by Jerome Hudson
10/06/2010
Is Black Support for Obama Racist?
With poverty rates at an all-time high, black unemployment numbers at daunting levels, and Obamacare bringing no change on killing black babies, stunningly, black support for Obama is up.
In fact, black approval of President Obama is virtually unchanged at 91 percent since his inauguration.
Now, unless we believe that 91 percent of blacks are truly as radical as Obama (and every indication is that blacks are far more conservative than he is), then what explains how Obama could have 91% approval, when even among Democrats as a whole, that number is lower at just 79 percent?
Worse, black poverty is higher now than under President Bush.
In fact, during the Bush years, black unemployment was actually lower than during Clinton’s terms (you know, "the first black president"), at an average of 9 percent and certainly lower than the 16.3 percent it stands at today.
Indeed, under Obama, black unemployment rose from 12.6 in January 2010 to 16.3 percent as of August 1 2010. An almost 30 percent increase.
So far, President Bush has a better track record on black upward mobility than Clinton or Obama.
Regardless, Bush only enjoyed an average of about 32 percent approval amongst black voters two years into his first term. And we haven't even mentioned Bush’s historic cabinet level appointments of blacks or his unprecedented AIDS funding in Africa. Much to Kanye West’s chagrin, it turns out President Bush did, indeed, care about black people.
Still, some argue that black support of Obama is merely a function of "black solidarity”; that birds of a feather flock together. But that in itself is racist. After all, can you imagine white voters lining up 9 out of 10 to stand in "racial solidarity" with an elected official who was the equivalent of a wrecking ball slamming through their lives?
After nearly two years of Obama’s reckless spending spree, (John Keynes would be proud), 43.6 million Americans - one in seven people - now live in poverty, a 51-year high.
Looking deeper, these figures show that blacks, who account for only 13 percent of the population, make up 22.6 percent of the now 40.5 million Americans receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps).
And after a year-long debate and an endless barrage of promises from the Obama White House that there would be no federal funding of abortions in the healthcare bill, we now know that tax dollars for abortions are being provided through high-risk insurance programs and have already been stopped in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland.
When political parties know that they no longer have to work for your vote, and that support from any voting bloc is automatic regardless of performance, those voters have relegated themselves to playing the role of perpetual dupe. Put simply, they are begging to be taken for granted.
Is it any wonder, then, that 50 years of black voters conceding 90 percent of their support to a party with a racist past has culminated in an anti-empowerment agenda that has sapped black Americans from achieving our maximum potential by creating a culture of dependency?
When Uncle Sam is your “baby daddy,” is it any wonder that so many inner city children chose gang life over graduation? Or that in just four days, more black children die at the hands of the abortion clinic then the KKK killed in its entire history?
Progressives and Democratic elites have long argued that black stagnation is the result of racism. But is a 70 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks (90 percent in some inner cities) the fault of “racism,” or a lack of accountability and personal responsibility?
The painful truth is that blacks kill more blacks (whether by gun or by a trip to the abortion clinic) at a higher rate than the Ku Klux Klan could have ever dreamed of.
So-called “civil rights leaders,” pseudo intellectuals, and progressive lawmakers are fully aware of these facts, yet they insist on pretending that “systemic” forces (racism) are more responsible than blacks themselves for sluggish black advancement.
It’s time for a frank discussion about the folly of monolithic voting among black Americans. When 91 percent of any racial group votes one way, it’s either out of racism or blind groupthink. Neither of these is good for America.
