The Black Liberal Boomer Blog



This shouldn't take long.

By now you may have seen the stories about how Professor Cornel West and consumer advocate Ralph Nader have decided to join forces to mount a possible Democratic presidential primary challenge to President Obama. Both are essentially recognized as professional dissidents who have proclaimed themselves as the keepers of the progressive flame. In other words, ain't nobody else righteous and correct 'cept them. Together they exude an aura of moral purity so powerful it is known to singe the very skin of all nearby bystanders who are not sufficiently progressive (for further clarification on what is and/or is not considered sufficiently progressive, please address your comments to either one of the Twins).

Anyway, fresh off his poverty bus tour with Tavis Smiley where Smiley and West rode around the country pointing at areas of poverty and saying "Look. There it is. Somebody tell Obama," West now has apparently found himself another twin and is now effectively stepping up his game and bigfooting his way into the political arena. Nader, of course, has  traveled this way before more than once. Together Nader and West hope to draw attention to the fact (well... not actually fact) that Obama has been ignoring black folks and other constituencies and issues in dire need of his attention throughout his presidency. The Twins have no illusion of actually gaining any traction in the primary, but the warmth and adulation of the spotlight is expected to make it worth their while. Especially for Nader who has been...damn... where the hell has Nader been?

Well, can't say as I know where the man's been, but I can pass along a few things he's been saying about Obama (courtesy ofAngry Black Lady):

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

...and then...

“He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.

So given the certainty that the twins don't have even the whiff of a shot at victory in the primary, and given the likelihood that the odd couple pairing of an aging - and once-upon-a-time greatly respected - consumer rights advocate and a pissed off black intellectual aren't going to be attracting much more  attention other than the occasional curious media attraction generated by most freak shows, one does have to wonder what the point of this game really is. 

Oh. Right. The betterment of America.

California Rep. Maxine Waters has every right to be frustrated with President Barack Obama if that's the way she feels, and she obviously has every right to voice that frustration as loudly and as publicly as she wants. Same goes for Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, who recently launched their poverty tour to highlight poverty in the U.S. which, apparently, Obama either knows or cares nothing about. Especially when it comes to black people. If Smiley and West honestly believe that launching these attacks on Obama during his re-election campaign is the smartest way to chart a course towards a better Black America, and if they actually believe what they're saying, then fine. Do it. Whatever makes you feel like you're contributing to the common good.

I may disagree with them violently - and believe me I do - but I would never take issue with their right to make their point in whatever way they think will get that point across.

But here's the thing that does bother me about all this; it's the underlying (or maybe not so underlying) assumption that Obama just isn't taking black suffering seriously. In a very real sense, it's going back to one of the earliest criticisms Obama faced during his 2008 campaign, namely that he just wasn't 'black enough'. He hadn't lived or experienced life as most American blacks had, largely because he had grown up in these 'weird' places like Hawaii and Indonesia. Plus he had a white mother and and African - not African American - father. So how could Obama really be in touch with the brothers and sisters in the street? Of course, when it came out that he had been a member of the church of Rev. Jeremiah 'God damn America' Wright, then overnight Obama went from being an Oreo cookie to a black bag full of charcoal. So black that even his shadow destroyed all evidence of light.

But moving right along, Waters was here in Detroit a few days ago as part of a forum sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. The only article I could find on the visit was from Fox News, so I'm taking this with a grain of salt, but still it is worth paying attention to what Waters said at this meeting, where she essentially asked permission of black folk to go after Obama with a blowtorch. Realizing that Obama still has a high rating of approval among most black voters, and that black voters are a key element of his base, Waters figured she was being smart to make sure black folks said it was OK for her and other members of the Black Caucus to go after a brother who happens to be president. Because she doesn't want them chastising her and the CBC once they launch their attack.

From Fox News:

U.S. House Rep. Maxine Waters is asking black voters who are struggling with an unemployment ratenearly twice the national average to "unleash" her and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus on President Obama.

The California Democrat, speaking at a raucous town hall in Detroit hosted by the CBC on Tuesday, said she doesn't want to attack the president from his base unless the base gives her the go-ahead.

"If we go after the president too hard, you're going after us," Waters said. "When you tell us it's all right and you unleash us and you're ready to have this conversation, we're ready to have the conversation."

The article goes on to say:

Waters said the Congressional Black Caucus "loves" the president, but it is frustrated.

"We're getting tired y'all," she said. "We want to give him every opportunity. But our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. ... When you let us know it is time to let go, we'll let go."

The public outcry came amid several efforts to amp up minority voters. The CBC is on a five-city "For the People Jobs Initiative" this month.

And then...

Obama is at the end of his three-day bus tour through the Midwest in which he emphasized his prescription for the nation's economic woes. He announced on the tour that after Labor Day he will deliver what is being billed as a major speech on job creation and deficit reduction.

At her town hall meeting, Waters questioned why Obama hasn't gone to any black neighborhoods during his bus tour.

"We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black communities," she said.

And finally, there was this piece from Time magazine where Waters got into more detail in her own words about why she, and other members of the CBC, feel it is important to start going after the president at this point in time:

Your jobs tour came about the same time as President Obama’s tour of three Midwestern states. What’s the takeaway from his trip?

Ours had been planned for weeks. We didn’t know anything about theirs. The president has a style of doing these town hall meetings and talking with people about their concerns, and responding. He went to several states where the unemployment rate was better than the rest of the nation – 6% in Iowa, for instance. He took resources. Take a look at the rural initiative. He committed about $510 million to the production of bio-fuels. Now, we like that kind of approach, and we think it should be used in urban areas.

In what way? What are some specific things the president can do for urban communities?

He was able to connect things they produce and invest in it in some way. We’d love to have concentrated investment for the manufacturing of solar panels, or some of the green jobs we talk about, in cities. We’d love to have investment in small- and minority-owned banks to help expand and create jobs. One thing we could do that would create jobs is find a way to help groups to buy up all the properties that are boarded up. Fix those properties and put them back on the market. It would serve a lot of purposes, providing jobs and housing. There’s a need for infrastructure development, whether it’s your roads and bridges and water systems. Our schools need to be invested in. These classes these kids are going to school in, they’re in awful shape.

There are folks who’ll argue there are limits to what a black president from Chicago’s South Side can do for certain parts of his base. What do you say to that?

He targeted rural communities. Why not urban? What I’ve learned in this political scenario is that somehow, ‘agriculture’ and ‘rural’ is more honorable than ‘urban.’ I don’t know how that kind of feeling and attitude developed.

How concerned are you that issues of particular importance to blacks – short- and long-term solutions to the employment and education crises, for example, are being left out of the conversation?

A lot of this publicity I’m getting around what I said in Detroit has to do with putting us–blacks–back in the conversation. It’s asking African Americans, ‘Do you want to be in the conversation?’ It seems to me, based on some of the reaction, that you don’t want to be in the conversation. You tell the Congressional Black Caucus, ‘Why don’t you get the president to do this, or that?’ You want us to do something about the conditions in the neighborhood. Black Caucus members determined some time ago that any criticism of the president caused a backlash. In Detroit, that’s what I pointed out – the contradiction. That’s when I said, ‘when are you going to unleash us to get into the conversation?’ It was a new way of dealing with a political reality, which doesn’t get dealt with publicly often enough.

I will  honestly say that Waters is not being wild-eyed Tea Party crazy when she makes these accusations, and there is some definite basis for her concern. Same for Tavis and Dr. West.  There is no way around the fact that the black unemployment rate is so much higher than the national average, and that black people - as always - are confronting far more severe circumstances on the whole than whites or just about any other group except maybe Native Americans. It is not out of line when looking at statistics like these to demand special attention be given to address these very special emergency circumstances. And Black America is, by any definition, in a state of extreme emergency. Also, strategically speaking,  it is hardly shocking that they would choose to target Obama during his re-election campaign because, well, when else would be a better time to get his attention? And finally, I will grant Waters the point that Obama definitely should include some inner city areas on his tour, if they haven't  already been inserted into the schedule. It's pretty hard to defend why he would show up in a cornfield but not at a housing project. Or even a rural area where the poor folks are black.

So I get it.

But here's the thing I think  Waters, West, and Smiley are still missing: a close look at Obama's accomplishments and policy initiatives will show that he has already done a lot to address some of the major concerns of Black America. Sure, he didn't label any of those accomplishments as 'This One's For You, Brothers and Sisters', but they still got the job done. For example we can start with the health care initiative. We can debate the pluses and minuses of the plan for however long, including what its prospects are longterm, but the fact remains that he is the first president to push the ball this far down the road. And I would challenge anybody to say that improving healthcare in America will not in any way benefit African Americans, because given the health issues our community is dealing with, I'd say health care is rather critical. Then we can go to Obama's rescue of the Big Three auto companies, which are now rehiring. Quite a few black folks working in those auto factories. And then there was the expansion of the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children. I don't believe all those children were white. For a very long and comprehensive list of other Obama accomplishments - or of policy issues he is at least working hard to address - click here.

In other words, just because the man doesn't create race-specific legislation designed specifically for African Americans doesn't mean he has forgotten all about us. Is there more that could be done? Sure. Probably so. But the same could be said for the rest of the country. Because he is, after all, as comedian Steve Harvey pointed out, the President of the United States of America, "He ain't the president of the 'hood." And furthermore, given the volatile nature of the current political climate, and Obama being the first African American president, he would damned near get lynched if he even breathed any intent of trying to do something special for black folks. Believe it. Is that fair? Of course not. But this is America, and we've been here for awhile, so we should kinda know the way the game is played by now.

And it's not like this hasn't been pointed out before, as if this is some sort of new ground to say that Obama has to be careful how he plays his hand. But sometimes I think certain folks need to be reminded of that, and also of what he has already done and is still trying to do against near impossible odds. You wanna call me an Obama apologist? Swell. Have at it. Whatever makes you feel good. But I would rather go to my grave knowing I did everything I could to support the brother, acknowledging that he does not walk on water and needs correction and admonishment just like all other humans, than to leave this world knowing that when we finally got a black president I was one of the first to volunteer and help the Tea Party tighten the rope around his neck. And I don't want to look back in retrospect 30 years from now and say, "Damn, you know, he really was a pretty damn good president after all." And yes, I do believe history will judge him well. But I want Obama to get his props now, not after he's dead. I'll leave it to others to take pride in being righteous critics.

No, I am not saying never, ever criticize the president. Absolutely not. Everybody needs and deserves criticism, and he is no different. Obama needs to hear from us when he's doing good and when he's not doing so good. But there is a difference between criticizing someone and shoving them over a cliff.