President calls Kanye Jackass, another black man murdered by police

President calls kanye West a Jackass, Another unarmed black man murdered by Police.
It is really amazing that every time a prominent black person does or says something potentially inappropriate or inflammatory the media somehow manages to solicit or capture a comment from the President. Even more amazing is that the president seems to exercise very little restraint in providing cannon fodder for the exploitation of his reactions, especially when it involves the condemnation of black people.

In the case of Kanye West, the President called Kanye a Jackass for his actions at the MTV award ceremonies, These comments were subsequently broadcast on Twitter, an internet social interactive network. Whether the president anticipated exposure of his comments to such an extent is debatable. Nevertheless, the president should certainly understand that with the proliferation of the shadow media like facebook and twitter any recorded comments are fair game for the social networking junkies.

Kanye West’s outburst at the MTV award ceremonies , in wresting the mike from Taylor Swiff while accepting her award, received national attention and almost universal condemnation, and may have been inappropriate but was it necessary for the president to call him a “jackass”, even in a personal interview not scheduled for media distribution. (listen to the president’s comments on a twitter video at http://www.blackamericaweb.com

On the other hand, Congressman’s Wilson’s outburst in calling the President a Liar at his News Conference was handled with kit gloves by the president, even making excuses for the congressman’s behavior. Does this sound like a double standard or is that many of us are still in La La land when it comes to Obama.

On September the 14th another unarmed black man was shot down in a church in Rockford Ill, while little black toddlers in daycare watched. However, this horrendous incident, which jeopardized the safety of young black babies and was a gross violation of the victim’s civil and human rights elicited very little comment from the media and not as much as a whimper from the president.

It is not uncharacteristic of President Obama not to comment on incidents, no matter how, egregious or outrageous the injustice when it involves African people, with the exception of the Gates affair, when the president retracted and apologized for calling the Police stupid for arresting Gates inside his own home as an intruder. In the past, the president has remained conspicuously silent on the shootings by police of Jean Bell an unarmed black man in New York City 50 times or Oscar Grant , another unarmed black man in Oakland California, shot in the back. In contrast he was very vocal in his condemnation of the Reverend Wright and his categorical rejection of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s support in very unflattering language, during the presidential campaign.

On a slightly different note, in a recent conversation I had with a brother, he admitted that he was glad that Obama was not dealing with any “racial issues” at this time because there were more important issues at hand that affected all people, such as Health Care and that “racial issues” were polarizing, that is they tend to divide people apart rather than bring them together. How can you talk about health care I wondered without talking about the disparities in delivery and treatment when it comes to African people. I think that everyone realizes that "racial issues" are always going to be polarizing in America, but is that a good reason for avoiding them, and leaving African people to suffer the slings and arrows of our misfortunes, in a racist society.

What struck me as very disconcerting and saddened me greatly about the brother’s comments was his willingness, which seems to exist among many black people, to subordinate our agenda, regardless of urgency to the national agenda of the Democratic party or a Democratic President. Granted, there are a number of concerns, in fact,, such as Health Care that may be very important to us, as they are to everyone, but if they do not address the great disparities for which African people endure, then, it seems to me , we gain very little by their implementation.

The question is, of course, has this policy served us well. As the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. Personally, I don’t see a lot of proof, in fact I am still looking for the pudding; how about you out there in La La land.