Anyone Can Criticize President Barack Obama -- Just Do It With Respect

One of my blogging colleagues -- Aaron Laramore (A Political Season) -- recently said on his blog, "Tavis and Cornel Have One Thing Right...Black People Can & Should Criticize Obama". In the blog post Bro. Laramore noted,

"I voted for Obama, gave money, canvassed my neighborhood. I want him to be a successful president. But he is not the leader we expected him to be. His walk vastly underperforms his talk, routinely. I routinely encounter Blacks online and off who contend that as Blacks we should support him no matter what because he is Black, irrespective of whether he is doing a good job or not. My brothers and sisters, is that really what you mean? I don't think Rosa and King and Malcolm and Medgar and all the other civil rights heroes sacrificed so that we could live in an America where we have to support a Brother no matter how he performs. They fought for an America where we CAN be judged on our merits, on our results..."

I didn't have any problem with Aaron's message. He was able to express his disapproval of the President without using provacative and unwarranted language the way that Tavis and Cornel have been doing in recent months.

Tavis and Cornel try to raise their own profile in the media and in the white community by attacking Obama in a way that sounds similiar to the rantings of Tea Party activists around the nation. That is the issue that I hear most often in my discussions with other Black folks online and offline.

In fact, I don't hear many Blacks blindly supporting the president. Many Blacks that I talk to are disappointed in the unemployment numbers in the Black community ... they are disappointed in the fact that America is still in two major wars ... they are disappointed in the fact that the so-called 'post-racial' era that everyone saw on the horizon when Barack Obama was elected in 2008 hasn't taken hold. In fact, it seems quite the opposite. You don't have to be a racism-chaser to see racism in both words and deeds on a daily basis in America. 

However, elections are all about context. Barack Obama won't be running against our expectations. He will be running against a man (or woman) from the Republican Party ... likely Mitt Romney or Sheriff Perry from Texas. I suspect that an overwhelming number of Black folks who go to the polls in 2012 will compare the idea of having Barack Obama (and his family) in the White House from 2013-2016 against the idea of having a man (Romney) who doesn't appear to have ever hired or worked with a Black person in his life *or* a man (Sheriff Perry) who takes pride in approving the death penalty against 260+ people (mostly Black). When they make that comparison they will vote for the re-election of a decent and highly intelligent Barack Obama for another four years as President of the United States.

I don't begrudge anyone ... including the Black community ... from criticizing Barack Obama. It would be nice if they could do so in a respectful manner and if they could do so in a fair and balanced manner.