Obama’s economic policies neglect minorities

Let's rewind to March 2008 during President Barack Obama's campaign: "Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now." Fast-forwarding to the present, we hear a different tone: "The most important thing I can do for the African-American community is the same thing I can do for the American community, period, and that is get the economy going again and get people hiring again."

What has changed Obama's perspective on race-related issues in America? Is it the interests that he must now balance to preserve his political points? Is it that he has become short-sided in his vision for "change?" As the majority of black people stand by him in the midst of the political tides, we are flooded by the rising tide he speaks so highly of.

According to the Wall Street Journal, during a meeting with leaders of the black community at the White House, National Association of Colored People (NAACP) President Benjamin Jealous, told reporters that Obama argued, "a rising tide lifts all boats" and that "his job is to be president of the whole country." Wait a minute, Obama, your job is to have a rich understanding of the boats that these rising tides are supposed to be lifting—some boats are not even afloat in the first place!

"A rising tide lifts all boats." This phrase gained circulation in the early 1960s when John F. Kennedy referred to this home-grown wisdom popular among fishermen in his native Cape Cod. It comes out of the age-old faith that economic growth and rising GDP benefits all citizens.

However, The Wall Street Journal mentioned, "While the national unemployment rate was down a bit to 9.7 percent last month, African-American unemployment was still 16.5 percent." That resembles Great Depression numbers. When White America suffered unemployment that high, it was considered a national catastrophe that summoned the unanimous support of officials in government. But that's not the full story. Let me be fair. There was encouraging news in the housing market. More than 850,000 homeowners facing foreclosure were able to renegotiate their monthly payments to 30 percent of their income. This is great news, right? But what about those without jobs? Oh that's right. Those who lost their jobs do not benefit from the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Early in his administration, Obama said that he did not have any special programs for black people, since he expected that the stimulus package would help blacks as much as the rest of the economy, but I do not see the money in the black communities!

African Americans entered the Depression long before the stock market crash in 1929, and they stayed there longer than other Americans. Black unemployment reached well over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. In southern cities, white workers rallied around such slogans as, "No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job," and "Niggers, back to the cotton fields—city jobs are for white folks." However, despite mass suffering, President Herbert Hoover did little to aid the poor and destitute. Instead, the federal government established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which relieved the credit problems of large banking, insurance and industrial firms. Although Hoover believed that such policies would create new jobs, stimulate production and increase consumer spending, benefits did not "trickle down" to the rest of the economy and end the Depression. Doesn't that sound familiar?

It may be a very complicated issue, but I will try to describe it in one equation: long-term unemployment, plus lack of adequate housing, equals a rising tide that does not lift you up, but drowns you. If that is the tide that Obama is trying to promulgate, everyone should get their life jackets.

In March, author Tavis Smiley hosted a forum called "The Black Agenda." In this forum of black intellectuals like Cornell West, a professor of religion and African–American studies at Princeton University, and Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University, they discussed the most pressing matters that African–Americans face in their communities. Even further, they discussed the things that would need to be done to address these matters. The most important point Smiley made was that "because black people are suffering disproportionately, it requires a disproportionate response." Walter Heller, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Kennedy, said: "The government must step in to provide the essential stability [of the economy] at high levels of employment and growth that the market mechanism, left alone, cannot deliver." Where is the intervention on behalf of those worst off? Where is the common sense?

Even within the black community, there are differing opinions about how we should go about advancing the black agenda. Al Sharpton chastised Smiley, calling him a "critic of the president" and creating unnecessary division. When there are people like Sharpton advocating for unquestioning support of the president in the face of a human rights crisis, we must begin to question our moral strength. Are we united enough to advance the "Black Agenda" as described in "The Covenant With Black America?" I think we need more solidarity amidst our differences to do so.

I'm not a boat expert, but I don't think I need to be one to be able to see that our boat is messed up! Something has to change if we are to change the disparaging condition of Black America. Maybe instead of a rising tide, we need a rising consciousness to agitate the status quo and to remove our boat's tethers. Otherwise, I hope you can swim.

-Ocasio Willson '13