The first black president of the United States cannot credibly govern without a national black agenda. But don’t depend on him to front it.
For the last 22 months, Sen. Barack Obama had one priority: getting elected.
Black progressives have a different, urgent mission: to put meat on the bones of a black economic and social compact.
It’s payback time. [...]
Obama knows that if black people allow parochial and self-interested operators to nibble away at his ankles, black America will be the biggest loser.
But the conversation is long overdue.
Obama’s dodge around race was exquisitely choreographed. Practically the only black concerns he has addressed are his weak nod to affirmative action and his stump-speech admonishments to wayward black fathers and that trifling “Cousin Pookie” — a name he often referenced in his speeches to black audiences. [...]
Black progressives need to now lay out an agenda. Start with equitable educational opportunities for African Americans. Fifty-four years after Brown v. Board of Education, black schoolchildren are still relegated to the bottom of the educational opportunity barrel [...]
We as african americans need to understand that Pres. Obama is not the President of the black community. He is the President of the United States. That means he has the reasonability to look out for everyone. We also need to understand, a lot of the things we want him to do, he does hot have the power to do. The President does not run the country, congress does.
We as african americans need to understand that Pres. Obama is not the President of the black community. He is the President of the United States. That means he has the reasonability to look out for everyone. We also need to understand, a lot of the things we want him to do, he does hot have the power to do. The President does not run the country, congress does.