Does the Obama presidency reveal anything about the persistence of racial inequality and
injustice in America? Focus particularly on the challenges posed by police brutality and criminal
justice reform in the second term. “Showdown for Nonviolence” (1968) or any late-stage King
would be a starting point.
America is a country that has been founded and established on the backs of others.
From the exploitation of the Native Americans whom we inappropriately labeled Indians, to the
inhumane treatment of our people, African Americans. There have been many leaders to stand
up against the mistreatment and injustices that America has tainted on certain groups of
people. In our time one of the most publicized leaders that we have as a testament of this is the
late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. MLK was one of if not the greatest Civil Rights leaders that
helped lay a framework and pivot the progression of people, not just blacks but other
disadvantaged groups, forward in the United States and around the world.
The underlining’s of the basis of Kings philosophy, injustice and racial inequalities, still
exist today as we have mass uprising’s as we embark on the end of a historical presidency with
our first black President Barack Obama. Looking at the upheaval today due to recent police
brutality incidents, gun violence shootings, and other issues that are plaguing our nation it is
clear to see that not much has changed from the Civil Rights Era until now. There is still a racial
divide that presents itself clearly when looking at the many challenges that our President faces
today whether its from trying to pass legislation, to politicians speaking out against him in a
derogative way.
In 1961, Martin Luther King published an article entitled “The President Has The Power:
Equality Now”. In the article King presented a tale of the upcoming president (then Kennedy),
being the first in history to have the opportunity to modify their approach to civil rights. He
stated that a new thinking which would condemn the “vicious and inhumane opposition” on
the topic of civil rights needed to be discussed. The central theme of the whole article is that
the federal government has the ability and the tools to make a difference which at the time
they didn’t. The federal government in his words should work towards the “development of a
rigorous program to wipe out… discrimination”.
The first area King presented was creating legislative programs which could be passed
by majority in both housing agreeing with each other. Both parties will agree with each other
because having resolute leadership from a resolute leader, the President, will persuade
Congress. The second area was moral persuasion where King felt if the President conducted
himself in a manner that showed he would not tolerate racial discrimination; the American
people would follow him because after all he is their leader. The last area is executive orders in
which King stated that the president could use to give segregation it’s death blow by limiting
federal agencies and departments from any discriminatory employment practices. Also, by
passing orders that will target the issues of housing, health/hospitalization, and etc.
One major factor that I believe King did not account for in his article of Presidential
power is, what would happen if we had a black president. Our first black president, Barack
Obama, who we know had good intentions, we know is against racial discrimination, and is
morally sound, has failed in almost every area King listed because of strict opposition from
Republicans. In 2010, Republican senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, stated himself that
“the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one term
president”.
Going back to the areas King listed, let’s input President Obama and see the outcomes
of each:
1) The legislative area would consist of Obama persuading Congress. This has failed
although coming into his presidency a major objective Obama wanted to achieve
was eliminating the bipartisan divide in Congress. Ultimately, Obama has ended up
with ones of the most deadlocked Congress ever.
2) In terms of creating executive orders in Kings terms, Obamacare has been shot down
consistently, police reform has been labeled as a war on cops, but surprisingly
criminal justice which Obama has stated has a long racial history is somewhat being
met by Republicans.
3) The last area, moral persuasion, is another failure with just last week Obama tearing
up about gun violence and gun reform and still being targeted with great resistance
from Republicans.
Chris Mathews, a white political commentator, spoke about Republican disdain against
Obama’s reforms and he stated “its hatred, it’s not politics”. He said that there is a lot of
revolutionary anger that is free floating and has a lot to do with America having its first black
President.
Even now Republican Presidential candidates are showing their persistence in
continuing the racial divide of our country. Certain candidates like Jeb Bush stated that
“Democrats lure black people to support them with the promise of free stuff”. Mitt Romney
stated “47% of Americans support Democrats because they re dependent upon the
government”. The biggest racist of them all Donald Trump stated multiple racial slurs towards
many different bodies of people including Latino’s, African Americans, and even Muslim’s. He’s
stated things such as “Latino’s are bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapist!”,
towards Muslim’s he’s stated that he wanted to number and keep a database of them similar to
that of Adolf Hitler. In response to having another black President succeeding Barack Obama he
stated that “Sadly because Obama has done such a poor job, you won’t see another black
President for generations”. You also have other candidates stating that they want to “give
states back their right”, and “
make America great again”.
While the last to quotes may not seem so racial at first, their origins when used in
previous elections were all done during a time when the Southern Strategy was being put into
affect. The southern strategy was a strategy used by Republican party members to gain political
support in the south by using racism against African Americans to appeal to southern white
males. The term states rights was a huge driving force of the southern strategy ironically used
by Ronald Raegan and Richard Nixon who many of the candidates are often referring to when
speaking of politics. This election seems like a ploy to return America to the times of the Civil
War where they were trying to implement this. Lee Atwater who coined the term the “southern
strategy”, stated that:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say
"nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights
and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting
taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a
byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously
maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that
abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the
other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this,"
is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than
"Nigger, nigger."
In conclusion racial inequalities will always be relevant but has showed throughout the
presidency of Barack Obama. I feel that while Obama may have not been the greatest President
that we have had thus far, he could have made a much greater impact had he not been met
with such strict Republican opposition. This opposition still spews the continuing persistence of
racial inequalities and injustices that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and others fought so hard to end.