Reply #28: Talk

[ProSense]

"The idea that white critics hate Obama because he's black and that since some no doubt do his classy supporters can smear all critics with that, that's pretty fucking simplistic itself."

...about simplistic!

First, the point of Perry's piece wasn't simply "white critics," it was about those among that group who are abandoning the President while holding him to a double standard. It's not every critic who is white, but some who seem to turn a blind eye to the progress this administration has made (in the face of one of the worse economic crisis, two inherited wars and other factors) while still lauding the Clinton administration for its successes.


Black and Bleak

What a terrible irony this Labor Day that under America's first African-American president, black unemployment has risen to its highest level since the early Reagan years, and decades of black progress on homeownership have been wiped out.

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A rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats, but African-Americans made great economic progress in the late 1990s, when overall unemployment was low. In those years, the black-white wage gap and unemployment gap narrowed. Full employment and tight labor markets are always good medicine.

Bill Clinton was facetiously said to be the first black president, not just because of his comfort level with the black community and his appointment of African Americans to senior positions, but because of this very real material progress -- now largely reversed.

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The problem is less Obama's failure to target black unemployment per se than his weakness on the jobs issue generally. Race comes into the equation because of an almost pathological aversion to conflict on Obama's part, which has been widely attributed to his wish to bridge racial and ideological gaps.

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What the hell does the fact the President's race have to do with African American employment? Again, as I said, this is the same person who wrote an article about deregulation and never mentioned Clinton. He credits Clinton for "very real material progress" for African Americans, and blames Obama for a situation that is a direct result of Clinton's policy of deregulation.

And to Perry's point:

Still others are angry about appalling unemployment rates for black Americans; but while overall unemployment was lower under Clinton, black unemployment was double that of whites during his term, as it is now. And, of course, Clinton supported and signed welfare “reform,” cutting off America’s neediest despite the nation’s economic growth.