by Here’s an example of why it’s great to have Barack Obama in the presidential primaries:
“There are a lot of men out there who need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child”
…
“Too many black men simply cannot afford to raise a family — and too many have made the sad choice not to,” Obama said. “A fatherless household takes its toll. Children who grow up without a father … are five times more likely to live in poverty and nine times more likely to drop out of school”
Two points are immediately obvious. First, no other major candidate could say this and live to tell the tale, politically speaking. Not Hillary, not Richardson, and certainly no one in the Republican party.
Second, Obama is right on the money. Blacks are failing their children at an extraordinary rate and it’s largely – but not exclusively the fault of the male gansta mentality.
Ultimately more black Americans have to move themselves beyond the dream-limiting mindset of victimization. If Obama was to win the presidency I wonder if his victory could be the blow that shatters the myth that blacks cannot succeed in America. I think it could, although young black males – the very people who need Obama to succeed the most – are likely to reject him because of his success.
I wish him luck. Win, lose, or draw, all Americans will benefit from having had a mainstream black candidate in the race because the truth has to be spoken before it can be acknowledged for what it is and addressed.
If I were a Democrat, I’d be looking hard at Obama as my candidate of choice.
“Ultimately more black Americans have to move themselves beyond the dream-limiting mindset of victimization.”
I would agree with you on that, and it is too bad that white liberal pundits like Craig Hines can’t seem to get this message also. He uses his June 17 Chronicle opinion piece to write about some phony debate on issuing apologies for slavery. There is no debate over slavery being anything other than completely unacceptable, at least among people with any intelligence. So while wringing statements of apology from the Alabama statehouse might assuage his guilty conscience, it will provide virtually no benefit to the average black person in America.
To me the push for an apology for the enslavement of blacks simply reeks of a money-grab. Conceptually I have no problem with saying, “We’re sorry.” Whites, on the whole, are sorry for it, I think.
But such words could barely be uttered by the federal government before Sharpton, et al, would be lining up to get into court and start demanding reparations.
Slavery is a national embarrassment. There’s no denying that. But it’s also utterly irrelevant to today’s society.
What is relevant is a culture that’s seemingly devoid of respect for intellectual achievement and individual responsibility.
Drugs, crime, illegitimacy – in one generation all of that could be turned around if the right leadership existed in the black community.
Is Obama that person?
Slavery has also been gone from the US for over 150 years now. There comes a point in time when you have to move on. All that the reparations argument comes down to is a call for the gov’t to give people money and thus further entrench the role of the gov’t as provider by buying their votes.
As for Obama being that person…I doubt it. He doesn’t want to really change things. He still wants “progressive” taxes that ensure that the lowest incomes pay negative taxes. He still wants to keep the SSI system in its current form instead of allowing for families to partially privatize it and pass on that wealth. He still wants to raise the minimum wage so that fewer jobs exist and thus more need public assistance. He still wants minorities to get preferential treatment so that they never have to work as hard to get the same thing.