Article Analysis Essay on How Obama Failed Black Americans

Introduction

The year 2008 was historic for the United States of America as they elected the first Black American president Barrack Obama. To many, it was a show of advancement and a rise in the hope that racial equality can be achieved in the United States of America. After eight years of the Obama presidency, there has been a debate whether indeed Obama was able to make any critical policies or institute programs that would specifically benefit the Black Americans. Of specific interest is the racial wealth gap between the whites and the blacks noting that the blacks have had a historical disadvantage that goes back to the slave trade times. On this issue, Darity (2016) in his article is of the position that Barrack Obama failed the black Americans.

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Darity (2016) asserted that the Barrack failed to pursue policies that were bold enough to ensure the breaching of the racial wealth gap. Darity (2016) tables his findings from research done by himself alongside other members of the National Asset Score Card for Communities of Color (NASCC). It is the finding of the study that blacks who have gained particular college education have higher unemployment rates compared to whites who did not complete their high school education. The unemployment rate for blacks is reported to be twice the white's rate in each level of education. Additionally, their research indicated that the relative economic position of blacks has not improved since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Darity (2016) further supports his argument by quoting estimates that were generated in 2013 by the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances whose findings were that black homes had at least one-thirteenth of the white counterparts' wealth. From this finding, he concludes that for the wealth gap to be closed, a normal black family would have to save all (100%) of its three consecutive year's income to be at par.

In his opinion, the explanation of this wealth gap is the result of the intergenerational impact of the transfer of resources. White people as compared to blacks have more to transfer to their children through inheritances and gifts. Therefore the net worth of a white adult who is beginning their career life is higher than that of a black adult at the same level.

Darity (2016) argued that the significant factor that has continued to ensure the wealth gap from a racial perspective is propagated is the historical foundation of black wealth deprivation. The foundation is characterized by lack of land provision to ex-slaves, violent white riots which led to the blacks' property destruction, the confiscation of land owned by the black, the effects of racially discriminative contracts on home ownership and discriminative policies such as the GI Bill and the FHA.

The injustice continues to be evidenced in that Blacks who work fulltime. When compared to unemployed whites, blacks have lower wealth levels. Besides, taking income in the third quintile, blacks in this class have less net worth compared to whites in the lowest quintile. He states that it is just a presumption that America is free from racism because black families whose heads possess college degrees are $10,000 less in net worth when taken for white families whose leaders never completed high school. He concludes that it is not enough to provide education for blacks. Clearly, working hard and studying hard has not enabled blacks to eradicate the racial wealth gap.

Darity (2016) finds fault with Barrack Obama for being a proponent of the myth that one of the reasons that racial equality has not been achieved is that the blacks are anti-intellectual and that equality shall be obtained when blacks stop viewing higher education achievement as being a white's thing. Darity (2016) rebuts this ideology arguing that his research for the NASCC project shows that black children i9n higher institutions of learning whose parents provided some financial support have one-third of the wealth of white parents giving no financial support to their children's in the same educational level. He concludes that black culture has been very supportive of its children's education since slavery times. As such the Black culture is not anti-intellectual and that there is no evidence to prove such assertions.

Further, Darity (2016) argues that Barrack was a trafficker of a wrong perspective which claims that an essential factor explaining racial and economic disparities is dysfunctional behavior or self-defeating on the part of blacks. According to Darity (2016), Barrack Obama failed to appreciate the causes of racial, economic disparity and has been damaging enough to enforce the widely held faith that the United States racial inequality is, in no small measure, the direct black folk responsibility.

Darity (2016) views Obama's general stand that racial equality can be attained-or at least approached-through policies that encourage uplifting all Americans that experience poverty alongside deprivation, as weak and ineffective. To support his position, Darity (2016) stated that Obama's proposed higher minimum wage neither ensures individuals regardless of their race have jobs nor does it ensure sufficient working hours to produce non-poverty incomes. Also, quality early childhood education policy for all proves insufficient as the achievement gap widens in later years of schooling. Therefore Obama's policies were ineffective concerning wealth gap as none of the policies had any significant impact on the racial wealth disparity.

Darity (2016) continues to assert that Obama's "My Brother's Keeper Program" was premised on the perspective that black youths institute a social problem which needs intervention. He faults the focus of the program which is to reform young black men and states that the correct approach would be to directly increase the resources owned by them alongside their families and eliminating the constraints they experience as blacks. To him, this kind of initiatives proves that Obama failed to bring about bold policies that address the essential racial disparity causes in the American Society.

Darity (2016) suggested that there were far more significant policies that if adopted would have had "disproportionate impact and benefit for African Americans unlike the types of universal programs recommended by President Obama." These include an all American employment guarantee in public-sector, an all new-born infants financed trust by the federal fund with child's parents' wealth position dictating the amounts, or gifted-quality education provision for all children.

Darity (2016) contends that reparations for African Americans are a policy worth pursuing to breach the gap especially as it is proved that incremental changes in social programs that are already established will not close the gaps. This is especially true for the racial wealth gap. For the author, it is disappointing for a black president to oppose such a policy based on the excuse that it is politically untenable.

Darity (2016) explains his dissatisfaction with Obama's position on the reparations issue stating that there have been success stories. For instance, the United States took part of its resources to make right on the Japanese Americans World War II incarceration. Additionally, Malaysia has taken a considerable part of the nation's resources to correct inferior position of native Malays who happen to be a numerical majority of their country.

Conclusion

The precise position and conclusion of the Author are that there is no better way of closing the racial wealth gap than to give reparations to African Americans. For him, it is the right thing to do. He states that all that is needed is to convince a majority of Americans of the merits of the idea. At this end, Darity (2016) noted that forging that national majority is the political challenge, which would approximately require 40% white Americans to be on board. It is a big blow to the cause to have a black president opposes such a move.

References

Darity, W. A. (2016, December 22). How Obama Failed Black Americans. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/how-barack-obama-failed-black-americans/511358/.