General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "I didn't know how racist America was until it elected its first black President." [View all]markj757
(194 posts)Last edited Fri Jul 1, 2016, 11:42 AM - Edit history (2)
His accomplishments, his love of country, his ethics, and his stewardship of the Presidency has been trans-formative, as he said he would do when he ran for office. He gave us a list of things he wanted to achieve as President, and he has accomplished almost everything on that list. And the few things he could not accomplish, was mainly blocked by a Republican led congress that would rather see him fail, than see our country benefit from his successes.
As black people, we are often held to a higher standard versus our white counterparts, absolutely. Would his love of country and his faith be so easily questioned if he were not black, absolutely not. But Obama is also a shinning example of why our problems are almost all completely self-inflicted. Just because he has to work harder to achieve a similar level of success and recognition versus his white counterparts, he never once used that as an excuse when he failed. As a community, do we have obstacles in our path that other races do not, absolutely. But as a community, I am probably part of the first generation, where our fate is firmly in our hands. Our parents, grandparents, and ancestors sacrificed, and in some cases gave their lives, so the obstacles we face today, do not block us from living up to our God given potential.
So yes, I think our problems are almost all completely self-inflicted, because the fact that we may have to work harder, and overcome more challenges, is not an excuse for failure. We have to focus much more energy and resources on the 90% of the equation we can control, versus the 10% which we cannot due to things like subtle and overt racism, police brutality, uneven law enforcement, and institutionalized racism in our drug laws. Because the more we focus on the 90% we can change, the more impact we have on the 10% we can't control.