Jackson Incident Revives Some Blacks' Concerns About Obama

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Jackson Incident Revives Some Blacks' Concerns About Obama
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008; Page A04

....(Jesse Jackson) told CNN that while he agrees with Obama's arguments that blacks must do more to improve their lot, "the moral message must be a much broader message. What we need really is racial justice and urban policy and jobs and health care."

Michael Eric Dyson, a vocal Obama backer and a sociology professor at Georgetown University, said he worries that the candidate's speeches criticizing the behavior of African Americans will distract attention from larger societal issues. "I'm quibbling with the use of his speeches," he said yesterday. Writing in Time magazine last month, Dyson likened Obama's critiques of the black community to that of comedian Chris Rock, but noted: "Rock's humor is so effective because he is just as hard on whites as on blacks. That's a part of the routine Obama has not yet adopted."

Ronald Walters, who teaches at the University of Maryland, worked on Jackson's presidential campaigns in the 1980s. He criticized a speech Obama gave last month chastising black fathers who were "acting like boys instead of men," and adding that "we need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child -- it's the courage to raise one." Walters said that "we're not electing him to be preacher in chief," and that Obama needs to give more speeches about how he would help black communities.

Eric Easter, a blogger on the joint Web site of Jet and Ebony, two black-oriented magazines, wrote yesterday that some of Obama's rhetoric "smacked of calculated political expediency" in an effort to win over white voters....

But Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights activist, said Obama has been giving the right message, especially in his Father's Day speech. "It was a courageous, necessary statement," Sharpton said. "I think people misunderstand. I disagree that he's talking down to black people. The civil rights movement of the 21st century must be government accountability and personal responsibility."

Aides to Obama defended his remarks, with spokesman Bill Burton noting that the candidate "has spoken and written for many years about the issue of parental responsibility."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071002812.html