What color makes you mad?

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

We get all kinds of E-mails without always knowing the origin. Sometimes the messages sound just like Hallmark! They know exactly what we’re thinking. My sister sent me just such a message a few days ago, and I thought the message was worth sharing—along with my own additions.

When I hear about a Black person being mad with President Barack Obama, I ask what the problem is. The answer usually questions what he has done for Black people. That makes me want to scream, wondering in which century they are living!

Do I think this president has solved all the problems of all the years of neglect and setbacks left by his predecessors? No, nor did I believe he could wave a magic wand to clear them up. It’s grossly unfair to judge this president without considering all he inherited, along with the rudeness, racism, jealousies and push-back he receives from Republicans, and from some Democrats who look to Black voters to pull them through time after time.

Those who are mad at this president should read and reflect on some of the questions raised herein. A bit of reflection might cause you to say you really hadn’t thought about all the things this president has done to impact our community. Maybe everything didn’t have the word Black written on it, but his accomplishments do impact us.

For years we’ve voted for people who didn’t even pretend to like us or do anything for us, and called it voting for the lesser of two evils. Since President Obama’s in office, suddenly some of us have gotten mad, siding with those who talk about “taking back America.” Those who expect this president to perform miracles don’t even ask what the other side is taking back and how that’s going to impact us.

Those mad because the president hasn’t solved all of our problems didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a recount in Florida in 2000 and appointed a president, sending him to the White House without promising us anything or giving us anything. We had no reason to support him—but we didn’t get mad enough to push back against the setbacks brought to us by him.

We didn’t get mad at him when he didn’t get bin Laden and said he didn’t even think about him on a daily basis. We didn’t get mad when energy officials dictated energy policy or when we invaded Iraq without provocation. We didn’t get mad when we spent more than $800 billion on that illegal war, while borrowing more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 presidents combined.

We didn’t get mad when more than $10 billion in cash just disappeared in Iraq, nor when Bush and Romney embraced trade and outsourcing policies that shipped millions of jobs out of the country.

We didn’t get mad when Bush rang up $10 trillion in combined budget and current account deficits, nor when we gave people with more money than they could spend more than a trillion dollars in tax breaks.

We didn’t get mad when more than 200,000 people lost their lives because they had no health insurance—nor did we get mad when thousands of children had no money for simple exams and treatment, or when New Orleans was allowed to drown.

After years of struggle for basic human rights, some of us finally decided to get mad when a Black man is president. Illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, eight years of job losses by the millions, our tax dollars going to the rich, the worst economic disaster since 1929 caused by others are okay. I don’t get it. Is Black the only color that makes some of us mad?

This article was originally published in the July 2, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper