Obama Update

When Bill Cosby made the point that African-Americans weren't living up to the creed of the civil rights movement, and were deeply anti-intellectual I spoke out against him. At the time I believed he a) used the wrong language, that being language that alienated blacks and was seeped in self-hate (as when he addressed black children as 'it') and b) at a time when there are so many unfair policies against the poor and minority population (drug laws, lack of educational funds in black neighborhoods, the oppression of workfare) I found his ire to be misplaced. Yet, at the same time, I also made the point that his ideas didn't come out of a vacuum. They had been an on going debate in centers of black dialogue from the barbershop to the pool hall to the church. It's a debate that blacks unconsciously hide from the general (white) population. Why? Well when your mother has a drinking problem do you go outside the family to seek treatment? Probably not, even when she drives the family car into the living room. People have a tendency not to seek help from those who aren't kin. It's the exact same force that drives me to almost Bill O'Relly jingoism when I'm overseas and some European attacks Bush. Yeah, we got our problems but don't insult my house.

Of course this silent debate is rather futile. To truly address these types of issues aide must be enlisted from the outside. Much like our Iraq situation, the problems we face over there cannot be tackled by the US alone, and our civil rights issues today cannot be tackled unilaterally. Maybe this has lead to a silence by both parties regarding African-American problems. White politicians don't feel that they have the moral foundation to speak on it, and Black leaders are trying to consolidate what little power they have through methods that are decades old. Politics are a game that is infected with inertia issues and none are more deeply affected by that affliction then African-Americans.

Enter Barack Obama:

"Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are "acting white."

"In a brief interview, Obama said he is simply giving broader exposure to the problems that African Americans discuss with great frankness in private. "It's what we talk about in the barbershops in the South Side of Chicago," Obama said, adding that he talks about these problems more in the black community because they are more pronounced there. "There's an old saying that if America has a cold, we have pneumonia," he said."

People have said there is a time and a place for everything, so perhaps this is the time (and the person) to begin a dialogue on this issue, or at least bring it into the spotlight. Unlike Cosby, Obama is a wordsmith, able to deliver bad news with tact, and unlike Hilary who comes off as phony, partly because of her whiteness, but mostly because of her northern insulated background, Obama is has a genuineness in addressing black issues. He may not be "from da hood," but by skin tone alone he approaches the topic with more veracity on the issue when addressing the American public.

Even more important is his stance at looking at civil rights, which, if you've read the Audacity of Hope, he views not as a black problem, but an American problem that effects all disenfranchised Americans from poor whites to gays to every minority. He also doesn't see these issues as existing in isolation but will only be solved through individual effort and government intervention (which is why he says "It's a parent's job to take their child for regular check-ups. It's the government's job to makes sure they can afford the visit--how Lincolnesque). Anti-intellectualism is an American problem. Lack of proper parenting is an American problem. Republicans want to frame raising a child in terms of sexuality (that it's a hetrosexual couple that is the key), but they ignore the tools of education and the economic factors that equate to a positive nurturing environment. Finding ways to address these issues in the black population equates to finding solutions for all Americans.

I for one am glad that Obama is making this issue a part of his platform and I hope that he's discussing this with not only black audiences but white audiences as well. He's got the talent, the ideology, and, unlike Cosby, the temperment to make civil rights an American issue. In the year to come, the Democrats are going to have to play hardball with the GOP, and make strong decisive moves in terms of the war and health care, but having civil rights discussions and looking at issues that unite us will go far in overcoming the tactics of polarization and represent the future of this country.