The Obama factor

By David Muhammad

Never did I imagine that a frontrunner presidential candidate could speak so eloquently and truthfully about the condition of black America — not even a black candidate. But pressed to explain his longtime friendship with his now controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Senator Barack Obama delivered an electrifying speech. In that address, Obama gave a detailed account of how and why so much of black America still suffers. He spoke to how and why the black and black crime rate is extremely high.

Take in his words: “ … the disparities that exist in the African American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

“Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

“Legalized discrimination — where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments — meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

“A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families — a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods — parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement — all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.”

The history of America is steeped in racism and discrimination. The very reason America is the world’s superpower today is due to the hundreds of years of forced free labor it received from slaves brought here from Africa. Even after the 13th Amendment ended slavery, blacks were still held back in every way imaginable. To now ask blacks to just forget the past and “get over it” is irresponsible and causes us to overlook the root causes of many of the challenges that our communities face today.

While it is still true that a President Obama wouldn’t solve all the problems of black America in one or even two terms, his understanding and courage to articulate the complex issues facing the black community is commendable. The enormous disparities between black and white America cannot be ignored, although most nationally recognized politicians would much rather do just that. The problem is the communities that suffer the most and need the most attention and support tend not to vote, don’t donate to political campaigns, and have very low levels of civic engagement. This allows elected leaders to ignore those who they should be giving the most attention to.

In major cities across America, street violence remains an epidemic. While such violence garners media attention, elected officials and business leaders spend little time providing real energy and effort to address the root causes that can stem the tide of the senseless killings.

Barack Obama’s candidacy gives hope to those who have waited for a real change. And while one man and his message can certainly inspire hope for change, it will take millions on the ground in each city in America that suffers from the scourge of violence to bring about actual change.

Originally published March 26 – April 1, 2008