The Black Agenda

President Obama was the target of some barbs from black leaders meeting in Chicago this weekend who believe the president has not address the "black agenda" of increasing employment and educational opportunities. I thought that as president of the United States he was suppose to do that for all of us.

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said that as President Obama received the support of African-Americans, "we have a right to expect something of the brother." Well, the president was elected by a majority of people in the United States and not by one voting block. And we ALL have a right to expect that he will deliver on some of what he promised.

The racial divide in the United States continues, helped by racists of all colors. That famous slave holder Thomas Jefferson may have had it right when he said of slavery, "It's like holding a tiger by the tail. You cannot hold on forever and you dare not let go." Abraham Lincoln's initial plan was to free all the slaves and send them to Liberia. During the American Civil War, Lincoln negotiated contracts with businessmen to colonize freed slaves to Panama and to a small island off the coast o Haiti. He understood that scar of slavery might make it impossible for freed slaves to live in the United States. It appears that Lincoln was on to something.

Slavery continued after the Civil War in the South and Southern voters eroded any inroads Blacks made to assimilate into the whole of life in the United States. It really wasn't until the 1950s when the Caucasian population joined the struggle for Civil Rights that Black people became full citizens of the United States. People died in that struggle and some of them were Caucasian.

So, I understand why, 50 years later, the black community views the rest of us with a jaundiced eye. But the fact remains that Barak Obama, for whatever reason, appealed to a wide audience and was elected president. But he is president for all of us and no one group should expect special treatment or considerations.

The problems confronting the United States effect all of us. We all have a right to expect that as president, Obama will address these issues. He cannot and should not be expected to fix everything for everybody. It just doesn't work that way. But harkening back 50 years to the way things were and asking for special treatment now does not seem to me to be particularly helpful to anyone.

Unless, of course, the real issue is for a small cadre of Black activists to keep their agenda and names in the press.