This is without a doubt the very best article that I’ve ever read on this issue – in fact, I’m jealous. Why couldn’t I have taken the time to lay out the actual factuals like you’ve done here? But then, I guess that’s what makes you Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

But brother, you couldn’t have laid this out any more deftly. What a lot of the hot-heads don’t seem to understand is that it takes political finesse to get things done in Washington.

We can’t expect Obama to be walking around with his fist in the air. It might seem impressive to a few less than insightful Black people,but it would be worse than counterproductive, because it would bring any true progress to an abrupt halt. The Republicans would have him so busy trying to prove he wasn’t member of the Black Guerilla Army that nothing of any real substance could even be brought up.

And further, people like Tavis and West are betraying a gross lack of foresight. If we set a precedent indicating that President Obama has a responsibility to give special attention to the needs of Black people, what are we going to do when the next White president embraces that precedent with regard to giving White people priority?

So President Obama is doing exactly what he should be doing – quietly incorporating initiatives that benefit the Black community into his overall agenda. After all, every time he says “poor and middle class,” that means Black. He doesn’t have to call us out by name just to make Cornel West happy – it wouldn’t make him happy anyway, because then he wouldn’t have anything to complain about, and complaining is his game.

Thank you so much for addressing this issue. Black people are very intelligent, but we don’t always focus on political issues and agendas. So it’s up to people like ourselfs – the wonks – to provide them with the necessary facts to make their own decisions – and you do that very well, brother.