Obama Plans Broader Use of Clemency For Nonviolent Drug Offenders
Florida Rejects Obama's HealthCare Plan
Obama and the Trade (TPP) Controversy. . . .and Economic Inequality Issues
a) Tavis Smiley Talks with Economist Joseph Stiglitz
b) Part 1 - Admiral Dennis Blair supports TPP
c) Part 2 - Admiral Dennis Blair
NYTimes: Obama Should End the Embargo on Cuba
OBAMA: Work, Fair Wages & Right to Organize
Chicago Church Still Putting Its Faith in Obama - by Lara Marlowe
Five ObamaCare Myths - NY Times --Bill Keller
President Obama vs. FDR; Jobs Creation. . . .by Earl Ofari Hutchinson - 7/27/2011
http://thyblackman.com/2011/07/27/president-obama-vs-fdr-jobs-creation/
From Annette Walker
To Glen Ford, Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report:
A few thoughts in reference to your recent article, “The Peculiar Class Solidarity of Barack Obama and ‘Skip’ Gates”, posted on July 27, 2009.
U.S. Presidents should not get involved in local matters, which should be left to state, city and county governments. So this begs the question: Why has Barack Obama become involved in the Gates-Crowley dispute?
You say it’s an issue of class bonding. I disagree. I believe there are two reasons. First, he had to engage in some damage control for his remark that the Cambridge police acted ‘stupidly’. It was an error on his part to admit that he didn’t have all the facts about the arrest, but then go on to make a judgmental statement.
Second, having committed that ‘faux pas’, Obama realized that he had created the opportunity to tread into some very sensitive territory that he has had to be cautious about as President. He had the opportunity to throw the spotlight on a sensitive ‘race’ issue that is national in scope.
You mention the class issue. Let’s reflect on Obama’s background. Upon graduation from Columbia University, he chose not to seek employment in the corporate sector or those areas that attract Ivy League graduates. Rather, he chose to become a community organizer in a predominately African-American neighborhood in Chicago. After two years he left that endeavor because he believed that he would need to be in a policymaking position to better assist poor people and minorities.
You may be aware that “Brother” Thomas Sowell, the economist, is warning people to beware of Obama’s background as a community organizer. Sowell says that Obama’s experience explains why he is trying to lead the United States “down the road to Socialism”. So much for Sowell’s misunderstanding.
Remember that African-Americans with Obama’s upbringing ---overseas, in Hawaii and Indonesia and with little contact with Black Americans—sometimes have a hard time developing positive relationships with us. Obama, however, had a profound desire not only to get to know his African family—in Kenya--, but to be part of the African-American community in this country. His marriage to Michelle Robinson, from a working-class family on Chicago’s South side, fits in with the way he envisioned himself.
After finishing Harvard Law School, he returned to Chicago and entered the political arena. As we’ve been told repeatedly since the Gates arrest, as an Illinois state legislator, Obama had a special interest in the racial profiling issue.
We know about his road to the White House. We also know that his advisors cautioned him about how to handle the race issue during the campaign. In brief, White Americans must feel that he is not going to be a ‘Black President”, but one who “just happens to be Black”.
Obama has always wanted to be and is President of all the people. However, it is a gross error—and just plain wrong—for anyone to think that Obama has set aside the race issue. It’s just that he has to be careful with his approach and strategy.
The Gates-Crowley matter has given him the opportunity to get involved with an issue that is not really local. Racial-profiling is a national issue. And it’s a sensitive issue.
The fact that a Black man of Gate’s professional stature was handcuffed for ‘disorderly conduct’ is instructive for the nation and the world. Yes, others of his stature have been hassled. Colin Powell recently recounted some incidents that he had with the police. In brief, he had to convince them that he really was a high-level official in the National Security Agency when he held that position.
Obama is supposed to stay away from these “local” and “Black” issues. But he knows that the Gates-Crowley dispute made racial-profiling a priority news item. He decided to take a leadership role and create a reconciliation scenario. After all, one of his campaign topics was bringing together people with opposite viewpoints to talk and to develop a working relationship. So he brought Gates and Crowley together in an informal manner (beer and pretzels) to talk.
The fact that Gates is a Harvard scholar and a friend of Obama’s is not the point. By getting involved, Obama has thrown the spotlight not only on racial-profiling, but displayed a reconciliation strategy.
It seems that Obama used the word “stupidly” without forethought. In the end, that verbal error has brought into focus one of the many important racial issues of this time period. The media and the internet have been replete with testimonies by African-American men about their experiences as victims of racial profiling. This is good for the United States and the world. And like it or not, the Henry Louis Gates incident and Obama’s intervention has provoked a national dialogue. And this is good for America.