Barack Obama does not look like any other president that the United States has ever had. He is tall, slender, with short coarse hair and has mocha colored skin, the result of him being the offspring of a white mother and African Father. He is the first black president of the United States. He is not only a global political leader, but a symbol of progress and civil rights. Despite less than stellar approval ratings, Obama earned himself re-election in 2012, proving himself a competent political leader. As far as being a symbol of progress and civil rights, if you ask many black Americans they’ll tell you he isn’t doing enough.
(Photo via Shepard Fairey)
Due to America’s evil history of slavery, racial prejudice, and discrimination, the state of African Americans has perpetually been subordinate to that of white Americans. Many people believed that once we elected a black president things would change and African Americans would progress towards a state of equality among whites. If you look at the numbers things have changed for black Americans, but not for the better. According to a study done by the national review in 2014, blacks are worse off now than when Obama took over as president. The percentage of blacks under the poverty line, and the percentage of blacks on food stamps have risen since 2009, the year after Obama first took office. Also the percentage of blacks in the labor force, the percentage who own homes, and the median household income for blacks have all declined since 2009. Other than his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative launched last year, Obama has not went out of his way to help the black community. This may be why his approval ratings among blacks has gone from 92 percent in 2009, to 84 percent in 2014.
During times of racial tension, like the Trayvon Martin shooting, and the protests and riots due to the deaths of Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Michael Brown, Obama has done his best to remain neutral and leave race out of his public addresses. This may be due to the Henry Louis Gates arrest fiasco early in his administration, in which he received much criticism for his comments regarding the disparity in which police pull over minorities opposed to whites. He has not used any of these unfortunate incidents as platform to speak on the racial disparities and inequities that persist in our society today, and for many African-Americans that is discouraging. Obama has used national tragedies like the Newton, New Jersey mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary to further his gun control agenda. As his presidency is a symbol of how far the black community has come, he should be using tragedies against the black community to garner support for change in a nation that is still suffering from the lingering effects of slavery.
This issue becomes more relevant when looking at the mass shooting that occurred in Charleston on June 17, 2015. A young white man walked into a historically black church and murdered nine black victims after yelling racist comments. Instead of using this event as a platform to speak out against the racism that plagues America, Obama chose to use this event to further his gun control agenda.
It’s instances like these in which Obama could really prove his worth as a civil rights leader who could progress blacks to full equality in our nation, but instead he fails to do this. With only a year left in office, Obama has only a short amount of time to try to live up to the dreams that he placed in the minds of blacks when he was elected president. If he doesn’t give a strong effort to do this, he risks leaving a legacy of disappointment and failure to the ethnic community which he belongs.
