The black attack on Obama | Fox News

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The black attack on Obama | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/22/black-attack-on-...
The black attack on Obama
By Juan Williams
Published May 22, 2013
FoxNews.com
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When President Obama told a black audience years ago that black
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Now the president has done it again.
Juan Williams
in
Atlanta last weekend the President said it is time to stop using
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racism and discrimination – though they still exist – to excuse bad
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Speaking at graduation ceremonies at Morehouse College
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Just three times in
his presidency has
Mr. Obama spoken
Left-wing black intellectuals are calling
to the crisis facing
him a “scold” and asking if he is making
black America
a bad habit of speaking to the black
head-on. Yet to
community’s flaws. In other words, he is some ears he is now
blaming the victim and not speaking to
a “scold.”
Obama again.
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the president for telling a black male audience to stop making
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he spoke to the mostly white female audience at last year’s
graduation ceremonies at Barnard College.
“Taking the full measure of the Obama presidency thus far,” Coates
wrote, “it is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that the White
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5/26/13 8:04 AM
The black attack on Obama | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/22/black-attack-on-...
House has one way of addressing social ills that afflict black people
-- particularly black youth -- and another of addressing everyone
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The Washington Post, in a news story, reported that several black
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opinion leaders are “weary” of the president’s message. And the
Post reporter even raised suspicions that “many in the black
FOX NATION
community” think the speech was not for a black audience but “to
make himself politically palpable to white voters.”
This backlash this time is not as chilling as a threat of castration.
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But the awful and powerful message is the same: Black leaders will
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dysfunction in black America. They are not supposed to air dirty
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progress and constitute the major challenge to black America in this Holder's Investigation
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generation.
The heart of the critique is why doesn’t he target the “ social ills” in
other communities?
The simple answer is no other population is dealing with 80 percent
out of wedlock births. And as none other than First Lady Michelle
Obama pointed out
at the Bowie State University on May 17,
“one in three African American students are dropping out of high
school. Only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25
and 29 has gotten a college degree.”
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His only other recent remarks on this crisis in black America came
after a young woman who performed with her school group at his
second inaugural was killed by gunfire in Chicago, a city with an
abysmal rate of black on black crime.
That is it. Three times in his presidency has the president spoken to
this crisis head-on. Yet to some ears he is now a “Scold.”
When the president is given a bullhorn and put on national
television every day to compete with the gangster rappers, the
crass comedians and the tattoo-covered thug life characters will he
begin to approach becoming a “scold.”
The truth is that President Obama is speaking in the voice of
authentic black leaders. At Morehouse he mentioned Frederick
Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall and Dr. King
as men who felt the sting of racism in their lives but “had no time for
excuses” when it came to “their own accomplishments and sense of
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The black attack on Obama | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/22/black-attack-on-...
purpose.”
In that tradition he spoke inspiring words to the young men,
advising them “if you keep on your grind and get other folks to do
the same – nobody can stop you.”
At the end of his remarks the president called attention to a young
man who was taken from his mother as a boy, grew up in foster
care and yet graduated from Morehouse with honors and gained
admission to Harvard Law School. The young man wants to use his
skills to improve the foster care system.
That is not a “scold.” That is holding up a shining example of a
black man rising above potentially crippling circumstances. The
inspiring example is for all people, but especially other young black
Americans who might be tempted to give into all the cultural cues
that invite excuses for not succeeding.
The president acknowledged that racism and discrimination are a
fact of life even today but standing there as the first black President
said the age of excuses is slipping away as people from China,
Brazil and around the world, often born to less privilege than poor
Americans, find a way to compete and succeed.
How is that a political message for white people? How is that
anything but the most important message that a responsible black
man, a responsible president of any color, could deliver to black
America today?
Juan Williams is a Fox News political analyst. He is the author of
several books including "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End
Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black
America--and What We Can Do About It
Assault on Honest Debate
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5/26/13 8:04 AM
The black attack on Obama | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/22/black-attack-on-...
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