What's with this notion that Obama didn't do anything for black people?

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Progress of the African-American Community During the Obama Administration


Key Accomplishments

Labor Market, Income and Poverty

  • The unemployment rate for African Americans peaked at 16.8 percent in March 2010, after experiencing a larger percentage-point increase from its pre-recession average to its peak than the overall unemployment rate did. Since then, the African-American unemployment rate has seen a larger percentage-point decline in the recovery, falling much faster than the overall unemployment rate over the last year.

  • The real median income of black households increased by 4.1 percent between 2014 and 2015.

  • The President enacted permanent expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which together now provide about 2 million African-American working families with an average tax cut of about $1,000 each.

  • A recent report from the Census Bureau shows the remarkable progress that American families have made as the recovery continues to strengthen. Real median household income grew 5.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, the fastest annual growth on record. Income grew for households across the income distribution, with the fastest growth among lower- and middle-income households. The number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, leading the poverty rate to fall from 14.8 percent to 13.5 percent, the largest one-year drop since 1968, with even larger improvements including for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and children.

  • The poverty rate for African Americans fell faster in 2015 than in any year since 1999.While the poverty rate fell for across all racial and ethnic groups this year, it fell 2.1 percentage points (p.p.) for African Americans, resulting in 700,000 fewer African Americans in poverty.

  • African American children also made large gains in 2015, with the poverty rate falling 4.2 percentage points and 400,000 fewer children in poverty.
Health

  • Since the start of Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period at the end of 2013, the uninsured rate among non-elderly African Americans has declined by more than half.Over that period, about 3 million uninsured nonelderly, African-American adults gained health coverage.

  • Teen pregnancy among African-American women is at an historic low. The birth rate per 1,000 African-American teen females has fallen from 60.4 in 2008, before President Obama entered office, to 34.9 in 2014.

  • Life expectancy at birth is the highest it’s ever been for African Americans. In 2014, life expectancy at birth was 72.5 years for African-American males and 78.4 for African-American females, the highest point in the historical series for both genders.
Education

  • The high school graduation rate for African-American students is at its highest point in history. In the 2013-2014 academic year, 72.5 percent of African-American public high school students graduated within four years.

  • Since the President took office, over one million more black and Hispanic students enrolled in college.

  • Among African-Americans and Hispanic students 25 and older, high school completion is higher than ever before. Among African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian students 25 and older, Bachelor’s degree attainment is higher than ever before. As of 2015, 88 percent of the African-American population 25 and older had at least a high school degree and 23percent had at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Support for HBCUs

  • The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is responsible for funding more than $4 billion for HBCUs each year.

  • Pell Grant funding for HBCU students increased significantly between 2007 and 2014, growing from $523 million to $824 million.

  • The President’s FY 2017 budget request proposes a new, $30 million competitive grant program, called the HBCU and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) Innovation for Completion Fund, designed to support innovative and evidence-based, student-centered strategies and interventions to increase the number of low-income students completing degree programs at HBCUs and MSIs.

  • The First in the World (FITW) program provided unique opportunities for HBCUs to compete for grants focused on innovation to drive student success.

  • In 2014, Hampton University received a grant award of $3.5 million.

  • In FY 2015, three FITW awards were made to HBCUs, including Jackson State University ($2.9 million), Delaware State University ($2.6 million) and Spelman College ($2.7 million).

  • While Congress did not fund the program in fiscal year 2016, the President’s 2017 budget request includes $100 million for the First in the World program, with up to $30 million set aside for HBCUs and MSIs.
Criminal Justice

  • The incarceration rates for African-American men and women fell during each year of the Obama Administration and are at their lowest points in over two decades. The imprisonment rates for African-American men and women were at their lowest points since the early 1990s and late 1980s, respectively, of 2014, the latest year for which Bureau of Justice Statistics data are available.

  • The number of juveniles in secure detention has been reduced dramatically over the last decade. The number of juveniles committed or detained, a disproportionate number of whom are African American, fell more than 30% between 2007 and 2013.

  • The President has ordered the Justice Department to ban the use of solitary confinement for juveniles held in federal custody. There are presently no more juveniles being held in restrictive housing federally.
My Brother’s Keeper

  • President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative on February 27, 2014 to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential.

  • Nearly 250 communities in all 50 states, 19 Tribal Nations, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have accepted the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge to dedicate resources and execute their own strategic plans to ensure all young people can reach their full potential.

  • Inspired by the President’s call to action, philanthropic and other private organizations have committed to provide more than $600 million in grants and in-kind resources and $1 billion in low-interest financing to expand opportunity for young people – more than tripling the initial private sector investment since 2014.

  • In May 2014, the MBK Task Force gave President Obama nearly 80 recommendations to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by young people, including boys and young men of color. Agencies have been working individually and collectively since to respond to recommendations with federal policy initiatives, grant programs, and guidance. Today, more than 80% of MBK Task Force Recommendations are complete or on track.
Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color

  • In 2014, the Council on Women and Girls (CWG) launched a specific work stream called “Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color” to ensure that policies and programs across the federal government appropriately take into account the unique obstacles that women and girls of color can face. In fall 2015, CWG released a report that identified five data-driven issue areas where interventions can promote opportunities for success at school, work, and in the community.

  • This work has also inspired independent commitments to advance equity, including a $100 million, 5-year-funding initiative by Prosperity Together—a coalition of women’s foundations—to improve economic prosperity for low-income women and women and girls of color and a $75 million funding commitment by the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research—an affiliation of American colleges, universities, research organizations, publishers and public interest institutions led by Wake Forest University—to support existing and new research efforts about women and girls of color.

  • At the United State of Women Summit in June 2016, eight organizations launched “Young Women’s Initiatives,” place-based, data-driven programs that will focus in on the local needs of young women of color. Those organizations include the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the Women’s Foundation of California, the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, and the New York Women’s Foundation.
Small Business

  • There are 8 million minority-owned firms in the U.S.—a 38% increase since 2007.

  • In early 2015, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the MBK Millennial Entrepreneurs Initiative, which seeks to address the challenges faced by underserved millennials, including boys and young men of color, through self-employment and entrepreneurship. A major component of this effort included the six-part video series, titled “Biz My Way,” which encourages millennials to follow their passion in business.

  • In fiscal year 2015, underserved markets received 32,563 loans totaling $13 billion, compared with 25,799 loans and $10.47 billion in fiscal year 2014, an increase of 26 percent in number of loans and 24 percent in dollar amount.

  • Last year, the SBA issued a new rule that makes most individuals currently on probation or parole eligible for a SBA microloan—a loan of up to $50,000 that helps small businesses start up. And in August 2016, SBA together with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Justine Petersen, launched the Aspire Entrepreneurship Initiative, a $2.1 Million pilot initiative to provide entrepreneurship education and microloans to returning citizens in Detroit, Chicago, Louisville and St. Louis.
Civil Rights Division

  • The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division continued to enforce federal law.Over the last eight years, the Division has vigorously protected the civil rights of individuals in housing, lending, employment, voting, education, and disability rights and through hate crimes and law enforcement misconduct prosecutions and law enforcement pattern and practice cases.
African-American Judicial Appointees

  • President Obama has made 62 lifetime appointments of African Americans to serve on the federal bench.

  • This includes 9 African-American circuit court judges.

  • It also includes the appointment of 53 African American district court judges—including 26 African-American women appointed to the federal court, which is more African-American women appointed by any President in history.

  • In total, 19% of the President’s confirmed judges have been African American, compared to 16% under President Bill Clinton and 7% under President George W. Bush.

  • Five states now have their first African-American circuit judge; 10 states now have their first African-American female lifetime-appointed federal judge; and 3 districts now have their first African-American district judge.

  • Also, the President appointed the first Haitian-American lifetime-appointed federal judge, the first Afro-Caribbean-born district judge, the first African-American female circuit judge in the Sixth Circuit, and the first African-American circuit judge on the First Circuit (who was also the first African-American female lifetime-appointed federal judge to serve anywhere in the First Circuit).

  • The President is committed to continuing to ensure diversity on the federal bench. This year, the President nominated Myra Selby of Indiana to the Seventh Circuit, Abdul Kallon of Alabama to the Eleventh Circuit, and Rebecca Haywood of Pennsylvania to the Third Circuit. If confirmed, each of these would be a judicial first—Myra Selby would be the first African-American circuit judge from Indiana, Abdul Kallon would be the first African-American circuit judge from Alabama, and Rebecca Haywood would be the first African-American woman on the Third Circuit.In addition, two of the President’s district court nominees—Stephanie Finely and Patricia Timmons-Goodson—would be the first African-American lifetime-appointed federal judges in each of their respective districts, if confirmed.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Related:

The civil rights legacy of Eric Holder

US Attorney General Eric Holder will resign from his position as the head of the Justice Department, staying on only until a successor is named. As Holder departs, he leaves behind a civil rights legacy that includes some of the broadest steps in recent decades to dismantle — or at least lessen — the racial disparities in America's criminal justice system.

The reforms tackled major issues within the US justice system such as mass incarceration, the war on drugs, and harsh local policing. These issues had gone largely unquestioned by Holder's tough-on-crime predecessors, despite some of the deep racial disparities they helped create.

"I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues"

There's a simple reason why President Barack Obama has stood behind him: "Holder has been willing to say the things Obama couldn't or wouldn't say about race."

Some of these comments about race were made at great political risk, often inspiring ire from opponents and right-wing talking heads. In 2009 conservatives like Rush Limbaugh criticized Holder for a Black History Month speech in with the attorney general called the US a "nation of cowards" for failing to seriously confront its history of racism.

Holder stood by his remarks. "I wouldn't walk away from that speech," Holder told ABC News in July. "I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues," rarely engaging "one another across the color line [to] talk about racial issues."

Although Holder's candor earned him criticism, it built a legacy that attracted massive support among minority groups. Robert Jones Jr. of Son of Baldwincaptured the sentiment in a recent blog post: "To me, Eric Holder was the only member of the Obama Administration that acted even a little bit like he honestly, truly gave a fuck about actual justice for black people."

Holder sought to end mass incarceration
After the war on drugs began in the 1970s, the US dramatically increased the number of people it put in jail and prison, both at the federal and state levels. Since then, the difference in imprisonment and incarceration rates between white Americans and minority groups widened significantly.


incarceration_rate_by_country.0.png

(National Research Council)

Under Holder, the Department of Justice and the Obama administration have taken several steps to undo that recent history of mass incarceration.

The most significant changes come through sentencing reforms for nonviolent drug offenders. In August 2013 Holder issued a memo instructing federal prosecutors to avoid triggering mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenders, asking them to be selective about what information they include when charging an offender of a crime. In March 2014 Holder issued new requirements for federal halfway houses, requiring them to provide more resources and support for nonviolent drug offenders — in hopes of offering an alternative or stopgap to imprisonment.

These reforms reflect the stark costs and failures of mass incarceration and the war on drugs, in many ways. But Holder never held back in characterizing them as race issues.


incarceration_by_race.0.png

(National Research Council)

"Right now, unwarranted disparities are far too common," Holder said in a 2013 speech. "As President Obama said last month, it’s time to ask tough questions about how we can strengthen our communities, support young people, and address the fact that young black and Latino men are disproportionately likely to become involved in our criminal justice system — as victims as well as perpetrators."

Holder took significant steps to dial back the war on drugs
146209213.0.jpg

US Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before Congress. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images News)

Beyond sentencing reforms, Holder oversaw some of the most significant drawbacks in the war on drugs since former President Richard Nixon and Congress launched the sweeping anti-drug effort in the 1970s. While previous administrations often touted federal laws to shut down medical marijuanadispensaries that are legal at the state level, the Obama administration drew back the crackdowns and even allowed Colorado and Washington to carry out the full legalization of marijuana without much federal interference, issuing guidances that enabled states to continue their marijuana legalization efforts.

In 2013 Holder filed a guidance asking prosecutors and regulators to avoid coming down on individual marijuana users and businesses in states where marijuana is legal — as long as the businesses avoided selling to minors and met other criteria. In 2014 Holder issued a guidance trying to assure banks — unsuccessfully, for the most part — that they can work with state-legal marijuana businesses without facing federal prosecution.

Most recently, Holder questioned whether marijuana's strict legal classification — the foundation for the war on marijuana at the federal level — is justified and whether pot really belongs in the same legal category as heroin. "I think it's certainly a question that we need to ask ourselves — whether or not marijuana is as serious a drug as is heroin," Holder said in an interview with Yahoo News. "[T]he question of whether or not they should be in the same category is something that I think we need to ask ourselves and use science as the basis for making that determination."

Holder saw these reforms as a civil rights issue, noting the disproportionate rates at which black and Hispanic Americans were punished for marijuana-related crimes despite using the drug at roughly the same rate as white people.

drug_use.0.png


US_drug_arrests.0.png


"[Y]ou see the disproportionate impact on communities of color, especially when you see that drug usage among African Americans, Hispanics is roughly the same as whites, and yet you see Hispanics and African Americans going to jail for far longer and a much greater rate," Holder told Yahoo News. "It's a civil rights issue, and one that I'm determined to confront as long as I'm attorney general."

Local police forces faced investigations and reforms under Holder
453851584.0.jpg

Police officers watch over demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri. (Scott Olson / Getty Images News)
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Following the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, that followed, Holder's Justice Department announced an investigation of the entire Ferguson Police Department and unveiled initiatives to help local governments in St. Louis County confront their unequal treatment of minorities.

"The Department of Justice is working across the nation to ensure that the criminal justice system is fair, constitutional, and free of bias," Holder said in a statement. "Ferguson and St. Louis County are not the first places that we have become engaged to ensure fair and equitable policing and they will not be the last. The Department of Justice will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the Constitution has meaning for all communities."

Holder has overseen more than twice as many civil rights investigations on police departments than his predecessor

Holder's involvement in Ferguson wasn't unique for the attorney general. Holder has overseen more than twice as many civil rights investigations on police departments than his predecessor did in a similar time period. He even took steps against New York City's stop-and-frisk policy, which gained national notoriety for its disproportionate effect on black and Latino residents.

The civil rights investigations have clear goals: to systemically address the disparities in police treatment faced by white and non-white civilians and send a signal that such disparities are unacceptable in the eyes of the Justice Department.

race_arrests.0.png

For Holder, his pursuit may reflect his own experiences with law enforcement. "I was a young college student driving from New York to Washington, stopped on a highway and told to open the trunk of my car, because the police officer told me he wanted to search it for weapons," he told ABC News. "I remember as I got back in the car and continued on my journey how humiliated I felt, how angry I got."

Through his position, Holder was given the opportunity to address that humiliation he and other minority Americans face every day, and he often called on the nation to follow him.

"Will we again turn a blind eye to the hard truths that Ferguson exposed, burying these tough realities until another tragedy arises to set them off like a powder keg?" Holder asked in a recent speech at New York University. "Or will we finally accept this mandate for open and honest dialogue, reach for new and innovative solutions, and rise to the historic challenge — and the critical opportunity — now right before us?"
 

MackInTraining

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I love Obama and will support him through and through but when I have this conversation with family and friends, I frame it like this.

  • When he took office he immediately addressed a key female/woman issue: Equal Pay. He did an executive order right out the door.
  • For LGBTQ, he, somewhat pushed by Biden leak, opened up to Marriage union, a key issue for them
  • For Hispanics, he issued executive order regarding DACA, a key issue for them
So many groups of people had key issues specifically addressed for them. The original poster is right that black people benefited from many of his policies, but all people benefited. You might consider My brother's keeper as his african american initiative but it was no where on the level equal to the others.

I repeat, I'm not hating like Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, I just need to be educated on how I missed that key legislative issue for blacks.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I think the argument will be that there was nothing specific to black people done under his watch. All of those amazing accomplishments benefited everyone and black people were just lifted like all the other boats in a rising tide. I personally don't think a president can directly change my life and I don't expect them to either. But a lack of black-specific accomplishments will always be a questionable issue with the nation's first black president.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
I love Obama and will support him through and through but when I have this conversation with family and friends, I frame it like this.

  • When he took office he immediately addressed a key female/woman issue: Equal Pay. He did an executive order right out the door.
  • For LGBTQ, he, somewhat pushed by Biden leak, opened up to Marriage union, a key issue for them
  • For Hispanics, he issued executive order regarding DACA, a key issue for them
So many groups of people had key issues specifically addressed for them. The original poster is right that black people benefited from many of his policies, but all people benefited. You might consider My brother's keeper as his african american initiative but it was no where on the level equal to the others.

I repeat, I'm not hating like Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, I just need to be educated on how I missed that key legislative issue for blacks.

There are black females that were helped by equal pay, there are black LBGTQ couples, and DACA is NOT a law for latinos only.

One of the first things Obama did when he was elected was nix the unfair mandatory sentencing discrepancies between rock and powder cocaine, a law that was created to harm blacks in urban communities the most.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
I think the argument will be that there was nothing specific to black people done under his watch. All of those amazing accomplishments benefited everyone and black people were just lifted like all the other boats in a rising tide. I personally don't think a president can directly change my life and I don't expect them to either. But a lack of black-specific accomplishments will always be a questionable issue with the nation's first black president.

What laws could Obama have passed that were specific to black people and black people only?

Obama granted clemency to more blacks than any previous president COMBINED.

He changed mandatory sentencing guidelines for rock and powder cocaine, something that disproportionally affected black people the most.

He gave grants to HBCU's.

He moved to close private federal prisons.

He initiated federal investigations of police stations involved in unfair treatment of black people, including the Ferguson (Mike Brown), Chicago, and Baltimore (Freddie Gray) city police departments. More investigations than ANY OF HIS PREDECESSORS.

He appointed more black judges to lifetime positions on the court than any of his predecessors. And would have appointment even more if it weren't for republican obstruction.

Complaining that Obama didn't do anything specifically for blacks, even though his policies significantly helped blacks, but others as well, is like complaining that your parents kept you and your siblings fed, but never fed you and only you specifically.

It's a trash argument.
 
Last edited:

forcesteeler

Rising Star
Registered
I think the argument will be that there was nothing specific to black people done under his watch. All of those amazing accomplishments benefited everyone and black people were just lifted like all the other boats in a rising tide. I personally don't think a president can directly change my life and I don't expect them to either. But a lack of black-specific accomplishments will always be a questionable issue with the nation's first black president.


Exactly ! What has he done specifically for black people. You guys are listing bullshit that all minority groups have access too.

Example When he gave Jews millions of dollars For Israel. Black people did not see a penny. That was something he did for Jews and you had to be Jewish. Nobody else can claim unless your a Jew.

So instead of we voting the same way we did for 40 and 50 years and don’t get shit in return.

All I’m saying is if you want the black vote. What are you going to do specifically for black people and black people only.

And if your not going to do anything for black people. I’m ok with trump winning a second term because I don’t know what black people are scared of. His administration and Obama administration are pretty much the same.

So why waste energy voting for immigrants and LGBT bullshit because at this point that is what your getting when you vote and don’t ask for nothing
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Exactly ! What has he done specifically for black people. You guys are listing bullshit that all minority groups have access too.

Example When he gave Jews millions of dollars For Israel. Black people did not see a penny. That was something he did for Jews and you had to be Jewish. Nobody else can claim unless your a Jew.

So instead of we voting the same way we did for 40 and 50 years and don’t get shit in return.

All I’m saying is if you want the black vote. What are you going to do specifically for black people and black people only.

And if your not going to do anything for black people. I’m ok with trump winning a second term because I don’t know what black people are scared of. His administration and Obama administration are pretty much the same.

So why waste energy voting for immigrants and LGBT bullshit because at this point that is what your getting when you vote and don’t ask for nothing

There are black jews. His administrations gave millions of dollars to countries in Africa and the carribean as well.

To you I say the same as I said below:

What laws could Obama have passed that were specific to black people and black people only?

Obama granted clemency to more blacks than any previous president COMBINED.

He changed mandatory sentencing guidelines for rock and powder cocaine, something that disproportionally affected black people the most.

He gave grants to HBCU's.

He moved to close private federal prisons.

He initiated federal investigations of police stations involved in unfair treatment of black people, including the Ferguson (Mike Brown), Chicago, and Baltimore (Freddie Gray) city police departments. More investigations than ANY OF HIS PREDECESSORS.

He appointed more black judges to lifetime positions on the court than any of his predecessors. And would have appointment even more if it weren't for republican obstruction.

Complaining that Obama didn't do anything specifically for blacks, even though his policies significantly helped blacks, but others as well, is like complaining that your parents kept you and your siblings fed, but never fed you and only you specifically.

It's a trash argument.
 

eatcake

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
you left out when he went to Flint and asked for a glass of Tap water and told those people that the water was fine ......you also left out Obamas DARK act (denying ......Americans the right to know ....you also left out him sending chickens to china to be processed and sent back here to the states ......i can go on and on
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
you left out when he went to Flint and asked for a glass of Tap water and told those people that the water was fine ......you also left out Obamas DARK act (denying ......Americans the right to know ....you also left out him sending chickens to china to be processed and sent back here to the states ......i can go on and on

Obama was not perfect. But to act like there was no progression for blacks under Obama in the face of facts that indicate the exact opposite is some disingenuous shit. That narrative needs to be put to bed.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
What laws could Obama have passed that were specific to black people and black people only?

Obama granted clemency to more blacks than any previous president COMBINED.

He changed mandatory sentencing guidelines for rock and powder cocaine, something that disproportionally affected black people the most.

He gave grants to HBCU's.

He moved to close private federal prisons.

He initiated federal investigations of police stations involved in unfair treatment of black people, including the Ferguson (Mike Brown), Chicago, and Baltimore (Freddie Gray) city police departments. More investigations than ANY OF HIS PREDECESSORS.

He appointed more black judges to lifetime positions on the court than any of his predecessors. And would have appointment even more if it weren't for republican obstruction.

Complaining that Obama didn't do anything specifically for blacks, even though his policies significantly helped blacks, but others as well, is like complaining that your parents kept you and your siblings fed, but never fed you and only you specifically.

It's a trash argument.
Its not a trash argument. Its an argument established in the reality that this country simply can't bring itself to acknowledge and right the most egregious wrongs in its history. This country lacks the courage and moral fortitude to do the right thing for its most maligned group of citizens. All of the other groups were compensated or taken care of because those lifts aren't as heavy as the black one. Just because there has never been a leader with the strength to challenge the hearts and minds of Americans doesn't mean I'm wrong about what's due. I just choose to acknowledge the truth and people like you just whine about the impossibility of the task. Of course the assholes that run this country will never do right by us but I'll never stop saying a debt is owed and I'll never pretend it doesn't exist.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
Complaining that Obama didn't do anything specifically for blacks, even though his policies significantly helped blacks, but others as well, is like complaining that your parents kept you and your siblings fed, but never fed you and only you specifically.

It's a trash argument.

Also your analogy is flawed. If my sister were beaten and starved for most of her childhood and my parents had a change of heart and started feeding her the way they fed me how do they compensate for her stunted growth? She's still not going to be a healthy adult even though she's finally getting enough nourishment. You're assuming the black experience and the white experience have been on a level plain all these years. Come on bruh, you should know better than to put forth such a juvenile, uninformed argument.
 

gene cisco

Not A BGOL Eunuch
BGOL Investor
Exactly ! What has he done specifically for black people. You guys are listing bullshit that all minority groups have access too.

Example When he gave Jews millions of dollars For Israel. Black people did not see a penny. That was something he did for Jews and you had to be Jewish. Nobody else can claim unless your a Jew.

So instead of we voting the same way we did for 40 and 50 years and don’t get shit in return.

All I’m saying is if you want the black vote. What are you going to do specifically for black people and black people only.

And if your not going to do anything for black people. I’m ok with trump winning a second term because I don’t know what black people are scared of. His administration and Obama administration are pretty much the same.

So why waste energy voting for immigrants and LGBT bullshit because at this point that is what your getting when you vote and don’t ask for nothing
I don't get why this devolves into name calling. One can say Obama was a good president who didn't do anything MAJOR specifically for the black community. Justice reform is the safe flavor of the day for democrats after all the bullshit they pulled(and in some ways are still pulling), but it wasn't the number one platform as it should have been.

If Obama did something major for the black community, we'd be talking about Trump getting rid of it. For example, we see Trump going after DACA. We see healthcare. We see what Trump has done to transgenders and the military. But what is the major advance that Obama did for black people that Trump has undone? :confused:

If Obama had done something major for the black community and Trump undid it, everyone would fucking know about it. Wouldn't even be a need for this thread or a list. Folks would be going hard as fuck at Trump for fucking up something MAJOR Obama did for the black community.

People are listing things that the average black voter wouldn't even know. Something MAJOR 90 percent of black voters would be able to name.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Its not a trash argument. Its an argument established in the reality that this country simply can't bring itself to acknowledge and right the most egregious wrongs in its history. This country lacks the courage and moral fortitude to do the right thing for its most maligned group of citizens. All of the other groups were compensated or taken care of because those lifts aren't as heavy as the black one. Just because there has never been a leader with the strength to challenge the hearts and minds of Americans doesn't mean I'm wrong about what's due. I just choose to acknowledge the truth and people like you just whine about the impossibility of the task. Of course the assholes that run this country will never do right by us but I'll never stop saying a debt is owed and I'll never pretend it doesn't exist.

I never said a debt was not owed to us by this country.
 

xxxbishopxxx

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Also your analogy is flawed. If my sister were beaten and starved for most of her childhood and my parents had a change of heart and started feeding her the way they fed me how do they compensate for her stunted growth? She's still not going to be a healthy adult even though she's finally getting enough nourishment. You're assuming the black experience and the white experience have been on a level plain all these years. Come on bruh, you should know better than to put forth such a juvenile, uninformed argument.
So what magic policies were going to fix all that in just 8 years?
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Also your analogy is flawed. If my sister were beaten and starved for most of her childhood and my parents had a change of heart and started feeding her the way they fed me how do they compensate for her stunted growth? She's still not going to be a healthy adult even though she's finally getting enough nourishment. You're assuming the black experience and the white experience have been on a level plain all these years. Come on bruh, you should know better than to put forth such a juvenile, uninformed argument.

What could Obama have accomplished that he didn't? The man had literally like 6 months with a supermajority where he could have passed anything he wanted. Out of that we got Obamacare. The mere fact that he was able to accomplish what he did in the first two posts of this thread, all the while dealing with a republican majority in the senate who were wholeheartedly united in obstructing EVERY SINGLE THING HE DID, is an accomplishment in itself.

Y'all expecting Obama to have gotten us something significant like Reparations for slavery with all the opposition he was dealing with are just being unrealistic.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I never said a debt was not owed to us by this country.
Then we should agree to look at the black experience as a glass half empty rather than a glass half full. I can easily admit that Barack Obama is by far the greatest president of my lifetime and I started with Nixon! But I won't ignore that even the greatest president was powerless to truly attend to this country's greatest problem. Racism. Eric Holder said it best when he said "we're a country of cowards" to not even broach the subject of racism and making black people whole in any meaningful way.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
I don't get why this devolves into name calling. One can say Obama was a good president who didn't do anything MAJOR specifically for the black community. Justice reform is the safe flavor of the day for democrats after all the bullshit they pulled(and in some ways are still pulling), but it wasn't the number one platform as it should have been.

If Obama did something major for the black community, we'd be talking about Trump getting rid of it. For example, we see Trump going after DACA. We see healthcare. We see what Trump has done to transgenders and the military. But what is the major advance that Obama did for black people that Trump has undone? :confused:

If Obama had done something major for the black community and Trump undid it, everyone would fucking know about it. Wouldn't even be a need for this thread or a list. Folks would be going hard as fuck at Trump for fucking up something MAJOR Obama did for the black community.

People are listing things that the average black voter wouldn't even know. Something MAJOR 90 percent of black voters would be able to name.

Did you read the first two posts? Obama did more for criminal justice reform than any of his predecessors combined.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Then we should agree to look at the black experience as a glass half empty rather than a glass half full. I can easily admit that Barack Obama is by far the greatest president of my lifetime and I started with Nixon! But I won't ignore that even the greatest president was powerless to truly attend to this country's greatest problem. Racism. Eric Holder said it best when he said "we're a country of cowards" to not even broach the subject of racism and making black people whole in any meaningful way.

I completely understand where you're coming from bruh. I just think some folks like to trash Obama for things that happened that were not completely under his control and don't give him enough credit for the things he actually did accomplish.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
What could Obama have accomplished that he didn't? The man had literally like 6 months with a supermajority where he could have passed anything he wanted. Out of that we got Obamacare. The mere fact that he was able to accomplish what he did in the first two posts of this thread, all the while dealing with a republican majority in the senate who were wholeheartedly united in obstructing EVERY SINGLE THING HE DID, is an accomplishment in itself.

Y'all expecting Obama to have gotten us something significant like Reparations for slavery with all the opposition he was dealing with are just being unrealistic.

Not expecting that at all. I know the man couldn't get anything real done for black people. But that doesn't mean I should settle for crumbs and a shared meal with the rest of society. I'm just saying the wound is still open and Obama couldn't heal it. Can we agree that I'm right about that?
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
Not expecting that at all. I know the man couldn't get anything real done for black people. But that doesn't mean I should settle for crumbs and a shared meal with the rest of society. I'm just saying the wound is still open and Obama couldn't heal it. Can we agree that I'm right about that?

most def.
 

yureeka9

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I completely understand where you're coming from bruh. I just think some folks like to trash Obama for things that happened that were not completely under his control and don't give him enough credit for the things he actually did accomplish.
Not trashing the man. I can't take anything from him at all. But I'm not going to canonize him either. He did what he could. Perhaps someone else in the future will be more effective.
 

HeathCliff

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
I’m ok with trump winning a second term because I don’t know what black people are scared of. His administration and Obama administration are pretty much the same.
I'm sorry my man but this thinking is dangerous and it is sincerely ignorant. No fucking way Obama and Trumps administrations the same:

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported a rise in hate related attacks since Trump been elected.
HUD raised the rent on people living in public housing
Jeff Sessions did away with Decent decrees, even the ones that the City of Baltimore agreed with
Trump reversed Obama's policy that encouraged colleges to consider race as a factor in administrations
Trump did away with the budget to monitor white supremacists
In Trumps 2018 budget, he wants to eliminate the National Minority Supply & Development Council, making it harder for black owned businesses to even get contracts
Trump's Voter Fraud Commission headed by Kris Kobach was set up specifically to manufacture evidence of voter fraud.

And this is just off the top of my head

Housing, Healthcare, Fiscal policy and even black businesses, they are nowhere near the same orbit
 

gene cisco

Not A BGOL Eunuch
BGOL Investor
Did you read the first two posts? Obama did more for criminal justice reform than any of his predecessors combined.
By the time Obama took office, the narrative had changed. He didn't take any risks with his positions. He could have on weed, but you read the White House response to the petition to act Federally. His administration didn't act on rescheduling marijuana. Why? Because Obama played safe positions.

Not for nothing, but following Bush, Clinton, and Reagan wasn't hard to do more than all of them combined. Shit. How many black folks Clinton responsible for locking up? Even Bush didn't go as hard as Clinton.

Obama is a master politician. Played safe positions. He was president of all of America. And a good one. He campaigned on a post-racial platform, so wasn't like he lied to black voters. It was just about having a black president from the jump.
 

playa-exodus

Rising Star
Registered
By the time Obama took office, the narrative had changed. He didn't take any risks with his positions. He could have on weed, but you read the White House response to the petition to act Federally. His administration didn't act on rescheduling marijuana. Why? Because Obama played safe positions.

Not for nothing, but following Bush, Clinton, and Reagan wasn't hard to do more than all of them combined. Shit. How many black folks Clinton responsible for locking up? Even Bush didn't go as hard as Clinton.

Obama is a master politician. Played safe positions. He was president of all of America. And a good one. He campaigned on a post-racial platform, so wasn't like he lied to black voters. It was just about having a black president from the jump.

Obama didn't act on rescheduling marijuana but his directions to the justice department to not interfere with medical and legal marijuana in states like cali and Colorado is what makes legal marijuana federally much more viable than ever before.

And doing more than ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS SINCE THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES COMBINED is nothing to sneeze at. Obama literally granted clemency to more people (and BLACK PEOPLE) THAN ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED. Acting like that doesn't take balls is the understatement of the century.

 
Top