Obama is not the first ‘Black president’
Professor Fredrick Harris has written in his op ed, “Still Waiting for Our First Black President’’ that “Obama has pursued a racially defused electoral and governing strategy, keeping issues of specific interest to African Americans — off the national agenda.”Michael Nutter the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia replied to Harris in the Huffington Post, “Barack Obama…has fought every single day to improve the livelihood and well-being of the African-American community…We have our first Black President, his name is President Barack Obama.”
Here’s the reality that must be clearly understood: Obama is not the first Black president; he’s the first president who is Black.
Black agenda needed
A Black president would have come into office with a “Black agenda.” If he were the first Black president he would be using his bully pulpit to champion legislation targeting unemployment in urban areas, poverty, income disparity, and other issues. This in no way should be interpreted to challenge his “Blackness.” It’s about the agenda, not the man.
If Obama were the first Black president, the prison at Guantanamo Bay would be closed. He would not have signed the 2012 Defense Authorization Act (DAA) allowing for U.S. citizens to be indefinitely detained.
His Black Attorney General would not have made the case to assassinate U.S. citizens abroad without judicial review. If Obama were the first Black president, he would not have supported the assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A Black president would not want to repeat this history by supporting the DAA, and operating assassination lists.
Happens to be Black
President Obama is the first president who is Black and as such operates as a functionary of the United States government.
A president who is Black focuses on the so-called “war on terror” and “protecting American interests abroad” with no other historical reference to guide him.
Obama’s primary focus has been on broader national policies such as the Child Tax Credit, Small Business Jobs Act, and saving the American auto industry. All of these (and other policies) are policies from which African-Americans have benefitted but do not specifically target the ills impacting the African-American community.
This is not to suggest that Professor Harris’ premise is wrong; he’s correct. While campaigning for president, Senator Obama did court the Black community for its vote. He did discuss “racial injustice in front of Black audiences” and he did support “targeted and universal policies to address racial inequality.”
A politician
President Obama has changed his focus because as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright so adroitly observed, “he’s a politician.”
Nutter is wrong to challenge Harris’ assessment that President Obama has pursued race neutral politics. Obama has, as stated by Harris, “pursued a racially defused electoral and governing strategy.”
In theory, Nutter is correct when he writes, “Throughout the past three years, President Obama has been focused on building an economy that is built to last. And in spite of the obstacles, the economy is making progress and each month, more and more Americans, and African-Americans are getting back to work.”
The reality is that while the unemployment rate for the country is 8.2 percent; the official unemployment rate for African Americans is double that at 16.6 percent. The president’s efforts will not address chronic income disparity or the wealth gap.
Has to be pressured
According to Census Bureau, White families made 62 percent more than Black families. White median household net worth was about $90,000, compared to a mere $6,000 for the median Black household.
What too many in the Black community refuse to accept is as Harris wrote, “If he won’t do it (support Black interests) on his own, Obama will have to be pressured to act and to keep the few promises he made to Black America in 2008. This is not a failure of Obama; it’s the failure of the community to move from the politics of personality to the politics of policy. Obama’s not the first Black President; he’s the first President who is Black.”
Wilmer Leon is the producer/ host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon,” and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University. He can be reached at www.wilmerleon.com or by email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com/drwleon.
