5 Things President Obama Can Do To Help Black People

In a recent radio interview on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, President Obama summed up our sentiments regarding the material interest and progress of black people in the United States. “When it comes to the economy, when it comes to inequality, when it comes to wealth, when it comes to the challenges that inner cities experience, he (Martin Luther King Jr.) would say that we have not made as much progress as the civil and social progress that we’ve made, and that it’s not enough just to have a black President, it’s not enough just to have a black syndicated radio show host.” We couldn't agree more with the president. In light of this sobering observation we have put together a list of five things President Obama can do to help advance the interests of black America, just as he and past presidents have advanced the welfare of other groups of Americans. In the spirit of journalistic objectivity, we thought it would be best to put forward recommendations from known scholars, leaders, journalists, political activists and Obama allies to make the point. Place more African-Americans in positions of power and leadership. According to to The Philadelphia Tribune: "When one compares the first African-American president to his recent predecessors, the number of African-Americans in senior cabinet positions is very disappointing: Clinton (7); Bush (4); and Obama (3). Obama has not moved African-American leadership forward, but backwards." Kevin Johnson, senior pastor of Philadelphia's Bright Hope Baptist Church, wrote in the Tribune, "While having African-Americans in senior cabinet positions does not guarantee an economic agenda that will advance black people, it at least is a starting point and puts us in the driver’s seat. With President Obama, we are not in the driver’s seat - or even in the car." Substantially increase the number of high-quality preschool slots across the country so that every black child who enters kindergarten is prepared to excel academically. President Obama recognized this need in his State of the Union in February when he said, “Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road.” A recent national study found that kindergarten students who had attended a pre-K program scored higher on reading and math tests than children receiving parental care. But in some states, there are only enough pre-K slots to accommodate less than 10 percent of the population needing them. Deal decisively with institutional racial and gender injustices across the board. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell in an Aug. 25 television interview on CBS "Face the Nation," called on President Obama to fulfill his presidential responsibility to discuss the nation's history on racial injustice. Powell applauded Obama's decision to speak on the Trayvon Martin murder trial stating, "For the president to speak out on it is appropriate. I think all leaders, black and white, should speak out on this issue.” But Powell added, “I’d like to see him be more passionate about race questions.” Take more concrete action to reform the criminal justice system to make it fair and reduce the number of our people in the system. "There are more African-Americans in the corrections system today—in prison or on probation or parole—than there were enslaved in 1850." - author Joshua Dubois. Professor and author Cornel West says, "In context of the Zimmerman case, President Obama was right: Self-defense must never be used as a way of downplaying the precious lives of innocent people.” However, West said he was “dissatisfied” that the president only addressed the issue at the state level and not at the federal level. “The personal will not be enough,” West said of Obama’s response to Zimmerman's acquittal. “We need policy and we need some serious truth-telling about our racist criminal justice system.” West slammed Obama for saying the Zimmerman jury was right in their assessment, when it was in his eyes a “racist verdict.” “I applaud his words,” West concluded, “but I’m still waiting for action.” Ben Jealous, the president of the NAACP, agreed that there is a need for more concrete action to reform the criminal justice system. In an interview, Jealous declared “black men are the most incarcerated people on the planet … warehoused in prison for nonviolent crimes that two decades ago would have resulted in little to no jail time.” Implement policies designed specifically to alleviate sky-high black unemployment. A May cover story of National Journal asked, "Has Obama Done Enough for Black Americans?" "African-Americans are the only demographic group with higher unemployment today than when President Obama took office. White unemployment dropped from 7.1 percent in January 2009 to 6.8 percent in February 2013. Hispanic unemployment dropped from 10.0 percent to 9.6 percent. But African-American unemployment rose from 12.7 percent to 13.8 percent during that time," the Journal reported. Unemployment among blacks remains in the double-digits and nearly double the rate of whites. The median household income for a typical black family is just 60 percent that of whites – a gap that has grown since 2009.

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