The day
after it was reported that eighty two people had
been shot- sixteen of them killed- in the president’s hometown of Chicago,
he immediately sprang into action, requesting almost four billion dollars from
Congress to deal with a humanitarian emergency.
Unfortunately, the emergency that concerned him was that of undocumented
children crossing the border into the United States.
November,
2008 was more than magical. The
impossible happened. We were blessed
with a new “shining black prince” as Nikki
Giovanni had christened the great Malcolm X. Barak Hussein Obama became president and he was one of us! Grown men –like me-wept openly in the streets. Obama became the embodiment of all our hopes
and dreams and he was one of us.
Throughout his first term, we
steadfastly supported him in the face of criticism that he had done nothing for
the Black community. We saw Obama under
attack from the Right wing bigots of the Republican Party and from jealous Negros
on the Left. My response to criticism from
within the African American community? “He
doesn’t have the political capitol to do much for Black and poor people right
now. They don’t even want him to help
the middle class! Give him time. When his second term comes, we’ll see what he
can do.”
Yet, even as we staunch supporters
backed him, there were signs- cracks in the foundation- that maybe all was not
well with our new “black prince.” Black
men vicariously felt our manhood being stomped upon when he readily capitulated
on the single payer provision of the Affordable Care Act. We felt even more emasculated when he allowed
the treacherous Joe
Lieberman to retain his committee chairmanship after Lieberman ran to the
Republican Party and endorsed the lies they told about Obama. We began to see that Obama was tone deaf to
the Black community; that he was more concerned with appeasing the Republicans
(who could not be appeased) than with helping the African American
community. Back on October, 2011, I
wrote a blog on Accepting the real Obama in which I wrote:
I was all set to chide the
progressives, not for racism, but for their lack of pragmatism, when the tape
of Obama exhorting a Black audience (including the Congressional Black Caucus) to “Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching
shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. ” was
aired. I was stunned by how
completely inappropriate and inauthentic Obama’s performance was. How dare the man who had listened so
patiently to all of the complaining, grumbling and crying from his right wing
adversaries have the nerve to say this to the least complaining and most
hurting of all Americans, the African Americans? How much time had he spent
in the Black community, as president, before
making these outrageous comments? Where
had he marched for us? The cluelessness of Obama’s
exhortation (he was trying to inspire, probably called himself taking a page
from Bill Cosby) forced a quasi-epiphany: It’s time to accept Obama for what he
is, not what we had hoped he would be.
We began hearing a tiny voice from Obama whispering, I’m only one of you when I need your votes.
Then
came his re election. Unfettered by
worries about being elected again, he would be freer to support the African
American community. He immediately named a cabinet that was
utterly devoid of diversity to the point that he was criticized by the media
because of it. How embarrassing for our black prince!
Obama has heaped high
praise after high praise on Ronald
Reagan. Yes, the same Racist Ronald Reagan who was pro-Apartheid;
blamed all of America’s economic ills on imaginary black welfare cheats, and
praised fellow racist, Jesse Helms when he, Reagan was forced to sign the King
Holiday bill into law. The nagging
feeling got even stronger that maybe Obama wasn’t just trying to appease white
folks. Maybe he really does admire Racist Ronald Reagan. That
tiny voice isn’t so tiny anymore and it’s no longer whispering. I am
not really one of you!
I could go on, but I believe the point has been
made. Obama declaring the Central
American children immigration issue an emergency while ignoring the carnage of
African Americans in his hometown was a true slap in the face. Yet we had indications that we were in for a
rude awakening for some time now. We
have to learn that we can support a politician while holding his feet to the
fire at the same time. While Obama seeks
to cement his legacy with the white community, let us hope that the historians
from the black community will document his shortcomings as well. We must let it be known that there will be
consequences for the next one who comes along and, after getting our votes,
declares: I am not really one of you!
williamgriggs.net
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