Obamas Fake Legacy: Progress in the Black Community

By Katie Kieffer Snake-oil salesman" is the stinging label Princetons African-American studies chair Eddie S. Glaude Jr.who happens to be blackgives President Obama as he leaves the White House. Because Obama betrayed blacks. Millions of white men and women voted for Barack Obama a biracial president in hopes that he would unite our country. Millions of black men and women voted for Obama hoping he would help them forsake disparate levels of poverty; teen pregnancy; single motherhood; absent fatherhood; and violent crime. Whites and blacks hopes were historic. Turns out Obamas dual presidency was historic. Historically bad. Only wealthy whites and Asians notably improved their quality of life during Obamas eight-year reign. On economic and social levelsAmerican blacks slid the furthest. Even reality-denying Slate now bemoans a rising" tide of racial discontent" in America. Today our nation celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.a man to whom Obama often compared himself in his own quest for power. In 2007 candidate Obama announced his run for the presidency by invoking Kings call to let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. …it is time for our generation to answer that call." He needed his black brothers and sisters votesand won them with lofty promisesby 91 percentage points in 2008 an by 87 percentage points in 2012. Then he twisted the knife. CARTOONS  LISA BENSON VIEW CARTOON  Legacy Control: Taping Statisticians Mouths Shut Numbers dont lie. Which is why liars love taping shut the mouths of statisticians. African Americans have made enormous strides" WhiteHouse.gov touts during the Obama Administration." The official Obama administration website then proceeds to tick off areas in which blacks elevated their quality of life since 2007 such as a falling poverty rate" and a historically low" level of teen pregnancy. Do some fact-checkingand youll quickly learn that Obama is engaging in what Ill call blackwashing"or painting a picture that seems beneficial to his own people. For the first time there are more poor African-American children than white children" Glaude Jr. recently told TIME. Whats startling about that is that there are three times as many white children in America as black children." Indeed according to Pew Research Centers July 2015 reportfor the first time since the federal government began collecting dataalmost four times more black children live in poverty (38.3 percent) than white children (10.7 percent). And black teen pregnancy fellbut Obamas administration fails to describe this fall as part of an overall drop in teen pregnancy across all demographics. Over twice as many (35 percent) black females still become mothers as teenagers compared to white females (17 percent) according to Pew Research. Used and Confused He was a playboy in the worst way. Obama used and confused blacks more than any other president in the modern era. They trusted that he would help them. In reality he only wanted their help at the polls. Along with his wife First Lady Michelle Obama used his eight years of influence to uphold one woman as the paragon of black female success. No matter that this woman made her millions by shaking her derrire in front of millions on Super Bowl Sunday; sipping sugary soft drinks (Pepsi) while shouting Live for now!" and posing with her celebrity-thug hubby who made his millions by rapping about heroin and using the b-word to slam white female pop star Taylor Swift. Stop shooting us!" Beyonc told police in her pre-Super Bowl 2016 music video. Too bad in reality blacks shoot blacks more often than cops shoot blacks. Or whites shoot blacks. The latest Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and FBI data reveals that black men are 40 times more likely to be shot by a fellow black man than by a police officer. And FBI crime statistics indicate that in murders where the victim is black the murderer is also black93 percent of the time. Id be Beyonc" Michelle loudly and proudly told People when asked who shed be if she could be anyone else. Over and over Beyonc and Jay-Z were invited to perform at presidential eventsand even given controversial access to the White House Situation Room and to Cuba for a 2013 vacation spree. The New York Times reports that thousands of women plan to march in Washington D.C. on the day after Donald Trumps inaugurationin protest of his supposed oppression of females. Interestingly however black women are telling white women on social media not to show up if they cant check their white privilege constantly." Funny but the facts indicate that white girls might be bullied more than black girls. A 2015 report from the National Center for Education Statistics found that among students ages 12-to-18 the victims were most often white females. Black feminists" telling white feminists to metaphorically go to the back of the march are simply heeding President Obamas farewell message wherein he reminded blacks that they are victims with very real struggles for justice" while whites are the aggressors who need to acknowledgee that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didnt suddenly vanish in the 60s." On every level; in every category; black Americans faced setbacks under our first black president. May Donald J. Trump be the first president in recent memory who can truly be color blind; who will unite us by ignoring race while focusing on the issues we care about; and who will help every American achieve a better life.