Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama to NAACP: Sacrifice of Others "Led me Here"
NBC New York ^ | Thu, Jul 16, 2009 | PHILIP ELLIOTT

Posted on 07/16/2009 8:21:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway

President Barack Obama speaks during the 100th anniversary convention of the NAACP, Thursday, July 16, 2009, in New York.

President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the NAACP that the sacrifice of others "began the journey that has led me here." The nation's first black president bluntly warned, though, that racial barriers persist.

Take a look at the best photos of President Obama and his family captured during his first year in office. View Slideshow People around the world welcome Barack Obama as America's 44th president as a symbol of hope and change. "Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," the president said in honoring the organization's 100th convention.

Painting himself as the beneficiary of the NAACP's work, Obama cited historical figures from W.E.B. DuBois to Thurgood Marshall to explain how the path to the presidency was cleared by visionaries.

Obama's remarks, steeped in his personal biography as the son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, challenged the audience — those in the room and those beyond — to take greater responsibility for their own future. He told parents to take a more active role and residents to pay better attention to their schools. Rousing up a friendly crowd, Obama made his first speech so directly linked with race since he took office; the White House says he worked on it for about two weeks. Implicit in his appearance: He is seeking the backing of the powerful NAACP and its members for his ambitious domestic agenda. The president said that in the current down economy, blacks are suffering high unemployment and are afflicted with more diseases but are less likely to own health insurance. He said that the African-American child is about five times as likely as a white child to be sent to jail.

Obama touted education as essential to improving the lives of all children. He said the state of schools is an American problem, not an African-American one.

"You know what I'm talking about. There's a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There's a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There's a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob," Obama said. "It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential." "We have to say to our children, 'Yes, if you're African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not,'" Obama said, returning to his tough-love message familiar from his two-year presidential campaign. "But that's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school," he said. "No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands and don't you forget that."

Obama expanded his message of equal rights beyond the black communities. He said many Americans still face discrimination.

Racism, he said, is felt "by African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights." Obama also pressed for NAACP members to encourage their young people to find new role models beyond sports or music. "I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers," Obama said. "I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States." To bolster his argument that it's within their reach, he cited his own biography, growing up with a single mother. "I don't come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong," Obama said. "Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life."


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: bho44; blacks; naacp; obama; obroma
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

1 posted on 07/16/2009 8:21:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Mr. Con Man speaks.


2 posted on 07/16/2009 8:23:22 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
He said that the African-American child is about five times as likely as a white child to be sent to jail.

Why did he mention 'child' here? Odd?

3 posted on 07/16/2009 8:27:17 PM PDT by rawhide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
Here's your political sacrifices, Mr. Obama.

FAR more Black children are aborted than Whites or Hispanics.

Are you a Racist?





4 posted on 07/16/2009 8:31:40 PM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Karl Marx led him here.


5 posted on 07/16/2009 8:32:12 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR....Monthly Donors Wanted. I Upped My Monthly....Now, Up Yours.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway; trussell
President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders,...

Apparently Obama's honky roots didn't take hold.

6 posted on 07/16/2009 8:33:23 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
There's a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob,"

Orval Eugene Faubus was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas

he cultivated ties with leaders of Arkansas's Democratic Party, particularly with progressive reform Governor Sid McMath

In the 1954 campaign Faubus was compelled to defend his attendance at the defunct northwest Arkansas Commonwealth College in Mena, as well as his early political upbringing. Commonwealth College had been formed by leftist academic and social activists, some of whom later were revealed to have had close ties with the Communist Party United States of America.

The 1954 election made Faubus sensitive to attacks from the political right. It has been suggested that this sensitivity contributed to his later stance against integration (YEAH, RIGHT!) when he was challenged by segregationist elements within his own party.

Though Faubus later lost general popularity as a result of his stand against desegregation, at the time he was included among the "Ten Men in the World Most Admired by Americans", according to the Gallup Poll for 1958.

Beyond initial matters of racial integration, Faubus always was regarded as a progressive.

While he was still an outcast from black leaders, Faubus nevertheless won a large percent of the black vote. In 1964, when he easily defeated the Republican Winthrop Rockefeller, Faubus secured 81 percent of the black vote.

7 posted on 07/16/2009 8:35:35 PM PDT by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Faubus's father, Sam Faubus, provided him with an early political education. During the early part of the century socialist causes were popular in the rural mountains of Arkansas. Sam Faubus was a poor hill farmer who became active locally in socialist causes and publicly advocated for women's suffrage, abolition of the poll tax, formed a Socialist Party of America local amongst his neighbors, and wrote lengthy essays in favor of socialism for the local Madison County newspaper.
8 posted on 07/16/2009 8:38:26 PM PDT by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
"We have to say to our children, 'Yes, if you're African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not,'" Obama said, returning to his tough-love message familiar from his two-year presidential campaign. "But that's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school," he said. "No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands and don't you forget that."

Brother Love's Travelin' Salvation Show.

9 posted on 07/16/2009 8:43:03 PM PDT by workerbee (If you vote for Democrats, you are engaging in UnAmerican Activity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

I watched this speech and he scared me. He seemed angry and almost about to spit. This sent chills up my spine!


10 posted on 07/16/2009 8:48:45 PM PDT by tndarlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I read it. No mention of why if you are black you arte more likely to live in the ghetto. No mention of why you are more likely to be incarcerated. No mention of personal responsibility.
I have no education past high school, I have been a drug dealer (dozen years ago) and a pimp. I applied myself and gave some thought to my personal destiny and at my mid thirties, I have a good career and a great life. No silver spoon here even if my skin is white.
The only thing holding the ghetto back is a sharp dose of “Holy Crap, do I want to live like that?” On the other hand the government could go broke giving away money and not change anything.


11 posted on 07/16/2009 8:50:37 PM PDT by When do we get liberated? (They must think we are stupid. They want to be green, I want to be gault.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

This all goes along with Rush’s assessment that Obama is here to punish America.


12 posted on 07/16/2009 8:55:14 PM PDT by 1-Eagle ( Support FreeRepublic - Donate today)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tndarlin

He took on a real Jeremiah Wright persona, did he not? Right down to the ‘preacher’ sing-song (don’t know what that’s called).


13 posted on 07/16/2009 8:58:01 PM PDT by constitutiongirl ("Duty is ours. Consequences are God's."- General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: When do we get liberated?
No mention of why if you are black you arte more likely to live in the ghetto. No mention of why you are more likely to be incarcerated. No mention of personal responsibility

Just a guess, but I'm perrrrty sure there was a tacit understanding that it was the White Man's fault. (if not George Bush, specifically).

14 posted on 07/16/2009 9:02:17 PM PDT by workerbee (If you vote for Democrats, you are engaging in UnAmerican Activity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: constitutiongirl; tndarlin

Just keeping up his street cred.


15 posted on 07/16/2009 9:03:23 PM PDT by workerbee (If you vote for Democrats, you are engaging in UnAmerican Activity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The sacrifice of Otters ?

16 posted on 07/16/2009 9:11:58 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tndarlin

I know, I watched the speech too and had the same reaction- it’s probably his verbal spanking to the black community before he hands out the welfare jelly roll;icing and all.


17 posted on 07/16/2009 9:21:54 PM PDT by MissDairyGoodnessVT (Mac Conchradha - "Skeagh mac en chroe"- Skaghvicencrowe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: tndarlin
I watched this speech

I saw some of it too. Notice how he tried to impersonate Rev. Wright and Martin L. King, Jr.? His act needs a lot of work because, as you say, it came off as 'scary'.

18 posted on 07/16/2009 9:58:40 PM PDT by budwiesest (The truth is about to set us free. Won't that be nice?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
He never seems humbled or honored to have his office, never.
19 posted on 07/16/2009 10:04:13 PM PDT by roses of sharon (It is not actual suffering but a taste of better things which excites people to revolt: Hoffer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
"Sacrifice of Others "Led me Here"

Montezuma and a few pharaohs said that, too.

20 posted on 07/16/2009 10:33:06 PM PDT by sig226 (Real power is not the ability to destroy an enemy. It is the willingness to do it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson