On June 29th 2007 during the Democratic All-American presidential forum, moderated by Tavis Smiley, a question about AIDS prevention and the African Americn community was asked to all of the candidates. The question had to do with the number of new HIV/AIDS diagnosis among black teens but the candidates spoke about the crisis of Blacks and AIDS in general.
Here is how Senator Obama answered...
Barack Obama: I think John's prescriptions are right. I would add the issue of prevention involves education and one of the things that we've got to overcome is a stigma that still exists in our communities. We don't talk about this. We don't talk about in the schools. Sometimes we don't talk about it in the churches. It has been an aspect of sometimes a homophobia, that we don't address this issue as clearly as it needs to be. I also think there's a broader issue here. This is going to be true on all the issues we talk about.
The problems of poverty, like of health care, like of educational opportunity, are all interconnected. To some degree, the African American community is weakened. It has a disease to its immune system. When we are impoverished, when people don't have jobs, they are more likely to be afflicted not just with AIDS, but with substance abuse problems, with guns in the streets.
So it is important for us to look at the whole body here and make absolutely certain that we are providing the kinds of economic development opportunities and jobs that will create healthy communities, that we've got universal health care that ensures the people can get regular treatments. Those are the kinds of strategies that, over the long term, are going to make a difference in our communities.
Now heres an exerpt from Senator Clinton's answer
Hillary Clinton: That was good, Tavis. You know, it is hard to disagree with anything that has been said, but let me just put this in perspective. If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four, there would be an outraged outcry in this country.
See the difference here? when asked a question about a problem that disproportionately affects the Affrican American community, rather than speak directly to the cause which is obvious (institutionalized racism), Obama gives us a laundry list of symptoms; Substance abuse, crime, poverty, lack of education, he tells us that all of these things have weakened the black community.
Clinton on the other hand can give a completely candid answer without fear of backlash for "playing the race card". She can openly imply that in the United States, the lives of black people are valued less than the lives of white people with no political repercussion. Can you imagine the fallout if Obama had given that answer? His canadicy would have ended on that stage.
Now I'm quite sure that Obama knows that all of the ills that he mentioned can be directly attributed to the United States racist legacy, the problem though, is that a black man running for President, (if he actually wants to be President) cant just come out and TELL THE TRUTH, because a black man telling the truth about racism doesn't go over so well with the millions of closet racists in this country. So instead of stating the obvious, Obama falls back on the tried and true platitudes of non threatening black politicians.. he he goes through a litnay of ills within the black community, tells black people that WE need to change, yet is careful to never mention the white racist power structure that brought about the ills in the first place, doing so would alienate some (alot) white voters and he can't have that.
The reason Obama doesn't enjoy the overwhelming support of black folks isn't because black folks are questioning his authenticity as a black man ("Is he black enough") its because black folks question his political courage as a black man. So far in his presidential campagin he's shown very little courage when it comes to race. By going out of his way to not alienate whites he's alienated blacks.
Obama is every bit the triangulator that Hillary Clinton is. The only reason his calculated 'strategry' doesnt get more play is because the mainstream press (hell, white people in general) are completely out of touch when it comes to the consciousness of the African American community. This oblivious disconnect allows Obama to constantly play up his lame empty rhetoric of "change", "hope" and "coming together". This kinda talk might play with white 20 year old college kids in Iowa or white 38 year old soccer moms in New Hampshire... people who have very little day to day interaction with black people and whose feelings about black people are developed almost completely from media portrayals, they feel comfortable with Obama because he's not like those OTHER black politicians... he's "safe".
The tragic thing about this is that there are still many people in this country who will under no circumstances ever vote for a black man. If Obama somehow does manage to get the nomination (I dont believe he will) there is a zero percent chance of him being elected president. His triangulation/cowardice would have been all for nothing.