(And seems to agree with Smiley)
Story HERE.
What should Obama do for blacks? First, heal a growing rift.
By DeWayne Wickham
I knew the long-simmering debate among blacks over what President Obama should be doing for blacks — his strongest backers and the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituency — would heat up. It turned red hot last week when a war of words broke out on Tom Joyner’s nationally syndicated radio show between two of this country’s leading black activists. In dueling appearances on Joyner’s program, Tavis Smiley and Al Sharpton went after each other in a way that would make would make Quentin Tarantino blush.
“Some of us who call ourselves black leaders are making the wrong choice,” Smiley said of Sharpton and several other civil rights leaders who met with Obama to discuss the jobs bill that was being considered by Congress. “The president doesn’t need a black agenda, they sing. He’s not the president of black America. He’s the president of all America, and he need not focus specifically on the unique challenges black America is facing.”
Smiley said he’ll hold a televised meeting this month in Chicago to get those black leaders to explain why the president doesn’t need a black agenda. Though it’s unclear if any of those he criticized will show up, his call for such a “come to Jesus” meeting enraged Sharpton, who called into the show shortly after Smiley spoke.
Sharpton disputed Smiley’s characterization of that meeting. He said he met with Obama to deal with unemployment and its lopsided impact on blacks. “We did not ask for a race bill because we did not think it would pass. We asked for a ‘place bill,’ where the jobs would go to where the people were most impacted,” he said. Then Sharpton lobbed this brickbat: “When they were running around buck dancing for Bill Clinton they didn’t ask for a black agenda,” he said in a slap at Smiley, whom he accused of being a sycophant of the former president.
This is a senseless fight. Most black leaders, including Smiley, don’t expect Obama to behave like Putney Swope (the black character in a film by the same name who takes control of a white-run advertising agency and imposes his black agenda on the firm).
They don’t want him to act like some fear a consciously black president might. They don’t expect loud pronouncements from Obama about what his administration is doing for blacks. But they also don’t want him to be insensitive to problems that have a disparate impact on black people. What they do want is a go-to person on his staff to address their concerns.
Of course, Obama isn’t the president of any one group of Americans. But to offer that as a reason for not focusing on the high black unemployment rate when his administration has made a targeted effort to address the concerns gays and lesbians have about the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell,” seems like a policy that penalizes blacks for being black.
Obama has to act before the divisions harden between his black supporters and detractors. The infighting among these activists will only intensify if he doesn’t find a way to salve the wounds of those who think he courted black voters during his presidential campaign and then abandoned them once he got into the Oval Office.
This is something he needs to do soon before his political base implodes.
[Stay tuned…the new mrmokelly.com website is coming to you in 2010. Set your browsers now.]
3 responses to “USAToday Highlights Smiley/Sharpton Public Debate”
Mo' again I say, many of these Black Leaders was not supporting Obama in his run, they supported Clinton. Never, did Obama talk about being a "Black or African American" candidate. Never, do I remember him talking about a "Black" Agenda.
I am truly disappointed with a number of our "Black" elected officials. Again, they have been in office for years and have not done a thing for the Communities they serve.
Part of the challenge of People in Color in general, we are always looking for someone else to save us. We have the power and the resources to make the necessary changes within our community to save ourselves. However, it appears that when one of us makes a dollar or two, we move out of our communities and take on the characteristics of the oppressor. (That's in the Bible).
So when we learn to come together as one, and stop looking at each other the way the media deplicit, then and only then can and will we make change.
I have heard it said on many occassions, the as "Black" folks, we spend more money on unnecessary items, them many 3rd World Countries have all year. If that's the case, then way are we not doing more for each other and our communities?
I'm tired of all the "power" talk. It's time for "power" action.
I agree with the Reverend. We as Black people need to empower ourselves to make positive changes in our communities. I am so tired of the infighting among ourselves. The crabs in the bucket mentality that still holds so many done. Its up to YOU as a person to make a way for YOURSELF and then give a hand to someone else. Obama is the president of all of America and those who think he is going to passify the Black community might as well give it up. His first acts in the Presidency show where his allegiances are. He bailed out Wall Street and coporate America, while the rest of us got basically nothing. Thats why I didn't vote for him or McCain. Did we really believe that he was gonna help the common hard working person? Well if you did I have a bridge I want to sell you.
I think blacks should help themselves as well. Sure blacks voted for him but that's because they were so excited to see a black man in office. I don't think too many of them really had an agenda, it was all about "a black man being in office for the first time in history" Which is fine, I was happy about that as well but for anyone to expect him to focus more on black issues than world issues is clearly clueless to how the office of the president works. Those in power would make sure to oust him if he even began to look militant or pro black anything.
Even if Obama had a black agenda or whatever, if we as a race can't stop fighting and can't stop blaming the "white man" for our problems now and can't find the motivation to do something other than complain then nothing he or any other president will work. You can't throw money in a bag with a hole in it, where do you think it will go?
In response to SouthernVal, I actually did benefit from the stimulus. I was out of work and I received the federal extensions, those helped greatly. People say that he didn't help the common man but we all received a extra stimulus in our tax returns. Although it wasn't a lot, it was some help so for people to say he didn't help at all, he did it just wasn't what some folks wanted. I appreciate the extra money that I get. Also when I did my taxes this year, there are extra deductions to claim that is a direct result of bills passed due to the recession. So we get money but of course since everyone isn't sitting on a million dollars then folks think that he didn't help.
What I want to know is if people in general received money to pay all your bills off, would people really spend it on that or be wasteful? That's what got us in this problem, wasteful spending and not being resourceful. What people need, blacks included, is to learn how to be financially smart and then we wouldn't have to depend on the government to bail us out of anything.
This is not a black or white thing, this is a personal accountability for your own life thing. No one can save you from yourself and the sooner folks start realizing that, the sooner things can change for the better. Until then save the drama for your momma cause that's the only person who really cares.