I was shaking my head over and over again in preparation for a conversation we are going to have on NPR tomorrow about President Obama. The show is called 'Talk of the Nation,' and I had the esteemed honor of being the resident black guy, as the other two guests are set to discuss various elements of foreign and domestic policy. I'm just joking about the "black guy" thing, since I'm just happy they didn't choose someone like Juan Williams.

At any rate, my brain started spinning on how President Obama can best use the remainder of his first term as it pertains to people of color. I thought carefully about what he's done, what he's doing, what he's up against and what matters to us. In my course of thought, I came to a few conclusions.


First, African Americans are probably the most politically-polite people in the history of the world. Our collective self-esteem problem leads us to sit quietly on the sidelines, hoping that if we are silent enough, people won't realize that Obama is black like the rest of us. We get excited about the Obama family pictures in Ebony Magazine, as women quietly fantasize about what it would be like to have Obama as a husband. All the while, there is very little conversation about how to deal with Barack Obama as a political figure that must be addressed as it pertains to the needs of our community. In politics, nice guys finish last. It is for that reason that we haven't heard anyone in the Obama Administration utter the words "black man," "black woman," or "poor people" in the past 24 months.

Secondly, the president can't get away from the problem of economic inequality. While the Obama Administration may be making efforts to manage racial disparities in economic opportunity, those efforts clearly haven't worked. As of last month, the gap in black and white unemployment has continued to grow, as African Americans are feeling a much smaller piece of the overall recovery. In addition, we were not only hit the hardest by the recession, we were the least prepared for it. African American families have wealth levels that are only one-tenth of those of white Americans, meaning that we have less financial cushion to protect us from a downturn. Addressing economic problems in America is not the same as addressing economic inequality. Black unemployment rates being nearly double those of white Americans means that when the recession is over for everyone else, we'll still be in a downturn.

Third, the president and his attorney general must find a way to address the mass incarceration problem in America, particularly it's dramatic impact on minorities. President Obama deserves credit for negotiating a less draconian version of the crack-powder sentencing disparity. (Instead of getting a sentence for crack possession that is 100 times longer than powder, it is now 18 times longer, but black people are accustomed to not expecting real equality.) All the while, we still have a criminal justice system that cripples black families at holocaust levels. The prison industrial complex has created a social landscape through which money is being made by incarceration, allowing the beast of capitalism to feed on itself and destroy human beings. As it stands, black men are seven times more likely than white men to go to prison, slave labor still exists behind bars and nearly all meaningful employment opportunities of fathers and mothers are ruined when they are labeled as felons. This is not acceptable.

Finally, President Obama must continue his work on educational reform. Fundamental shifts in how schools are funded must be made so that the school-to-prison pipeline ceases to exist. Intelligent black boys are far more likely to be placed in special education, they are suspended at higher rates, and even inner city kids who follow the rules and show up every day are walking away from high school without sufficient reading ability. It's one thing if parents are choosing not to educate their children, but it's another if they are trying to get education that is being denied. That is what is happening in far too many schools across America.

If we continue to attack the problems of economic inequality, educational access and mass incarceration, we will go a long way toward making America the nation that it's meant to be. The job doesn't just belong to President Obama, it belongs to us all. We must push our politicians to be righteous.

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.