A Black President—Not Yet!—Maybe Never!

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Obama has cast himself as a civil rights successor. Speaking at the Union Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa, he said: “Society’s disparities between black and white remain as large as ever. We have inherited this opportunity from the Moses generation. I didn’t have to go to jail. I haven’t had my head beat in—haven’t had dogs and fire hoses set on me. So I’m benefiting from what the Moses generation did—- The question is whether the Joshuas among us are willing to stand up, are willing to be counted, are willing to vote, are willing to organize, are willing to mobilize, are willing to get going.”

Oprah Winfrey is certainly one of the most successful blacks in the country. She is a billionaire and a national figure in the entertainment industry. But, she has never involved herself in politics—until now. All of a sudden she is supporting a candidate for president with both money and personal appearances. She has turned the presidential campaign into an entertainment extravaganza. Why? Is it because he is black? Of course. She calls Obama’s run “a campaign in the long struggle of African-Americans for equality, drawing from Martin Luther King’s most famous civil rights speech.” She said “we don’t have to just dream the dream anymore, we get to vote that dream into reality.”

All of this raises at least two questions about Obama: Can a black person govern this country successfully? Will a black president fairly represent the white people in the country?

It is very difficult to understand the black community of today. It is especially difficult for an older person like myself who was around during the segregation era. Although blacks were clearly abused, they maintained a cohesive community, they insisted on a strong family structure, they worked hard, their children went to school with learning in mind, the standards were high, their churches were places of worship, and they did not go around with a chip on their shoulder. They had every reason to be a failed community, and they certainly had every reason to hate the white community. But they were a strong community, and there seemed to be little hate in their hearts.

Today, almost half a century after the successful civil rights movement, blacks have been elevated to a privileged position in society, with affirmative action and quotas that guarantee them jobs and positions in all elements of the society. Blacks fill elected offices all over the country. But, the community is in shambles, drugs and crime are pervasive, half of the young men are in prison, the family is almost extinct, the children go to school to resist learning because it is a “white thing,” the quality of education in the public schools has been degraded so as not to hurt the feelings of the underachieving black children, the welfare system is preferable to work, the churches have become places to plot revenge, and a hate for white people has become so intense that beatings and killings have become routine.

Obama says he wants to “change the world.” Will he start with his own community, or will he continue the blackmailing of white people for the answer? Blacks seem to be their own worst enemy. The more whites try to atone for past wrongs by helping the black community, the more blacks seem to be insistent on destroying their community—it almost seems that they are doing it for spite.

On the question of governing, if one looks around the country at the cities where blacks have become the dominate population and have been elected to govern, one finds, without exception, dangerous, social, educational and economic ghettos. Cities such as Detroit, St Louis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham all fit into this category, And, the worst of the lot is our nation’s capital. Washington, DC, which has been turned into a cesspool of corruption, mismanagement and wholesale theft.

The civil rights movement of the 60s initially was all about equal rights and opportunities for black people. However, over the pass half century, it has developed into something quite different. Although blacks have been given every advantage anyone can think of, and many blacks have succeeded very well, and are well established in the middle class—some are very rich—the black community, as a whole, still hangs on to the “victim” mentality. The help given by white people seems to have created animosity and seems to have given blacks a sense of authority and domination over the white community. {snip}

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Finally, there is no evidence that the black race in America has ever done anything for the good of the country—their only interest seems to be what they can get from the country. Blacks repeatedly say that they built this country when, in fact, they hoed the cotton and hauled the bricks. They not only did not build this country, they could not even sustain countries in Africa built by the Colonials and turned over to them. They’ve all been turned back into tribal conclaves.

As cited above Obama has clearly identified himself as a black man, and his career has been oriented toward fostering the interests of the black community. Black writer, John McWhorter says Obama’s election “would be a ringing symbol that racism no longer rules the land. President Obama might be, for instance, a substitute for that national apology for slavery that some consider so urgent.”

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If Obama follows the lead of all of the black people in the country in leadership roles and the culture of the core black community, and his background indicates he does, the answers to the two questions are obviously “NO” he cannot govern successfully, and “NO” he will not fairly represent white America.

Obama is clearly not “white enough.”