BY RENEE J. TURNER
Three years into President Barack Obama’s term, there are harsh critics in the media that were once strong supporters. Today, still in this utterly brutal economy with one in six living below the poverty level, including many African Americans, we know the endless lists of struggles we are faced with that seem like a depression, only without the title. Now, African-American critics are highly vocal.
The reality of what President Obama and his administration were up against has not changed since he was elected. There are those who are too critical, and even naive, in not considering that his first four years were going to be brutal for him, and for those of us who elected him. There was going to be a backlash.
Some outspoken critics have decided to forget the infrastructure of racism that continues to weigh from subtle to outright blatant. The strategy for the end goal is to not have this African-American president re-elected, even if the country has to be taken down economically. What we’ve recently witnessed with Congress and the debt debate should not have surprised any of us. This non-existent economic turnaround is not the fault of President Obama. We are to blame for not recognizing the extreme determination that would take place to keep him from being a two-term president.
It seems as though some have forgotten the struggles and the price that was paid in years past. Many of these critics should remember, not only how hard it was to elect the first African-American mayor or senator or congressman or governor, but also the aftermath of doing so. Remember the divisiveness, the planning, the anger (even rage) that had taken place right after the first elected term for people of color. There have always been different means of attempting to keep us from being elected or getting us out of office, like redistricting. Voter ID laws were passed not to combat widespread voter fraud, we all know that. This became a modern civil rights issue that was designed to weed out certain voters. Do these highly vocal critics, who truly believe that there is still racism, think President Obama is only mildly affected by it? No one thought that racism was going to evaporate, but they have highly
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