Given all the chatter about Obama’s recent appearance in Harlem, you would think he was a contestant on “Showtime at the Apollo” rather than a president running for reelection. Passing around the internet is a 90 second clip of him singing a line from Al Green’s classic song “Let’s Stay Together” during a speech at the legendary Apollo Theater. With not a word mentioned about what the man actually said, Black corporate media outlets and Black pundits have instead been raving about the president singing. And the Black community is officially swooned.
We’ve been here before. Remember when Slick Willy appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show and played the saxophone?
Is that really all it takes to win the Black vote? Evidently, it doesn’t matter where a candidate or incumbent stands on the issues as long as he or she can carry a tune. No wonder the Democratic Party has not made any real effort to respect the power of our vote. We give it up so easily. Even so, his selection of that song in particular is very telling. In an election year where Obama will need the Black vote to show up at the polls to win reelection, the song choice is most apropos. But notice Obama didn’t sing the next line: “Whatever you want to do is all right with me.” Sad part is, he doesn’t have to, hasn’t had to and doesn’t intend to do what is right by us.
Any substantial coverage of what the president actually said that night in Harlem has been drowned out by the sound of Obama’s crooning. This from a president that would not be in office were it not for the record turn-out of the Black community in 2008. Yet, since he took the oath of office, mum’s been the word when it comes to issues and concerns of dire import to the quality of life in Black America. It is a calculated silence that we are paying for with our very livelihoods.
Just a week before the president’s appearance, the national unemployment rate dropped, and this was cause for celebration. Yet, as the general unemployment rate decreased, the Black unemployment rate increased at an equal amount. If this coming election will be all about the economy, then where does that leave us, when the economy is but one of a host of issues that have so many of us without the proverbial pot to piss in? Public schools within majority Black districts sit on the verge of bankruptcy, our infant mortality rate continues to match those of so-called Third World countries, and the incarceration rate of African Americans has left our communities economically and culturally crippled. Under his watch, more African Americans have fallen out of the so-called Black middle class than ever before. Yet, not one word from the White House about us in four years.
We are told to simply be proud to have a Black family in the White House and defend him at all costs. But if the cost of electing a Black president is our collective silence, then where is the benefit when such symbolic victory doesn’t pay in dividends we can see? Pride doesn’t pay the bills or put food on the table or provide opportunity for our children. If our silence is the price of staying together, then it is high time we reevaluated this relationship.
There are those that would say that the president can’t speak on Black issues because that would cause him to lose critical support within white America. Fact is, Obama doesn’t have to speak on issues germane to the Black community in order to be tagged as Black by the Republican Party. His very Blackness is sufficient in itself. In the eyes of the white right, he is already sufficiently Black for them to raise his difference as scare tactic in their thinly veiled racially-coded script. No matter how much he panders to the white right, he will never get cross-over appeal or win the votes of those that didn’t vote for him in 2008.
While he keeps silent when it comes to us and we keep silent when it comes to him, the Republicans have been anything but silent about how they view us or him. They have thrown every vile and racist quip at him to see what will stick. In the eyes of their conservative constituents, he will always be Barack Hussein Obama, that “Muslim” “Socialist” “Food-Stamp” “who really isn’t an American” president that they would love to see assassinated but will rally to defeat at the polls if only to save face. It is this kind of racist diatribe that will find us at the voting booth throwing our considerable political weight behind the first Black president once again, only to be ignored for another four years.
This year is the 40th anniversary of The National Black Political Convention. Held in Gary, IN, it was an unprecedented political event that brought delegates from all corners of the continental United States to debate the issues of the day and create what would be called The Black Agenda. In part the convention sought to determine what direction the Black community should take toward political empowerment. The path we have meandered down finds us today at a political dead end. 40 years later, we are even more disempowered and politically inept then we were back then. So much so, that just last year our first Black president stood up in front of the Congressional Black Caucus and told us to stop whining and complaining, fall in line and follow him. Lacking a political agenda we have become his political lackeys.
Seems our greatest mistake has been equating the act of electing one of our own with political empowerment, when our empowerment lies in our ability to hold those elected accountable to an agenda we have designed. Until we do that, we will continue to be exploited by politicians who come into our community and give us nothing more than a song and a dance.
Malcolm X called us out in 1964 in his speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”. He was talking about the Johnson administration then, but he could have easily been talking about our relationship to Obama today.
“The Democrats have been in Washington D.C. only because of the Negro vote. They’ve been down there four years, and all other legislation they wanted to bring up they brought it up and gotten it out of the way, and now they bring up you. And now, they bring up you. You put them first, and they put you last, ’cause you’re a chump, a political chump.”
I think Malcolm would agree that we don’t need politicians who will come into our community singing when we need them to go out and do some “swinging” on our behalf. But in order for that to happen, we must first stop being “political chumps”.
Ewuare X. Osayande is a political activist, poet and author of several books including his latest Whose America?. He is founder of The People’s Alliance for Justice Now! and teaches African American Studies at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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this is undeserved condescending criticism of black voters. We arent stupid or easily taken. right now he is the best choice regardless of whether he can croon or not. He is not ‘black people’s president’ he is president to the united states. I think he cares for us but he cant CATER to us. He owes us nothing but his compassion is there. And how dare u or anyone else put unparalled expectations on the man because he black and didnt do or expect that of any other pres, who were all white? Thats contradictory and unfair.
Yea so I’m not getting where your coming from. The author clearly mentions that it’s not that he should be held to a higher standard because he’s black but he should be held to a higher standard because we’re suffering in such a way that you could easily consider it a crisis. I could care less who’s in office, when my children need education and I need a job somebody better deliver or else there’s a pitchfork coming for you.
On another note, if we vote for someone without knowing their politics or record beyond “change”, which is the case with most black people then and now, we are stupid and easily taken. Obama has been no better than any of the republicans or democrats that’s come before him.
@Lavagabond –
He is not ‘black people’s president’ he is president to the united states.
Never heard that one before. You are fucking dumb. Are Black people not a part of America?
I think he cares for us but he cant CATER to us.
Ok if he can’t cater to us, then who is he catering to? Black people are on the low end of all social indexes; it would seem to me that if you have a sector of the population who have been systematically oppressed as much as we have, there needs to be a customized plan of action. I mean you think white people didn’t benefit from Homestead Acts, low interests loans, and other forms of government assistance that puts them ahead in all social indexes. So the point is he is catering to somebody, but dumb ass just wants to gaze at the Black president, and say he owes us nothing. You are an idiot. The point of the president isn’t to secure someone a “good job” Negro, it’s to put forth policies that promote the social well being of ALL of society, and ultimately polices where the society participates in all decisions that affect them, not just selecting the King every four years. This isn’t an episode of the Young & The Restless dummy, it isn’t about living vicariously through the president, or fortifying his individual power at the expense of society. When I say ALL society, I mean Black, White and in between, but you can’t assume that everybody is on the same page, and have the same relationship to this society, if we are a diverse society we all need different forms of policies to make a better society. That’s called common sense dumb Negro. You don’t give a man a gynecologist and then say, “Shut up, it’s a doctor! I can’t cater to you!” You are stupid!!!! And he ran for the fucking job, so it’s his goddamn responsibility. Stop passing the buck. You think he cares, is this a president or someone you are in love with. “I think he cares!” Are you daft, you started off a polemical with “I think”, have you seen his policies, oh no you haven’t because he owes you nothing. I’m sorry dumb ass only a dumb ass would think a public servant owes you nothing, we don’t live a monarchy, or at least we aren’t suppose to. My people are retarded. You need to just shut the fuck up, you make us look bad. I bet you were crying when he got elected, you just wanted to assimilate so long and now Obama is your model to show to your white friends we are malleable, “wes good bosss gives us a chances!” You have the lowest expectations I’ve ever seen. Go to Tom Joyner with your bullshit!!!! You dare people for critiquing your king. Fuck You!!!! It’s about people lives here, not protecting your boo. ALL people don’t start off on the same page, and that needs to be addressed you would expect a Black president to understand this, but he perpetuates that same bullshit his predecessors did, and you are letting him getting away with it because” it’s the Black guy”. You are the scum of our race!!!! You probably liked Mobutu instead of direct Belgium colonialism in the Congo; what am I saying you are a dumb ass (you don’t even know where The Congo is), you start of your polemical with shit like “I think” and “He cares” and “I feel”. Kill yourself because you deserve to eat shit infinitely. This Negro is killing us in Africa, and your dumb ass thinks you are so smart. I want you to repeat after me “I am an Uncle Tom! I hate Black People! I want to lick white ass! As long as it’s a Black men killing and bombing Arab People, it’s cool with me. I have no creativity whatsoever! I like being told what to do! I like repeating platitudes around the excuses for Obama! I’m dumb. Please love me! I will kill myself after I read this!”
@Lavagabond –
In the words of H. Rap Brown, Black people are chumps, and until we realize that we are politically autistic with no real understanding of power and the slave mentality we carry, we’ll always be chumps. And yes, we will give our vote to however has the best singing voice! Your comment is a prime example because you’re not examining his policies, your mesmerized by his face and the fact that white society has accepted a Black man. You make a comment saying “how dare you…” like your indignant, but what’s worse than him bombing African and Afghan babies with drone attacks? HOW DARE HE with his unwillingness to prosecute the bankers who targeted Black and Brown people with subprime mortgages? You say you “think” he cares, but words are wind. Hell you can’t even count on his words because he’ll always find ways to show white people how good he is at bashing Black people. We get so geeked by his presence we just repeat what we read at the Huffington Post or what the great political analyst Steve Harvey said. We don’t examine what he’s actually doing and I don’t care what you think, his actions show exactly how he feels about Black people. He’ll use us when it’s convenient in order to secure his own power. That’s what Uncle Toms do….we can’t assume because he’s black, he automatically cares about Black people.
Then you say he can’t cater to Black people, well he sure as hell has no problem catering to the Zionist Jews, he has no problem bowing to the damn Queen of England who enslaves African people all over the world, and he has no problem at all with providing weapons and aid to autocratic governments in the Middle East. So why is it that he can’t cater to us? Or is it that we are so slaved out that we just salivate when we see a Black face. Once thing white people always expect is that the president BETTER cater to them, but we just tuck our tail and hope for the best, knowing it will always end up bad.
Apparently, you didn’t get the memo that this site is not towing the main stream, popular excuses that talking head Negros give so that Black people will be okay with a war machine under a Black president. This site is about imagining new ways of having a democracy. When you have low expectations and assume that the only way democracy can be done is to vote every four years, then yeah, I can see why you think Obama is the only option. But when you work everyday (not ever four years) to build a democracy where you can actually vote directly on the issues that affect you (like health care, where your taxes go, whether you want war), then you place no value whatsoever on this system.
By the way, Black people were even more vocal when there was a white president, this Black man has lulled us to sleep, we don’t have any standards or “unparallel” expectations of him at all. We just want to see his stupid face and his stupid family. YOUR COMMENT JUST PROVED IT! Maybe you should sit and reflect on how your comment just fortified the efficacy of this article.