Throughout the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the public was subjected to a regular dose of fabrications about Barack Obama. Add to that regiment a Washington Post article that implies that there exists a widespread split in the Black community over the President, supposedly because some Black commentators like Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson have been outspoken critics. The Post erroneously thinks that Black people rely upon these commentators for forming their opinion about how to feel about Mr. Obama. That is simply not true.
Believe it when I tell you that Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson do not
speak for the masses. Smiley lost favor with a lot of Black people when he
rejected Michelle Obama as a suitable stand-in for candidate Obama at his New Orleans
Covenant on Black America Summit. It doesn't help Johnson's case that
Smiley was a consultant to Tom Joyner about who his replacement should
be on his Morning Show. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that it is these guys who need the lesson. Black America is not asleep at the wheel or stuck in some naivete zone. We simply do not expect the President to be held to a higher standard or pass some litmus test not required of his predecessors.
For those who can't see the forest for the trees or somehow missed the real implication of the election of Mr. Obama, maybe this will help. The significance for Black America or other non-whites is that now they can unequivocally tell their children that they could grow up to one day be President of the United States because there is empirical data to back up their assertions. And Mr. Obama's election was a victory for Whites as well. A false promise of equality had been draped across America from it's inception. With the merit vote cast by Americans on November 4, 2009 that elected Mr. Obama, that burden was removed.
When I posted in my blog that "Black people now look at White people differently and there is nothing that they can do about it", a White woman responded and thanked me for my statement that had presented her with a degree of relief. My followup response to her was I hadn't harbored any ill feeling, but that a burden I didn't realize existed was now lifted from my shoulders. I understood why Americans cried on Election Day. Mr. Obama's election helped to heal some deep wounds. So listen up pundits. It wasn't some fleeting feel good moment and we don't need a play by play accountability tab kept on the President. We get it! Mr. Obama needs to be judged by his performance and he will be as all the Presidents before him. Isn't that the real point?
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WaPost Wrong, No Presidential Divide for Black Americans
Throughout the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the public was subjected to a regular dose of fabrications about Barack Obama. Add to that regiment a Washington Post article that implies that there exists a widespread split in the Black community over the President, supposedly because some Black commentators like Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson have been outspoken critics. The Post erroneously thinks that Black people rely upon these commentators for forming their opinion about how to feel about Mr. Obama. That is simply not true.
Believe it when I tell you that Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson do not speak for the masses. Smiley lost favor with a lot of Black people when he rejected Michelle Obama as a suitable stand-in for candidate Obama at his New Orleans Covenant on Black America Summit. It doesn't help Johnson's case that Smiley was a consultant to Tom Joyner about who his replacement should be on his Morning Show. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that it is these guys who need the lesson. Black America is not asleep at the wheel or stuck in some naivete zone. We simply do not expect the President to be held to a higher standard or pass some litmus test not required of his predecessors.
For those who can't see the forest for the trees or somehow missed the real implication of the election of Mr. Obama, maybe this will help. The significance for Black America or other non-whites is that now they can unequivocally tell their children that they could grow up to one day be President of the United States because there is empirical data to back up their assertions. And Mr. Obama's election was a victory for Whites as well. A false promise of equality had been draped across America from it's inception. With the merit vote cast by Americans on November 4, 2009 that elected Mr. Obama, that burden was removed.
When I posted in my blog that "Black people now look at White people differently and there is nothing that they can do about it", a White woman responded and thanked me for my statement that had presented her with a degree of relief. My followup response to her was I hadn't harbored any ill feeling, but that a burden I didn't realize existed was now lifted from my shoulders. I understood why Americans cried on Election Day. Mr. Obama's election helped to heal some deep wounds. So listen up pundits. It wasn't some fleeting feel good moment and we don't need a play by play accountability tab kept on the President. We get it! Mr. Obama needs to be judged by his performance and he will be as all the Presidents before him. Isn't that the real point?
Posted at 11:00 PM in Barack Obama, Black pundits, Change, Democrats, Election 2008, Mainstream Media, Political Commentary, Politics, President Obama, Race Relations | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)