Obama should show ‘blackness’

A little over a year ago, on July 9, 2008, to be exact, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught on tape making crude remarks about presidential candidate Barack Obama. Jackson was frustrated that Obama, in an effort to become president for all Americans as opposed to being the president of African Americans, never openly spoke about blacks’ issues. By not focusing on black issues, Obama was elected president.

Obama promised that if elected he’d change the way Washington operated and so far he’s worked to keep his promise. He’s initiated programs and policies far different from those of President George W. Bush. In the course of initiating change, Republicans, moderates and far-right conservatives have fought him tooth and nail.

At his July 23 news conference, Obama finally showed his blackness. When asked about the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor and civil rights advocate, the president answered and in the process called the Cambridge (Mass.) Police Department stupid.

Police departments all over America were neither pleased nor forgiving. Obama eventually had to call an impromptu news conference to explain his bad choice of words. He also said that he’d invited Gates and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley to the White House for beers so all of them could clear the air.

When Obama answered the reporter’s question about Gates’ arrest, he spoke from the experience of being profiled solely because he’s African American.

Since becoming a serious candidate for president, Obama has had to prove to white American voters that he wouldn’t be a black president. He campaigned on national issues not issues important to black voters.

Most black Americans, voters and non-voters alike, knew he’d neither be taken seriously nor stand a remote chance of being elected if he campaigned as a black man running for the highest elected office in the world. And going a step further, we wouldn’t want him to.

That said, as much as we know, want and expect Obama to be all Americans’ president,  Jackson, other blacks and I still long for him to show his blackness every now and then. At the July 23 news conference he did, and got burned for it.

What’s equally frustrating for African Americans is how Obama seems to be going above and beyond in his efforts to work with the majority of Republicans in Congress. So far, only five Republicans in the Senate on two different occasions reciprocated Obama’s attempt at bipartisanship.

Three Republican senators voted with Democrats to pass the president’s stimulus package and two voted with Democrats to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

My advice to Obama, if he were to ask, would be to forget bipartisanship, at least temporarily. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another famous African American, eventually tired of playing nice by asking for better equal economic opportunity for blacks and an end to Jim Crow. King demanded it by leading marches and demonstrations.

Mr. President, instead of wooing the 50 million who voted for Sen. John McCain, remember the 54 million who supported and voted for you.

I’m thinking that many of the 54 million supporters want you to lead marches and demonstrators, too.

Nelson Graves, of Augusta County, is a columnist for The News Virginian. E-mail him at .