Well, I thought it was obvious that Obama's address was reflective of the attitudes embedded in the students' essays (self-help, "lifestyle," "it's all up to you," etc.), and that Obama, as President of the US, was consciously reinforcing this type of attitude--and that he finds it a politic position.
For some reason, you accuse me of making Obama somehow centrally causative ("his fault"), when I was simply pointing out a clear, timely example of the point of the article.
So, what are you saying? From the article in question:
"I don't mind them [the writers' students] finding inspiration in the lives of historical figures like Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman because that is their own business; but I doubt that either Douglass or Tubman would see the problems facing slaves or abolitionists as personal weaknesses or a poor work ethic. They both spoke of systems of power."
So, maybe you disagree that contemporary attitudes should reflect the above, that it is in fact wrong to see contemporary problems of race as consequences of a system of power, and, agreeing with Obama, they should be addressed by focusing on the presumed personal weaknesses and poor work ethic of black people? Is that it?
Or, somewhat alternatively, maybe you think the presumed attitude was all right for Douglass and Tubman, but that was the distant past, and you now agree with Obama that racism is for all intents and purposes behind us, barring some occasional discrimination--after all, there *is* a black man in the White House, as you've helpfully pointed out--and those darn kids would just get good grades (because everyone can get good grades, it is not a competitive system, and there are spots in higher education and professional schools for anyone who wants one, as is well known) and go out and get a good job (because everyone can get a good job if they just try--everybody knows that) than everything will be all right. Is that it?
On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 3:16 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski<swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
--- On Thu, 7/16/09, socialismorbarbarism <socialismorbarbarism at gmail.com> wrote:
Really, kids these days... where do they get this stuff?
"Obama urges 'new black mindset'
[WS:] So it is the black man's in the white house fault, huh?
Wojtek
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