I have been waiting for a black leader with the sort of weight of the presidency behind him to make a speech like this for a long time. President Obama did not disappoint.
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Video: The Key Moment Of President Obama’s Address To The NAACP
July 16th, 2009
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I typing thru tears. Thanks Oliver for posting this.
President Bro Obama showed up tonight!
Why is it necessary for Obama to say this? People should take responsibility for their own lives. They shouldn’t need someone from the government to say the obvious.
I give him credit for doing it, but it shouldn’t be needed in the 1st place.
I also have tears in my eyes while typing. As an educator, it is beautiful sight to have a leader who speaks for both well meaning parents and educators. Most politicians would NEVER deliver such a message because its not always a vote getter. Thank you for posting this today.
but it shouldn’t be needed in the 1st place
But the fact is, it is needed.
Right winger “Gabriel McKee”: “People should take responsibility for their own lives.”
Why do red states take more in Federal tax dollars than they cough up?
Why is Republican Governor Rick “Secessionist-Traitor” Perry asking for more Federal money?
Why doe Alaska Republicans bilk more out of the Federal government than nearly any other state in the Union even while Alaska has a profitable oil industry that gives Alaska citizen’s gubmint checks every year?
Why can’t the Republican Debtor Party, the creators of the Republican 2007 Great Recession take responsibility for their own policies?
Why do Republican voters need to have this explained to them over and over and over again?
Gabriel, a US President isn’t just “someone from the government.” What a President chooses to talk about is kind of a big deal.
You shouldn’t need to be told the obvious.
Wow. That inspired me to apply to grad school.
Thank-you Oliver for posting this. What an inspiration.
‘I give him credit for doing it, but it shouldn’t be needed in the 1st place.’
No one would dispute that, but if you think that all the ills of the past have been swept away, you don’t have a true understanding of the realities of life in America today for minorities or immigrants or women or homosexuals or any other demographic that faces systemic hardships, prejudice and bigotry.
Just pretending equal opportunity exists doesn’t make it so, and is why so many have stood against a tide of complacency and demanded that America’s legacy be open to all who are willing and eager to share it.
The President’s speech was hardcore inspiring.
You should have given the speech – you got a ton of weight behind you.
(Heh, sorry, couldn’t resist.)
My girlfriend is black. She has two degrees and makes a pretty good living. What’s holding back others from doing the same?
Does your girlfriend know that you use her race to try to score cheap political points on blogs?
What’s holding back others from doing the same?
Well, the “few bad apples” in the Republican party you mentioned in another thread can’t be helping. Who are they, anyway? Why are you so reluctant to name names? That’s weird. Hey, is Rush Limbaugh one of them? I’ve always found him to be a bit of a racist.
So who are “the few bad apples” who stain the Republican party’s good name?
I’m just saying, there are plenty of successful black Americans. What holding the others back? Probably the same things that hold poor whites back…Bad decision making and dependency on the federal government. People need to quit making excuses for poor individuals regardless of their race…
Hey, how often do you listen to Rush Limbaugh?
I’m just saying…
You also said,
So who are these “bad apples” who are hurting your Republican party?
I listen to Rush Limbaugh as often as necessary to find out where he stands on The Issues.
Who cares? I’m not responsible for anyone other than myself.
I’m sure you’re a regular dittoheadd.
Who cares? I’m not responsible for anyone other than myself.
Well, you did write, “we have a few bad apples.” Sure sounded like you cared then (the “we” was a dead giveaway). If you don’t want to name them (inexplicably), could you at least be more specific as to how they are “bad”? What do they say or do which drags down the otherwise totally awesome Republican party anyway?
People need to quit making excuses for poor individuals regardless of their race…
So all poor people suck not just the black ones? Awesome.
I really do love this guy.
Bad decision making and dependency on the federal government.
Clearly all poor people are poor because they lack sufficient enough trust funds to protect them from their poor decisions.
Because, you know, I used to date a rich white girl and I have to say with those rich white families, it’s sink or swim. Either you go out an ACHIEVE or you’re on your own. Happens all the time. I mean some of these rich kids actually end up having to get government jobs to pay their bills: Congressperson, Senator, President. The shame of it all …
Both President Obama and the NAACP need to rescue the children trapped in schools where learning is almost impossible. We cannot keep blaming parents for the failure of a school system that will not allow parents to place their children in the schools that best fit their needs. If you have influence with the NAACP, please urge them to be true to their mission and support parental choice in education, which will allow parents to place their children in schools where they can receive a quality education.
I hate these kinds of discussions because they really do show the ignorance and biases of both sides. The fact is that it is entirely possible in the United States to succeed no matter what your skin color or ethnic background. It is not the government that has failed African Americans, but it is a failure of leadership within black communities and a failure of leadership within African American homes. This is basically what Obama was saying.
Is it harder for an African American to go to Harvard? Maybe, but a qualified candidate will get in every time, probably need blind. Even schools that are legally forbidden to use race as an acceptance criterion (like UC Berkeley or University of Texas) can use economic circumstances, which is probably more difficult to overcome than skin color.
I’m constantly amazed at the number of excuses grown adults will make for other grown ass adults for why they’re not successful. Whatever happened to self reliance?
Are all people poor because they’re lazy, or because they make bad decisions? No. But many of them are.
Gabriel: My girlfriend is black. She has two degrees and makes a pretty good living. What’s holding back others from doing the same?
The answer to that question is, in fact, the whole point of the president’s speech. If you want to skip to the nut, start watching at 11:30.
As I understand it, his thesis — hardly new, but as Oliver said, still necessary — has two parts.
The first part is that everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed, and in a society with as much class and racial prejudice as ours has had (and still has), it is sometimes necessary for the law to enforce that fair chance as a supplement to the available goodness of people’s hearts.
The second part is that people who struggle with poverty and prejudice cannot afford the luxury of self-pity, laziness or a victim mentality; cannot afford to wait for that fair chance to be made available before they start trying to succeed. And the key to avoiding that victim mentality, the “breaks” that Obama says he and his wife had, the reason they are where they are today instead of “out on the corner”, has to do with their parents. The difference between Obama and a street thug is not about money or privilege or class or innate intelligence or moral character, it’s about how they were raised. Good parenting is the best bootstrap there is.
Brilliant summation, “Felix”.
Gabriel, I take it you would qualify yourself as wildly successful and if you are not that you would be willing to state for the record that it is because you are lazy, stupid or both?
Just curious.
Agreed, Felix puts it very well indeed.
I’m in the UK, and I’ve never heard a politician talk like this in my lifetime. It’s phenomenal. For me he ranks right up alongside John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King as an orator and as an inspiration. No world leader has ever brought tears to my eyes when they speak, and yet this guy’s been doing it since the election campaigns.
Seriously, do you think we could hire him part-time to replace the lifeless sack of shit we’ve got over here…?
*sigh*
We get an old Scottish dude with the charisma of a bowl of porridge.
You get this guy.
Pete, I think you’re being grossly unfair to porridge everywhere
The whole ideal of education (at least as Thomas Jefferson understood it) is to act as an equalizer. A poor kid and a rich kid have different opportunities, but give the poor kid an education and he closes the gap, or even overcomes it.
The problem comes when we look at issues within the American education system. It does some things really well (university and college education, for the most part). It is really dysfunctional in other regards (public schools in poor areas).
It’s laudable for Obama to make this an emphasis for his administration.
It’s laughable that I need to explain basic civics to a Randian wing-nut like Gabriel.
Some people like George W. Bush will always go to Yale and Harvard, even though they were a mediocre student. Some people born poor can make it and do really well, but it’s easy for them to get lost in the problems that plague some schools. Trying to level the playing field isn’t just necessary, it’s the democratic thing to do.
Speaking of which, it’s long time past that we outlawed legacies in admissions. It’s really just a worse form of the affirmative action that wing-nuts hate so much.
I’m all for anything that gets people to start taking even the slightest bit more responsibility for their own well-being. Omaba honestly does think there is no problem that can’t or shouldn’t be solved or helped by government action though, so it’s naive to expect him to act otherwise.
I was very pleased he made statements like this during the campaign especially, when it was much more risky than now. They were pretty much the only things he said that I liked, so they stick out in my mind. At worst, they are still a move in the right direction.
The government shouldn’t make government funded schools better?
I’ve been hearing those hollow words for years BLAH BLAH BLAH
They sound good even made some of you ladies cry, but at the end it means zero. A majority of Black kids will continue to under-perform because the schools they attend suck, the teachers suck, the curriculum sucks, and the parents at home suck, yet the solution is more money.
Don’t cry over Obama’s silly little hollow words. Weep over what is happening every day to Black kids all over this country.
For poor students to work hard, they must have a hope for success, and that is something Obama talked about there. They have to believe they can make it before you can expect a change, they need the right tools and to know they can use them. Someone who loses hope and gives up may be weaker than someone who doesn’t, but it doesn’t mean that it’s laziness or stupidity, society owes its children to teach them that not only the elite can make it.
In my neighbourhod, I’ve been the one welfare kid out of ten who got to college, and I’ll never look down on the statistical nine others, because I know the challenges were not what would be reasonnable to expect most people to overcome.
Sadly, I see the rightwingers are still oblivious to that, and only saw another occasion to point a finger and scoff.
MatanteDodo – The present-day public school system has been a petri-dish for every Liberal idea that has come down the pike.
How has that worked out?
I’d like to know if the event, or even just the President’s speech, was broadcast uninterrupted on BET ?
The children of parents who can afford to attend NAACP dinners where the President speaks, don’t have too much to worry about in their future – whether they are white or non-white.
Isreal,
“We cannot keep blaming parents for the failure of a school system that will not allow parents to place their children in the schools that best fit their needs.”
Because politicians are always thrashing parents for not doing an ample job. Are you insane? I realize bad teachers exist, but you have bought this line that somehow you have one job and your children are not going to be your second. Parents who just “send thier kids off…” enable this poor behavior. You sir need some remedial education because it certianly does not stop at the school door. Here is a hint…reinforcement is key.
“The present-day public school system has been a petri-dish for every Liberal idea that has come down the pike.”
I just pulled that one out my arse. Move along people…
Sure, move along and continue to let poor Black kids get rolled.
With that kind of thinking, I now know why you call yourself White Whale. Very appropriate.
My comment was to your lack of actual sources. I am on the front lines working in public schools so spare me your indignation. Your comment suggests to me that blaming liberalism for ALL of the downfalls of public education is easier than being contructive in your comments. Face up that you have no actual sollutions and just want to make a blanket statement that you hate liberalism. Just say that and stop making statements that are demonstrably false.
Lack of actual sources? Ha!
One quick glance at the state of American Public Education should be enough to tell even the simplest of minds that it’s a mess, has been a mess, and there is nothing on the horizon that will cure the mess.
Your comments, Mr. Sea Going Mammal, suggests that you like the status-quo and will continue to endorse the failed polices that are in place today……with more dollars thrown in for good measure. A selfish motive perhaps?
.One quick glance at the state of American Public Education should be enough to tell even the simplest of minds that it’s a mess,
-Shorter Joaquin- I got nothing. Sorry. I don’t address my BS when confronted or present pertinent information to a conversation.
I agree with Obama in his speech, and telling parents to reinforce learning that takes place in school, telling African American parents to be involved in the classrooms, FIRING bad teachers, and actually giving incentives for intellegent and competent people to enter the profession is advancing the status quo how?
As to my motives for teaching, I about spit my water on the screenLOL! I got into teaching for monetary reasons and Obama can send me some kickbacks. That is truly rich. If I cared so much about money, I would NEVER become a teacher. Its a calling not a job.
So I suppose I should not expect you to source or explain in any detail how Liberalism has destroyed public education? I should just accept your false premise? I’m all about sollutions, so if you really don’t care to elaborate on this, then I suggest that you not venture into the education field because you may have to explain/support your rantings.
Who doesn’t agree with the Obama speech? How can you not?
It’s beautiful. It’s positive. It’s heart-warming. It also happens to be a big pile of bullshit!
That same speech has been given a thousand times by a thousand politicians. Nice flowery statements designed to tug at your heart strings, make everyone weepy-eyed, but at the end, there’s nothing but the same old same old.
You can buy into it. I choose not to.
I could go all day with you about how your not backing up your statements but I am actually continuing my education and headed to the library to do research for grad school which was made possible by more grants and funding by this administrations new policies. Have a nice day:)
Thanks (again) for a great find and post, Oliver. Do you know a link to the entire speech (either video or transcript)?
Keep up the great work. Best regards.
Wow. That inspired me to apply to grad school.
GOOD FOR YOU.
Seriously, go for it. I’m proud of ya.
Hi Oliver,
I’m writing from StoryCorps, America’s largest nonprofit national oral history project. I thought you and your blog readers would be interested in listening to StoryCorps’ latest story to broadcast on NPR this morning. Mamie Todd tells her daughter, Ann Todd Jealous, and grandson, Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, about demanding supplies from the white school superintendent while teaching at an all-black school in the 1930s. You can take a listen here (about 4 minutes): http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/mamie-todd-with-her-grandson-ben-jealous-and-her-daughter-ann-todd-jealous.
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of people from across the country have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share and is also archived for generations to come at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to the award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. Select stories have also been published in the New York Times bestselling book, Listening Is an Act of Love.
I hope you take the time to listen and share.
Thanks,
Amber Leigh
The missing concept in this discussion so far is self-esteem. It’s the elephant in the room. It can’t be bought, taught, or gatherenacted by Congress, but it’s the sine qua non for any group or individual to make it in this society. Obama knows this, but didn’t call it by name. But everything is about the getting of it.
I’m a long-time teacher myself, albeit at the college level, and I’ve worked with both smart ghetto kids and those born to an exaggerated sense of entitlement (the latter at Princeton and Hampshire College) not to mention everyone in between. When people have a sense of self-worth, education is a breeze; when they don’t it’s hard sledding.
People are taught to be ashamed of being poor in this country (If there’s a level playing field, being poor is your own damn fault. see “Level Playing Field, Myth of”), and also to be black–not by their parents necessarily but by white society. If you’re poor and black, that’s a double whammy, no?
Jamaicans and others also taught me that if you’re a Caribbean black, ie a country with a majority black population (and in which being poor doesn’t carry the stigma of shame it does here), you have an easier time with self-esteem. This is true of second-generation blacks whose parents are from the Caribbean, too. Often they don’t know what gulf separates them from their home-grown North American counterparts. They can grow contemptuous, even.
I think you learn healthy self-esteem from the cradle onwards, or, conversely, low self-esteem. In the latter case, failing any kind of radical intervention, you grow up and pass it on to your kids. This creates the vicious circle we’ve got today, the circle Obama and others are trying to interrupt.
Individual bootstrap-ism is essential but needs help, anything to make the “level playing field” any less of a fantasy than it actually is. So: remedial or intensive education reform, health care reform, minority business incentives, government programs that may be flawed but beat what we’ve got now. It takes a lot to usher out the dregs of racism AND the cycle of poverty.
I know this sounds simplistic but I’m trying to cram a lot in a relatively little space. I’m willing to clarify if anyone cares.
*sigh*
We get an old Scottish dude with the charisma of a bowl of porridge.
You get this guy.
Yeah, but look what we had before him. An ACTUAL bowl of porridge.
We earned this.
You can buy into it. I choose not to.
Good for you. Now piss off.
Don’t cry over Obama’s silly little hollow words. Weep over what is happening every day to Black kids all over this country.
Just wondering why you feel the need to capitalize “Black”?
Face up that you have no actual sollutions and just want to make a blanket statement that you hate liberalism. Just say that and stop making statements that are demonstrably false.
And while you’re at it, Joaquin, tell the truth and just say you don’t like the N*gra in the White House. We’d all have more respect for you if you did.
>I’m not responsible for anyone other than myself.
I see you didn’t make it to the point in the speech where President Obama defines community.
anotherbozo:
Nice response and something to think about more. Self esteem and a safe and engaged learning environment lead to success in education.
Another Bozo: *thumbs up* you said it way better than I.
Joaquin: replying to “Kids perform better if they think they can do it” with “public schools make liberals” is an impressive leap, but was it meant to accomplish anything but illustrate what “non sequitur” means?
I am distraught that people can still blind themselves to the unintentional systemic oppression rife in the system, as long as it isn’t affecting them personally. Acting as though it doesn’t exist and anyone can just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”, thus the poor are poor because they lack the self-responsibility or work-ethic to make themselves successful.
And, irrationally, the vast web of economic and social influences can be completely summed up as “work hard = profit!”…
It is ridiculous that myths well-debunked twenty years ago are still being perpetrated and believed in today.
Why does the right demand these fairy tales are true?
Perhaps it is scary as hell to realize that a person’s economic success or failure is often completely out of their hands and in the hands of a vast network over which they have little-to-no influence, so superstitions about success and poverty must be created to keep hope alive and the specter of poverty at bay.
So, hard-work and responsibility! If so, well, where are all the rich lumberjacks again? (On Secret Millionaire Lumberjack Island..?) And why do the rich make as many bad mistakes and have as many interpersonal problems as the poor, having no greater measure of self-responsibility or ethic?
‘My girlfriend is black. She has two degrees and makes a pretty good living. What’s holding back others from doing the same?’
Why don’t you ask her?
‘Omaba honestly does think there is no problem that can’t or shouldn’t be solved or helped by government action though, so it’s naive to expect him to act otherwise.’
Jesus, did you even hear what he said? He made several points about the Black community taking ownership of their destiny by being better parents and role models for young people; he said you ALL have a part to play in shaping the future of America, including but not exclusively government.
‘MatanteDodo – The present-day public school system has been a petri-dish for every Liberal idea that has come down the pike.
How has that worked out’
Considering the Conservative options have been to teach Creationism on par with Evolution, and to arm teachers, I’d say the Liberal pike is still the way to go.