black…MYstory

This is not a knock-Obama rant, per se. But, I do get a little tired of politicians making broad generalizations about black people, or even segments of the black population, without offering real insight into a problem. I get particularly offended when the person doing is black and should know better.

Consider the following:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are “disenfranchising” themselves because they don’t vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying “anti-intellectualism” in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are “acting white.”

Now, Obama was raising these issues because of how the affect “us” but, I’m sorry — this stuff just comes off as more a desire to make empty, political stump speeches than to call attention to real problems and to help identify solutions.

Follow me as I address my concerns:

1. Black people not voting: I don’t think that Obama looked into a report released last fall that showed that black folks were more politically active than their white counterparts. The study stated that young black folks were “most likely to vote regularly, belong to groups involved with politics, donate money to candidates or parties, display buttons or signs, canvass and contact the broadcast media or print media” and that “(c)onsistent with previous research, African Americans are generally the most politically engaged racial/ethnic group.” Could we do more? Of course! But, instead of just chastising black folks for not voting enough, he should also excoriate his own part, now that they’re in power, to do more to protect the black vote.
2. Rappers and their use of bad language: This has been the dead horse that I’ve heard politicians beat for over the last 15 years. Stopping this would be like stopping drugs. You are trying to go after the person on the street when you should be going after the distributor. If Obama, or any other politician, were really concerned about this, they would pressure music labels to either tamp down on their artists or, at least, sign and promote more acts that are an alternative to this madness.
3. Anti-intellectualism: Actually, in this article, Princeton professor Melissa V. Harris-Lacewell nails it. She stated that the achievement gap is “not because black 7-year-olds are holding back other black 7-year-olds.” This issue goes far deeper than being labeled “white” by one’s peers. For example, we would have to look at issues of home, early childhood education, resources, etc. This stuff makes good sound bites but, it hardly addresses the real concern.

In the end, what we have is a rousing speech with little substances. Perhaps I expect too much but, I don’t appreciate statements like these. They send me the signal that 1) he doesn’t mind showing white folks that he can help put black folks “in their place”, if needed, and 2) that he isn’t prepared to offer anything of substance to his black supporters.

He’s going to have to come better than this to get my vote.

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