Obama: "... for far too long, for decades, you have a situation in which too many communities don’t have a relationship of trust with the police. If you just have a handful of police who are not doing the right thing, that makes the job tougher for all the other police officers out there. It creates an environment in the community where they feel as if rather than being protected and served, they’re the targets of arbitrary arrests or stops. And so our job has to be to rebuild trust, and we put forward a task force made up of police officers, but also young activists who had been protesting in Ferguson or here in New York. They came up with some terrific recommendations about collecting data on what happens when there’s a shooting involving police, what are we doing in terms of things like body cameras. And so there are some very practical, concrete things we can do to make the system work better.
But…this is not just a policing problem. What you have are pockets of poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of education all across this country. Too often we ignore those pockets until something happens. Then we act surprised and the TV cameras come in. Essentially, we put the police officers in a really tough spot where we say to them, “Just contain the problem.” If young African-American men are being shot but it’s not effecting us, we’ll just kinda paper that over. Part of the message that I’m trying do deliver is, look, you’ve got a crisis in these communities that’s been going on for years where too many young people don’t have hope, they don’t see opportunity, there aren’t enough jobs. We’ve created an approach to drugs that leads to mass incarcerations. So then you have no father figures in these communities. When those folks get out of prison, they can’t get a job because they’ve got a felony record.
Today, part of what I did in New York was announce some additional initiatives around what we’re calling My Brother’s Keeper. How can we send a message to young people of color and minorities, particularly young men, saying your lives do matter, we do care about you, but we’re gonna invest in you before you have problems with the police, before there’s the kind of crisis we see in Baltimore. We’re gonna make sure you’ve got early childhood education, we’re gonna make sure you’ve got an opportunity to graduate and go to college and you’ve got mentors and apprenticeships. That kind of sustained effort I think is what we have to see in this country. Not just the episodic spasms of interest when something tragic happens.
Letterman asked: ...Is racism a factor? The factor? A residual factor?
A residual factor, but also a buildup of our history. We can’t ignore that. Look, if you have slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination that built up over time, even if our society has made extraordinary strides—and I’m a testament to that, and my kids and your kids are growing up in an America where the attitudes of the next generation make you hopeful because I think they genuinely try to judge people on the basis of character. But it’s built up over time. If you have 100 years in which certain communities can only live in certain places, or the men in those communities can only get menial labor, or they can’t start a particular trade because it’s closed to them. Or they try to buy a house or a car and it’s more expensive. Over time that builds up. That results in communities where the kids who are born there are not going to have as good of a shot. We don’t have to accuse everybody of racism today to acknowledge that that’s part of our past and if we want to get past this, then we’ve gotta make a little bit of extra effort. Letterman Show 4 May 2014
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The basic message in what President Obama said last night on Letterman's show is that White people are altogether responsible for the situation of Blacks in places like Baltimore where they live in festering isolation and poverty and that Blacks are in no way responsible. This is an old telling of the narrative of victimization. I remember reading this narrative in the second half of Faulkner's "The Bear" when I was 18. This version of the story is filled with a great self pity. William Faulkner as a great artist was quite capable of empathic self-pity. This narrative is also demeaning to the success story of all the Blacks and people of mixed race who have overcome the disadvantages heaped on them by their history in America.
IMO we now know what Obama is going to do with the rest of his life. pl
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-gave-one-most-important-talks-race-last-143414842.html
Col: I'm a lot more interested in how he hopes to revitalize Baltimore economically. And how he thinks the TPP is going to make a difference in these failing urban areas. (Yes, sir, that is the whiff of the dreaded economic determinism.)
Posted by: Matthew | 05 May 2015 at 03:54 PM
Matthew
All that is worth saying has been said in literature. Have you read "the Bear?" I recommend it highly. I guess you missed the post in which I wrote that the plight of Baltimore Blacks who have not had the gumption to leave results from the destruction of the area industrialization base because of the baleful effect of free trade. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 04:05 PM
Maybe the right dog hasn't come along. Sam Fathers, call home.
Posted by: HDL | 05 May 2015 at 04:58 PM
Obama's biggest contribution as President was getting elected. Everything since has been a let-down.
For the next 30 years, he will be galavanting around the world doing what he does best - pontificating in a manner that has little practical connection to actual problems. A sort of Tony Blair with attitude. Let's just hope that he stays away from foreign policy matters. In any case, his endless appearances on various mid-day talk shows in mid-week has so debased the currency of presidential address, that most of the country tuned him out years ago.
Posted by: mbrenner | 05 May 2015 at 05:17 PM
Col: I will read it. But it took me a while to get over “As I lay Dying.” Faulkner is a great genius, but a very heavy one.
I didn't comment on your post about Baltimore's de-industrialization because I agreed with it.
Unlike you, the President seems stuck on sociology. Pointless.
If you believe culture is largely created by geography and economics, it's a waste of time to focus on individual failings, particularly, in a dying community. Cf. http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Samaritans-Secret-History-Capitalism/dp/1596915986
Moreover, the President wants to craft a "solution" that absolves the local politicians in Baltimore and supports adoption of the TTP.
Posted by: Matthew | 05 May 2015 at 05:40 PM
Did Obama say anything that wasn't factually accurate?
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 05 May 2015 at 05:54 PM
GCP
He implied that Blacks are not responsible for their own fates. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 06:02 PM
I still suspect that the first main thing Obama will do with his life will be to collect the hundreds of millions of dollars he expects to be paid by the FIRE sector and other interests he has made or saved several trillion dollars for through his actions in office. And the second thing he will try doing is getting his daughters married to economic glamouroyalty the way the Clintons were able to do for Chelsea. And then speak and activise on racial issues as long as that doesn't interfere with
upwardly mobile marriages for his daughters and harvesting the money he expects he is due.
Posted by: different clue | 05 May 2015 at 06:33 PM
Colonel:
No offense but that didn't answer my question. Did he say anything that was factually incorrect? Based on what you wrote as to what was said I don't believe he did but before I comment further I'd like to know what others think as to the accuracy of his remarks.
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 05 May 2015 at 07:42 PM
This is a wise insight that not all cultural upbringings have. For instance, APA head Marty Seligman's early work on Learned Helplessness in shocked dogs showed most just laid down and whimpered, while a few brave entrepreneurial dogs tried everything. Freedom, self-responsibility, and taking control of one's future are habits based on a certain way of viewing the world, which, I gather, the Army trains well. What would a program look like that would train these habits in civilians? What components?
Posted by: Imagine | 05 May 2015 at 07:42 PM
Sir
What you note is something that many in America don't want to hear. Across the board many are unwilling to accept responsibility for their own affairs. It's always someone else's fault. My alma mater has now fenced off the pond on campus due to personal injury lawsuits as students skating on thin ice have got injured. We are developing a culture of entitlement and the culture of personal accountability that helped build this nation is being lost. We see that in all the Wars on Poverty, Drugs, etc where we have spent trillions but the problems are worse than when the War began. So just throwing money is not the solution.
Similarly, the largest financial institutions are no longer responsible for their speculative losses. Future generations are now becoming more responsible for our current living standards. More and more people want a society where there are no consequences for personal choices and actions. The belief in the free lunch grows.
I wonder how folks will react when the unicorns don't show up.
Posted by: Jack | 05 May 2015 at 07:50 PM
GCP, I did not find fault with what President Obama said, but then according to Tyler I am a Libertard so what do I know. I think many will agree with what he said and many will disagree and that seems to be the say the country is going. If we were a family we would be called dysfunctional.
Posted by: Nancy K | 05 May 2015 at 08:22 PM
GCP
Ah, IMO, you are looking for a way to call or think me a racist. Please yourself. I should have said that what he said was factual but also irrelevant. It has been 150 years since slavery and 50 years since Jim Crow. Many Blacks have moved on into the main stream of America. Colin Powell, General Lloyd Austen, Tyson, the astronomer, Obama himself, Henry Louis Gates. We could list a great many. The schools in Baltimore are not good enough? My wife and I went to a very poor quality parochial school in Maine. I went there because my mother was not bright enough to understand that the very good public high school in the town would have been better for me. I, and my wife, are here to tell you that a poor high school is better than none. We overcame that hindrance and Blacks should do the same thing. Are you going to tell us who you are? pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 08:23 PM
Nancy K
We are not a family and should not be. [pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 08:26 PM
GCP
Ah, I forgot. You did not answer my point that Obama excused Blacks from responsibility for themselves. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 08:39 PM
Colonel:
I agree with your point in many cases. Some blacks don't want to be helped and I agree Obama hasn't really addressed that point.
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 05 May 2015 at 09:14 PM
"The first is setting an example of excellence for our children — because if we want to set high expectations for them, we’ve got to set high expectations for ourselves. It’s great if you have a job; it’s even better if you have a college degree. It’s a wonderful thing if you are married and living in a home with your children, but don’t just sit in the house and watch “Sports Center” all weekend long. That’s why so many children are growing up in front of the television. As fathers and parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a book once in awhile. That’s how we build that foundation.
We know that education is everything to our children’s future. We know that they will no longer just compete for good jobs with children from Indiana, but children from India and China and all over the world. We know the work and the studying and the level of education that requires.
Obama.....
"You know, sometimes I’ll go to an eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. To really compete, they need to graduate high school, and then they need to graduate college, and they probably need a graduate degree, too. An eighth-grade education doesn’t cut it today. Let’s give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!
It’s up to us — as fathers and parents — to instill this ethic of excellence in our children. It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals. It’s up to us to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self-respect and hard work. It’s up to us to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in our own lives."
Obama....
"Because if America stands for anything, it stands for the idea of opportunity for everybody. The notion that no matter who you are or where you came from, or the circumstances into which you are born, if you work hard, if you take responsibility, then you can make it in this country."
Posted by: steve | 05 May 2015 at 09:25 PM
Colonel wrote:
'Ah, IMO, you are looking for a way to call or think me a racist.'
Not at all. In fact, I don't think you are. If I did I would tell you. I simply don't think this country will ever solve the problem of our developing a permanent underclass (black or otherwise) by telling others to 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps'. That didn't work very well for the Romans did it? Would you prefer we continue on this path until we have 40% of the country expecting bread and circuses from the rich patrons of today? I think you are on the right road when you talk about jobs/trade which I find interesting.
'Are you going to tell us who you are?'
You already know. You know my email address and you've emailed me - to tell me when I've been a bad boy. You've attempted to ascertain my location through my ip address which I do not hide nor disguise and since I use public ip's assigned to me personally it shouldn't have been hard for you to find me. If you must know and it's some kind of big deal it's
Jack Harris
League City, Texas
Anything else?
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 05 May 2015 at 09:29 PM
Nancy K:
Obama wants it both ways. He can't talk about the ills of black society and then send all their jobs overseas with things like the TPP. What we are doing now has NOTHING to do with free trade much less fair trade. What comparative advantage do any of the countries in any trade deal have over us when it comes to manufacturing other than slave wage labor?
Why do we have minimum wages so low that working people (including those in the military) qualify for public benefits? Why are all of us paying taxes subsidizing big business because they want to pay slave wages?
I could go on ............
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 05 May 2015 at 09:36 PM
Sir,
It seems Obama was responding to a push from Letterman to blame racism for the plight of blacks. As you said, Obama is a refutation of the notion that blacks cannot move upwards into the middle class and into the mainstream. If he didn't think they were capable of doing this I doubt he would waste time with his new initiative which will end up, in my opinion, being a legacy project.
Obama has no problem playing the Bill Cosby role. I can't question your main contention as it's something you have inferred and I have not.
Posted by: Will Reks | 05 May 2015 at 09:37 PM
will reks
What is my "main contention?" pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 09:48 PM
GCP
I don't think you are a bad boy at all. The burden of the aftermath of slavery lies on us all. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 05 May 2015 at 09:50 PM
Col.,
Every Democrat in office or running for one is busy beating the "college" mantra. My brother managed to become a VP of a fortune 500 company without one. Plenty of others were run into bankruptcy by leaders with more than one. This sounds more like a speech to a party constituency than to poor black men.
Posted by: Fred | 05 May 2015 at 10:40 PM
That Obama believes that blacks are in no way responsible for their situation.
Posted by: Will Reks | 05 May 2015 at 11:07 PM
The evidence in black-white healthcare disparity, to the detriment of the former, is just beyond denial. It literally starts before the conception, although that sounds counterintuitive. A female's eggs have been created in the womb of her mother (in contrast to the sperms) thus explaining why a female has not only genetically but environmentally been subjected to the environmental factors that affected the grandmother. Indeed, for generations, blacks are responsible for their misfortune by being born from the wrong womb. Obviously, it is not a color issue but an economic resource issue. Though there is no determinism, the odds are just stacked against the resource-poor. I am not an expert in THREE-GENERATION APPROACH IN BIODEMOGRAPHY but as a layperson, this sounds to be reasonable.
Posted by: Amir | 06 May 2015 at 12:39 AM