President Obama and Race Relations: Civil Rights Leaders are Starting to Grumble at His Perceived Lack of Action

I knew sooner or later the grumbling would start in the black community about President Barack Obama's slowness in addressing some of the issues confronting blacks in the United States, at least that is the perception of some civil rights leaders. I am amazed at the level of shallowness apparent in some of these people. President Obama isn't in office to solely cater to the black community. He is the president of the entire United States and must confront all issues that continue to dog us as a people. The sense of entitlement of people like Rev. Jesse Jackson and others is just sickening. I came across an interesting article in US World & News Report, entitled "Obama and Race Relations: Civil Rights Leaders aren't Satisfied," and I must say, we have some serious issues in the black community, but the president needs to be given the time and space to confront the issues as he sees fit. Never mind the fact that America is in the middle of an economic crisis of unfathomable proportions and fighting two wars.

I was also surprised that it took nearly 100 days into his Administration before someone finally popped the question to Barack Obama about the role race played in his presidency. He responded in the cool and thoughtful manner we saw throughout the presidential campaign: "At the inauguration, I think there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country," Obama said, acknowledging how much his historic move to Washington had seemed to elevate the political discussion. "But that lasted about a day."

That euphoria surrounding Obama's historic ascent to the presidency is wearing thin. Yes, African Americans have suffered more than most through this economic downturn and expressing concern is paramount. Statistics show that blacks are twice as likely as whites to be unemployed and three times as likely to live in poverty. There seems to be a collective anxiety that everything can change, but nothing has changed because President Obama hasn't acted and that has caused some frustration. There seems to be growing sentiment among young black voters that on matters pertaining to race, the country has taken two steps forward but may be on the verge of taking a giant step backward. Some see the fact that Obama was elected as president a major milestone in our history, but feel that will not change their interactions with the police or even trickle down to their lives to make it better.

According to the article, some civil rights leaders are beginning to worry that it is conservatives, not civil rights groups, who are seizing the political moment and using the promise of "post-racialism" to try to scale back protections for minorities in the legal system. Race is an issue front and center in at least four Supreme Court cases in the next term, and there has been a growing right wing chorus that is demanding the repeal of everything from affirmative action to the Voting Rights Act now that a black man is in the White House. But what is President Obama to do? Drop everything that he's working on to fix the economy and run into the arms of Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson?

Some civil rights leaders are frustrated by Obama's refusal to point out how little has actually changed for the average black person—and how much minorities are struggling in the down economy. Black borrowers, for example, were more than twice as likely as whites to receive subprime loans and are losing their homes to foreclosure at much higher rates. But Obama's public pronouncements on the housing crisis have rarely reflected this disparity. "It's not clear the administration has figured out how to engage the public on race," says John Powell, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University. "A lot of the people around Obama seem to think race is the third rail, and it's best to avoid it. Their major approach is 'We're going to do something for everybody.' But that's not really a solution." Source: US News & World Report

President Obama has a brewing problem on his hands and I really don't think that it is a fair fight. As an African American, I share many of the concerns expressed, but I have to be realistic in my expectations of what the president can do at this time. There are too many pressing issues that must be confronted and dealt with in a timely fashion -- the economy and the wars, plus this latest swine flu outbreak. We have to help ourselves too. You lost your job, there must be skills you possess that you can use to start your own business on a shoe-string. President Obama shows that he was not born in a wealthy family, but he got a good education and worked hard. The Obama administration has taken some steps in the right direction to allay some of the concerns -- pushed legislation on workers' rights and opened a new office for urban affairs inside the White House -- but that's not enough for some black leaders who have openly said that if he can say he's sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, he can immediately do some other things too. That is simply not fair. He has been in office for a few months. To all the civil rights leaders out there, let me echo that adage of old -- Rome wasn't built in a day.