A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
An objective reading of the data from the Pew Research Center leads to one conclusion: Black Americans are suffering cognitive delusions regarding their actual condition, brought on by the advent of a Black president. But one Black writer has a different view. He sees a leap of faith.
Black Faith VS Black Reality in the Age of Obama
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"Every detail of data pointed to 'Obama euphoria' having unsettled lots of Black folk's brains."
Black America has been the group most devastated by the Great Recession, both in absolute and relative terms. Many of the gains of recent decades - which have not been all that dramatic to begin with - have been wiped out. So deep is the damage to Black employment, household wealth, and the viability of whole sections of cities, the data are not yet sufficient for a complete assessment. The threats posed by structural changes wrought by the two deep recessions of the 21st century, are even more disturbing.
At least, such facts should be deeply disturbing. The fate of African American generations to come will hinge on the contemporary Black political response to economic and political crisis. But the results of polling by the authoritative Pew Research Center shows that Blacks claim to be the least disturbed of any demographic group at the state of the economy - despite having suffered the most. There was absolutely no doubt that Black people's ability to assess their own and their neighbor's actual economic situation had been severely compromised by the election of the first Black president. Every detail of data pointed to "Obama euphoria" having unsettled lots of Black folk's brains, way beyond Election Day.
We published two commentaries on the Pew polls, this year, one on January 20 and another last week. The January piece was titled, "Living a Black Fantasy: The Obama Delirium Effect." In it, we concluded that "ObamaL'aid is a mind-altering substance, a hallucinogen" that also "behaves like an opiate, blocking out pain." The July 7 July 14 piece was titled, "First Black Presidency Has Driven Many African Americans Insane." I wrote that "a large segment of Black America became disconnected from reality... rendered incompetent and politically useless to themselves and their families by the mere existence of a Black president."
"This is not about Sam Cooke singing, 'A Change Gonna Come.'"
Last week, Lee A. Daniels, Director of Communications for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, published an article on the organization's website, TheDefendersOnline, that had an entirely different take on the Pew polls. Blacks were not responding irrationally to the economic crisis, said Daniels. Instead, he said, "The gateway to understanding the optimism blacks feel even in the face of an alarming deterioration of their economic position can be put in one word: Faith." Blacks' "profound experience with economic adversity" has required faith to overcome, and this is just another such episode.
But of course, the Pew data deal with much more than simple optimism. This is not about Sam Cooke singing, "A Change Gonna Come." The data show that large chunks of Black America believe that Blacks are better off economically today than ten years ago, although the opposite is true. We are not talking about hopes for the future, but a grasp of reality in the present. Lee Daniels comes close to sounding like those white racists who justify keeping Blacks in poverty because Blacks have, supposedly, been conditioned to it. It also reminds me of a quote from Harriet Tubman, who emancipated hundreds of slaves. "I could have freed more," she said, "if they knew they were slaves."
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Danny Haiphong is a long time Black Agenda Report contributing editor. He is now the host of his own Youtube channel.
Orion Meadows is a non-violence trainer with Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.
Michael Li is Senior Counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
