Obama Criticizes Black America

Obama Criticizes Black America

www.msnbc.msn.com

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are "acting white."

As he travels around the country in his effort to become the nation's first black president, Obama has engaged in an intense competition for black voters -- a crucial Democratic Party constituency that accounts for as much as half the electorate in some key primary states such as South Carolina. But the first-term senator, who has sought to present himself as an agent of change eager to challenge political convention, has taken the unusual route of publicly criticizing his own community.

In a brief interview, Obama said he is simply giving broader exposure to the problems that African Americans discuss with great frankness in private. "It's what we talk about in the barbershops in the South Side of Chicago," Obama said, adding that he talks about these problems more in the black community because they are more pronounced there. "There's an old saying that if America has a cold, we have pneumonia," he said.

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This is tough love. I'm not very politically minded, but this man is a breath of fresh air. He says what is on his mind, and is not afraid to go after the tough issues. Keep your eye on this man. He may very well become a great man in the history books.

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This man is seriously too good to be true. Everything he stands for I stand for and I haven't had that connection with any politician, ever.

I think he is what America needs at this time. Something very fresh and in an intellectual way "hip". Hopefully, he can live up to what people are making him out to be at this time.

Go Obama!

There was a thread recently where the head of HUD, Alphonso Jackson, was highly condemned for criticizing the black community. Who makde him an expert on the black community, why should we care what he thinks, etc., were the criticisms leveled at him. Bill Cosby also took flack in that same thread for his comments on the black community.
www.abovepolitics.com...


It will be interesting to see if those same members will join in and criticize Obama for "making himself an expert on the black community", as they did with Jackson and others.