President Obama: Should he create a specific job recovery plan for African Americans?
Friday, December 11, 2009 at 03:44PM 
The Unemployment rate is up over 10% and African Americans are 6% higher than the national average. Does our government play a historic role in disenfranchising Blacks in America? Since Obama is an African American/Blackman should he be more informed and concerned with the specific needs of Black people in this country? I often ask people who say Blacks shouldn’t get special treatment, but how many slaves volunteered to come to America and build it for free?
Like the President, I have studied Malcolm X intensely and I grew up admiring him as a youth. I studied all of his speeches and read all of the books about him. I learned from Malcolm the difference between a reformer and a revolutionary. A reformer is a person trying to improve on current conditions and practices. A Revolutionary is concerned with complete change and wants to do away completely with the old way. We don’t need a President to reform a system that was setup to work against people of color. We need a revolutionary who will do things that revolutionize this country and the world in the way they see Black people all around the world.
According to Time magazine:
“Ever since 1953, there have been at least two Blacks out of work for every jobless White.”
I can’t stand when Black leaders in control think they have to save the world versus saving themselves first. I love Gandhi, Muhammad and all those leaders who helped their people to advance. I am just waiting on the moment when Black leaders and Black people look to save themselves first. If Dr. King would have put the effort into transforming Black into a single and separate productive society, we 
would be so much further as a people. Think about all the things we lost since integration. We owned our own hotels, schools, stores, etc. and Dr. King later realized his mistake and spoke openly about how he had lived long enough to see his dream become a nightmare. He started to speak on reparations when he talked about the check the government wrote Black people that came back with insufficient funds. The government killed Dr. King after he met with Elijah Muhammad and then made the speech on how he might not get to the mountain top with us.
The government of America has created welfare programs that supported women and children but not men. The family was split because the woman would not get assistance if the man lived in the house. The men making only enough to support one person saw this as a way the government was helping them at the time. I see Black men now going to jail for child support when the economy is at the worst it has ever been in the history of this country. I think if we make up the majority of the prison system and we are the lowest on the job scale, we should be the first to receive some form of assistance. I don’t think we should get a hand out but maybe get a few loans with no interest for 7 years to open up businesses in our own community. This should be an option. We should be given the opportunity to rebuild our communities since we know crack cocaine was put into the Black community by the government. The only people who prospered from the war on drugs started by Ronald Reagan a.k.a. the Devil, were the police department and the prison system.
I think since I am a Blackman/Original Man I can speak on how I would act if I were the President. I would relieve Africa of all it’s debt to the World Bank, the United States, France, Britain, Germany and China. I would offer free education to African Americans who were willing to go to work in Africa for three to five years on its reconstruction. I would release all non-violent criminals who were willing to go work in Africa for the remainder of their time. I would relieve all Black and Brown people of their debt to mortgage companies since we know the Bush administration targeted them for these illegal loan programs. I have not even gotten to Jim Crowe or slavery and you can see how we already deserve reparations.
Whenever the government is in trouble of crumbling they call on the Super Black Man. This has happened all through history and then when they don’t need us, to the back we go. I remember living in Chicago and Harold Washington was elected Mayor. The city was in its worst stages with race relations, jobs were scarce and Blacks were moving into the areas formerly occupied by racist Whites like Marquette Park. The city was on the verge of a revolution, Blacks were about to take over. The Brown community was spreading and uniting with the Black community. He did more for Latinos as a Mayor than any other Mayor before him. Whites were becoming the minority and then out of nowhere, they killed him. They said he had a heart attack at his office.
If you look at America, it is suffering economically, spiritually and is at it’s worst moment with race relations. They now go get President Obama, who a lot of people are calling a “Trojan horse” to save the country from Revolution. He is going to reform health care, win the war in Afghanistan and unite all the people. If you believe this then you are still, as my sister Sandrarose.com would say, drinking the kool-aid. He said that troops would be pulled out in his first year in office, not more going to war. He hasn’t built on any program to end the Zionism going on in Israel. He went to a Muslim country, broke bread and then came back to go to war with the Muslim world.
I am saying all of this to say we need to create our agenda and no matter who is in office, make them 
comply to our demands or take up arms as the constitution gives us the right to do and overthrow this shadow government. I strongly believe we should be putting a program together to specifically uplift the Black community economically. But as far as what the President will do, the Whitehouse spokesperson, Robert Gibbs said “The President will not create a program to just help African Americans, he is more interested in programs that will help the whole economy.” Until truth prevails my eyes will be watching.
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Reader Comments (3)
Richard, you make a lot of good points, & as you know, simply making sense, & putting forth proposals at least worthy of looking at, amounts to pissing in the wind. The media is bought & paid for, as is congress, whites are either antagonistic, sympathetic, but unwilling to step up & speak out, or indifferent. Then you have the fractured black community, in this shape, due to decades of a brutally successful strategy of enforcing the "war on drugs" laws primarily on young black males, even going so far as to supply the drugs they then bust them for....
Man, the situation doesn't look very promising, and what's ironic, is that just like that famous quote about "first they came for the .....", has finally hit millions of white folk in the face. They now see the crushing advances of the corporate fascism is not just rolling over & destroying "black America", but has plowed through much of "white America" as well, while many of them supported the very policies that have worked against their own self-interests.
This propaganda campaign has been the present day, "for-whites" version of the Willie Lynch letter. Led by pundits on radio & tv, and greedy televangelists, & politicians, they've been convinced that supporting policies & legislation detrimental to their financial & physical well-being, even their constitutional rights, are what they should vote for!
My only hope is that those who drink this kool-aid, and are the most vocal, are simply the loud minority, and not indicative of a majority (which actually does make some sense, as Obama did win pretty decisively, & some recent events have shown Rush & Sean's viewers aren't necessarily buying their whole rap). But I'm not a big optimist about all this, as much as I can still at least hope.....
I do wonder how you think this tact:
"make them comply to our demands or take up arms as the constitution gives us the right to do and overthrow this shadow government."
would work, in practice. How would you find the "shadow government" to actually attack? It's kind of like our seeking out the terrorist leaders, shadowy, elusive, on the move, hidden, and always surrounded by the most hard-core, loyal supporters.
That's why I don't see that road accomplishing anything more than create a whole lot of dead Americans, mainly black ones...
IMHO, since the largest factor in decimating inner-cities & black families, is the racist, unconstitutional, enforcement of the war on drugs, that be the #1 goal. Already Holder has called the Feds off of busting those engaged in state-allowed marijuana cultivation & sale, which is a good beginning. I always wondered how all those "states' rights" conservatives were ok with this practice, where the fed over-ruled the laws of some states...
Next, there has to be a massive educational campaign, to bring to light just how egregious & horribly disproportionate this profiling & sentencing has been, for the last 40 YEARS! So of course, today people easily assume "blacks are more likely to be criminals", since they just see the huge numbers vs whites, in prison! They don't stop to look and see that it's simply because the government decided to create that lopsided situation, and went out to make it happen!
Doesn't it make you wonder, where have any high-profile blacks (whether leaders from the movement days, or younger ones) been the last 20-30 years, as all this just continued to go on, destroying black communities as effectively as if they were carpet bombed by B-52s? Why has there not been massive demonstrations, marches, boycotts, & especially lawsuits, challenging the constitutionality of such a misuse of power?
You know if they were imprisoning young Jewish men, or Italians, Catholics, etc., there would be all hell unleashed, yet, no uproar from the black community, not even the NOI, not the SCLC, or NAACP, or the black intelligentsia, so very articulate & witty with their opinions...
I know that I raise this issue with many people, black & especially white, whether in print, or in person, but I'm not a high-profile individual, why are they so silent? Why the seeming acceptance of this state of affairs? I could say the very same thing about gangsta rap, as that is another area, where any other ethnic group in this country would be raising hell, at the release of so much product with language worse than anyone has ever heard outside of a Klansman's ranting. Look what happened when MJ had a song with ONE mention of "kike", there was so much protest, they recalled & re-recorded the album! But billions of songs sold full of the N-word & Bs & Hos, & all about shooting each other, and treating women like shit, and being a thug, & making bling more important than having any character or an education.
24/7 saturation of that kind of powerful mind-bending stimulation has also been a destructive force. Music is a very powerful creator of moods, thoughts, attitudes, emotions, etc. During the civil rights era, music was a very valued asset, as it helped to soothe, and to charge up, & inspire those engaged in the struggle. Whether Martin, John Lewis, Rev. Lowery, etc., they all have testified as to how integral a role it played in their success, & maintaining optimism, even at their worst moments. Today, that same powerful medium is transmitting all the wrong messages, don't you think?
I agree with everything you are saying Steven and I even respect where in certain areas you make me look for answers. I especially like your point on taking up arms against this shadow government. I guess in order to smoke out the true criminals you have to do like they do us in our community. They treat everybody like a criminal until folks start talking. I say we start treating Obama like the Criminals he is protecting and he will start to talk. I first and foremost believe we need to establish citizen ship and then declare a portion of this country for ourselves. We mus start and operate all our education institutions, we must start to do import and export with Africa for all our needs. We need land here to produce food and shelter for ourselves. I don't think we need to go back to anywhere we are the planet and without us it will not exist. I could talk for days about what we should do but all I can really speak on is what I do. I think we must first start to at least discuss the issues before anything can be done. So I give thanks for your input and response peace and Blessings
Richard, appreciate & respect your response. On the matter of schools, I think any schools within a neighborhood of activated, involved parents & community/church leaders would by that very fact, be "operated", influenced, by the people. In any big city, there are always some schools that get more priority, in terms of facilities, programs, newer textbooks, etc. It's not just a black or white thing, but more the principle of the "squeaky wheel getting the grease" in action.
Most big cities public school systems are not headed by white populated school boards, so the potential is already there. But without parents/community involvement, the newest buildings, books, & even good teachers, won't really be enough.
Same is true with the dearth of black-owned businesses in black neighborhoods. There is already a pathway, but there must be empowered black residents willing to take it upon themselves to make a store or service work. Too often, whatever the newest immigrant group of the time take advantage of the lower cost of opening in "undesirable", poorer areas, often pooling money they've earned, working shit jobs, to support opening these businesses. Of course, the only thing holding the neighborhood's residents from doing the same thing, is inertia. it's not been the primary m.o., people often are in delusion, that the government "gives them" money to open the stores, not realizing that by working together, for & with each other, they have that same power.
Instead, it's left mainly to high-profile, successful athletes or entertainers, to open really nice places, and then they usually (except Magic) put them in higher-income, white areas! Where is that at??? No other minority group, trying to move on up, does or did it that way. They service their own people, who are loyal to them, & vice versa, until they make & save up more, and then move on to other areas, they don't start there.
Back in the 60s, the Panthers, community organizations, the NOI, & even some gangs, really made a push to empower their communities, by, as the Nation says, "Doing for self". However, as powers that be took notice, we then saw the beginning of the flood of white powder into the cities, which, along with a massive police crackdown, ended that momentum, and here we are today, 40+ years later, in a horrible mess.
I had hoped (& still do) that with an Obama/Holder team, we would finally see these racist enforcement & incarceration policies coming to an end.
I was thrilled when Holder, out of the gate, ordered the DOJ to desist in arresting legal pot growers, sellers & users, in states where medicinal marijuana is lawful. Finally, the "states' rights" Bush policy of trampling on the states' rights (when it wasn't to Bush/Cheney's liking), by arresting people abiding by their state laws.
However, there's not been much else done in addressing racial profiling, in arrests, convictions, and sentencing. I'm really tired of hearing every other day, about another human being released after 20, 25, 30, 35 YEARS in prison, for something they didn't do! Why do we need to rely on a few good-hearted defense attorneys, a law professor and his students to do the work our government should do? Since DNA exists for thousands of cases, that can now be used to insure verdicts were accurate, they should be done for any inmate where even a shred of doubt persists! Instead we still see judges refuse some of the few cases brought before them, to do the testing! That is outrageous, and Holder should do something about that YESTERDAY!
Alright, I gotta stop with this.... I'm just tired of having my hopes rise when someone comes along I think may just do something, only to be disappointed, either that they don't, Carter, Clinton, maybe Obama, or else they are simply taken out, Kennedy, King, Malcolm, Kennedy.......
I've realized not much ever will happen, without masses of people waking up... and the "other side" is doing all they can, and too good a job of it, to distract, divert, confuse, & brainwash millions of Americans....
peace,
Steven