Obama gets personal about race and manhood in Morehouse speech

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

President Obama on Sunday summoned the graduates of historically black Morehouse College to “transform the way we think about manhood,” urging the young men to avoid the temptation to make excuses and to take responsibility for their families and their communities.

Delivering a commencement address at the all-male private liberal arts college in Atlanta, Obama spoke in deeply personal terms about the “special obligation” he feels as a black man to help those left behind.

“There but for the grace of God, I might be in their shoes,” Obama said. “I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family — and that motivates me.”

The president also reflected on the absence of his father growing up, noting that he was raised by a “heroic single mother” and urged the young graduates not to shrink from their family responsibilities.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-gets-personal-about-race-and-manhood-in-morehouse-speech/2013/05/19/0f45064e-c0a3-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44_story.html

---

See also this thread about Michelle Obama's commencement before the historically black Bowie State University (Bowie, Md.).

[okaawhatever]

1. Excellent speech. k & r

[bread_and_roses]

2. oh what a hypocrite

Get back to me when President Mellifluous gets around to doing something about the ever-increasing wealth/poverty gap in this country, and its disproportionate impact on people of color. Get back to me when he does something about the horrendous unemployment situation.

[Phlem]

4. +1

Last edited Sun May 19, 2013, 06:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Hypocrite :'urging the young men to avoid the temptation to make excuses'



-p

[Jamaal510]

5. We elected a president, not a king.

He is the president of all Americans, not just Black people. And there is only so much he can do without the help of a supportive Congress. He attempted to pass a Jobs Bill in 2011, but that of course was shot down by the Republicans in the House. And he is pushing for a higher minimum wage and stricter gun control (which are both issues that affect the Black community), but that doesn't look very likely to be enacted in our current political climate. In spite of that, unemployment has (steadily) lowered for 37 consecutive months. The amount of stuff that he has accomplished (such as the bailout with Detroit and health care reform) has been remarkable, considering the obstruction. Once Obamacare is fully implemented, there will be less Black people (and Americans in general) who are uninsured.

The people who you should be directing your comments and frustration towards is the GOP, not Obama. It's incredible that Obama is still being blamed for things that aren't even his fault by people on a supposedly-Democratic website.

[boguspotus]

7. Thank You.

Good comment!

[freshwest]

9. +1

[freshwest]

10. +1

[appacom]

12. Agree 100%

[socialsecurityisAAA]

3. Wonderful speech.

He touches on discrimination and consumerism, one of those is universally applicable(consumerism). These words need to be echoed in every school. Today black students still encounter discrimination from teachers and faculty, economic equality won't be realized until this ends. This is a speech worthy of the office and one that should have been made sooner, by Clinton or Bush.

[Igel]

6. He shades his biography a bit to suit the occasion.

Most of the time he wasn't raised by just his single mother. While his father bailed early on, there was a second husband. And for a number of years he was raised by his grandparents, one of whom was a bank vice-president.

It's interesting that he wrote his stepfather and grandfather out of the male-role-model role.

And he still dodged a point: Among my high-school students, there are those who won't be able to support their kids. (Yes. They already have kids.) That's lamentable. They could have chosen advanced classes. They could have chosen to work in school. They could have chosen a different path. Many of their peers sitting next to them in school from elementary to their senior year did. They did not.

Reprehensible, however, is the attitude by some of the kids. They're proud to have gotten a girl pregnant. Shows they're a man. (Well, at least a sexually mature male human.) They also have no intention of dealing with those girls again.

I tell them that it shows that they're sexually mature male humans and can breed. This take take offense at, saying it's racist. I tell them that they're not being fathers, they're not being responsible, they're not being men. They're like a male dog that you pay for a few rounds with your bitch, and as far as their kids are concerned the "father" is as important and as much a man as a turkey baster used by a woman who pays a mail-order sperm bank to send her semen ejaculated into a little jar by some college student watching porn. "Two hundred years ago somebody might have paid somebody to have you visit and do the same thing. Slave owners screwed up families then and was evil. Now you screw up your own lives."

When the kids act proud, I refer to them as turkey basters, but cheaper--have to buy turkey basters. "Then again, they don't spread diseases or leave the lid up on the toilet, so the turkey baster's actually a better choice." Counter pride with a put down.

I tried telling them the facts. How much more likely their kids are to not even finish high school. Get low paying jobs. Turn to drugs or crime. The different in life expectancies. In child abuse. Some really don't care about their own kids. Some think their kid, certainly, won't be like that--even if it does describe their own lives. Some say that their lives are just fine.

[BadtotheboneBob]

8. Excellent post...

...with many valid points and insights.

[Blue_Tires]

11. k+r