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The Price of a Black President
New York Times ^ | October 27, 2012 | By FREDRICK C. HARRIS

Posted on 10/28/2012 6:13:25 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

WHEN African-Americans go to the polls next week, they are likely to support Barack Obama at a level approaching the 95 percent share of the black vote he received in 2008. As well they should, given the symbolic exceptionalism of his presidency and the modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net.

But for those who had seen in President Obama’s election the culmination of four centuries of black hopes and aspirations and the realization of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “beloved community,” the last four years must be reckoned a disappointment. Whether it ends in 2013 or 2017, the Obama presidency has already marked the decline, rather than the pinnacle, of a political vision centered on challenging racial inequality. The tragedy is that black elites — from intellectuals and civil rights leaders to politicians and clergy members — have acquiesced to this decline, seeing it as the necessary price for the pride and satisfaction of having a black family in the White House.

To place policy above rhetoric is not to ask what the first black president is doing for blacks; rather, it is to ask what a Democratic president is doing for the most loyal Democratic constituency — who happen to be African-Americans, and who happen to be in dire need of help. Sadly, when it comes to the Obama presidency and black America, symbols and substance have too often been assumed to be one and the same.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: black; blackpresident; election2012; racecard; racism; racists
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A professor of political science and the director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and the author of “The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics.”
1 posted on 10/28/2012 6:13:32 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Smart is voting color instead of charactor. Would you buy a broken down unreliable car because you liked the color? nuff sed. The scope of idiocy is mind boggling


2 posted on 10/28/2012 6:16:03 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (bb)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

He’s admitted black voters are racist and he supports Obama for purely racist reasons.

It has nothing to do with an objective regard for the candidates and the policies of both parties. Then again, the support of an Affirmative Action President is part and parcel of the racist liberalism embodied by the Democratic Party in the person of Barack Obama.


3 posted on 10/28/2012 6:18:19 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved FrieGrnd Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
"WHEN African-Americans go to the polls next week, they are likely to support Barack Obama at a level approaching the 95 percent share of the black vote he received in 2008. As well they should, given the symbolic exceptionalism of his presidency and the modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net."

Exceptionalism like a continual crumbling of the Black family, sky-high unemployment and perpetual cultural degradation. Stay on the Democrat plantation like good negroes ! Massa Obammy commands it !

4 posted on 10/28/2012 6:19:19 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: goldstategop

The death of Free America isn’t worth it. Anyway...given the record of most black politicians, it should be obvious what the “price” is to any community.


5 posted on 10/28/2012 6:20:29 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: ronnie raygun

Well “colon” powell likes him because he’s so great so that should be enough for anybody. NOT! And he was a general? Kind of starts to make one think that affirmative action may have been in play for him to have achieved that rank. Naaahhh! Probably not. There was always something about him that just didn’t seem right. Guess we get it now.

Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.


6 posted on 10/28/2012 6:23:04 AM PDT by rktman
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To: hal ogen

Left wing drivel is so predictable.


7 posted on 10/28/2012 6:23:23 AM PDT by billhilly
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

To blacks voting for 0bummer, race relations doesn’t matter; there’s no desire to unify, it’s, “too bad; he’s black, therefore he should be re/elected”.

That plus the fact that he isn’t even black is sad. Yes, I said it...he’s half white and the other half has NO AMERICAN SLAVERY ANCESTORY involved. So it’s as if a new immigrant from the Bahamas is president. Ever talked to a black person about another black person “right off the boat”? There is usually a denigrated speech about, “well, they’re not really black; they have this accent that gives them an advantage”.

0bummer has done more to set race relations back in the US than ever before, that is really the price we’ve paid.

Give me Dennis Haysbert’s character for president anyday...you know what I mean. In real life, give me Col West.

As for white libs...they’re the biggest racists of all. Feeling sorry for blacks and “helping them along” is such bigotry it makes me puke.I want to smack the crap out of all of them.

Thanks for letting me vent.


8 posted on 10/28/2012 6:23:59 AM PDT by CincyRichieRich (Keep your head up and keep moving forward!)
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To: goldstategop

The author wouldn’t even have his job if it wasn’t for aa.


9 posted on 10/28/2012 6:25:13 AM PDT by ebshumidors ( Marksmanship and YOUR heritage http://www.appleseedinfo.org)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So...95% of black voters vote for Obamas because he’s black.....which means they’re not voting for Romney because he’s white. Sounds like racism to me.


10 posted on 10/28/2012 6:27:23 AM PDT by wny
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
"... modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net. "

Why do we allow intellectually dishonest racists to teach in our universities? If this man really knew his history he would acknowledge that in modern times it was Demoncrats who were the most ardent haters of equal rights - can you say George Wallace and the Jim Crow Demoncrat south?! Economic justice - rhetoric doesn't put food on the table and the government doesn't produce anything - it only takes. A job is the best friend that any man, black or white, can have to meet his economic goals. Social safety net? If the ship sinks, everyone drowns. Is this reality really that difficult to understand?

Jesus recognized and called out those who stood against truth, against Him - so should we.

11 posted on 10/28/2012 6:27:41 AM PDT by JesusIsLord
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Since they have proven to be incapable of voting based of rational logic rather than racial emotion, I can’t see any reason to make any concessions to the whole septic mess. If they want to play in our sand box, they would have to be required to use American rules, rather than some hyphenated separatist nonsense.


12 posted on 10/28/2012 6:28:42 AM PDT by jonascord (Democrats are the people on the Left Side of the IQ Bell Curve.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

You need a BARF ALERT! on this one.


13 posted on 10/28/2012 6:33:06 AM PDT by JT Hatter (Who is Barack Obama? And What is He Really Up To?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So many morons. So little ___________________.

(fill in the blank)


14 posted on 10/28/2012 6:33:58 AM PDT by Check6 (United States of Moronia: A nation of morons ruled by a gang of communist thugs.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The Price of a Black President

No biggie, just civilization of the entire planet.

15 posted on 10/28/2012 6:34:44 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

why does the word ‘diatribe’ come to mind?

He even contradicts his own ‘spew’ time and again. That’s what happens when you’re foaming at the mouth.


16 posted on 10/28/2012 6:37:15 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (Christian is as Christian does)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I reject the concept of “Economic inequality”. I reject the racism on display in this article. I reject the socialist ideas spouted by the author. And I reject the current president because he embraces all of those ideas.
17 posted on 10/28/2012 6:44:37 AM PDT by jdsteel (Give me freedom, not more government.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
“Four centuries of Black Hope”

Someone might want to clue the idiot in the USA hasn't existed for 400 years.

Black Africa has been around for thousands of years and there still isn't any “Black Hope” in Africa because they have run the white man out.

18 posted on 10/28/2012 6:47:10 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

?????

“A” Black potus................

http://www.computerhealth.org/ebook/5blkpres.htm


19 posted on 10/28/2012 6:51:04 AM PDT by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: Check6

If they are voting for hussein strictly for color their vote should only count as a HALF.


20 posted on 10/28/2012 6:52:01 AM PDT by shelterguy
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