BARACK OBAMA has made a call for a new liberation struggle to free African-Americans trapped in a web of low expectations and fatalism by the destructive legacy of racism.
In a passionate speech to one of the organisations at the forefront of the civil rights movement, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), on its 100th anniversary, Mr Obama acknowledged the continuing impact of past wrongs. But he urged African-Americans to abandon a sense of helplessness and take the initiative as they did during the struggle against segregation.
“No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands, and don’t forget that. That’s what we have to teach our children. No excuses,” he said.
“We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is . . . how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.”
In a speech that offered a forthright assessment of the state of parts of black America that no president before him could have delivered, Mr Obama placed a particular emphasis on African-American parents taking responsibility. That included “putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour”.
The president departed from his prepared speech to talk about what he believes would have happened if he had not had an attentive mother who helped keep him on the straight and narrow.
“When I drive through Harlem and through the south side of Chicago and I see young men on the corners, I say there but for the grace of God go I,” he said.
Mr Obama also urged African-American parents to raise their children’s expectations by looking beyond dreams of becoming basketball players or rappers.
“They might think they’ve got a pretty jump shot or a pretty good flow but our kids can’t all aspire to be LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States of America.”
Mr Obama did not shy away from addressing some of the modern ills that have contributed to keeping many African-Americans in poverty, such as unemployment and the housing crisis. The president said that he was not attempting to suggest that racism and discrimination, and its consequences, no longer matter. “I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than today. But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America,” he said.
“By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different colour and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.” But, he said, change in the past had come from people taking the initiative and standing up to injustice.
“We have to say to our children, yes, if you’re African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighbourhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades or to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school.”
– ( Guardianservice)