In the midst of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial celebration, a disgruntled Washingtonian protested in front of the Washington Convention Centerโwhich housed most MLK celebration eventsโand began to chant anti-Obama idioms.
On Aug. 26, right after the โTable of Brotherhood Projectโ panel discussion, Hassan Shabazz, 45, stood outside of the Washington Convention Center during the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial celebration week on Aug. 26 with a poster that read, โAmerica has betrayed Dr. King’s dreamโ and on the flipside, โNo Jobs! No second term Obama!โ
Shabazz repeatedly chanted, โObama, you canโt run forever Obama. You better help the poor Obama,โ on the corner of New York Ave., N.W. in Washington, D.C.
His reason: To prove that Obama has put Kingโs legacy to shame. He is part of a growing chorus of Black criticism, and skepticism, about the link between the Obama presidency and Black America.
Some people say that Obama, as the first Black president of the U.S., has fulfilled a dream African Americans did not think they would see in their lifetime.
But Shabazz said thatโs the only โdreamโ Obama has lived up to. He said the presidentโs policies and actions have not impacted the Black community enough to say he has lived up to Kingโs dream of economic prosperity.
โWhat is he doing for the poor? Is that following Dr. Kingโs dream?โ Shabazz said. โAll the poor Blacks are getting evicted in S.E. (D.C.) Heโs got to come back to the Black community one day.โ
PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and African American scholar Cornel West have emerged as prominent critics of Obama and recently grabbed the publicโs attention as the duo conducted a 16-city โPoverty Tour.โ On their website, West said the tour is not an โanti-Obama tour,โ but a call for the president and Congress to help Americans who were hardest hit by the recession.
โโฆit would be nice to hear the president say the word โpoor.โ To say the word โpoverty,โ Smiley told the Associated Press. โWe get conversations about the middle class. Well, the new poor are the former middle class. But we canโt get this president or any leaders to say the words โpoorโ or โpoverty,โ much less do anything about it.โ
Whatโs Smiley and Westโs inspiration for the tour? A quote from Dr. King, which reads:
โI choose to identify with the underprivileged, I choose to identify with the poor, I choose to give my life for the hungry, I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. . .โ
In an interview with the Tom Joyner Morning Show this week, President Obama reacted to criticism from African-American leaders and said their disapproval is expected.
โโฆwhen things are going good, you get the credit, when things are tough, you get the blame, thatโs the nature of the Office. I donโt spend a lot of time thinking about that. I think about what we can do to get the economy growing faster,โ Obama said.
With U.S. unemployment numbers stagnant at 9.1 percent with no added jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, Obamaโs criticism may continue to grow. But the White House is pinning hopes for a public opinion reversal on a major speech Obama will give Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. Professor Harley Shaiken from the University of California, Berkley called the speech โcritical.โ
โIt could be the opening of a renewed effort on jobs that really gets labor excited, or it could be too little too late, which really increases the frustration,โ Shaiken told NPR. โIt’s going to be an important speech, and it will define where labor is on Election Day.โ
John Earnest, spokesman for the White House, told NPR that Obamaโs speech would define a common ground between workers and employers.
โIt’s the president’s view that there are a lot of aligned interests here,โ Earnest said, โthat there’s an opportunity for us to put in place the kind of economic policies that could be supported by Democrats and Republicans, that could be supported by American businesses and American workers, that there are American communities all across the country that could benefit from these policies.โ
Shabazz, a laid-off construction worker, said that the presidentโs financial bailouts for major companies and other policies have led the poor to believe they are not top priority.
โWe know Dr. King was a great man, we know what he represented, but [is the Obama Administration] practicing it?
โIโm not for Obama. I voted for him, but not anymore,โ Shabazz said.
Ray Baker, talk show host of Howard Universityโs radio station WHUR and brotherhood project panelist, called a comparison between King and Obama โunfair.โ He said the only connection the two have is Aug. 28, Obamaโs โI Have a Dreamโ speech in โ63 and the day Obama accepted the democratic nomination for president in โ08.โ
โLet’s remember Dr. King was a preacher first, so everything he did had to make complete sense to his moral conscience,โ Baker told The AFRO. โDr. King had no constituency and no one to answer to but his own morality so he was in a position to take on the establishment and critique power in honest and ultimately life threatening ways.โ
Baker said he doesnโt think Obama has let down Kingโs legacy because their works are in โdifferent lanes.โ
โPresident Obama has elected to do his work inside the metaphorical establishment, so he is either unwilling or unable to make those same unfettered critiques of power that Dr. King made,โ he said.
As the president gears up for a possible re-election next year, analysts cannot definitively determine if public backlash from Black leaders could impact the โBlack vote,โ but leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus said Black voters may stay home next year if unemployment rates remain unchanged.
โThe worry should be โฆ are people going to be enthusiastic about getting to the polls, or are they not going to be as enthusiastic,โ Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told the Wall Street Journal.
โI’m frustrated with the president, I’m frustrated with the Senate, I’m frustrated with the House,โ said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), who is also chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. โThe president and his White House team is trying to minimize the discussion of race as it relates to job creation.โ