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Campaw's avatar

Obama's election was exhilarating, a time infused with such promise for the nation in general and blacks in particular. That was a moment when all of black America was poised on the threshold of full participation. It was time to step forward and receive the acceptance, affirmation and encouragement of the nation, which is what the election signified.

We all wanted - longed - to move forward to firm ground, out of the mud of racial resentment and dysfunction that had us stuck in place after the progress of the civil rights era. Black America would not be held back any longer but would claim its full-membership place in our country.

But there was another option, and to our everlasting regret, this is the path that was chosen. Rather than step forward we all stepped back under the mantle of victimhood and self-doubt. We re-embraced the comfortable but emasculating patronage of special treatment. It was as though a young man about to graduate from college and conquer the world, decided instead to duck back into the familiar surroundings and safety of another year in school. We haven't had a better opportunity to really break free since then.

Yes, elements of discrimination remained, but I fault Obama and Eric Holder for resuscitating the dying corpse of racism in that moment. Instead of building on the significance of the election of a black president, they chose to emphasize the shortcomings and the distance left to go. Their glass was eternally half-empty, but they needed to keep blacks resentful and unconfident lest they risk losing this political base.

They basically scolded the nation back into the old black-white paradigm and encouraged blacks to simmer in old wounds and resentments instead of exercising the strengths which, through Obama's election, the nation was already celebrating.

The worst enemy of black America is not some KKK straw man. The biggest obstacle to black America is that cohort of black spokesmen and "representatives" for whom racism is the only card they can play and is their path to personal enrichment. These people will never let racism die because they would be out of power the minute black America decides to stand independently on its own.

It is no wonder Glenn is frustrated!

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Mike's avatar

Bottom line: Obama had a chance to truly build on what was improving race relations in 2008. Instead, he made every wrong choice possible and left office in 2016 with race relations back in 1890. He deserves every bit of scorn because of this fact alone.

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