Even though I plan to vote for Obama in November, I was deeply disturbed by his remarks on Father's Day. I know that he is running for President of one of the richest and whitest countries in the word, but I don't think it's acceptable for him to abandon his alliance with all people of African decent.
We are all one group, a diaspora, with one origin and many present whereabouts. In the United States, the community of people of African descent is very diverse. A majority of us were brought here as captives in chains, while still a sizable minority chose to immigrate here on their own free will in search of the American Dream. President Obama's people are from the latter group, characterized by their willingness to immigrate to the West on their own terms.
On Father's Day, Barack Obama was oblivious to the plight of African-Americans who were forcibly transported to this Hemisphere. Audre Lourde taught us that the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. In this case, that means that people of African descent should not succumb to the old tactic of divide and conquer. President Obama should not have berated other black people in his attempt to get into the Oval Office. As we have learned from Dr. Rice, opportunism can override grassroots activism as easy as a bomb destroys a village.
Black fathers are not the principal cause of the many social ills affecting African-Americans, more over, there are institutionalized forces that negatively impact many people from different walks of life. Mr. Obama's speech conveniently excluded major barriers to a stable middle class two parent household including, but not limited to: the prison industrial complex, inadequate reproductive health services, unfair representation in the media, prohibitive health insurance costs and racially based educational disparities.
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That is on point, and I hope he can see that it is so easy to criticize than to impress upon all people that we must step up and care for our children–not just black fathers. But as we know, the "dead-beat black father" has taken the brunt of this stereotype through television and films. If he is so optimistic about "change" why not use that opportunity to use, as he has said, words of "hope". I bet if that was a white congregation the speech would have a totally different tone. We all have problems to overcome, Mr. Obama, and it is not just black people, or in this case, black fathers.
Obama could have used the opportunity as a platform. Don't just criticize, if you want to be constructive tell the public ways that you plan to fix the problem. Hopefully he will learn from blogs and comments such as these and become a better candidate, president, and man.
On Wednesday, I knew something was wrong when a small, small portion of the show was actually speaking for and about black women. It was minimal and very disheartening. I must say, am I black?
Really, am I? Apparently, the black woman has a small role in the black community. Somehow our visibility is only, well, visible, when we talk about black men and their problems in our society. How did this happen?
When you speak of Us, you speak of our dependence on men to make us whole. It is never the flip-side for men.
When CNN talked of women being disproportionally affected by HIV/AIDS in Wednesday's coverage, it was briefly addressed, and never mentioned in Thursday's observation and misinformation about black men's struggles. How are black women becoming infected?
I guess we have to hold our own. We are women of color and not realized for being black and not Black in America. Thanks, CNN.
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