Congressional Black Caucus Avoiding President Obama?

Black unemployment has spiked to 16.7 percent, its highest level since 1984. Cut that number in half and you have almost arrived to the white unemployment rate (8 percent). But is the Congressional Black Caucus passing any blame to the President who oversees such high unemployment numbers? Not really. Indeed, the CBC says unemployment for African-Americans is "unconscionable," but they neglect to pass any criticism toward Obama. I think it 's pretty obvious why – he ' s black and he 'sa Democrat. CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, in a way, provides admittance for such inaction: As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, [Cleaver] has been at odds with President Barack Obama over his administration's response to the soaring unemployment rate in the African-American community. Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the size of the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more. But the group's efforts are freighted with political sensitivities, given Obama's unique role as the first African-American occupant of the White House and the sometimes untethered animosity that his election has triggered. "If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House," Cleaver said. "There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president." Translation: We are providing deferential treatment to Obama precisely because he 's black. In his "I Had a Dream Speech," Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." 21st Century Edited Version: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where [the President of the United States] will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their [policies and economic performance]. " www.brianekoenig.