Reggae artist Chronixx (right)
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King Jr (1963)
THE press is supposed to be the “Guardian of the Republic” and a “pillar of democracy.” The press is the only industry explicitly referenced in the US constitution. How, then, is it that the press and media in Jamaica and abroad seem so spineless in critiquing President Obama? Have they abdicated their role in giving voice to the voiceless and airing the vox populi.
Chronixx’s comments echo a sentiment that cuts across a broad spectrum of Jamaicans, such as myself and various communities who are unwilling to look the other way simply because Obama is a Black president. Such criticism of Obama is not unique to Jamaica and Jamaicans, but Black academics and intellects everywhere.
All this while in America, itself under the Obama Administration, the plight of Black Americans has worsened. In a recent interview on MSNBC’s Meet the Press, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People CEO and President Ben Jealous told the show’s host that Black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office. “The country’s back to pretty much where it was when this president started,” Jealous told show host David Gregory. “White people in this country are doing a bit better. Black people are doing far worse.”
Dr. Julianne Malveaux of Your Black World recently wrote that the Obama Administration needs to speak out more about existing racial disparities and persistent problems in black unemployment. The Black diaspora has seen the US elect thousands of African-American local and state officials and re-elect the first Black president, but Obama seems to have proven to be just a symbol; symbolic and nothing more. Nothing real, nothing substantial, nothing progressive as it pertains to the plight of Black people.
Chronixx twitter post
The media is slow and unwilling to note that our Black leaders are dithering. Floundering; flailing… failing, and falling even. Symbolism supersedes the fact that Black leadership has few or no victories to boast for the 70s, 80s, 90s or the new century, apart from their own illustrious careers. Obama seems a symbol used to nullify and quiet the analytic Black mind and voice. “N…, shut up, we got a black president now!”
Who in Jamaica or the media is willing to look past the fact that he is just a Black president and willing to examine the fact that the Black role model president conducts weekly “Terror Tuesday” meetings in the White House basement at which he dispatches drones to kill and special forces to kidnap and torture. It matters not at all that the Department of Justice prosecutes whistle-blowers instead of war criminals, or that Black military officials and diplomats are up to their armpits in African blood. The president highlighted the fact that our Government meets behind our backs and signs agreements we don’t know about, but what of his secret meetings?
Read the full story from Yannick Pessoa at Jamaicaobserver.com
