Courtland Milloy criticized President Obama strongly last month for his silence on the issue of race in America. “There has never been a good reason why the nation’s first black president had to be so reticent about race — having uttered fewer words on the subject during his first two years in office than any Democratic president since 1961, according to a study by Daniel Gillion at the University of Pennsylvania,” Milloy wrote in his Washington Post column.
I think I understand why Obama has had so little to say about race. I think his reticence reflects a preference for doing things that help black Americans over saying things about the state of race in America. And, I think, his silence results from his understanding that the more he talks about race, the less he can get done.
By almost any measure, Obama has done more to help black Americans than any president since Lyndon Johnson. Simon van Zuylen-Wood’s excellent article in this month’s Washington Monthly details the impact of the stimulus, Obamacare, the rescue of the auto industry, Race to the Top and Obama’s other education programs, his Promise Neighborhoods program, and more, on the well-being of black people across the nation.
But every time he talks about race, Obama ends up dealing with a furor that distracts him from his political agenda for weeks. Think of the aftermath of his casual statement about the Cambridge, MA police officer who arrested Skip Gates; Obama spent far more time managing the controversy than the incident deserved. That’s time he could not spend working on education, jobs, health care, or any of the other issues that matter to black Americans.
So here are the questions:
- Would you like to hear President Obama talk more about race? If so, what would you like him to say?
- Do you think more talk about race from Obama would detract from progress on substantive issues of critical concern to black Americans?
Thanks.