By Dedrick Muhammad
Guest Contributor
Last
week President Obama spoke boldly about persistent racial
discrimination and criticized the "structural inequality" that presents
"the steepest barrier" to African American equality in the 21st century.
Speaking before a crowd at the centennial convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he highlighted the need for government action to help tear down these barriers.
So it was a surprise to see this headline on the New York Times story covering the event: "Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: 'No Excuses' for Failure."
Somehow
the Times saw fit to dismiss Obama's meaningful acknowledgement of
continued discrimination and, instead, portray his speech as a dose of
"tough love" to black America.
The Times was not alone, though. The Huffington Post, a purportedly more liberal outlet, titled its article "Your destiny is in your hands … 'No excuses.'"
It
is true that President Obama borrowed a page from the book of black
leaders as diverse as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Rev. Al Sharpton
and Minister Louis Farrakhan in outlining the need for black
self-empowerment. But it was a damaging oversight to ignore the
president's recognition of systemic inequality and the policy solutions
he laid out to reform these systems.
By addressing the living
legacy of white supremacy, African-American socio-economic disenfranchisement, President Obama advanced the discussion of racial
inequality.
The president pointed out that the African American
community still suffers from discrimination and is disproportionately
hurt by a recession and the boom/bust economy that has broadened
economic inequality throughout the country. He included policy
proposals ranging from changes to tax policy, health care, education
and housing to improve the condition of African Americans.
One
of the most repeated themes in Obama's address was that the nation's
racial inequality is not an African-American problem, but rather a
problem of our entire nation. Yet if you read the New York Times, you'd
think the president was simply scolding African Americans for failing
to live up to their potential.
I had hoped for more from the
leading newspaper in the country. Not only should the Times have
reported on what Obama actually said, but as is done concerning other
important policy matters, it should have also examined whether Obama's
prescriptions were adequate for the ongoing racial economic divide.
As
someone who studies the racial economic divide, particularly between
African-Americans and whites, my strongest criticism of the address is
that Obama's policy solutions are not strong enough to overcome the
structural inequality suffered by African Americans. African Americans
have only 10 percent of the wealth of white Americans and they are
segregated into the most disenfranchised communities. On top of that,
their job loss rate has been far higher than the rest of American's
during our current economic crisis.
When I first read President
Obama's address to the NAACP, I had a mixed reaction. I was glad to
have a president who saw government responsibility for the structural
inequality developed through decades of discrimination. At the same
time, I found myself disappointed that he did not advocate for stronger
measures, like an equity assessment of all future federal spending to
ensure that government funds do not solidify the racial economic
divide.
Yet after reading news coverage of President Obama's
address, I realized that his discussion of structural inequality is
beyond what most Americans are prepared to deal with, or at least
beyond what The New York Times sees as news that's fit to print.
Dedrick Muhammad is the Senior Organizer and Research Associate for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. Dedrick's special area of focus is the domestic racial wealth divide, particularly between African Americans and white Americans.
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