Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, won re-election rather convincingly November 6, 2012. Obama easily captured 323 of electoral votes Tuesday (only 270 are needed to win) vs. Gov. Mitt Romney’s 206 in a showdown expected to be a lot closer than the actual end result.
In his win, Obama held another first: the first black American to win a second term, and assured the people in his election speech of the hard work his administration will continue to apply the following four years.
“Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual,” Obama said, after winning the race election day. “You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together.”
From slavery through Jim Crow, blacks suffered unforgivable acts during their stay in America. And now there is something blacks identify with in the White House—a man in the Oval Office who share their skin color—which give those very people hope.
But is this new found hope what blacks really need?
Tara Wall’s “Black America Has a Choice on Nov. 6” for The Root is a reality check. She writes, “The unemployment rate among black Americans rose in October to 14.3 percent. For the 18- to 29-year-old demographic, the unemployment rate is even higher: 21.4 percent. That’s astonishing,” said Wall.
Sometimes we forget that behind each of these numbers and each of these statistics are real people with real struggles. The effect of chronic unemployment can be seen in every black American neighborhood.
How many of our friends and neighbors struggled for decades to pull themselves into the middle class — overcoming discrimination and historical disadvantages in the process — only to slip back into poverty under this president? How much crime and violence is driven by a massive proportion of our kids who see no opportunities in their future and no way out of their struggles? It simply is impossible to measure the effect of the economic inequality that we currently face in the black community.
Wall goes on to suggest blacks should seriously consider voting Mitt Romney as president, who is for economic freedom, opposed to economic dependency.
While blacks have monolithically voted Democrat the last 40 years, high unemployment, low median house net worth rates—a staggering $110,729 for whites vs. $4,995 for blacks, according to a recent Census Bureau report—and poor education is what blacks show today for their unquestioned loyalty to the Democrat Party.
Our president may be black, but blacks are still suffering under his party’s leadership.
Though Republicans seem to be insensitive and even racist at times, the conservative philosophy could bring more self-reliance back to black communities—a standard many people desperately need.
But the opportunity to vote Romney has gone astray, and we must now move forward, being critical and realistic of what needs to be done to keep the American Dream alive.
