CALLS FOR A NEW ‘BLACK MINDSET’
President Obama addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the long standing and largest civil right organisation at its 100th anniversary.
In the speech, Obama made clear that African-Americans needed to take personal responsibility for their development and that of their children. This will involve guiding their children to excel in their education, ensuring they sleep at a reasonable time, helping them with their homework and reading with them.
My parents instilled in me that I can whatever I want to be. I am not bound to stereotypes and can be successful in whatever career I choose to pursue.
“We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves” he said.
Obama vehemently dismissed the notion that institutionalised racism prohibited African-Americans from succeeding in life. He acknowledged that ‘the pain of discrimination is still felt in America’ However, African-Americans need to stop making excuses as their destiny was in their hands. They should aspire to be scientists, Supreme Court judges and presidents “not just ballers and rappers.” I accept that there are great challenges living amidst gang culture and crime.
Notwithstanding, African-Americans can still reach they potential and forge out a positive legacy for themselves. Barack Obama became President from an unlikely background. He was raised by a single mum, not from a particularly wealthy family, mixed raced but overcame the odds. He did this through his appreciation of the value of an education and the audacity of hope.
Was Obama’s speech too scathing on the black community in the United States or tough love. Do you agree with his assessment of African-American ambitions or lack of them?