Obama critic disinvited from Morehouse graduation ceremonies

From the Georgia Tipsheet

A prominent pastor was allegedly disinvited from speaking at Morehouse College’s baccalaureate service this week after he criticized President Barack Obama, who will deliver the school’s commencement address.

Let's go to that editorial at PhillyTrib

Kevin Johnson criticizes Obama for not having more blacks in his cabinet noting that Clinton and Bush had more.

In sum, when one compares the first African-American president to his recent predecessors, the number of African-Americans in senior cabinet positions is very disappointing: Clinton (7); Bush (4); and Obama (1). Obama has not moved African-American leadership forward, but backwards.

He then refers to the black economic agenda without being specific about that agenda.

Moreover, while having African-Americans in senior cabinet positions does not guarantee an economic agenda that will advance Black people, it at least is a starting point and puts us in the driver’s seat. With President Obama, we are not in the driver’s seat - or even in the car.

Is the black agenda different than the agenda for the rest of the American people? The Obama economic agenda has been a disaster for almost all Americans. I say almost all because some of Obama's cronies have made hundreds of millions on his crony capitalist deals.

Indeed, if we objectively look at Obama’s presidency, African-Americans are in a worse position than they were before he became president. At the end of January 2009, unemployment for African-Americans was 12.7 percent. Four years later, the situation is worse, and unemployment is higher at 13.8 percent.

Well, yes. People at the bottom of the economic ladder usually suffer most when a country pursues bad economic policies. So an Obama administration that actually focused on, and encouraged, job creation in the private sector where most of the jobs are would help blacks the most. But I don't have any idea where Mr. Johnson would drive this car he referred to earlier if he were in the driver's seat.

Johnson supported Obama in the last two elections and helped him get the nomination in 2008, beating off the effort of Hillary Clinton. But then he tells a whopper.

I supported then-Senator Obama not because he was Black, but because I truly believed in my heart that he was the best candidate to empathize, understand, and develop policies to help the African-American community, the poor, and previously under-represented communities.

That's nonsense on stilts. Why do black leaders continue to lie about this?  Obama's skin color had everything to do with his support in the black community. Because there is absolutely nothing in Obama's past record to indicate he was any good at governing or helping people of any color to better themselves. His previous record, for example the Chicago Annenberg Challenge school experiment that he and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers worked on, is notable for failure.

 

It appears that Johnson was dissed by Valerie Jarrett, Obama's consigliori, when he asked her what Obama has done for the black community.

Moreover, when I raised additional questions about persistent high unemployment in the Black community and the lack of appointing an African-American to the United States Supreme Court (a move that could have real and lasting impact on the future of our community), Ms. Jarrett then went for the jugular and said, “The president is the president of all people and not just Black people.”

Jarrett is right. The president is the president of all people, but aren’t Black people part of the “all”? In the words of Langston Hughes, we “too sing America.”

Given the president’s poor record in catapulting an economic and empowerment agenda for the African-American community, we must begin asking the questions:

Why are we so loyal to a president who is not loyal to us?

What is it about our community that we continue to support candidates nationally and locally just because their skin has been “kissed by nature’s sun”?

And more importantly, why are we loyal to a Democratic Party that often ignores us and takes our votes for granted?

My questions do not suggest that we should necessarily change political affiliation, but they do suggest that the African-American community must hold political leaders accountable and change our strategy to ensure that we are fully engaged in the political process beyond November elections.

What this tells me is that this black leader, like so many in the past, is looking to the government to solve his people's problems. Perhaps he's thinking Pigford times 1000.  The government is a very blunt instrument, good at wrecking things and sucking in very large amounts of money, but very, very bad at solving problems that are embedded in the culture.

This weekend there was a near-riot in Virginia Beach as an estimated 40,000 young people from largely black area colleges gathered to blow off steam. Shootings, stabbing and beatings were simply the most egregious actions that also included the looting of stores. Some shops closed early and many of the people that worked there felt threatened by the actions of the students. I have a bit of advice for Mr. Johnson. Stop looking to the President, his cabinet or the Supreme Court to solve a problem that they can't address. Because your problem is closer to home, much closer, and the fix is much harder that getting "your" guy to make political appointments. Think Detroit. That's when your solutions were tried. Let's not make that mistake on a national scale.