by Mark Silva
"Tough times for America often mean tougher times for African Americans,'' President Barack Obama says. "This recession has been no exception. The unemployment rate among black Americans is a full five points higher than the rate among Americans as a whole.''
Yet "government cannot and will not succeed alone,'' in opening more opportunities for all, the president says. "It will take all of us stepping up and doing our part. It will take the commitment of parents and teachers and community leaders. It will take a renewed faith in our common purpose and common values.''
The president will deliver his first State of the Union address next year - though this week's address to a joint session of Congress had all the trappings.
But today, Obama delivered a long-distance address by video for the "State of the Black Union'' forum that commentator Tavis Smiley assembled in Los Angeles, the 10th anniversary for the event.
Last year, Obama passed up an invitation to attend in person at the forum in New Orleans, citing the pressing schedule of the primary campaign underway. This year, the Republican National Committee was represented at the conference by its first African-American chairman, Michael Steele, who attended last year as a panelist.
Obama addressed the racial divide in America with a speech in Philadelphia during his campaign, a speech in which he spoke of the goal of "a more perfect union."
When it comes to confronting matters of race, the Obama administration's attorney general contends, America is "essentially a nation of cowards.
"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Att'y Gen. Eric Holder, a former federal judge, told employees of the Justice Department in a Black History Month address. ""We, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.''
The nation's unemployemnt rate rose to 7.6 percent in January, up from 7.2 percent the month before. Among black Americans, it rose to 12.6 percent, from 11.9 percent.
In his video address for the State of the Black Union forum, Obama told his remote audience: "You have tapped into a yearning in the community to address our toughest problems instead of leaving them for another day, or year, or generation.''
"I have seen that same hunger as I've traveled across our country among Americans united not by the color of their skin but by a shared determination to build a more perfect union; to not only revive this economy but to transform our country. That is what the American people demanded at the polls in November. And that is the work my administration has already begun.
"I am proud to say that we have done more in these past 30 days to bring about progressive change than we have in the past many years.
"We are closing the health care gap with a long-delayed expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program to an additional four million children. My recovery plan also provides health care coverage for millions who have lost their insurance along with their jobs. And the budget I proposed on Thursday contains an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform - a down-payment on quality, affordable health care for every single American.
"We are closing the achievement gap with the largest investment in education in our nation's history. We will renovate schools, train new teachers, and make higher education more affordable for nearly seven million students with a $2,500 tax credit for every year of college.
"And we are closing the gap between the nation we are and the nation we can be - by implementing policies that will speed our recovery and build a foundation for lasting prosperity and opportunity. We are modernizing roads and transit systems, renovating hospitals and schools, and making groundbreaking investments in basic research and clean energy. We have also provided the most progressive tax cuts in history; 95 percent of working people will benefit. We will create or save 3.5 million jobs and lift more than two million people out of poverty.
"These are policies that will make a big difference in the African American community. You know that tough times for America often mean tougher times for African Americans. This recession has been no exception. The unemployment rate among black Americans is a full five points higher than the rate among Americans as a whole.
"At the same time, we know that government cannot and will not succeed alone. It will take all of us stepping up and doing our part. It will take the commitment of parents and teachers and community leaders. It will take a renewed faith in our common purpose and common values.
"That begins with gatherings like this and concerned citizens like all of you. That is the story of progress in America: ordinary folks who would not rest - who would not give up - so long as there were children to teach and jobs to create, gaps to be closed and wrongs to righted. That is how we will make America "as good as its promise."
"We need everyone to take responsibility for the future of our families, our communities, and our country. So I thank you for being part of a noble effort at this defining moment. Thank you, Good luck, and God bless America.''
Comments
Hey! What about us angry old rich Republican white guys?!?!
Rush and Hannity told me that they've we've got it tough too.
Posted by: I wanna be a Republican idiot | February 28, 2009 7:58 PM
Hey, the Republicons have a lot of minorities in their party. There's Michael Steele and Piyush Jindal and.....and....uh...and there's uh....hmmm......nevermind.
Posted by: Elephant Herder | February 28, 2009 8:24 PM
this is the most ridiculous thing yet that i have heard from the messiah, president obama. Just keep taking my money, distributing it to lazy bums, and say you are going to cut the deficit in half. I would say, you are going to win next comic standing!
good luck with all that. in the meantime, most of the top taxpayers are going to get sick of working, and paying for everything. They will eventually get tired of carrying this country, what will happen then?
Posted by: julie | February 28, 2009 9:15 PM
Have to say after watching 3 days of CPAC and speeches from the minions spew and belch their prefered brand of hate, I grew nauseated. Only to be capped off by the grand wizard himself..the"bloated one". The self proclaimed "great American" proceeded to whip the rabid into a frenzy as seen only in the days of the Salem Witch hunts. It is not the rich who are the problem, he bellowed, we are America. It is the welfare state that is the problem. It is the poor, the minorities that we can't even tell jokes about anymore. They are the cause of your problems. Hell bent on keeping the lie alive he proclaims they are the cause of the housing crisis. The crowd called for their blood, we will oppose at every step of the way till we are back in power. 3 days is all it took to realize.......these are the ugliest of Americans. Clad with their chant of USA USA they are planning it's destuction. The republican party has
become....................The Ugly American Party
Posted by: bill r. | March 1, 2009 12:26 AM
President Obama tells it like it is, which is perhaps why Republicans describe him scornfully. His 40-day-old leadership has been a matter of tough love. That's what is needed not only in Black America but the entire America at this time of economic crisis. We should not continue to sugar-coat problems or avoid discussing them for fear of hurting the ego of some sit-tight, camera mendicant Black leaders. We should identify problems for what they are and set our hearts, minds and hands on solving them.
Posted by: C. Paschal Eze | March 1, 2009 1:02 AM
No, No No. See it's not the Republican whites guys stupid. It's taking every white guys' money and giving it to his blacks friends so they don't have to work or pay for their homes, education or cars. That's what he's going to do silly! Didn't you see how happy all the blacks were and chanting we don't have to work no more. Was your head in the sand???
Posted by: dragonfly777 | March 1, 2009 1:30 AM
peckergnat777, the day of your education with be the day you get liberated from your hillbilly roots. You represent everything that is wrong with this great country.
Posted by: Xcellentform | March 1, 2009 8:23 AM
Didn't you see how happy all the blacks were and chanting we don't have to work no more. Was your head in the sand???
Posted by: dragonfly777 | March 1, 2009 1:30 AM
This is the crowd the republican party is playing to.
Posted by: bill r. | March 1, 2009 8:55 AM
Those evil black minorities that the republican party blame for all our troubles amount to 12% of the population while whites make up 80%. Hey McCain....what math doesn't work for you?
Posted by: bill r. | March 1, 2009 12:01 PM
WHY DO BLACKS KEEP SEGRATING THEMSELVS FROM THE WHITE POPULATION? ITS NOT THE WHITE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY DOING IT, ITS THE BLACK PEOPLE DOING IT TO THEMSELVES. I THINK THAT IS RACIST!! IF THIS CRAP KEEPS GOING ON YOUR ONLY GOING TO PISS OFF OTHER WHITE PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM ANGRY. SINCE THERE IS A "State of the Black Union" WHY DONT WE CREATE A "State of the White Union"? MY ANCESTORS BACK DURING THE ROMAN TIMES WERE SLAVES SO I HAVE A RIGHT TO START A GROUP LIKE THIS RIGHT? THIS COUNTRY IS BEING EATEN ALIVE BY POLITICAL CORRECTNESS FROM THE INSIDE OUT AND NOTHING GIVES A CRAP!!
Posted by: xinunus | March 1, 2009 12:42 PM
YOU PEOPLE ARE idiots!! NAME SOME BLACK OR HISPANIC PEOPLE THAT SERVED IN THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION? THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER MINORITY REPUBLICANS YOU MORONS!!! RICE, POWELL, CLARENCE THOMAS, GONZALES, MICHELLE MALKIN, JINDAL... IT IS YOU LIBERALS AND YOUR FACISNASION WITH LABELING PEOPLE THAT BLOWS MY MIND. ITS PATHETIC! THE DAY WE STOP LABELING PEOPLE IS THE DAY WE START GETTING ALONG AS ONE PEOPLE. BUT YOU KNOW THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE IN POLITICS IF YOU KEEP THE MINORITIES IN THEIR PLACE AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE DOING AND YOU SIT THERE AND TAKE IT LIKE FOOLS!!
Posted by: xinunus | March 1, 2009 12:52 PM
Isn't it funny?, whenever racism is brought to fore it's always brought
up by the Jacksons, or Sharpton,
Waters, or Rangel. And now we
can add the Presidents name to
the list. Get a life people or better
yet get a new line of work. Throw
away your crutch!. Its life giving
it will set you free. Every good American is tired of hearing the
same old song.
Posted by: Paul | March 1, 2009 1:35 PM
And in 2011 do ya think there will be no one on the bottom?
There will always be a bottom and someone and some group will be there.
There is no utopia, stop smoking and face reality.
Posted by: spehysr | March 1, 2009 2:01 PM
well we can see where this is going. Thanks to Rush and the republican party...they have found who they can blame for their actions. Once again...the ugly American party.
Posted by: bill r. | March 1, 2009 2:01 PM
Bill r.--Show me where there is a general consensus that Republicans blame the black minorities for our problems. We blame irresponsible people. Whites, blacks, asians, indians, etc., all guilty of bad financial decisions. Why bail these people out? Is it fair to raise the tax to almost 40% for families that make over 250k, to disperse amongst people who haven't tried to better themselves?
Posted by: conservative | March 1, 2009 4:33 PM
xinunous, you are totally obnoxious and stupid. (And racist, obviously.) Turn off your CAPS Lock. And do some research on the Clinton Administration, before you make stupid statements.
Posted by: rupert | March 1, 2009 5:54 PM
Posted by: conservative | March 1, 2009 4:33 PM
Have you read the posts? Did you hear Rush?
Posted by: bill r. | March 1, 2009 6:04 PM
"Tough times for America often mean tougher times for African Americans,'' President Barack Obama says. "This recession has been no exception.
----------------------------------
No exception would I take with President Obama's studied assessment. But what do you do about it, should be the logical follow-up.
Upon the realization that neither The Doors or the Red Sox would be calling, for any determinable reason, I made a forced, but not unholy pact with Calculus and Thermodynamics. It did not come pain-free. Being a vassal of the Washington D.C. Masters and their minions will not do much to upgrade anyone's necessitous circumstance.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | March 2, 2009 11:04 AM