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Black America's divide over Obama
St. Petersburg Times ^ | October 21, 2011 | Bill Maxwell

Posted on 10/23/2011 7:28:08 PM PDT by neverdem

When Barack Obama was elected president, millions of Americans believed that the United States finally was entering a postracial period. But we are seeing old divisions return.

When Barack Obama was elected president, millions of Americans believed that the United States finally was entering a postracial period when race no longer mattered in any serious way. But the Obama presidency has, ironically, heightened racial tensions, and we are seeing old divisions return.

One of the most unexpected developments resulting from the Obama presidency has been the resurgence of conflicts and name-calling among blacks themselves. Not since the heyday of the Black Nationalist movement of the 1960s and 1970s has there been such bitterness among blacks about who is "authentically black" and who is not.

The source of this renewed infighting is the dashed hope that Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - "his people." Life has not improved for blacks under Obama. The unemployment rate among blacks is 16.7 percent, nearly double the national average. Forty percent of black children are living in poverty, and the housing crisis has hit blacks harder than other groups.

Many blacks are disappointed and angry, and those who speak out and question Obama's performance are having their loyalties to "the race" and to the first black president challenged. Some are being called, among other insulting names, "Toms," "traitors" and "sellouts."

Media personality Tavis Smiley, Princeton University professor Cornel West, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, and former pizza CEO Herman Cain, a Republican presidential candidate, are four of the most outspoken critics of Obama's performance.

During the summer, Smiley and West conducted a 15-city "Poverty Tour." On their website, they say the tour was "to highlight the plight of poor people of all races, colors and creeds so they will not be forgotten, ignored, or rendered invisible during this difficult and dangerous time of economic deprivation and political cowardice."

Referring to Obama's debt ceiling deal with the GOP, West said the measure was a "war on the poor" and that Obama "has no backbone." Later, he said of Obama: "He can speak to Jewish voters. … He can speak to gay voters. … Why can't he speak to black voters?"

Waters, while critical of the president, has not been as harsh. "The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too," she said. "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. … We want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. But our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is."

But West, Smiley and Waters are being excoriated. During one of his recent syndicated radio segments, comedian Steve Harvey, for example, accused West and Smiley of using personal vendettas to undermine Obama's re-election prospects. He mocked the outspoken duo as being affiliated with UTLO.org, an imaginary website whose initials stand for "Uncle Tom Look Out."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, an Obama loyalist, who has a radio show and a television program, issued a stern warning to the president's black critics. "I'm not telling you to shut up," he said. "I'm telling you: Don't make some of us have to speak up."

And then there is Obama critic Herman Cain who, in addition to claiming that racism in the United States "doesn't hold anybody back in a big way," said that Obama has "never been a part of the black experience in America" and that black voters are "brainwashed" for being loyal to Obama.

On the Joy Behar Show, entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte attacked Cain, along with black Republicans in general.

"The Republican Party, the tea party, all of those forces to the extreme right have consistently tried to come up with representation for what they call black, what they call the real Negroes and try to push these images as the kinds of voices that America should be (looking) to," Belafonte said. "So we've got Condoleezza Rice. We've got Colin Powell. They are heroes for some people, but for a lot of us they are not. And Herman Cain is just the latest incarnation of what is totally false to the needs of our community and the needs of our nation. I think he's a bad apple and people should look at his whole card. He's not what he says he is."

The fear for black leaders is not that the internal squabbles will cause Obama critics to vote Republican. It is that too many will stay home and deny the first black president the votes needed for him to return to the White House.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; smiley; waters; west
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1 posted on 10/23/2011 7:28:11 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Divided? If you mean 95% in favor of Obama no matter how incompetent he is and the lonely 5% opposed with a brain.
Yeah, I suppose you could call that divided.


2 posted on 10/23/2011 7:31:07 PM PDT by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: neverdem
Is there anyplace one can get photos of Ø'b0z0's cabinet -- and all his "czars"?

Will the races depicted reflect theracial makeup of the US?

3 posted on 10/23/2011 7:33:02 PM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: neverdem

A blind squirrel gets an acorn occasionally!!!


4 posted on 10/23/2011 7:34:54 PM PDT by LooneyTick (Of all the things in life I've lost, I miss my mind the most!)
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To: neverdem

The details of this article disprove the assertion.
How is a black president having black critics not postracial? If Waters and Sharpton are criticising him for not being black enough, how is Obama not acting postracial? How is Cain’s criticism of Obama not post racial?


5 posted on 10/23/2011 7:36:02 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: neverdem

Divide???? No divide at all...95% in BHO camp..divide>>??? What a joke.


6 posted on 10/23/2011 7:39:18 PM PDT by maineman (BC EAGLES FAN)
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To: neverdem
When Barack Obama was elected president, millions of Americans believed that the United States finally was entering a postracial period when race no longer mattered in any serious way

Won't happen until a post-lieberal period is achieved.

7 posted on 10/23/2011 7:40:12 PM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: neverdem

“... Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - “his people.””

Those aren’t Hussein’s people, those are Holder’s people. Holder is authentically black.


8 posted on 10/23/2011 7:40:19 PM PDT by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: FReepers; everyone; All
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9 posted on 10/23/2011 7:40:56 PM PDT by onyx (You're here on FR, so support it! Compiling New Sarah Ping List. Let me know if you want on it.)
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To: neverdem

The Dems played the race card to beat the Republicans in 2008. Barack Obama IS the race card.


10 posted on 10/23/2011 7:41:03 PM PDT by Misterioso (There is nothing so naive as cynicism. - Ayn Rand)
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To: neverdem
The source of this renewed infighting is the dashed hope that Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - "his people." Life has not improved for blacks under Obama. The unemployment rate among blacks is 16.7 percent, nearly double the national average. Forty percent of black children are living in poverty, and the housing crisis has hit blacks harder than other groups.

Bush mucked things up so bad that even Obama can't fix it in just one term.

11 posted on 10/23/2011 7:43:11 PM PDT by umgud
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To: TXnMA

At a glance, the makeup looks fairly equitable...


12 posted on 10/23/2011 7:43:52 PM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: neverdem
On of the main reasons so many people got behind Obama was to create what they saw as an invulnerability for him by being able to play the race card whenever anyone disagreed with anything he may say or do.

That won't change. The libs won't desert him because that was their goal. The blacks won't desert him for obvious reasons. The OWS crowd won't desert him because they have no where to go.

America's hope lies with the independent middle... and maybe a percentage of the Jewish vote.

13 posted on 10/23/2011 7:46:09 PM PDT by Baynative (The penalty for not participating in politics is you will be governed by your inferiors.)
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To: umgud

its funny how the first “black” president stems from slaveowners not from slaves


14 posted on 10/23/2011 7:46:57 PM PDT by hecht (Diverthity is our strength)
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To: neverdem

Their disappointment stems from the fact that many blacks figured they would soon be livin large on easy street with one of “their own” in the White House. Obama has demonstrated that he is such a miserable failure that his Reverse-Midas touch has left no one protected regardless of race.


15 posted on 10/23/2011 7:48:27 PM PDT by festusbanjo (Herman Cain.The Un-Obama.Actual leadership,actual problem solving,actual experience.)
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To: tflabo

Whites never agree enmasse, why should the blacks? The country is America, not black America or white America. The black libs need to first, toughen up, and secondly,look at, up to, and listen to the Clarence Thomases and Herman Cains of the USA, and possibly their plight might improve. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.


16 posted on 10/23/2011 7:48:58 PM PDT by taterjay
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To: neverdem
The source of this renewed infighting is the dashed hope that Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - "his people." Life has not improved for blacks under Obama.

His fans expected increased entitlements -- cradle to grave coverage for everything imaginable. Reparations.

17 posted on 10/23/2011 7:50:01 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: neverdem
"are having their loyalties to "the race" ...

The blacks are aligning themselves with the Mexicans? (La Razza). Didn't see that coming.

18 posted on 10/23/2011 7:54:29 PM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: Rembrandt
“... Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - “his people.””

Those aren’t Hussein’s people, those are Holder’s people. Holder is authentically black.

I apparently was mistaken in thinking that the president's and the AG's people were supposed to be the American people.

19 posted on 10/23/2011 7:56:33 PM PDT by Bob
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To: neverdem

Barry O is not “authentically black’, he’s bi-racial.
Hell, he’s not “authentically American” either, come to think about it. He’s Kenyanindonesiancommieagitator.

Just sayin’


20 posted on 10/23/2011 7:59:05 PM PDT by wetgundog (" Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is no Vice")
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