The
election of Barack Obama, the first black president of the United
States, was seen as a landmark achievement for a nation that once
dehumanized blacks and held them as slaves. The expectation was that
President Obama would lift up the socioeconomic status of blacks
throughout the nation and rid the country of its attitudes of racial
discrimination and bias.
But the exact opposite has happened. Obama’s record of black achievement is not just dismal, it is shocking. Obama’s policies have put blacks out of the work force, their unemployment rate has risen. Welfare use and food stamp enrollment have also seen startling and disappointing increases.
At first one could argue that this is because the nation was too prejudiced to allow him to establish any programs that would elevate blacks in the U.S. But this argument cannot be made, since Obama spent and borrowed more money than any government leader in world history, not just U.S. history. How this historical expenditure failed to lift up the economic status of blacks is the most important issue of Obama’s presidency, for no other reason than that was his self-avowed goal.
But the exact opposite has happened. Obama’s record of black achievement is not just dismal, it is shocking. Obama’s policies have put blacks out of the work force, their unemployment rate has risen. Welfare use and food stamp enrollment have also seen startling and disappointing increases.
At first one could argue that this is because the nation was too prejudiced to allow him to establish any programs that would elevate blacks in the U.S. But this argument cannot be made, since Obama spent and borrowed more money than any government leader in world history, not just U.S. history. How this historical expenditure failed to lift up the economic status of blacks is the most important issue of Obama’s presidency, for no other reason than that was his self-avowed goal.
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