I agree with the article that his elections have symbolic significance especially for the pride of African Americans in this country. Our children can ” say it loud I am black and I am proud.”

However as blacks in America we can not stand idle and say or do nowthing hoping that our problems of unemployement, over incarceration, and continued discrimination will just disappear because we elected a black president. We must mobilize in communities, churches, and organizations to educate African Americans and all miniorities on how to elevate ourselves but it must be backed by presidential leadership addressing
the chronic presense of racism, the black and brown struggle of and I dare say white privilege ( however he sees fit ) in this country.

Even though we love our president we must not forget that as a people it is tough love that propels us.

I am not going to rain all over your Obama parade. I am glad you are so happy with him. However, I do not view him as our great Black hope because he was never a symbol of my dream (or even MLK’s). And I say that without diminishing or taking anything away from him and his achievements. He is a long way from the half employed community activist of Chicago. Congrats!

But what is this ‘we’ have written ourselves off and by society?

See, I never wrote myself or my progeny off. h**l, I haven’t even written black people off collectively. But I cannot accept your assumptions that no black man could have ever held the WH or that people are jealous of his color. I did not see POTUS getting any ‘extra benefits’ in either run except in overall black support, and I for one, am not hopping around on my tail with glee over whatever impact he has personally had on me.

My POTUS benefits are on the low side— pride does not pay the bills, lower black unemployment rates or address other social ills. In fact, this is the first presidency where the First Lady did not have a strong personal pet project focusing on some American social blight that they got quid pro quo funding for. I am guessing Obama is saving his currency to cash in for himself post office—which is standard operating procedure so I am not mad about it at this point.

I am only glad Romney was sent packing because I believe the current effects would have been worse under Mr. Money & Erratic Ann, which is sad because it means I had no truly good options during the election. He is highly ineffective and part of that is solely his fault since I think the thrill is gone much like him after this term (which makes his lack of any hardline stances all the more perplexing). The ballot was essentially choose: the s**t sandwich or the c**p-kebob? I lost either way. It was a matter of how badly and how much I wanted to lose. That was my choice. Hooray!