Earlier today, President Obama made his announcement on 'No Excuses' which was a direct challenge to minority men to make better choices with their lives. Although he didn't directly say it, President Obama was making a clear statement to "Young men of color" to make better decisions, break the label of the stereotypical African-American male that society sees. Another statement by Obama involved his past home life, in which he related to kids of all ethnics when he spoke on his lack of a father at home. He claims this had led him to make some bad choices and the only reason he got on the right track was through his community.
After his talk about his target group, Obama continued on to the funding of his operation, and at the moment has a 5 year plan to pump $220 million dollars into at risk areas for early education to help keep kids on track. This coalition for the greater good may just be the start of something bigger in Obama's road to equality. However this does bring in a major question into play.
Just what is equality, because based on my interpretation of the Presidents comments it seems that his focus lies more in the African-American population, rather than all children at risk. Although I support the Presidents new initiative to improve the nation through vast donations from public corporations, it seems that he may be treading on thin ice. His focus on a single minority is almost an open invitation for criticism and attacks from a broad spectrum. I believe the Presidents intentions are pure, but the concept of aiding a singular group seems to be against the American belief of equality that we recently learned about.
I agree with you on some points. I don't think he labelled minorites because they (well I guess I should say 'we') have already been labelled. I think he was simply pointing out the obvious. It's only natural for him to worry about his own community, after all he is Black/African American/Biracial. Maybe the intention with the program is to help the most disadvantaged, then the disadvantaged, and so on. After that, then equality will be reached, but hopefully this program does help all children who are at risk- white, black, brown, polka-dotted, and green.
ReplyDeleteI can see the situation from both ways. We all know that many minority citizens, particularly African Americans, have a hard time making it in this world...even fifty years after the civil rights movement. Discrimination is still in American blood. We might not want to admit it, but it's there. Obama is trying to help. On the other hand, is this a form of favoritism toward the community that he came from? Would he be better off to continue the political ideology of economic inequality that we discussed? I suppose we'll just have to see what happens.
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