Guardian: Barack Obama and the paradox behind his African American support base
According to Gallup 90% of African Americans intend to back him and they plan to turn out at the same rate as white voters. No other block of voters is more loyal.
…African Americans, as a group, are far worse off now than they were when Obama came to power and the gap between whites and blacks in terms of wealth and income has increased under Obama’s tenure. The overall rate of unemployment may be close to where it was when Obama took office, but black unemployment is up 11%. Meanwhile the wealth gap has doubled during this recession with the average white American now having 22 times more wealth than their black counterparts. So too has the educational achievement gap with the rate at which white Americans graduate from high school growing at a far faster clip than black students.
It truly saddens me that the majority of black folks in America don’t see Obama for who he is because they can’t see past the color of his skin. Obama is a black man. That is WHAT he is, but not WHO he is. The WHO of Obama is defined by his character and that is what he should be judged by. Not his skin color, not his bowling average, not his golf handicap, and not whether he wears boxers or briefs. These things do not define him, they merely describe him.
To vote for a BAD candidate on the basis of race or some other superficial criteria is to be willfully stupid.
Obama’s presidency has been an unqualified disaster for ALL Americans of every creed and color. He shouldn’t get a pass from black Americans simply because he’s part of their clique. If anything they should hold him to a higher standard.
