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1310633 tn?1430224091

Riots test Obama's power to heal racial divide

Washington (CNN)No one understands the limits of a president's power to bridge deep racial divides better than Barack Obama.

As the nation's first black president, Obama has wrestled with an enduring expectation that he could do more than any other figure to heal racial tensions.

But on this score, Obama has mostly come up short, often leaving his supporters wanting more and his adversaries blaming him for exacerbating age-old conflicts. With parts of Baltimore burned out and protesters demanding answers after the death of yet another black man in police custody, Obama seemed to acknowledge just that, pointing to the limits of the presidency and the tragic sameness of it all.

"This is not new," he said Tuesday, addressing the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old West Baltimore man whose spine was snapped while he was in police custody. "It's been going on for decades."

It was a familiar role for Obama, who addressed the high profile deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner with the same exasperated tone.

"Since Ferguson and the task force that we put together, we have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals, primarily African American, often poor, in ways that raise troubling questions," he said. "And it comes up, it seems, like once a week now or once every couple of weeks."

And so he came with the same script, shorn of the soaring rhetoric that helped bring him into the White House six years ago. He ticked off six separate bullet points, listing them as he went along.

He acknowledged Freddie Gray's family, the injured officers, said there was a Department of Justice investigation, praised the good people of Baltimore and condemned the violence that broke out last night, calling the perpetrators "criminals and thugs who tore up the place."

"When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they're not protesting, they're not making a statement. They're stealing, he said. "When they burn down a building, they're committing arson. And they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities that rob jobs and opportunity from people in that area."

But even that language -- especially the "thugs" comment -- posed some problems for Obama.

"If the headline is that he is calling protestors thugs -- which is the new n-word -- and certainly the president is not thinking that, then that's not helpful. We have to have a more thoughtful response than him calling them names that a lot of others are calling them," said Paul D. Butler, a professor of law at Georgetown University. "It was ironic that he was saying that the criminal justice system needs to treat young black men like criminals. They don't need to be told that because that's part of the problem. That's how they see them automatically."

Obama's comments skimmed over a broader point: Those crowds of looters and the people stomping on police cars were often school kids. And one of those kids was pulled from the scene by his mother in an episode that went viral as people applauded her for responsible parenting.

Famously even-handed on race, in the past Obama could dispatch Attorney General Eric H. Holder, who served as the emotional counterweight to Obama's more clinical approach. But Baltimore boiled over just as Loretta Lynch was taking over Holder's job, highlighting a changing of the guard that could have broader implications about how the administration responds to such incidents -- if not on policy, than perhaps on optics.

"The question is does Lynch become the new race woman like Holder was the race man. It's possible, but she has never made race part of her portfolio" Butler said. "The other alternative is that maybe Obama, thinking about his legacy, takes on the role. But for now, when he talks about race, he doesn't sound like the most powerful man in the world, he doesn't have his famous swag. People want to see his confidence and talent brought to bear on these issues."

When it comes to racial issues, Obama's biggest legacy item so far is My Brother's Keeper, a public-private initiative aimed at helping boys of color mired in the school-to-prison pipeline (though it leaves out young girls of color, who often languish in the same poor neighborhoods). Holder also moved to reform some of the federal "mandatory minimum" drug sentencing laws, which disproportionately affected minorities.

Some want to see Obama on the ground in Baltimore, an echo of a similar call last year when Ferguson erupted. Obama never went to Ferguson, sending Holder instead.

"The optics of being on the ground and recognizing what has happened is more important than anything he has to say," said Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke University professor who blogs frequently about race. "I would like for once to see him go off script and have a human, angry reaction to this, because it would humanize him and it would humanize this situation that the country seems almost desensitized to."

In an interview with Steve Harvey that aired Wednesday morning, Obama said that he might go to Baltimore "once things clear up," but would stay away for now as law enforcement tries to keep a lid on the unrest.

Near the end of his remarks Tuesday, which ran about 15 minutes, Obama, who campaigned on hope and change, sounded rather hopeless and as if even he wasn't expecting much change. The politics are tough, he said, and Congress is unlikely to make any investments in urban areas.

"But if we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could. It's just it would require everybody saying this is important, this is significant, and that we don't just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns and we don't just pay attention when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped," he said. "We're paying attention all the time because we consider those kids our kids and we think they're important and they shouldn't be living in poverty and violence. That's how I feel."

Adding later on Harvey's morning show, which reaches 7 million predominantly African American listeners, Obama said that urban areas where the drug trade is rampant have faced neglect for decades, putting more pressure on police officers.

He also suggested that the Gray incident and the civil unrest that followed could mark a tipping point in terms of how his administration and the country deals with some of the root causes.

"People have a tendency when the fires are put out, once the cars aren't being tipped over...then folks want to go back and focus on whatever reality TV thing is going on," Obama said. "We've just got to make sure that we don't brush this aside after the crisis has passed."

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/politics/obama-and-race/index.html
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Brain
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Poverty of the
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When you don't expect much from a particular race you don't get much. This is "soft" racism by liberals. They don't expect black people to do much or amount to much so when riots like this happen, well people pass it off as expected. How about stop with the racism liberals and ask more from the black community? How about you tell them they can do more? Instead of looking to sports and music as a way out, look to people like Dr.Ben Carson as an example of who you can be. Be proud of what you can accomplish. Instead liberals show them what they can't accomplish.

As President Bush said at one point about people in poverty, we want to give them a hand up, not a hand out.
Give a person a fish it feeds them a day, teach them to fish and it feeds them for a lifetime.

Don't keep people in poverty in poverty by giving them what they need, show them how to get out of poverty by helping them get what they need. And this all starts with the family structure which ties in with education.
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CNN Bogusly Tries To Turn The Baltimore Riot Into President Obama’s Problem

It didn’t take long for members of the mainstream media, notably CNN, to incorrectly claim that the Baltimore riots represent a new race problem for President Obama.

An article on CNN’s website stated, “The growing violence in Baltimore, just 40 miles from the White House, represents another challenge for the Obama administration in addressing racial unrest across the country. Since the police killing of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer, the administration has worked to acknowledge deep frustrations in minority communities while also supporting law enforcement.”

Someone might want to tell CNN that riots occurred in the United States before Barack Obama was elected president. No one in the media claimed that the 1992 LA riots were then President George H.W. Bush’s race challenge.

The violence in Baltimore is not an Obama problem. The riots in Baltimore were triggered by an American problem. The rioting in Baltimore did not happen in a vacuum. Police violence against African-Americans and other minorities is a very real problem.

There are some who are using the funeral of Freddie Gray to carry out their own violent criminal agenda. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called the rioters thugs, “Too many people have spent a generation building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for.”

The situation in Baltimore is complex. It is an act of journalistic negligence to claim that Baltimore is a challenge for President Obama. What is happening in Baltimore is symptomatic of a larger issue that is plaguing communities all across the country.

African-Americans are dying at the hands of the police. CNN and every other mainstream media outlet can’t avoid the ugly truth by trying to blame President Obama.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/27/cnn-bogusly-turn-baltimore-riot-president-obamas-problem.html
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1310633 tn?1430224091
This jumped out at me:

"...Near the end of his remarks Tuesday, which ran about 15 minutes, Obama, who campaigned on hope and change, sounded rather hopeless and as if even he wasn't expecting much change. The politics are tough, he said, and Congress is unlikely to make any investments in urban areas..."

Yes, lets try and blame Congress for this racial mess.

I wish I could put my arms around every single one of my 1/2-brothers, sit them down, and have a little chat with them, about what the reality of the situation is... That people like Barack, Jesse and Al aren't here to help them... they're there to hold them down and keep them needy & reliant on the gov't so it keeps them and their party in power. That the media don't give an entirely accurate picture of what's REALLY happening in order to both boost ratings AND tow the liberal-agenda party-line, and are in bed with Barack, Jesse & Al, and pushing their agenda's at the expense of the black community. That they need to stay home with their sons, and raise them to be MEN, not leave the mothers to raise their boys without the benefit & influence of a strong male role-model. That when there's an injustice (real, perceived or otherwise), that the best course-of-action is the protest PEACEFULLY, not rape, pillage, rob, burn & vandalize the very communities that they they live in. That the white-man does not hate all black men, and a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch. That the same is true of THEIR ranks (ie: a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch). That it's both the white community's responsibility AND the black community's responsibility to root out those bad apples, and bring them to justice.

I wish I could hug them all...
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Avatar universal
How many riots happened under Bush?
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