Soviet Union's gulag---the latter punished ideas, the former punishes a condition.”
—David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer-prize winning historian at NYU and author of W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963

"We need to pay attention to Michelle Alexander's contention that mass imprisonment in the U.S. constitutes a racial caste system. Her analysis reflects the passion of an advocate and the intellect of a scholar."
—Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project, author of Race to Incarcerate

“A powerful analysis of why and how mass incarceration is happening in America, The New Jim Crow should be required reading for anyone working for real change in the criminal justice system.”
—Ronald E. Hampton, Executive Director, National Black Police Association

[Number23]

4. Nope. Thanks for posting

Related link from AAIG - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=258x9961

And from GD - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7004638

[Nikki Stone1]

5. You're welcome.

I think it makes the case that we need to really look at institutional racism from the highest levels.

[firedupdem]

6. K&R

Your last paragraph states what I feel perfectly.

[Number23]

7. Love ya, firedup

Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a society that was sophisticated and advanced enough so that Obama COULD openly create a Black Agenda without sending millions of people screaming off of cliffs?? Where the too-numerous-to-name inequities between blacks and whites in our culture (past and present) could be openly acknowledged and addressed?

One of the greatest fears from so many regarding Obama's presidency was that he would "even the score" for black people (as if this is even possible) so we know that the "grand society" we wish existed doesn't. And the Tavis's and MED's of this country know it as well as the rest of us. Their grandstanding on this is ridiculous and I'm glad that Rev. Al and so many others are calling them out on it.

[firedupdem]

8. love ya back sweetie!

My admiration for Rev. Al is at an all time high. Tavis and his buds have truly lost their minds. I've been visiting the weeseeyou blog and they have been doing a great job of calling him out as well.

President Obama can't darn near mention the word 'black' or 'african american' without people screaming now...we all know the hoopla made out of the 'beer summit'. Ridiculous pressure the man is under, and he's doing a damn good job of handling it.

Hope you're doing well...miss you much!

:hug:

[Cha]

13. Yes, Rev Al.. I saw

him in a pic at the signing of the Jobs Bill in the Rose Garden and had this "it's good to see him there" thought.:)

[angee_is_mad]

16. and that's the progressives

the wingnuts will spit on him. Just ask Congressman Cleaver.

God Bless America!!!

[FrenchieCat]

9. Did Tavis have his summit?

Cause it was showing as what was coming up on C-Span,
and instead they played Pres. Obama's brilliant speech....
for health care, of which of the 32 million, a much too large
portion are Black and Uninsured.

[Number23]

11. No idea!

I thought that it was canceled this year after everyone blasted Tavis for his Obama-hate, not to mention how commercial the event had become??

After he got his feelings hurt by Rev. Al on national radio, I think Tavis may be lying low for a while. :)

[FrenchieCat]

18. Naw, Tavis was on CNN tonight, with his Human shield, Dr. Cornel West......

He was dissing Obama, while Cornel West was giving him cover.
I wanted to scream at my Television, who do you think will benefit
from fucking health insurance subsidies, unemployment extension,
student loan revamps and Charter schools???

In the student Loan package, the Black historical Colleges are
getting like 150 million dollars, as well as the Negro college fund.

But NOoooo....Mr. Tavis wants him an Obama Black Agenda. :eyes:

Oh, on CNN (which was already on in my bedroom when I walked in)
they did show Sharpton calling Tavis, Hillary Clinton's waterboy! :rofl:

[Number23]

19. "Hillary Clinton's waterboy"

Damn! That's just WRONG. I'm blushing FOR Tavis! :blush:

Yeah, the info about the UNCF was a welcome bit of news and that was what, like two weeks ago?? I guess Tavis forgot all about that already. :eyes:

[angee_is_mad]

17. That damn Obama

won't crabvis, oops tavis a break, lol.

WeeSeeYou was going to do a live chat, but crabvis, oops tavis was bumped for President Obama. He had to settle for live stream on cspan.org. They are suppose to show the forum Monday night. But trust me, you didn't miss anything. The average age of the panelists were about 63.

Just wait for Sharpton's forum in April. The young turks like Warren Ballentine and Roland Martin will be participating.

[Number23]

20. Angee, what did the panel talk about??

[angee_is_mad]

21. couldn't watch it all

but from what WSY is saying (they're watching it over there) it's a lot of hateration going on.

I just waiting for Sharpton's forum where there will be a more diverse panel.

[Number23]

23. Just saw this, Frenchie. Apparently Tavis did have his summit

And guess who was there?? Your rep, Barbara Lee as well as Maxine Waters! I wonder when a transcript/video of this will be available??

http://www.csu.edu/convocationcenter/WeCount.htm

[TheBigotBasher]

12. Thank you yet again for another great post.

President Obama has inspired many many people, not just n America, but across the World. Sure there are difficulties, sure the great ship USA is slow to turn around, but it is turning and it is working. America, with the election of President Obama can hold its head up high on the World stage and for that I will always be a firm supporter of this great man.

[Number23]

14. "I will always be a firm supporter of this great man."

Couldn't agree more, BB. Until he gives me good reason to do otherwise, which he hasn't come close to doing yet. :fistbump:

[angee_is_mad]

15. Great post

K&R

[depakid]

22. Caught a similar article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/not-the-president-of-blacks-20100320-qn7t.html