Uhurus are correct about Obama – here's the truth

By Glen Ford | Guest Commentary

"What about the Black community, Obama?" read the banner held by Uhuru Movement members two weeks ago at what was supposed to be the usual Barack Obama pep rally in St. Petersburg. In Orlando the next day, National Urban League President Marc Morial vowed that the candidate would be asked, "What steps should we take as a nation to alleviate the effects of racial exclusion and racial discrimination?"

Obama has hard-wired himself to avoid answering such questions. Obama's catechism is always some variation of his "There is no Black America, there is no White America..." speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He seldom acknowledges, and then only grudgingly, that African Americans continue to be subjected to institutionalized harms that are qualitatively different than those endured by Whites of any social strata.

In St. Pete, Obama mischaracterized his positions on predatory lending, the Jena Six, Sean Bell's death, and Hurricane Katrina. Here's the truth:

• Obama's April 2007 legislation against "fraudulent and predatory lending practices," the Stop Fraud Act, makes no mention of racial patterns in lending abuse. Nine months later, Obama's response was the weakest of the three 'top tier' Democratic primary candidates. "Only Obama has not called for a moratorium and interest-rate freeze...he has remained silent on further financial regulations," wrote Max Fraser in the January 24 issue of The Nation.

• ABC News reported on September 20, 2007 that Obama expressed indignation over the plight of the six Black teenagers in Jena, La. just 24 hours after reports surfaced that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had said Obama was 'acting like he's White' for not doing more to publicize the situation in Jena. Two weeks earlier, Obama appeared "visibly uncomfortable" by the question and said the teens 'appear to have been railroaded into a very difficult situation," but he would not say
what remedy he hoped to see in the case, according to ABC.

• Following the acquittal of New York City cops in the Sean Bell killing, Obama issued a statement: "We're a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down. Resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and is counterproductive." In contrast, Hillary Clinton was empathetic: "My thoughts are with (Bell's fiancé) Nicole and her children and the rest of Sean's family during this diffi- cult time. The court has given its verdict, and now we await the conclusion of a Department of Justice civil rights investigation. We must also...take steps in our communities, in our law enforcement agencies, and in our government, to make sure this does not happen again."

• In 2005, Obama absolved FEMA of what the vast majority of Blacks saw as racist behavior: "...I do not subscribe to the notion that the painfully slow response of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was racially-based. The ineptitude was colorblind." Obama has gone to extreme lengths to deny the significance of race in the Katrina catastrophe, and pointedly refuses to attribute even the historical, past ills of New Orleans to race.

• As a state senator from a majority Black Chicago district, Obama did work against racial profiling, But his remarks on the death penalty give the impression that Obama opposes capital punishment. He doesn't.

As usual, Obama presented the Urban League convention with a reprise of his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech: "Our march is a march for America. Not Black America or White America. Not rich America or poor America, rural America or urban America. But all America... An America where hard work is still a ticket to the middle class - and you can make it if you try."

Barack Obama's America is a place where nobody calls racism by its name, where Black grievances are made illegitimate through the logic of race neutrality, the truth be damned."