As usual, someone else on the web (Eric Easter, at Ebonyjet.com) said this better than I did yesterday:
But the Father’s Day speech is only indicative of a broader issue. Rightly or wrongly, some Black progressives are deeply suspicious of the change in white America that has led to Obama’s position. Specifically that white people don’t just want political change, they want a change in the racial dynamic. And hearing about black problems does not fit into their idea of this new America that will be created when Obama becomes president. There are equal parts of truth, paranoia and resistance to change in that suspicion. That’s one of the reasons Jackson said what he did.
I do think, though, that it's not a question of Obama "refusing" to address black problems. It's that he can't. White Americans, comfortable with having the modifier "hard-working" placed in front of their names, would never vote for a man who thinks black problems might need to be addressed by government policies—unless the policies include "one strike" laws.
(In case you can't tell, I blame White America for this, not Jesse Jackson or Barack Obama.) (And in case you think I'm picking on Americans, White Europeans are even worse.)
But this may be one issue where black leaders aren't listening to their flock. The comments on that article are almost all in agreement with Obama's take on personal responsibility. (Or perhaps more white people are reading Ebonyjet these days?)
Next up: Obama addresses his celebrity backers on personal responsibility.
