Obama Has Epically Failed the Black Community

Recall the euphoria that engulfed the African-American community back in 2008, when Barack Obama became the 44^th
president of the United States. Blacks came out for him in droves and
voted for him at an astounding 96% level. Times, they were a-changin',
so to speak. It was the dawning of a new era, as a large dose of hope
and change was on its way to the county as a whole, and specifically to
the African-American community. Now, almost four years later, it's
clear that Obama has done nothing to improve the way of life among
blacks as a whole. In fact, statistics show that life has actually
regressed for African-Americans under Obama.

As
of June, the African-American unemployment rate is a staggering 14.4%,
with Latinos and Hispanics having an unemployment rate of about 11.0%,
while the unemployment rate for whites is 7.4%. Compare these rates to
December 2008, the final month before Barack Obama stepped into the Oval
Office. Whites were unemployed at the rate of 6.6% and Hispanics were
at a rate of 9.2%, while blacks had an 11.9% rate of unemployment.

Blacks
have taken it in the chin to a greater degree than other demographic
groups in the labor market during Obama's economic disaster.
Essentially, one out of every seven African-Americans is unemployed.
Still, there is worse economic news for the African-American community
while under the president for whom they cast 96% of their ballots in
November 2008.

According
to a report released earlier this year by the Bipartisan Policy Center,
in 2010, African-American home ownership rates dropped to pre-1990
levels. Blacks owned homes at a rate of 44.3% in 2010, less than
two-thirds the rate at which whites owned homes. That same rate inched
higher to 45.1% in 2011, but whites owned homes at the far greater rate
of 73.7%, according to a report from the liberal Center for American
Progress.

That
same report, released in April, shows more dismal economic conditions
in the African-American community. It found that from 2009 through
2011, black minimum wage workers swelled 16.6%, while whites had only
5.2% more minimum wage workers. Not only, then, has there been a
disproportionate increase in the number of African-Americans who are in
the unemployment line, but there is also a greater number of blacks
working for minimum wage. This surely wasn't the change
African-Americans were looking for in Obama.

The same report found that foreclosure rates in 2011 for African-Americans was 9.8% versus 5.0% for whites, or almost double.

Under
Obama, the African-American community has fewer jobs, with those who
have jobs often making very little, and an increasing number of families
with no place to live -- facts that should cause African-Americans to
wonder what they voted for in 2008.

Were
the economic catastrophe not enough, the first African-American
president in the history of our nation has also failed miserably in
using the bully pulpit of the presidency to help cure the social ills
that are destroying the black community. Some of those include:

• Fewer than 40% of black children live with both parents.
• Black children are seven times more likely to have a parent in prison.
• Over 70% of black babies are born to unwed mothers.

During
his nearly four years as president of the United States, Barack Obama
could have used the bully pulpit of the presidency to make a real impact
on the black community and address the underlying problems within it.
Obama appears to be a happily married man and is raising two young
daughters. He and his wife Michelle could have invested time and
resources in helping to reverse the negative sociological trends present
in the black community, and they may have had some success. But they
have done little. If they would have spent time in black communities
around the nation, imagine how young African-Americans could have been
influenced and inspired not to have children out of wedlock and to
remain married with their spouse.

Barack
Obama has failed the black community, and the nation as a whole, as
president of the United States. Black Entertainment Television (BET)
CEO Debra Lee, in a video recently scrubbed
from the Obama campaign website, said, "We're encouraging people to
come out and vote to, as we say, vote like your life depended on it."

Sadly,
come November 6, Election Day, no doubt African-Americans will again
cast nearly all their votes for a man with whom they share color. Who
has done nothing to help them economically or socially. It is that
which is even more disappointing than his presidency. Obama has and will prey on the ignorance of those who will continue to follow based on skin color and not for the hope and change that he promised. Obama doesn't measure up and won't measure up to the expectations of the Black community.