Obama Race Relations Has Gotten Better: But Has It Really

“RACE RELATIONS HAVE GOTTEN BETTER, MORE PROGRESS NEEDED”. 

Those are the words of Barack Obama President of the United States. 
President Obama made those com­ments in an in depth inter­view with People Magazine.
In the inter­view the President detailed being mis­tak­en for a wait­er and Valet.’ The President’s wife, first lady Michelle Obama recalls that once they were at a black tie affair and some­one asked her hus­band to get coffee.
According to the cou­ple these events occurred just pri­or to mis­ter Obama’s ascen­dan­cy to the Presidency.
In actu­al­i­ty with­in this decade. 
Barack Obama has come under severe scruti­ny and endured much crit­i­cisms on his response to recent police killing of unarmed peo­ple, large­ly African American males.
By the way that cri­tique is com­ing from some of his staunchest sup­port­ers , includ­ing Professors Michael Eric Dyson, Cornell West and oth­ers. Supporters believe he vac­il­lates between speak­ing out stri­dent­ly against oppres­sion and pla­cat­ing white America. Mister Obama’s demeanor seem to be one that shies away from con­fronta­tion. In some quar­ters that may give the appear­ance of weak­ness. However Obama’s stance on the issue of race is not nec­es­sar­i­ly one of weak­ness per sey.

Obama spoke out when his friend Tenured Harvard Professor Henry Lewis Gates was wrong­ly pro­filed and arrest­ed on his own prop­er­ty by a Boston cop. The new President said then:
“I don’t know, not hav­ing been there and not see­ing all the facts, what role race played in that [Gates case]. But I think it’s fair to say, num­ber one, any of us would be pret­ty angry; num­ber two, that the Cambridge police act­ed stu­pid­ly in arrest­ing some­body when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, num­ber three, what I think we know sep­a­rate and apart from this inci­dent is that there’s a long his­to­ry in this coun­try of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforce­ment dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly. That’s just a fact.”

Obama also spoke out on the Travyon Martin Killing, stating :

“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his fam­i­ly, or for any one com­mu­ni­ty, but for America. I know this case has elicit­ed strong pas­sions. And in the wake of the ver­dict, I know those pas­sions may be run­ning even high­er. “But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spo­ken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflec­tion from two par­ents who lost their young son. “And as we do, we should ask our­selves if we’re doing all we can to widen the cir­cle of com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing in our own com­mu­ni­ties. We should ask our­selves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun vio­lence that claims too many lives across this coun­try on a dai­ly basis. “We should ask our­selves, as indi­vid­u­als and as a soci­ety, how we can pre­vent future tragedies like this. As cit­i­zens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to hon­or Trayvon Martin.”

These were pret­ty defin­i­tive state­ments com­ing from the President, the prob­lems is not that he does­n’t speak out , it’s what he does after white peo­ple push back, he seem to pull back. In the Gates saga he capit­u­lat­ed by invit­ing the cop to the white house for a beer. A def­i­nite no no if you ask me. That was a sign of weak­ness in my estimation.
Since then Obama seem to be at pains not to get involved in the thorny issue of race in America. Now many say “well he is the pres­i­dent of all America he can­not take one side over another!
Perfectly true and he shouldn’t.
But no one is ask­ing him to. 
The President is the high­est elect­ed Official in the coun­try, he can­not run for anoth­er office after his sec­ond term is over. If Obama can­not stand firm­ly and deci­sive­ly against racial hatred in America now, when will he?
Strongly con­demn­ing entrenched racist atti­tudes in some sec­tors of white America is not tak­ing sides. It is the right thing to do.
Who cares about the howls of con­dem­na­tion which are sure to fol­low? To hell with those who scream, if you chose neu­tral­i­ty you actu­al­ly chose the side of the oppressor. 

Those who scream about the pres­i­dent should not take sides, are those who ben­e­fit the most from over 400 years of White suprema­cy and racial enti­tle­ments in this country.
Racism can go away today if white America chose to end it.
They start­ed it,they per­pet­u­ate it, they can end it.
This is the rea­son I strong­ly dis­agree with the pres­i­dent that race rela­tions are get­ting bet­ter. The fact that Barack Obama was elect­ed pres­i­dent is a net pos­i­tive for him. It’s a net pos­i­tive for the coun­try and to some extent in the long run black America. At the moment how­ev­er, there is a seri­ous white-lash against his pres­i­den­cy which is hav­ing dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for oth­ers less pow­er­ful than he.
No race has author­i­ty over another. 
No race is supe­ri­or to the other.
No race is more enti­tled to this plan­et than others.
On that basis alone black Americans should wait not one minute more to be treat­ed equal­ly and fair­ly in this land their fore-par­ents vis­it­ed first. They should wait not one minute more in this land their fore-par­ents slaved and died for, got raped and muti­lat­ed for.
Many whites speak about America with a sense of own­er­ship, as if every­one else are mere intruders,or vis­i­tors at best. Intruders and vis­i­tors there to be treat­ed based on their per­son­al feel­ings and bias­es. Blacks must seize the moment, but most impor­tant­ly they must assume own­er­ship of their coun­try, and be pre­pared to die for it. They must be pre­pared to die so that their chil­dren may live out the promise this land has for their chil­dren, all chil­dren. Once and for this refugee in their own land sta­tus must come to an end.
“We have …come to this hal­lowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the lux­u­ry of cool­ing off or to take the tran­quil­iz­ing drug of grad­u­al­ism. Now is the time to make real the promis­es of democ­ra­cy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and des­o­late val­ley of seg­re­ga­tion to the sun­lit path of … jus­tice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick­sands of … injus­tice to the sol­id rock of broth­er­hood. Now is the time to make jus­tice a real­i­ty for all of God’s children.” 
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

President Obama can­not be con­sumed by polls which indi­cate falling num­bers on his han­dling of race. There will be howls of dis­con­tent and anger. Those howls will come from those who are sat­is­fied ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the sta­tus quo. That is unten­able, that is unacceptable.
There comes a time when doing what is right trumps what is pop­u­lar, now is the time.