It tells you everything about RACE in
America that the Black President can't even talk about race, racism, racial
injustice in the way it NEEDS to be talked about at every level by EVERYBODY in
these United States. (And by RACE I mean the deeply entrenched and historical
and contemporary divide between BLACK and WHITE! Yes folks, we got to go way
back to that place people want to forget--slavery and the lingering stench of
its aftermath. And I don't care if your people came over on later boats through
Ellis Island!)
Like Trayvon Martin before him, Mike Brown too
could have looked like Obama's son! If President Obama had a son would he/could
he speak differently? At times when he needs to speak, it's not unusual to hear
pundits reiterate that President Obama is not a President for Black America
only, as if by commenting on elephant in the room of American existence, he is
violating his oath of office. When has he ever shown that he is not a President
for all who live here? I dare say, by not talking about race consistently and
meaningfully throughout his presidency, he has not fully been the president of
all Americans. Black folks are still catching hell as they have under all prior
43 administrations. President Kennedy and Johnson after him took courageous
steps in the area of civil rights, so I have to wonder where, style notwithstanding,
is the substance of President Obama on this matter? In these turbulent times,
if not him, then who? If not now, then when? Who will be the next most powerful
person in the whole wide world who is going to have the power to call this for
what it is? Who else but a Black man can talk about what life is like for Black
men, profiled, pursued, penned in, and pent up? Who but he can say, "This
crap must stop?"
