United States: Obama forgets Black community
February 14th, 2010Malik Miah, San Francisco
What I found most striking about President Barack Obama’s first “State of the Union” address before Congress on January 27 was what he didn’t say.
As Obama is the first US president of African heritage, I expected his 70-minute speech on the economy to highlight the special impact of the recession on Blacks.
The last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, always spoke of the special concerns of African Americans — even when he didn’t mean it.
Clinton, for example, adopted the conservatives’ position on gutting the welfare system that led to tens of thousands of poor African Americans losing their benefits.
Obama, however, decided not to mention the special problems of African Americans — even in a situation where the blows of the Great Recession disproportionately hurt African Americans.
Official unemployment is nearly 50% higher for African Americans than for whites. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said in November unemployment for whites was 9.3%, but 15.6% for Blacks.
The long-term unemployment rate (those jobless for 27 weeks) is twice as high for African Americans. Black men working at full-time jobs earn on average 74.5% of the wage for white men.
Instead, Obama talked about the 25 tax cuts” his administration has already given to business (with more on the way). He said the cuts went to “95% of all Americans”, but refused to note how discrimination is still alive and well or its special impact on Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities.
Obama tells African Americans the positive programs the government is working on that will benefit equally all social groups. In other words, Obama accepts the conservatives’ argument that by improving the situation for the “middle (and upper) class” in general, it will lift the poor, including African Americans. [more]