President Obama may be a convenient target for our frustration, but he is not the true cause of it. (Source: White House)
How soon we forget. Less than three years ago, America was facing economic disaster—a mortgage crisis, the collapse of our financial markets, the crippling of our auto industry—that could easily have resulted in a new Great Depression. A hopeful nation chose President Barack Obama to lead us through the peril and restore confidence in our ability to not only survive, but restore economic security and return America to greatness as a global leader among nations.
Now, only two years later, many of us are angry, frustrated because economic relief has been too slow in coming for too many people. The target of much of our dissatisfaction today is the same person who we invested our hopes only a short while ago: President Barack Obama. If we’re not careful, that frustration will be turned to our own destruction and suffering for our nation with the upcoming mid-term elections.
The distress is real and legitimate. First, people of all races and economic backgrounds are continuing to suffer as a result of an economy that continues to struggle. Too many people can’t find jobs, hold on to their homes, or even maintain a secure standard of living.
Second, people, again regardless of their race, economic background or even their political leanings, are extremely disappointed with our legislative leaders. With the Democrats controlling both the House and the Senate and the Republicans doing their best to block their agenda, nothing is getting done.
And finally, there’s the truth that everyone knows, but nearly everyone pretends not to: Despite what the election of Barack Obama to the presidency says about how far America had progressed as a nation, there are still people who just cannot get past the issue of race. They still can’t bring themselves to respect a black man, even if he is the President of the United States, regardless of his policies and actions. For example, prior to the election of President Obama, who could have imagined parents literally keeping their kids home from school to prevent them from listening to a back-to-school address from a sitting U.S. President encouraging them to study hard and make the most of their educations?
President Obama has become the target of frustration from people who are truly suffering and disappointed with how long it is taking to bring about the recovery and restore a sense of economic security. He is being blamed despite the fact that he inherited this mess; he didn’t create it. As much as we hate to hear it, no president can undo in two years the negative consequences of a decade of destructive economic decisions and bad policies.
Despite how displeased we are with the slow pace of economic recovery, we cannot allow that dissatisfaction to be used to derail President Obama’s agenda after only two years of his administration. No matter how much we are suffering now, it can only get worse, not better, if we allow our frustrations to cripple President Obama’s effectiveness after only two years in office, destroying the promise of his policies before they have a chance to bear fruit.
It is critical that we continue to support President Obama through next week’s mid-term elections and beyond. As much as Americans are suffering with the slowness of economic recovery, if progress is stalled, or worse, undone, it could return us to the brink of economic disaster—the brink that the President deserves credit for pulling us back from during the first two years of his administration.
Earl G. Graves Sr. is the Founder, Chairman and Publisher of Black Enterprise
I have so much to say on this issue, I don’t even know where to start. I’ll try and be brief.
1. I believe the President and his team have worked miracles in preventing another great depression. Just look at how they expeditiously dealt with various parties (unions, bondholders, dealers) to cut a deal that allowed GM/Chryler to come out of bankruptcy in one month. When we did cases on the domestic automakers in my MBA classes in the early eighties, it always ended with…it would not work because the unions, dealers, bondholders, etc. would not give in. Yet they overcame these severe obstacles in a short period of time and restored that industry towards long term profitability.
2.Unfortunately, democrats are not good at promoting their good deeds. They leave it up to the GOP to characterize its negative aspects. For instance, only 10% of the taxpayers realize that they received a taxcut last year from the stimulus (i.e., making work pay credit). Compare their approach to tax relief to Bush’s who sent letters first to taxpayers, followed by a check ($300/$600). 3. The electorate is perplexing and the GOP knows it. They assume that the electorate is ‘dump’ and must be told how to think. On the other hand, the Dems assume that the electorate is smart and do not need to be told.
4. The Prez should not be commenting on socially divisive issues (e.g., arrest of Gates, Ground zero mosque). It just creates materials for his detractors to energize their supporters. 5. While I understand the rationale for speeding up legislation, in retrospect it created anxiety among businesses and everyone.
As I studied Grave’s essay I scoured it hoping that I would find something on which we could agree other than the fact that as he states it, “the distress is real and legitimate.” But I had no success there. Not everyone invested their hopes in Obama to lead us out of the economic morass. Many believe that it is as inane to think that the national economy can be shepherded back to prosperity by borrowing and spending money frivolously as it would be to go deeper in debt to buy stuff when we have lost our job to stimulate our own personal economy.
Graves stated that while the Democrats controlled the house, senate and White House the Republicans blocked his agenda. Please, somebody, help me understand how with majorities in each of those bodies could the Republican block anything? But the fact is, Obama was very successful is pushing through many of his agenda items. Let us not forget a trillion healthcare package, nearly trillion dollar feckless stimulus package, bailout of the auto industry, cap and trade legislation passed in the housed, bank bailouts, financial reform and I could go on and on. The problem for Obama and the Democrats is that what they did pass was against the will of the majority. Evidence of this is illustrated by the poor poll number of those agenda items and the fact that none of the Democrats is running on the items they passed.
In the interest of brevity, I will address one final point. The issue of Obama being disrespected because he is a black man is relevant how? Obama received 44% of the white vote and he won with a total of 53% of all votes cast. No squeaker there. Clearly he could not have won if he’d garnered 100% of the black vote without massive white support. So it was clearly the white vote that put him over. But now I’m confused. If the dissatisfaction with Obama is related to his being a black man to any degree, will someone tell me what race all of those white supporters thought he was at the time that they voted for him. I suspect that the dissatisfaction is more related to his hard left policies.
Amen Bill. When you spend a trillion dollars and it doesn’t work, it’s on you. This is not Bush’s fault.
So Naysayers, where would we be had our President NOT passed the healthcare bill, bailed out auto companies and banks, etc. The fact of the matter is that if you are not going help the President make improvements or disagree with his ideas, bring something valid to the table that the President, House and Senate can agree on. I’m so sick of opinions/criticisms and no solutions. God Bless President Obama for wanting to even put up with our country.
There is a whole comprehensive strategy for moving forward in the right direction–easily available on the internet–coutresy of Paul Ryan: http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/
It remains to be seen if Republicans will have the courage to follow the map… This agenda is needed if American businesses are expected to hire (right now they aren’t hiring even when they need people) which is necessary for the economy to improve–no jobs, no improvement. Obama is so anti-business and has created a situation of such uncertainty, the whole economy is in gridlock.
Hope the WAVE that’s coming on Tuesday actually sweeps in some people willing to do the hard work/pay the political price of telling people the HARD things they have to do to save the country/undo the massive damage Obama has done to their pocketbooks and their rights.
i do agree with GOP when they said allow the economy to fix it self. by that i mean we should have let the big banks fail and big auto fail also. it would have allowed for new competitors and innovation of technology to take over. when dealing with old money sometimes it’s time to trade it in for fresh new bills. America is not being fare to the President and his staff is not worth a damn. any body that went pass the first grade should understand, you could not correct in 2 years that which had been done wrong in 10 years. The main purpose for President Obama was to diffuse a lot of the hatred and resentment the rest of the would has for us. I would not have even thought to assume he was going to fix our financial woes in such a small amount of time. Black America mainly should understand this. the rest of America, although they refuses to except his leadership know his presence now is saving them as well.
I agree Houston. However I wish African American people would stop kidding themselves and admit that they voted purely on race and not on accomplishments or qualifications. Nearly no on knew of Obama before the presidential race. Now if people are dissatisfied they should look within themselves and see why voting with your “heart” is not better than voting with your head.
You wanted him …You got him. Live with it!
I’m going to post my earlier comment here, because it applies equally to this post. Before doing so, I would like to first mention the following:
1. I think it’s interesting that Black editors continue to claim that the reason BLACK VOTERS are frustrated with this present administration is simply because the change isn’t coming soon enough. This is not the reason. We’re frustrated because we voted overwhelmingly for a candidate (97 percent of the Black vote), campaigned for him, donated to his campaign, and int he end, said Black president has IGNORED the Black constituency that was instrumental in putting him in office…and his insulting excuse – “he’s everyone’s president” – simply means that when we vote for a Black president, he can’t do anything in our interests, for fear of seeming biased; while a white president can do everything in the interest of whites without fear of seeming biased. What does this mean? That such excuses are NONSENSE.
2. This article is in a Black magazine, yet you’re telling us about how “people of all races” are suffering. PLEASE!! Our concern is for our people. The Black demographic has suffered disproportionately as a result of this recession and yet we’re being told to think about how everyone else is suffering??? This outrageous. We want to know how WE as Black people are going to be able to emerge from this economy in one piece. Why are you speaking to us about how everyone is suffering (less)?? Also, why did you not mention that black people are suffering disproportionately in this economy??
3. I think the reason editors here keep reducing our frustrations to simply “this economy isn’t rebounding fast enough” is because the REAL ISSUE – this president and his administration is ignoring Black voters – is something that you cannot explain, debate, justify, or argue. So it’s easier to claim we’re frustrated over how “slow” the economic recovery is because that’s something you can debate and explain. But you CANNOT explain or justify this administration’s deaf ear towards the Black voter demographic. This is why BE and other Black editors are not touching on the real reason for our outrage.
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With all due respect Mr. Graves:
“…many of us are losing faith, tired and frustrated by the lack of improvement in our economic situations.” In fact, many of us have lost faith because Obama has completely ignored the Black voter demographic, coming to us only when it’s time for an election. Ironically, nothing has been said about the candidates, but everything has been said about how we should support Obama, by voting.
Many of us are tired of being the democratic party’s cash cow – the reliable Black vote that they need not work for. WHAT are they going to finally do for us to help our situation?? He has put forth commissions and incentives for women hurt in this economy, but has ignored us, relying on mere symbolic moves to satiate us – visiting an African-American Holocaust dungeon in Ghana…shaking the hand of a Black security guard in the UK….visiting an HBCU. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS AND HUMILIATING!!
He then proceeds to cut 85 million dollars in funding from our HBCUs. He refuses to provide us with legislation/financial relief to help the worst-suffering of all Americans in this current economy – with the ridiculous notion that he being “the president of all of the United States” means that you suddenly now stop addressing the needs and concerns of various facets of your demographic.
As if politics were never quid pro quo. PLEASE!
We voted for him overwhelmingly in this past election, 97 percent, and for what?? To be completely ignored by him and have funding cut from our universities.
And now, because he says so, we’re supposed to carry ourselves back to the polls to vote in HIS interest?! I don’t think so!
I’ve voted all my life since being old enough to do so. I felt adamant about my obligation to use the right my ancestors died for.
But now?? For the first time, after this guy’s shenanigans, I feel the situation is absolutely hopeless there. These people don’t respond to votes and moral values. They respond to money and race, and that’s it! I won’t be voting for him, or anyone else in this election or the next. I’m done with them!
I will love to see these comments in mainstream America newsletters and media outlets. The comments prove to me that Blacks are just as racist as anyone else. Their concern is their own people and not the country as a whole. Blacks have suffered for nearly 40 plus years due to the Democrats and their social programs such as the welfare system.
Blacks could change their “destiny” set up by the Democrats nearly 40 something years ago… but refuse to believe in themselves instead they keep voting the same corrupt people in year after year. The same people that have put them in misery and help destroyed the black families. Fatherless babies, destruction of the black families thanks to the welfare system initiated by the Democrats. Blacks are the only ones that continue crying for Government help while everyone else try to think of ways to make it own their own. By that I mean REALLY on their own. Slavery ended nearly 150+ years ago. What excuses do blacks have not to succeed as a large group or individuals here in America?
Go ahead call me racist but before you do read your own comments more than once and see how your comments sound. Insert the word “white” in your paragraphs and see how racist you sound.
President Obama is failing because of his Liberal Progressive Policies. The country has rejected Liberal Policies. If we knew about Obama and his associations and his Liberal believes back two years ago…he would have never be elected President of the USA.
What I find about President Obama disturbing is that he have ruined for everyone else “non white” if I might borrow some of your racist writing for a second. What appear as a long term plan for President Obama have backfired for anyone and everyone who is “non-white” that inspired to be President of the USA. He/She will always be compared to Obama and one have to wondering in our way to the voting booth if he/she feels the same way about the Country as Obama does or did during his Presidency. By that I mean President Obama for being raised in a beautiful Island with a privileged middle class background and private school education does not seem to ever have loved for his country.
At last President Obama and the country: The Car Companies needed to be left alone to fail. New, smaller and more efficient companies will have surfaced. Banks should have left to fail including Wall Street. Big mistake for the President to have gone after the State of Arizona. It sounds like he flunked his Constitutional Test while at his Ivy League school. We do not need more illegal Aliens. Illegal Aliens bring poverty, dependency and under educated people. I am a LEGAL alien and get offended at Democrats for lumping all Immigrants as stupid. The Mosque should not be close to Ground Zero. There are nearly 2000 mosques in the USA. President Obama is wrong there is not a case of freedom of Religion with the Mosque. Less than 1% of the population in the USA is Muslim. Why cater to less than 1% of the population? President Obama and the Military? He is wrong again. Gays have always served in the Military since the beginning of time. So, why risk the lives of gays by allowed them to serve openly? What do you think that it would happen to a gay American soldier in other parts of the world?
I will love to see these comments in mainstream America newsletters and media outlets. The comments prove to me that Blacks are just as racist as anyone else. Their concern is their own people and not the country as a whole. Blacks have suffered for nearly 40 plus years due to the Democrats and their social programs such as the welfare system and social programs.
Blacks could change their “destiny” set up by the Democrats nearly 40 something years ago… but refuse to believe in themselves instead they keep voting the same corrupt people in year after year. The same people that have put them in misery and help destroyed the black families. Fatherless babies, destruction of the black families thanks to the welfare system initiated by the Democrats. Blacks are the only ones that continue crying for Government help while everyone else try to think of ways to make it own their own. By that I mean REALLY on their own. Slavery ended nearly 150+ years ago. What excuses do blacks have not to succeed as a large group or individuals here in America?
Go ahead call me racist but before you do read your own comments more than once and see how your comments sound. Insert the word “white” in your paragraphs and see how racist you sound.
President Obama is failing because of his Liberal Progressive Policies. The country has rejected Liberal Policies. If we knew about Obama and his associations and his Liberal believes back two years ago…he would have never be elected President of the USA.
What I find about President Obama disturbing is that he have ruined for everyone else “non white” if I might borrow some of your racist writing for a second. What appear as a long term plan for President Obama have backfired for anyone and everyone who is “non-white” that inspired to be President of the USA. He/She will always be compared to Obama and one have to wondering in our way to the voting booth if he/she feels the same way about the Country as Obama does or did during his Presidency. By that I mean President Obama for being raised in a beautiful Island with a privileged middle class background and private school education does not seem to ever have loved for his country.
At last President Obama and the country: The Car Companies needed to be left alone to fail. New, smaller and more efficient companies will have surfaced. Banks should have left to fail including Wall Street. Big mistake for the President to have gone after the State of Arizona. It sounds like he flunked his Constitutional Test while at his Ivy League school. We do not need more illegal Aliens. Illegal Aliens bring poverty, dependency and under educated people. I am a LEGAL alien and get offended at Democrats for lumping all Immigrants as stupid. The Mosque should not be close to Ground Zero. There are nearly 2000 mosques in the USA. President Obama is wrong there is not a case of freedom of Religion with the Mosque. Less than 1% of the population in the USA is Muslim. Why cater to less than 1% of the population? President Obama and the Military? He is wrong again. Gays have always served in the Military since the beginning of time. So, why risk the lives of gays by allowed them to serve openly? What do you think that it would happen to a gay American soldier in other parts of the world? Healh Care is not a right. Thanks to private Companies the USA is the best place to come to if your dying of any illness. Anyone can go to any USA hospital and be help. There is also Medicare available already for lower income individuals.
“The comments prove to me that Blacks are just as racist as anyone else. Their concern is their own people and not the country as a whole. ”
You are truly a manipulative, simple-minded individual. When Black people take the time to return to their economic traditions by working together to advance their people economically/academically/professionally, manipulative racists like you attempt to guilt us into not working together to advance our people by calling us “racists”. You are truly a manipulative and devious individual for that.
We needn’t justify ourselves OR our motives to you or anyone. Jews, poles, Whites OVERALL, Asians, etc have been doing this for DECADES if not CENTURIES. But when Black folk attempt to empower themselves in the same way, we get manipulative snakes like you who attempt to guilt us into not caring for our people or our communities.
We as Black people couldn’t care less about your idiocy, or your ignorant usage of the word “racist”. It’s like a “guilt card” Whites toss about to try to shame Black people into submission. WELL IT WON’T WORK.
We couldn’t care less what you OR what “mainstream press” think. YOU and your ignorant comment and calculating ways are the sad, sad price we as Black people have paid for “integration”.
I find the expressed disappointment with President Obama’s appearant insensitivity to the needs of blacks interesting. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson attempted to alert black community early on of this potential problem but they were dismissed out of hand. If I recall, they suggested that Obama was not black enough or down for the struggle. I think most people thought that those characterizations were references to his being half white.
I believe that on a cultural level, Obama cannot relate to the black struggle even though he looks like us. Born to a white mother sans his black father, he spent his early years in Hawaii and then in Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian step father. How far removed from the black culture there? Then during his early youth he moved back to Hawaii to be raised by his white grandparents. This man had no immersion in the black culture during his formative years. So to expect him to have the same sensitivity to the needs of the black community is unrealistic. That is not to say that he does not care about our needs, he just has no way to internalize them.
“…You are truly a manipulative, simple-minded individual. When Black people take the time to return to their economic traditions by working together to advance their people economically/academically/professionally, manipulative racists like you attempt to guilt us into not working together to advance our people by calling us “racists”. You are truly a manipulative and devious individual for that….”
I I feel sorry for you. You need to take a “chill” pill. You sound like a Black Panther member… no even a main stream African American. Yes, most of the comments on this site are racist. There is not question about it.
Insert the word “white” re-read your comments included and your head will blow up. Sorry that you are so full of hate. It is not healthy for you or the country. Maybe you should move to a country for Blacks only. What about Haiti? But I tell you even if you live among all “black” people you will never find hapiness. You will still blame the “white man” for your missfortunes and never take responsibility for yourself. Even in Haiti I, think that I could hear you complain all day while sitting in your living room watching T.V. and a remote control talking … well in your case probable yelling….about how bad and terrible the “white man” is.
Meanwhile everyone else is working hard and happy …trying to move ahead with or without you. Good luck finding hate where is does not exist. Have a nice hateful, racist life.
In a serious normal life type of conversatiion. Now many other sites have surface of honest, caring, smart, conservative Black sites. Maybe you should surf around the net and you might find one to help you deal with your anger or insecurity. You will learn that not all Blacks speak like Black Panter types.
“I I feel sorry for you. You need to take a “chill” pill. You sound like a Black Panther member… no even a main stream African American. ”
Thank the LORD!
Another thing: we couldn’t care LESS about what you think about “how we sound”. Your comment about us sounding like “Black Panthers” vs “Mainstream African-Americans” (an oxymoronic statement in itself…) is a sloppy and manipulative attempt to pit Black folk against each other and guess what? NOT WORKING.
We will ALWAYS stand as one people.
I didn’t bother reading your ignorant comment because you and your opinion have no place here – this is a site for Black folk and Black perspectives. So your being on this site is nothing more than a conspicuous and sloppy attempt to 1) put Blacks on the defensive so that we don’t focus on the real issues and solutions by making meaningless accusations (“racists”, etc), 2) attempting to cause chaos and division amongst us by dividing us into groups such as the Black Panthers and so-called “Mainstream African-Americans” – the more docile of which you’ll bestow with praise to encourage and reinforce their docility and potential complacency (and who knew “mainstream” would ever be used to define Black folks in the US??), and 3) an attempt to find out “what we’re up to”.
We see you for what you are and guess what? Your attempts to continue to divide and conquer us are and will remain FUTILE. We will ALWAYS stand as one people.