Milloy -- Yes, You Can -- If You Can Without Obama

[Blue_Tires]

At a job training center that serves a largely black population in the District, a photograph of President Obama hangs on a wall with signs that say, "Yes, I can," and "Yes, you can." But when it comes to Obama actually addressing the devastating rise in unemployment among African Americans, those words might as well read: Sure I could, but no, I won't.

"Of course we'd welcome any message of uplift from President Obama," said Margie Joyner, president of the Center for Empowerment and Employment Training in Northeast Washington. "The people we serve have a particular need to know that they are not alone, and Obama has a special ability to convey that."

Don't hold your breath.

When it comes to advocating personal responsibility, Obama will take to the pulpit of a black church in a heartbeat. But now, when the problems are clearly being caused by structural inequity in the nation's economic system -- when the hard work and personal responsibility of black people have been rewarded with rip-offs by Wall Street -- he goes curiously silent.

Why? Some say the reason is a political no-brainer.

"Obama can't just talk about blacks when all groups are experiencing incredible jobless rates and suffering," William Julius Wilson, a sociologist at Harvard, told me. "I believe he'll get around to addressing racial disparities in the long term, but in the short term he's got to talk about a stimulus package that increases unemployment benefits and reduces joblessness across the board."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100603451.html?hpid=news-col-blog

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Race and social class are strongly confounded in American society.

It would be pretty hard to find a way to lift only the boats of destitute white people without also benefitting black people. The problem as I see it is that we are not addressing the problem of the bottom 10%, regardless of race. Cash for clunkers was nice, but you had to have enough money to almost afford a new car in order to benefit.

[bertman]

2. You nailed it, Jackpine Radical.