The media have been replete with complaints lately (most notably by talk-show host Tavis Smiley and Princeton Professor Cornel West) about President Obama governing in the interest of every other group except poor black folks. Therefore, many political pundits expected Obama to use the occasion of his keynote address at last night’s annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus to plead for a little more patience and understanding.
But instead he chastised his most loyal and longsuffering supporters by telling them – in affected broken English that was both patronizing and paternalistic – to:
Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do. I need your help.
(Washington Post, September 25, 2011)
This wasn’t just a political “fuck you” to Tavis and others who are expressing disillusionment and disaffection, but a dare to all blacks to vote Republican (or not at all) and see how much love that gets them.
Of course, Obama knows that nothing will endear him to coveted independent white voters quite like him publicly telling blacks that they’re not entitled to any special favors from him. But he didn’t have to do it in such a disrespectful manner that only reinforces negative stereotypes about his own race. Never mind the irony that blacks are actually doing worse under his presidency than they did under George W. Bush’s.
In fact, far from sitting around in bedroom slippers and waiting for a handout, as Obama implied, blacks have been pounding the pavement in their working shoes – often showing up in the thousands and waiting in line for hours for a shot at one of only a few job openings. This is why they can be forgiven for still feeling proud that Obama is president but now wondering aloud, “what have you done for [us] lately?”
Yet instead of greeting Obama’s indignant flourish in kind with boos, the black folks in attendance egged him on with repeated applause and standing ovations. And they wonder why he and every Democratic president since LBJ have taken their vote for granted.