I expected
more from Barack Obama. Like many Americans, I had hoped
that his candidacy might transcend the racial divide
that has separated this country for too many
generations. I disagree with Sen. Obama on virtually
every important public policy issue, and yet I have
watched every televised speech he's made and every
debate with a sense of admiration. I want him to succeed
in his party's nomination battle, even when I fear, as a
staunch Republican, that he might be the more difficult
candidate to defeat in November. But he has profoundly
disappointed me this week in his major address on race.
The speech, which attempted to quell the furor
surrounding his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, presented an opportunity for Obama to tackle the
real issue facing blacks today, which has little to do
with race. But instead, Obama fell back on the tired
formulas of the past.
He began with a stunningly inappropriate example of
moral equivalence:
"I can no more disown [Wright] than I can my white
grandmother ... a woman who once confessed her fear of
black men who passed by her on the street, and who on
more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic
stereotypes that made me cringe." Never mind that Obama
didn't choose his grandmother but did choose his church
and spiritual mentor. Wright's racist paranoia and
repeated, vicious, public denunciations of
But more fundamentally,
Obama avoided dealing in
any meaningful way with
the single most
important issue facing
the black community --
the breakdown of the
black family. And this
issue, and its
consequences, explains
far more about the
failure of blacks to
thrive today than racism
or lack of social
spending.
Nearly seven in 10 black
babies are born to
single mothers today.
These children will fail
in school at higher
rates than those born to
two parents. They are
more likely to become
involved in criminal
activity. Their poverty
rates will be higher.
And they are far more
likely to repeat this
pattern by giving birth
to or fathering a child
out of wedlock
themselves.
Barack Obama could talk
about this problem in a
personal way. While his
parents were married,
his African father
abandoned his mother in
his infancy and he was
raised primarily by his
white grandparents,
including the
grandmother whom he
admits is "a woman who
sacrificed again and
again for me, a woman
who loves me as much as
she loves anything in
this world."
But instead of
confronting the problem
at the core of the
black/white economic
divide, he chose to
repeat the litany of
liberal explanations.
Even while acknowledging
the role of welfare
policies in the erosion
of black families, his
main emphasis was on
"[a] lack of economic
opportunity among black
men, and the shame and
frustration that came
from not being able to
provide for one's
family. ... The lack of
basic services in so
many urban black
neighborhoods -- parks
for kids to play in,
police walking the beat,
regular garbage pick-up
and building code
enforcement -- all
helped create a cycle of
violence, blight and
neglect that continue to
haunt us."
Politicians in general
-- black, white, and
brown -- have avoided
talking about
illegitimacy, even
though it now threatens
not just the black
community but
increasingly Hispanics
and poor whites as well.
Nearly half of Hispanic
babies are being born to
single mothers today --
a big increase in just
the last few years --
and one in four white
babies are born out of
wedlock. And when you
factor in high divorce
rates, substantial
numbers of American
children will spend a
major portion of their
childhoods in
female-headed
households.
This crisis, far more
than race, is the most
important social issue
of our time. Obama could
use his bully pulpit to
talk about it, but
instead he chose to try
to explain away black
racism and rehash racial
grievances, both black
and white.
Ironically, given Sen.
Obama's problems with
his own church, hundreds
of black churches and
faith-based
organizations around the
country are involved in
efforts to encourage
marriage, including some
in Chicago. Obama could
have proven himself a
genuinely courageous
leader had he been
involved in this effort.
reprinted from www.humanevents.com
