What Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative means for black America

The Los Angeles Times ^ | July 30, 2014 | Noah Remnick, Intern, Class of '15, Yale University

[2ndDivisionVet]

A great paradox of Obama’s America is that racism has been so thoroughly condemned that it only rarely receives public /*0attention. To some extent, the election of a black president relaxed what remained of our national focus on race matters, it triggered a prolonged self-congratulation and a deceptive notion that we had reached an ending, a resolution. Obama himself is, of course, a sophisticated, and very particular, thinker about race on a number of levels -- as a child of a mixed marriage, he saw race from the inside out and the outside in; as a local politician, he ran first in a traditional “black district” in Chicago for Congress, but lost to a master of old-style racial politics, Bobby Rush; and, finally, as a national candidate, he faced elimination because of his connection to a fiery preacher named Jeremiah Wright and then became the nation’s first African American president.

As president, Obama has been hesitant even to speak of race at all -- often opting for euphemisms like “urban,” a word we all understand to mean “black.” When it comes to race, he is measured, careful not to offend, or go too far and risk alienating anyone or taking a tone that might come off as “angry” or accusatory. He has told journalists repeatedly that he cannot afford to be seen as “the president of black America”; he must be seen, not least by centrists who may tilt Republican, as the president of the United States of America. But despite great caution, he could not always evade discussions of race. Every time there has been a racial “incident” -- the Jeremiah Wright tapes; the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his own home; the death of Trayvon Martin....

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Author

As a freshman, Remnick joined both The Politic, Yale's undergraduate political journal, and The Yale Historical Review. He was elected Editor-in-Chief of both at the end of the year.

For The Politic, he started a speaker series on campus, which hosted Salman Rushdie and Malcolm Gladwell, among others.

The summer after freshman year, Remnick worked as an intern for the Obama re-election headquarters in Chicago, where he was eventually hired as a paid staffer. He decided to take his fall semester off to continue working for Obama, but he continued to edit the Yale publications while in Chicago.

This summer he will be working in D.C. for West Wing Writers, a speechwriting firm started by former Clinton White House speechwriters.

His parents are David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and Esther Fein of The New York Times.

Funny that the Los Angeles Times didn't mention any of this.

[TexasCajun]

Obviously unqualified to discuss Urban issues!

[madprof98]

This leftist loony naturally figures the real problem facing poor black folks is BIGOTRY and that a “misguided emphasis on personal responsibility” will do nothing to solve that problem. Get ready: these people are now claiming Obama is a failure because he is too CONSERVATIVE!!!

[Luke21]

You want a look at the next generation of the communist plague, read this thing.

[EagleUSA]

Well, he could have done one better and gone to work for the NYT....seems very qualified.

[yoe]

More of Obama's racist black-America:

[Tax-chick]

This writer thinks that a (somewhat) private initiative to improve education and employment opportunities for black males is a bad thing.

What a putz.

[ConservingFreedom]

African Americans with bachelor’s degrees make 20% less than their white counterparts.

There is no market demand for "African studies" - deal with it.

[all the best]

The problems start right in the title: black America. Not quite sure where that is. Perhaps some country in Africa trying to emulate the U.S.?

[factoryrat]

Throughout history, african blacks, middle easterners, and muslims have enslaved more people than any other groups in history, up to this day. Don't forget to add all of the communist regimes and dictatorships to that list. And last but not least, the US DEMOCRAT party (the dixiecrat party of the KKK) have destroyed more black families than any outside organization ever has.

[jsanders2001]

Anyone can write a dissertation, theis, white paper, or column espousing their own personal beliefs. It takes a real man to collect facts from unskewed sources, weigh them faily, then write unbiased and unprejudiced papers. Most of the liberals are so indoctrinated and inexperienced they simply can’t do it. I would never give any serious credibility to a college student’s work unless he had an exceptional background and real-life experience on the subject matter. Many of them remind me of the kid that said I can play the lead to Hotel California the other day (when I was at church on Sunday with mine.) I said, oh yeah? Here’s a guitar. Play it for me. He then looked at me sheepishly and said he meant on “Guitar Hero” on XBOX....lol

[jsanders2001]

Anyone can write a dissertation, thesis, white paper, or column espousing their own personal beliefs. It takes a real man to collect facts from unskewed sources, weigh them fairly, then write unbiased and unprejudiced papers. Most of the liberals are so indoctrinated and inexperienced they simply can’t do it. I would never give any serious credibility to a college student’s work unless he had an exceptional background and real-life experience on the subject matter. Many of them remind me of the kid that said I can play the lead to Hotel California the other day (when I was at church, Sunday with mine.) I said, oh yeah? Here’s a guitar. Play it for me. He then looked at me sheepishly and said he meant on “Guitar Hero” on XBOX....lol

[yoe]

A little deeper look....."Obama announced the “My Brother's Keeper” initiative to help boys and young men of color. “The My Brother's Keeper piece ..."

...from an editorial..."Last February President Obama launched a new imitative to help "boys and young men of color" facing tough odds in life to stay on track and reach their full potential. At the time we observed in an editorial that there was a not-exactly--minor problem with "My Brother's Keeper" (as the initiative was dubbed): its exclusionary nature. By "Color" the president meant black and gbrown, and by boys and young men," of course, he meant youthful males of those colors."

Isn't this racist and sexist???

[Kenny Bunk]

Back in the early days of the CPUSA, their biggest lament was that they could make very little headway amongs the "Negroes," as polite people called them in those days, and as they called themselves. "After all," thought the Communists, "if there was ever a proletariat, why it must be these people!" Unfortunately for the Communists, most were patriotic Christians and ....gasp ...registered Republicans.

By the time FDR consolidated the Socialists, Communists, Progressives and Democrats to win the governorship of New York, the Left had figured it all out. Buy them. Worked like a charm and from the Thirties forward, the "Negroes" were Republicans no more, morphing into the solid Democrat bloc they remain to this day..

Ironically, it was the Democrats who invented Segregation and kept it going, denying Black Republicans in the South the vote, and buying Black Democrat votes in the North.

BTW, This "red diaper" baby surely has all the correct Left credentials, doesn't he? But let's give the Left credit. They soon saw that the dominant folk culture(Trayvon a perfect example) of lower-end African-Americans made any significant improvement in their subsidized lives extremely difficult, no matter how many billions were showered upon them. So, lifting up the lower-end blacks proving too arduous, in order to bring about "racial equality," the Marxist/Socialists have decided to drag down the American bourgeoisie to the level of the lower-end blacks as much as is possible. Shared misery, rather than shared prosperity: it's a common enough MArxist/Socialist tactic.

The American electorate is apparently easy enough to fool into it's own and the Republic's destruction.

[joethedrummer]

The whole idea is RACIST.

“White” people are not white. THEY have “color” too.

Apparently in 2014, the hue of “white” people is the WRONG one.

“My Brother’s Keeper” - As AMERICANS, WE are ‘brothers’.

This criminal is dividing Americans in order to conquer for the elites.

That’s all this is.

[Mears]

“Funny that the Los Angeles Times didn’t mention any of this. “

—

At least you did.

Thanks !

.

[areukiddingme1]

So the first black president squandered his opportunity to elevate black America and demand more from them, morally, ethically, and spiritually. Instead of speaking about the Better Angels of Our Nature and higher achievement he spoke to the devils and demons that make man petty. EPIC FAIL!!!

[AllAmericanGirl44]

bkmk

[Organic Panic]

the election of a black president relaxed what remained of our national focus on race matters

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Surely this author must be joking. Democrats haven't shut up about race and racism since Obama was elected.

[Peet]

“...racism has been so thoroughly condemned that it only rarely receives public /*0attention.”

Right. And one white duck on the wall times zero to the power of ten equals nothing at all, stick-boy.

(Shamelessly stolen from Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull.)