You knew more was going to be coming from Barack Obama regarding black responsibility. The question is, was it a generational shift as media like CNN would like to make it out to be? or was it another Bill Cosby type of message to the poor? There are differing views on the matter.
I personally find it interesting that Barack Obama used the same venue as Bill Cosby did a few years ago when Cosby set off a national debate in a speech to the NAACP where he criticized poor blacks. Like Barack Obama, Cosby emphasized personal responsibility, or the lack of it.
Candidly I have few problems with much of what Barack Obama said at the NAACP convention, However, the problem is he appeared to be preaching through the NAACP to white voters with "code words" that white John McCain swing voters want to hear from a black man running for the presidency of the United States. As International social and political activist and blogger Francis L. Holland noted: "I know he's really speaking to white America as much as to Black America when he says we need to take more responsibility. What he's essentially saying, is "Stopy blaming whitey and do what you can do for yourselves," which is a useful message to Blacks and a very much welcomed and even rather conservative message among whites."
As reported by Yahoo News,, ERUWeb and Urban Mecca
Democrat Barack Obama insisted Monday that blacks must show greater responsibility for their actions. In remarks prepared for delivery at the annual NAACP convention, the man who could become the first black president said Washington must provide greater education and economic assistance, but that blacks must demand more of themselves.
"If we're serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives, our own families and our own communities," the Democrat said. "That starts with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework and setting a good example." Yahoo News.
Well folks, the problem I have with Barack Obama is the same problem Algernon Austin and Jared Bernstein had with Bill Cosby when they wrote in the article, Why Bill Cosby Is Wrong:
"For decades, scholars and opinion makers have been seduced by cultural explanations for economic problems. Recently, comedian Bill Cosby has caught the bug, leading him to inveigh against aspects of black culture he views as intimately linked to problems among African-Americans, from poverty to crime and incarceration.
Mr. Cosby is merely the latest and most visible in a long chain of cultural critics. Researcher Charles Murray (before turning to genetic explanations) and columnist Thomas Sowell have been making the "bad culture" argument about African-Americans for decades. David Brooks has a long-running column in The New York Times linking culture and economic outcomes.
"This work is misguided at best and destructive at worst.One key to the success of the cultural argument is the omission of inconvenient facts about social and economic trends. For example, people arguing that African-Americans are suffering from a culture of poverty stress that blacks are much more likely to be poor than whites. True, but this fact misses the most important development about black poverty in recent years: Its steep decline during the 1990s.
Black poverty fell 10.6 percentage points from 1993 to 2000 (from 33.1 to 22.5 percent) to reach its lowest level on record. Black child poverty fell an unprecedented 10.7 percentage points in five years (from 41.9 percent in 1995 to 31.2 percent in 2000).
The "culture of poverty" argument cannot explain these trends. Poor black people did not develop a "culture of success" in 1993 and then abandon it for a "culture of failure" in 2001.
What really happened was that in the 1990s, the job market finally tightened up to the point where less-advantaged workers had a bit of bargaining clout. The full-employment economy offered all comers opportunities conspicuously absent before or since. Since 2000, black employment rates have fallen much faster, and poverty rates have risen faster, than the average.
What this episode reveals is how we squander our human resources when slack in the economy yields too few decent employment opportunities for those who want to work.
Black poverty is only the most visible example. The "bad black culture" argument also overlooks positive trends in critical areas such as education, crime and teen pregnancy (pregnancy and birth rates among black teenagers are down 40 percent since 1990).
Those same critics are too dismissive of anti-black discrimination in the labor market. Mr. Cosby says black people use charges of discrimination to avoid dealing with their cultural failings. The Manhattan Institute's John H. McWhorter claims they "spit in the eye of [their] grandparents" when they say their lives are limited by racism. Journalist Juan Williams argues that poor black people are squandering opportunities opened up by the civil rights movement.
Yes, there are far more opportunities available to black Americans today, but the conclusion that racial discrimination is no longer a serious issue is simply not supported by the evidence."
AAPP: I'm not going as far as blogger Sugar N' Spice who rightfully or wrongfully, seems to have it out for Obama. I would just like to hear Obama talking more about the issues of poverty in America and our responsibility as a nation to address poverty. But I guess I would be... expecting too much to hear a major policy address on poverty. It won't make great political sense... right?
|
|
|
Permalink :: 17 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
