“O”-PRESSION: Blacks vs Obama

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) leaders have been exceptionally critical lately that President Obama has not been doing enough to help African-Americans through the bleak economy.  Jesse Jackson is pissed that Mr. Obama isn’t doing enough to help blacks in a recession that he says has disproportionately affected black workers — and that he was not invited to the White House jobs summit.  And many blacks from Washington to Watts are steaming mad that Mr. Obama hasn’t personally fixed every minor detail of their lives from alternate side of the street parking to the local trash pick-up.  Hmmm…

In case anyone was confused on November 4, 2008, the name on the ballot was BARACK OBAMA, not SUPERMAN!  Yet for some strange reason, voters convinced themselves if they stood in line for the many hours it took to cast their Obama ballot, suddenly, EVERYTHING would magically be fixed.  Well, we’re not in heaven yet.  So wake up people!

Barack Obama may be the first African-American elected to the office of President, but he is not African-America’s President.  He is EVERYBODY’S President.  No one group, particularly African-American’s, should expect him to be their personal savior or a mighty miracle worker who can just wave some mysterious magic wand.  President Obama was inaugurated during one of the most disastrous economic times in all U.S. history.  The country and several parts of the world were literally on the brink of financial collapse.  America was fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq, a forgotten war in Afghanistan, and a daily war on terror just on the streets, subways, and airliners of the nation.  America’s positive standing in the world was almost non-existent.  And so were many civil liberties we often take for granted in the land of the free.  So consider it this way:  When Mr. Obama walked into the presidency last January, it’s as if he walked into New Orleans the day after Katrina.  Needless to say, there was A LOT to clean up.

So, for a man to have that much weight and responsibility on his shoulders, why then are so many African-Americans thinking of the President of the United States as SUPERMAN?  No, Jane and John Doe, he can not fix every minor detail of your local lives.  And no, Jesse Jackson and CBC leaders he can not go find jobs and give them just to black people.  He would be run out of office.  Let us remind ourselves, Barack Obama is the President of the United States, not President of our own personal wish list. Like every trailblazer before him, as the first African-American president, he has an incredible tight rope to walk.  He can’t do too much for African-Americans or risk being criticized for taking ethnic sides.  He can’t do too little for African-Americans or risk being criticized (like he is now) for abandoning them.  Damned if he does, Damned if he doesn’t.

Perhaps it’s time for African-Americans to cut President Obama some slack.  Perhaps they’ve already forgotten the history they helped create when he was elected into office.  Perhaps they’ve already forgotten the blood, sweat and tears their ancestors died for just to get to that day.  Perhaps they might be more grateful that it’s Barack H. Obama sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office and not George W. Bush.  Perhaps when their sons or daughters finally come home for good from Iraq, or they get sick and can one day head to a hospital confidently and receive top-notch health care — maybe then they can count their blessings and realize the value of what they have in the White House.