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I am one of your middle class Americans and, quite frankly, I'm exhausted... I'm exhausted of defending you. I'm exhausted of defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. And I'm deeply disappointed with where we are right now.
I have been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I am one of those people and I'm waiting sir. I'm waiting. I don't feel it yet. And I thought, while it wouldn't be in great measure, I would feel it in some small measure... And quite frankly Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: Is this my new reality? (Thelightnc.com)
Let's put this into perspective. The woman's comment is reflective of what millions of Americans are experiencing. They are worried about keeping their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods. They are finding that the political reality of running the White House is not nearly as exciting as the idealistic notion of actually taking over the White House. They are also finding that America is ready to elect a black president, but not quite ready to support one.
Former President Jimmy Carter made the issue plain last night on 'Larry King Live.' On the show, Carter said that Obama is being faced with arguably the most divisive Congress since Abraham Lincoln. He acknowledged that race plays a role in how the world deals with Obama, and that the president is handling the situation as best he can. I agree with that assessment completely, and I've always been impressed with Jimmy Carter as an honest and forthright human being.
To that end, our president deserves to be defended. There are those with illegitimate critiques of Obama that reflect nothing more than the lynch mob mentality that has plagued black people since we first arrived on slave ships.
All the while, Obama is not an innocent victim. Our president has chosen to play the game sometimes in ways that hardly any of us would play it. He has sold at least a part of his soul to elitist cronies from Harvard and Yale who care more about buying their next vacation home than taking care of the American people. He has chosen economic advisors who haven't even taken two minutes to acknowledge chronic unemployment in the African American community (which is nearly double the rate for whites). In many ways, the Obama Presidency has most certainly betrayed us, and to that extent, there is nothing to defend.
Is Obama the best president for black America? No, he is not. Is he the best option made available to us? Yes, he is. Is he doing his best to run the White House? Most of the time. The point here is that defending Obama doesn't mean you love him without holding him accountable. But it does mean that we acknowledge the fact that Obama is dealing with something no president has ever had to deal with before, and for that, he should be commended.
When we express our frustration with the state of the country, we must ourselves ask why we feel disappointed. Some of the disappointment can be directly linked to poor choices by the president, who promised more than he could ever possibly deliver. He has also neglected his base, which fails to be inspired enough to return to the polls to support his fellow Democrats in the mid-term elections. At the same time, much of the disappointment must be linked to the racially-charged animosity created by the Tea Party Movement and Right Wing Republicans who refuse to take orders from a black man. Another angle of disappointment comes from the fact that our economy has not been designed to create jobs for the past 20 years, so Obama's quest for job creation is an uphill battle requiring fundamental shifts in how our nation does business.
The final source of blame for our disappointment is ourselves. We expected too much and thought that one man can change 400 years of nasty racial history. We put all of our hope into a political version of the Black Baby Jesus, posting Obama's picture right next to Martin Luther King on our living room walls. We thought he could make life better for us in one swoop, only to find that he plays the game just like any other president. Obama is a great man, but not nearly as great as we'd like to believe. In fact, I bet he's only human.
The bottom line is that the answer to all of Obama's problems lies with the economy. The solution is simple, but difficult to obtain. If Obama reduces the unemployment rate, he will see his support grow among American voters. One question, however, is whether or not his administration will have any incentive whatsoever to help correct the massive wealth loss in the black community that has resulted from this economic storm. When the recession is over, black unemployment will be about as high as white unemployment is right now, we will still have only a fraction of the wealth of white families, and we will still be out of the loop on government contracts and opportunities for small businesses. So, if the first black president doesn't help us to overcome racial inequality, is his victory anything more than symbolic?
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (259)
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By: Jesse Marino on 9/21/2010 1:59PM
I haven't been able to get the lady's name, and see just how bad her straights are. She says she has two kids in private school and both her and her husband work. I think that's what she said. Has anyone done a fact check on her, because something doesn't ring true her claims, if in fact the husband works and she still has a job as a cfo.
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By: jt on 9/21/2010 2:57PM
jesse get off your high horse i am sure glad she spoke for me and I don't know the lady but she was on the point for many of us maybe not you but definetly for us vets will I vote for Obama I sure will I wish i could meet you in an alley somewhere
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By: topaz on 9/21/2010 3:00PM
this lady is a chief financial officer making more than all of us! she's a little witch worrying bout her income and i think that she's more low ill-informed than those tea baggers! damn she's a freaking hypocrite!
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By: ARNEADER on 9/21/2010 4:28PM
It would have been nice if the President was BLAZING SADDLES and blacks could have come ahead a little but we know what it has been like for the last 2 years. Have we forgotten a fourth party The Tea Party has formed as a result of his election? Have we forgotten “I want my country back”? Have we forgotten “I want President Obama to fell?” It is evident to ALL of us there is nothing he can do right or without a fight. If President Obama was REAL successful it would have given H.O.P.E to the entire country. America let us see what having a black President would be like. It reminds me of the South, MS and AL did not care if they were last or next to last so long as they could stay SEGREGATED. America does not care if this country FAILS so long as a President Obama does not make this country a better place. President Obama did what he was suppose to do—played fair and they kept moving the goal post. Why do you think Bill and Hillary are his friends and are helping him out? They see how RACIST America is. We have a majority Democratic Congress and President Obama can not get his own party to support him. America is a J.O.K.E. Que Sara Sara I haven’t missed a meal and I have worked for myself for the last eleven years. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. Thank You President Obama I did get health care because I was uninsured. No one has missed a meal we ALL have just been frustrated as HECK!
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By: Rene on 9/22/2010 1:17AM
Right! but she is still having it so hard. I haven't had a "real" job in almost 2 years since being laid off from a job I held for 18 years, but I'm certainly not going to blame President Obama for that! When I know who's feet this destruction of our country is clearly the fault of the Republican Party! If they were allowed to get back in office instead of Obama we would still be in this same situation that the country is in now, but much worse! Because Republicans do not care about anything or anybody but themselves and their rich cronies, and trying to figure out how much richer they can get. So this woman better think again about where we have come since he has been in office and some of the changes he has been able to do without the greedy republicans trying to stop everything. They did nothing for 8 damn years and before that, and now they want to hollar "We want our country back"! They are full of it! This is not Obama's fault, but I truly believe he has us going in the right direction. People forget what he said during his campaign for the presidency. THIS MESS DID NOT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT AND IT WAS GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME TO GET IT RIGHT. I feel with his direction we will get there. And my suspicion is that she might have been a plant! They always use our own against us just like back in slavery....Field N***er House N***er same situation different era.
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By: ohreally on 9/22/2010 1:16PM
maybe what she and her husband should do is take her children out of private school and put them in public school.. they'll save a bunch of money.. when they get to college - tell her children they need to get a part-time job to help w/their college tuition..
if they both have jobs what is she bitching about.. did she think just because he is black and the president that he will solve every black persons problems.. ppl who think this way needs to get a grip..
he can do only what he can do.. no one has ever made the right choice every time but they need to give him a break and pray on it..
how many presidents have we had that have made things far worse..
why don't we start blaming some of these employers who seem to want to keep outsourcing jobs to other countries instead of hiring right here in their backyard.. why don't we blame banks for their unfair lending practices... how bout we blame the dead beats out there that make it hard for single parents to properly take care of their children and put them through college and after school programs to keep them out of trouble.
When will it end.
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By: LJ on 9/22/2010 2:47PM
Okay soooooooooo....in two years everything is supposed to be corrected? Fixed? Perfect? Magic wand anybody? Has this lady forgotten how long it took for us to be freed from slavery? To recieve equal rights? How long the civil rights movement was? How fast does she expect to see a "change"?? It takees quite sometime for a change to occur. And Obama is working on it, you ungrateful, impatient, faithless people! SMH.
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By: Tonya Keels on 9/21/2010 2:45PM
Come on, when Bush was in office no one said a thing. Times are tough because of our former president and the president before then. Our current president is trying to clean up a mess that cannot be cleaned up over night. I don't klnow why people expect our current president to wave his majic wand and mare all the problems we have had for years go away. I am middle class myself with one daughter in private school and one in college. I voted for Obama but I don't blame our president when things don't go the way I think they should go.
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By: bartlyja on 9/21/2010 7:45PM
I totally agree with you. Like President Obama says, "it's going to take time to get out of this mess that was years in the making. Why is it that any Black person has to be twice as good as the White man. I have also notices that Black people tend to be even harder on and expect more from their own. President Obama is only a man and doing the best that he can. He is damn if he does and damn if he don't. He has done wonderful things for the american people, but the Dems need to get on the ball a little more aggressively and loudly getting this message out.
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By: Monte Moire on 9/22/2010 4:45PM
I gotta agree with Tonya Keels. For eight years, folks complained about president Buss II, but not on the level of what people are doing with president Obama. There were no Tea Party rallies. There were no politicans blocking every Bush idea, like they are doing with president Obama.
Every idea that Obama presents to the Republicans were ideas that the Republicans liked before. Now when the idea is presented to the Republicans, the same idea! Oh, the Republicans want no part of the idea. Republicans are stone walling on everthing. Folks want him(Obama) to fail.
It is like inviting a friend over to play poker. You hand him a fixed deck of cards. Then you play a few hands. Then after you have cleaned him out, you wonder why he did not win a hand! This is what president Obama is up against. He is invited to a poker game and the cards are fixed. He can't win! But he will.
President Obama is smarter than folks will admit. He is two or three steps ahead of everyone. I have faith in him and I am not disappointed.
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