It turns out that President Obama spoke yesterday at the NAACP's 100th anniversary dinner. See, ABC News, "President Obama Says Pain of Discrimination" Still Felt in America'," and the New York Times, "Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: ‘No Excuses’ for Any Failure."
Plus, Lynn Sweet has the text, "Obama's NAACP Speech." And this section is key:
What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past one hundred years ....Barack Obama is the President of the United States. And that's what makes his NAACP address so lousy. Any significant black leader today is going to have to make that speech. He or she is going have to reach back to all the accomplishments dating to the early 20th century, when a black man could be lynched - in the north or the south - for looking at a white women.
And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks - we know that too many barriers still remain.
We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else - a gap that's widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.
We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.
We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.
And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.
These are some of the barriers of our time. They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.
But what is required to overcome today's barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.
The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?
The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there's probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.
But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.
On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.
Sure, Obama's right to speak truth to the history. But it's so old. And not only that: It's so, well, lame. It's been 45 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If a black person can't make it in America today, they aren't going make it. What barriers are keeping folks down? What impediments? It's not all those "indicators" touted by the President. The rate of imprisonment; the proportion of HIV/AIDS; the number of those uninsured ... You get the picture. The President's talking statistics, not causation. But that's his play - lay it on thick with the black folks, but then go easy on whites with shameless racial bargaining. Can't alienate the largest chunk of the voting electorate. Hit the right notes, and you'll soothe white guilt without inflaming recriminations on the other side.
Obama's skilled at the talk. He's done the community action thing and he worked as a racial grievance law professor who taught post-structural theories of critical race analysis. If you've read that stuff it's all institutions and no personal responsibility. Obama's old pal, education professor William Ayers, has a recent book titled Race Course Against White Supremacy. That's the standard pedagogy among the left's "Teachers College" elite. That's the indoctrination. There are points to be scored by victimology, and there's an industry to keep alive by constantly attacking whites as bigots.
But the President's going too easy on his brothers and sisters, frankly. Obama would have done himself a favor by reprising Bill Cosby's address to the NAACP in 2004, on the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision. Sure, he paid due deference to some of Cosby's themes, but the President's inauthentic on personal responsibility. He's too caught up in the "blood of martyrs" frame of the Jackson/Sharpton race hustlers. You can't break out of poverty and social isolation when the top black representatives are trying to keep you down on the plantation. Jim Crow is long gone, and we only see him when the media conjures up some "right-wing extremist" who's really a Democrat in the news. James von Brunn was a registered Democrat from Maryland. John Duesler, the Philly swim club manager, is a Democrat and Barack Obama blood-donor activist (O-Positive!). Just yesterday, we saw Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer upbraided by Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. By rattling off some NAACP resolution and an endorsement for "cap and tax" from 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Senator Boxer sought to bring Alford down low as just one more po' negro. "What's 'a matter wit' you, boy ... I got me some fren's who say we be stylin' wid' de climate-hoax taxpayer ripoff! Get with the program, mofo!"
In his speech yesterday, President Obama spoke of the family of Emmett Till: "If Emmet Till's uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families." Gee, that's great Mr. President. Hark back for more blood of martyrs, will you? But hey, if someone wants to use Emmett Till for an example, they'd be better off asking: Why are four blacks in Chicago charged with desecrating Emmett Till's grave? And man, who are you going to blame?!! The President should have layed down some names in shame. C'mon, four black grave robbers alleged to have exhumed hundreds of bodies for cash at a historic black cemetery? I seriously doubt that's the kind of "race-lifting" W.E.B DuBois had in mind!
But as long as blacks today live for the past, longingly comforted in knowing that, yes, they were once horribly mistreated as subhumans, then they'll never fully have to take responsibility for lifting themselves up.
Check out Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on that. He takes issue with the New York Times headline, which quotes the President saying, "we have no excuses for failure." Well, we don't, as I've pointed out here at length. But Ta-Nehisi's perturbed:
Like I said earlier this week - so much of this isn't about Obama himself, but a deep-seated desire to get out from under history. Expiation on the cheap. White guilt isn't anyone's friend. Least of all black people's.Au contraire, mon frère! We're getting plenty of history. Now if we could just get the culture right ... now that'd be some progress!
Video Hat Top: CBS News, "Obama: Blacks Must 'Seize Our Own Future'." The compete video is here.
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