7.21.13: President Obama and Leadership on Race

There is no way that we could, or even would, consider making some grandiose statement on race relations in America in this column.  Even if we strictly stuck to solely what was said on today's Meet The Press, it would still come off as trite, let's face it. However, much of the discussion today focused on whether or not President Obama has done enough to lead on the discussion of race relations, especially in the wake of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin verdict in Florida (We've reprinted our comment on it from last week's column.) followed by the Justice for Trayvon rallies yesterday in 100 cities across the country.

Some conservatives have criticized the president's remarks on Friday to the White House press corps (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/19/remarks-president-trayvon-martin) for politicizing the issue.  More center-right, Michael Steele, who admitted that race was an underlining theme, said that he felt that the president dropped the ball on the discussion just as he did on the conversation about guns. Then on the president's left flank, Tavis Smiley said today that the president was pressured into making a statement, and it was too-little, too-late in his estimation.  He said that on this issue the president could not afford to lead from behind.  Mr. Smiley repeated that Barack Obama was the right man in the right place at the right time to have this discussion, and there should be no more waiting as the first black president.

Harvard Law professor Charles Ogeltree, who taught Mr. Obama, disagreed saying first 'to clarify' that Mr. Obama is a president who happens to be black, but that also he has now elevated Trayvon Martin as a symbol of racial profiling and injustice. Adding to this, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks declared the speech a symphony - touching on many points thoughtfully and personally.

The praise, as you can see, comes mostly for the speech so the question remains as to whether he's done enough overall.  We would suggest that you look at it this way - Pragmatics is the study of implied meaning - what's really being said behind the words - and in that context Barack Obama is having a discussion on race every single day.  Professor Ogletree's presidential sentiment above is nice because it does presume to put the content of Mr. Obama's character before the color of his skin, but in all honestly, and we all know it to be the truth, there are many out there thwarting his agenda simply based on the color of his skin.  That fact that he has to continually wade through instances of prejudice and bigotry continually such as the Birther Movement. The only president in history to be pressured into showing his birth certificate. (How are conservatives going to react to a Senator Ted Cruz presidential candidacy since he was born in Canada?) Then there is disrespect shown to him by an idiot South Carolina Congressman who essentially called him a liar during a State of the Union address.  Why is it that no other president in our lifetime has been shown such disrespect and loathing, from public officials no less, as Mr. Obama?  If you don't think race plays a part in that, you're just denying an ugly truth about America. 

And in addition those instances, and that's not even getting into the healthcare debate (if you can call it that), the constant complaint is that President Obama has no agenda and doesn't get anything done, which is really like stacking the deck even more.  Yet, here we are, during his Administration it had been about 50 years since the last piece of major healthcare legislation came along, 30 years since the prospect of any major immigration reform, and it should have been 20 years since there was a major adjustment to our gun laws.

What we're saying is that on a certain level, Mr. Obama has to do everything he can to get some people to forget about race so that other important things can get done.   In the face of that, the president ultimately made a profound, personal, and ultimately optimistic statement on the matter because he empathizes with the pain out there.  He understands the anger being felt by a large part of our community and we should be glad he spoke to it.  As Governor Granholm commented, he was explaining it to white people.  As Dr. Ogletree said, the president did in fact elevate Trayvon Martin as a symbol of racial profiling and injustice, but it's because Mr. Obama is a rare position with a unique perspective. And because Trayvon Martin is not guilty for his own death as the verdict makes it out to be.

We would contend that since the then-Senator Barack Obama started the conversation on race in a speech in Philadelphia in March of 2008 up until Friday's remark in the White House Briefing Room, the conversation has never stopped.


Roundtable (first segment): Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League and former Mayor of New Orleans; Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Tavis Smiley, Host of the "Tavis Smiley Show" on PBS; Charles Ogletree, Professor at Harvard Law School; and Michael Steele, MSNBC Political Analyst and former Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Roundtable (second segment): Marc Morial, along with former Democratic Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm, NBC’s Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd, and columnist for the New York Times David Brooks.