President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama are drawing criticism from progressives for "stereotyping black youth" and for "personal responsibility finger-wagging" in commencement speeches last week.
President Obama was the commencement speaker this year at Morehouse College in Atlanta and Michelle Obama at Bowie State University in Maryland--both historically black colleges and universities.
A sampling of progressive voices speaking up this week:
"The first couple of times, it was okay, but I and a lot of other people are beginning to grow weary of it... What made it so gratuitous was this was Morehouse College! In the African American community, the very definition of a Morehouse man is someone who is a leader, who is taught to go out and make a difference in his community."
Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor at The Atlantic, in a piece titled "How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America" writes:
"I think the president owes black people more than this."
Anti-racism activist and writer Tim Wise wrote in a piece on his website titled Bullying Pulpit: Racism, Barack Obama and the Selective Call for Personal Responsibility:
"Either that President Obama thinks black grads at one of the nation's best colleges really need to be lectured about such matters; or, alternately, that White America is so desirous of exculpation for the history of racial discrimination that we need him to say such things, and he knows it, thereby leading him to feed us the moral scolding of black men we so desperately desire, and which he must know will be transmitted to us by way of media coverage of his talk."
"Either way, the result is tragic."
Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloywrote yesterday:
"This emphasis on personal responsibility has long been a staple of the Obamas' commencement speeches, no matter the venue. But their mandate for black graduates tends to be far more demanding -- and is usually aimed at correcting some bad black behavior -- than anything they ask of graduates at predominantly white schools."
.
Some have speculated that Obama is simply trying to strike a political balance between calling for individual responsibility and advocating a larger role for government. Or, maybe he was just showing whites that he wasn't the "food stamp" president.
...And yet, there is something vaguely contemptuous about the president's style of criticism when addressing black audiences. Invariably, his rosy rhetoric comes with insensitive scolding -- his mesmerizing visage leaving them oblivious to the blood he has drawn.
"We've got no time for excuses," Obama said at Morehouse, adding, "Nobody is going to give you anything that you haven't earned."
If Obama thinks that is an appropriate commencement message, why doesn't he ever say such things to white graduates?"
Aura Bogado, who writes about racial justice, Native rights, and immigration for The Nation, wrote in her article "The First Couple's Post-Racial Bootstraps Myth":
"...her remarks appear to put the onus not on a system designed to ensure black failure but on lazy individuals."
"The Obamas' speeches "are actually not aimed at black people."
"They're actually for white people, liberals especially. It's the legacy of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that whole group of white liberals who want to say it's not just about structural problems that black people aren't doing well, it's about their own values."
And A. Scott Bolden, a Washington lawyer and Morehouse graduate, told the Washington Post:
"It's interesting that President Obama is always asking black people to take responsibility for themselves. It would be really nice if he'd take responsibility for black people in his second term."
Obama's Next Commencement Speech? US Naval Academy
Trevor Coleman also told the Washington Post that he'll find the president's next commencement speech, Friday at the US Naval Academy, particularly "instructive":
"That will be interesting given the reports of sex harassment in the military," Coleman said. "Is he going to chide those cadets about addressing the social pathologies in that population?"
And Courtland Milloy wrote:
"When he gives commencement addresses at the Naval and Air Force academies this month, will he tell them to stop raping those female recruits?"
* * *
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President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama are drawing criticism from progressives for "stereotyping black youth" and for "personal responsibility finger-wagging" in commencement speeches last week.
President Obama was the commencement speaker this year at Morehouse College in Atlanta and Michelle Obama at Bowie State University in Maryland--both historically black colleges and universities.
A sampling of progressive voices speaking up this week:
"The first couple of times, it was okay, but I and a lot of other people are beginning to grow weary of it... What made it so gratuitous was this was Morehouse College! In the African American community, the very definition of a Morehouse man is someone who is a leader, who is taught to go out and make a difference in his community."
Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor at The Atlantic, in a piece titled "How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America" writes:
"I think the president owes black people more than this."
Anti-racism activist and writer Tim Wise wrote in a piece on his website titled Bullying Pulpit: Racism, Barack Obama and the Selective Call for Personal Responsibility:
"Either that President Obama thinks black grads at one of the nation's best colleges really need to be lectured about such matters; or, alternately, that White America is so desirous of exculpation for the history of racial discrimination that we need him to say such things, and he knows it, thereby leading him to feed us the moral scolding of black men we so desperately desire, and which he must know will be transmitted to us by way of media coverage of his talk."
"Either way, the result is tragic."
Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloywrote yesterday:
"This emphasis on personal responsibility has long been a staple of the Obamas' commencement speeches, no matter the venue. But their mandate for black graduates tends to be far more demanding -- and is usually aimed at correcting some bad black behavior -- than anything they ask of graduates at predominantly white schools."
.
Some have speculated that Obama is simply trying to strike a political balance between calling for individual responsibility and advocating a larger role for government. Or, maybe he was just showing whites that he wasn't the "food stamp" president.
...And yet, there is something vaguely contemptuous about the president's style of criticism when addressing black audiences. Invariably, his rosy rhetoric comes with insensitive scolding -- his mesmerizing visage leaving them oblivious to the blood he has drawn.
"We've got no time for excuses," Obama said at Morehouse, adding, "Nobody is going to give you anything that you haven't earned."
If Obama thinks that is an appropriate commencement message, why doesn't he ever say such things to white graduates?"
Aura Bogado, who writes about racial justice, Native rights, and immigration for The Nation, wrote in her article "The First Couple's Post-Racial Bootstraps Myth":
"...her remarks appear to put the onus not on a system designed to ensure black failure but on lazy individuals."
"The Obamas' speeches "are actually not aimed at black people."
"They're actually for white people, liberals especially. It's the legacy of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that whole group of white liberals who want to say it's not just about structural problems that black people aren't doing well, it's about their own values."
And A. Scott Bolden, a Washington lawyer and Morehouse graduate, told the Washington Post:
"It's interesting that President Obama is always asking black people to take responsibility for themselves. It would be really nice if he'd take responsibility for black people in his second term."
Obama's Next Commencement Speech? US Naval Academy
Trevor Coleman also told the Washington Post that he'll find the president's next commencement speech, Friday at the US Naval Academy, particularly "instructive":
"That will be interesting given the reports of sex harassment in the military," Coleman said. "Is he going to chide those cadets about addressing the social pathologies in that population?"
And Courtland Milloy wrote:
"When he gives commencement addresses at the Naval and Air Force academies this month, will he tell them to stop raping those female recruits?"
* * *
President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama are drawing criticism from progressives for "stereotyping black youth" and for "personal responsibility finger-wagging" in commencement speeches last week.
President Obama was the commencement speaker this year at Morehouse College in Atlanta and Michelle Obama at Bowie State University in Maryland--both historically black colleges and universities.
A sampling of progressive voices speaking up this week:
"The first couple of times, it was okay, but I and a lot of other people are beginning to grow weary of it... What made it so gratuitous was this was Morehouse College! In the African American community, the very definition of a Morehouse man is someone who is a leader, who is taught to go out and make a difference in his community."
Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor at The Atlantic, in a piece titled "How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America" writes:
"I think the president owes black people more than this."
Anti-racism activist and writer Tim Wise wrote in a piece on his website titled Bullying Pulpit: Racism, Barack Obama and the Selective Call for Personal Responsibility:
"Either that President Obama thinks black grads at one of the nation's best colleges really need to be lectured about such matters; or, alternately, that White America is so desirous of exculpation for the history of racial discrimination that we need him to say such things, and he knows it, thereby leading him to feed us the moral scolding of black men we so desperately desire, and which he must know will be transmitted to us by way of media coverage of his talk."
"Either way, the result is tragic."
Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloywrote yesterday:
"This emphasis on personal responsibility has long been a staple of the Obamas' commencement speeches, no matter the venue. But their mandate for black graduates tends to be far more demanding -- and is usually aimed at correcting some bad black behavior -- than anything they ask of graduates at predominantly white schools."
.
Some have speculated that Obama is simply trying to strike a political balance between calling for individual responsibility and advocating a larger role for government. Or, maybe he was just showing whites that he wasn't the "food stamp" president.
...And yet, there is something vaguely contemptuous about the president's style of criticism when addressing black audiences. Invariably, his rosy rhetoric comes with insensitive scolding -- his mesmerizing visage leaving them oblivious to the blood he has drawn.
"We've got no time for excuses," Obama said at Morehouse, adding, "Nobody is going to give you anything that you haven't earned."
If Obama thinks that is an appropriate commencement message, why doesn't he ever say such things to white graduates?"
Aura Bogado, who writes about racial justice, Native rights, and immigration for The Nation, wrote in her article "The First Couple's Post-Racial Bootstraps Myth":
"...her remarks appear to put the onus not on a system designed to ensure black failure but on lazy individuals."
"The Obamas' speeches "are actually not aimed at black people."
"They're actually for white people, liberals especially. It's the legacy of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that whole group of white liberals who want to say it's not just about structural problems that black people aren't doing well, it's about their own values."
And A. Scott Bolden, a Washington lawyer and Morehouse graduate, told the Washington Post:
"It's interesting that President Obama is always asking black people to take responsibility for themselves. It would be really nice if he'd take responsibility for black people in his second term."
Obama's Next Commencement Speech? US Naval Academy
Trevor Coleman also told the Washington Post that he'll find the president's next commencement speech, Friday at the US Naval Academy, particularly "instructive":
"That will be interesting given the reports of sex harassment in the military," Coleman said. "Is he going to chide those cadets about addressing the social pathologies in that population?"
And Courtland Milloy wrote:
"When he gives commencement addresses at the Naval and Air Force academies this month, will he tell them to stop raping those female recruits?"
* * *