Why Don’t Black Leaders Demand More of the President?

Daily Beast:

Why Don’t Black Leaders Demand More of the President?

Sep 24, 2012 11:30 AM EDT
The 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus call themselves the conscience of the Congress. But when it comes to forcing Obama’s hand, they seem missing in action, writes Paul Butler.

Black members of Congress might ask themselves why, as they concluded their annual conference over the weekend, Barack Obama hasn’t done more for African-Americans. They bear some of the blame.

Last week Rep. Emanuel Cleaver admitted that African-American members of Congress hold Obama to a lower standard because the President is black. Pointing to the historic level of African-American unemployment, Cleaver said, “If we had a white president we’d be marching around the White House.” If, for example, Hillary Clinton sat in the Oval Office, Cleaver would tell her, “My sister, I love you, but this has got to go.”

But Obama gets a pass. Cleaver, who is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, “The president knows we are going to act in deference to him in way we wouldn’t to someone white.”

This is black solidarity at its most self-defeating. It’s why, as the President hands out goodies to other core groups in the Democratic base, African-Americans get squat. On the campaign trial, Obama delivered to Latinos his own version of The DREAM Act, gays received their long-sought presidential endorsement of same-sex marriage, and union workers get a job-protection intervention directed at China.

African-Americans, on the other hand, are like Charlie Brown on Halloween. While everyone else gets candy, they get a rock. Obama’s most emphatic statement on black unemployment was back in 2009, when he said, “I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping black folks. I’m president of the entire United States.”

Of course he is. Still, under Obama’s watch, black unemployment has gone from bad to worse. It was 12 percent when Obama took office, and now it’s 14 percent. Yes, the problem cuts across all races, but as the saying goes, when there’s a recession in white America, there’s a depression in black America.

The 43 members of the Black Caucus call themselves the conscience of the Congress. But when it comes to forcing Obama’s hand, they seem missing in action. As Cleaver put it, the caucus “is always hesitant to criticize the president.”

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