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sellingpencils
5/23/2013 4:18 PM EDT
Obama is the one who should start taking responsibility for his work environment: administration and federal government employees.
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KJames86
5/23/2013 11:17 AM EDT
Alright first off - I'm a black male. I do not mind the conversation, but I do mind using it over and over again. I don't think that it is wrong to tell those that are failing to "clean up their act." But when you're at Morehouse College graduation, that's not necessarily the audience for that speech. Why? Because CLEARLY they aren't trying to be rappers and ball-players. CLEARLY. So its honestly, a waste of a speech. Its chastising the honor student for the failures of the troublemakers.
That being said, a lot of you people are extremely prejudiced...please check your hate at the door.
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lilrav111
5/24/2013 2:38 PM EDT
To those that much is given, much is expected. As a graduate of an HBCU myself, the President's speech was spot on, as was his wife's at Bowie State. What I would like to see during this final Obama administration is The President challenging parents and stakeholders in children's education to turn off the Xbox, the TV and the mobile phones between Sunday night and Friday afternoon. Have expectations of excellence in academics and behavior that is above reproach.
That is what he and his wife do in their household and I am confident they will go to elite universities and not because they are legacies of their parents, but because they are the first priority of their parents.
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NickShaw1
5/22/2013 7:21 PM EDT
Why should he stop lecturing black audiences?
You're saying Skeeter was wrong in telling black males to "clean up their act"?
What's the matter? The truth beginning to sting a bit?
Did you want him to use his other speech? The one where you're all victims and you should punish anyone that makes money or isn't ideologically pure liberal?
He only has the two speeches you know.
Or do you?
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Grandma of Four
5/22/2013 6:38 PM EDT
Last time I checked, Mr. Obama is NOT black in the traditional sense of the word. He is bi-racial. He had NOT had the truly Black experience...EVER. Our country needs to give serious thought into ADDING bi-racial to ethnic grouping.
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jhrclbpmar
5/22/2013 6:22 PM EDT
As far as Obama's tendency to lecture black college grads on personal responsibiltiy one wonders when he will begin to lecture white college grads in the same manner. Is the fact that he has never done so indicative of a desire to please white audiences, or simply an indication that he doesn't believe white people ever blame their lack of success on events or persons beyond their control? In the first case he's an obsequeous panderer, and in the second stupid. Since I don't believe Mr. Obama is stupid, the first case seems more likely. Bolsering the first case is the response of the majority of people on this site to the article by Ms. Williams, who seem to have been very pleased by the President's rather condescending demands of black graduates to take responsibility and measure up - something that they've already presumably done by graduating from one of the top universities in the country. Underlying this outpouring of support for scolding educated and able black folks is the idea that white people are presumed to be independetly competent and responsible until proven otherwise, and that black people that have demonstrated competence and achivement are presumed to owe it to white people's help. It's an idea that has a very long history in the United States, and it doesn't seem to have gone out of style among the kind of people that read the Washington Post.
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Jp Everyman
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
This summation of Obama's speech doesn't even breach the surface of the entire speech. In it he addressed working towards a goal greater than money, being a better parent, husband, and/or partner. Using your career in a capacity that helps those who can't help themselves. He also discussed being a leader and a role model to those who do not have them. Ms. Williams, you have been writing to long to tell such a skewed story.
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wills1111
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
Ludicrous -- why shouldn't he lecture college graduates about responsibility? If all the "black community" wants to hear about is how they're victims, there are plenty of people who will serve up that pablum for them.
The reality is that since the civil rights era, the black family has largely dissolved, crime has become rampant, and government dependency has become endemic. If this is what follows the granting of long overdue civil rights, what possible reason is there to think it's due to institutionalized racism? That makes exactly zero sense.
Whites think that constantly being labeled "racist" and "privileged" is getting really, really old. Are Asian immigrants privileged? Hispanics? Were the Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles?
Obama, while saying the right thing here, is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Holder and Perez pursue a disparate-impact "justice" which is unjust on its face -- there's no civil right to a home loan if one's debt-to-earnings ratio is high. "Hate crimes" are really speech crimes or thought crimes. The New Black Panther Party shouldn't be allowed to threaten people on the basis of race, regardless of what color they are. And on, and on...
This is not an issue of "blaming the victim" -- it's an issue of people who choose to separate and group themselves by the color of their skin taking a hard look at their self-defined group. MLK pleaded for a color-blind society. The vast majority of whites are more than happy to be part of one. But the divisive identity politics, race-baiting, and constant attack on "white men" is more than tiresome -- it's toxic.
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KJames86
5/23/2013 11:24 AM EDT
Firstly - MLK did not want color-blindess, he wanted equality. THOSE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Whites are happy to be color-blind because it frees them of the guilt of having to deal with the fact that this country was built on a system of oppression for anyone not White.
That is not to say that we haven't come a long long way. But we still have a long long way to go. Equality doesn't mean denying difference. It means accepting differences and not being penalized for those differences. We have different cultures, different histories, different stories. Its easy to speak about color-blindedness when your culture has not been defined by someone else, when some other culture has told you what you can and cannot be. I'm not taking responsibility away from those that play towards negative stereotypes, what I am saying is that in chastising them, we must also chastise those that tell them this what they are supposed to be (BET isn't owned by Black people). We ALL have responsibility here, and WE ALL need to stop pointing fingers.
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PanhandleWilly
5/22/2013 9:29 AM EDT
“They’re actually for white people, liberals especially,” she said.
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sellingpencils
5/23/2013 4:18 PM EDT
Obama is the one who should start taking responsibility for his work environment: administration and federal government employees.
LikeShare
KJames86
5/23/2013 11:17 AM EDT
Alright first off - I'm a black male. I do not mind the conversation, but I do mind using it over and over again. I don't think that it is wrong to tell those that are failing to "clean up their act." But when you're at Morehouse College graduation, that's not necessarily the audience for that speech. Why? Because CLEARLY they aren't trying to be rappers and ball-players. CLEARLY. So its honestly, a waste of a speech. Its chastising the honor student for the failures of the troublemakers.
That being said, a lot of you people are extremely prejudiced...please check your hate at the door.
LikeShare1
lilrav111
5/24/2013 2:38 PM EDT
To those that much is given, much is expected. As a graduate of an HBCU myself, the President's speech was spot on, as was his wife's at Bowie State. What I would like to see during this final Obama administration is The President challenging parents and stakeholders in children's education to turn off the Xbox, the TV and the mobile phones between Sunday night and Friday afternoon. Have expectations of excellence in academics and behavior that is above reproach.
That is what he and his wife do in their household and I am confident they will go to elite universities and not because they are legacies of their parents, but because they are the first priority of their parents.
Like
NickShaw1
5/22/2013 7:21 PM EDT
Why should he stop lecturing black audiences?
You're saying Skeeter was wrong in telling black males to "clean up their act"?
What's the matter? The truth beginning to sting a bit?
Did you want him to use his other speech? The one where you're all victims and you should punish anyone that makes money or isn't ideologically pure liberal?
He only has the two speeches you know.
Or do you?
LikeShare
Grandma of Four
5/22/2013 6:38 PM EDT
Last time I checked, Mr. Obama is NOT black in the traditional sense of the word. He is bi-racial. He had NOT had the truly Black experience...EVER. Our country needs to give serious thought into ADDING bi-racial to ethnic grouping.
LikeShare1
jhrclbpmar
5/22/2013 6:22 PM EDT
As far as Obama's tendency to lecture black college grads on personal responsibiltiy one wonders when he will begin to lecture white college grads in the same manner. Is the fact that he has never done so indicative of a desire to please white audiences, or simply an indication that he doesn't believe white people ever blame their lack of success on events or persons beyond their control? In the first case he's an obsequeous panderer, and in the second stupid. Since I don't believe Mr. Obama is stupid, the first case seems more likely. Bolsering the first case is the response of the majority of people on this site to the article by Ms. Williams, who seem to have been very pleased by the President's rather condescending demands of black graduates to take responsibility and measure up - something that they've already presumably done by graduating from one of the top universities in the country. Underlying this outpouring of support for scolding educated and able black folks is the idea that white people are presumed to be independetly competent and responsible until proven otherwise, and that black people that have demonstrated competence and achivement are presumed to owe it to white people's help. It's an idea that has a very long history in the United States, and it doesn't seem to have gone out of style among the kind of people that read the Washington Post.
LikeShare1
Jp Everyman
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
This summation of Obama's speech doesn't even breach the surface of the entire speech. In it he addressed working towards a goal greater than money, being a better parent, husband, and/or partner. Using your career in a capacity that helps those who can't help themselves. He also discussed being a leader and a role model to those who do not have them. Ms. Williams, you have been writing to long to tell such a skewed story.
LikeShare1
wills1111
5/22/2013 9:42 AM EDT
Ludicrous -- why shouldn't he lecture college graduates about responsibility? If all the "black community" wants to hear about is how they're victims, there are plenty of people who will serve up that pablum for them.
The reality is that since the civil rights era, the black family has largely dissolved, crime has become rampant, and government dependency has become endemic. If this is what follows the granting of long overdue civil rights, what possible reason is there to think it's due to institutionalized racism? That makes exactly zero sense.
Whites think that constantly being labeled "racist" and "privileged" is getting really, really old. Are Asian immigrants privileged? Hispanics? Were the Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles?
Obama, while saying the right thing here, is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Holder and Perez pursue a disparate-impact "justice" which is unjust on its face -- there's no civil right to a home loan if one's debt-to-earnings ratio is high. "Hate crimes" are really speech crimes or thought crimes. The New Black Panther Party shouldn't be allowed to threaten people on the basis of race, regardless of what color they are. And on, and on...
This is not an issue of "blaming the victim" -- it's an issue of people who choose to separate and group themselves by the color of their skin taking a hard look at their self-defined group. MLK pleaded for a color-blind society. The vast majority of whites are more than happy to be part of one. But the divisive identity politics, race-baiting, and constant attack on "white men" is more than tiresome -- it's toxic.
See More
LikeShare2
KJames86
5/23/2013 11:24 AM EDT
Firstly - MLK did not want color-blindess, he wanted equality. THOSE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Whites are happy to be color-blind because it frees them of the guilt of having to deal with the fact that this country was built on a system of oppression for anyone not White.
That is not to say that we haven't come a long long way. But we still have a long long way to go. Equality doesn't mean denying difference. It means accepting differences and not being penalized for those differences. We have different cultures, different histories, different stories. Its easy to speak about color-blindedness when your culture has not been defined by someone else, when some other culture has told you what you can and cannot be. I'm not taking responsibility away from those that play towards negative stereotypes, what I am saying is that in chastising them, we must also chastise those that tell them this what they are supposed to be (BET isn't owned by Black people). We ALL have responsibility here, and WE ALL need to stop pointing fingers.
Like1
PanhandleWilly
5/22/2013 9:29 AM EDT
“They’re actually for white people, liberals especially,” she said.