Obama: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?

Barack Obama may not be King Henry II and the Reverend Jesse Jackson is certainly no Thomas Becket but I’ll bet you anything that the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee wishes that he could have dealt with this fellow as the Royals used to do in the good old days.

Something along the lines of “I’m not that nuts about the Reverend could someone “show” him to his boss?”

Fortunately for Rev Jackson, the division between church and state doesn’t carry quite the same clout as it once did or he, along with a certain Rev Wright, might well be regretting an outburst or two of late.

“Jackson, an Obama supporter, spent much of yesterday apologising for a remark that was caught by a Fox News microphone and aired Wednesday on the network. Jackson was overheard saying Obama’s pitch to expand President Bush’s federal assistance for faith-based social service programs was “talking down to black people.” He then used a base phrase to say what he wanted to do to the senator from Illinois.

But he also told CNN that while he agrees with Obama’s arguments that blacks must do more to improve their lot, “the moral message must be a much broader message. What we need really is racial justice and urban policy and jobs and health care.” Washington Post

What I believe most people are missing is the fact that Obama’s high expectations of the African American community is the exact opposite of what Jesse Jackson is suggesting. If anything it is the Reverend Jackson in holding the belief — that by expecting them to meet the highest standards of morality and achieve greater self-reliance that Obama is speaking down to them — which is highly insulting.

Jackson is placing ceilings and justifying why people can’t, whereas Obama is giving direction and telling them ‘yes you can’.

In the past, comedian Bill Cosby, who tackled the same issues, also picked up a lot of flack. While he accepted that progress had been made by the community in areas like arts and sports, not nearly enough emphasis was being placed on academic achievements.

In addition, anyone who has watched comedian Chris Rock on O.J Simpson, Michael Jackson and any other black person who has fallen by the wayside, will know that he takes no prisoners. And it does not end there; he is just as scathing on whites and other groups who go astray.

Obama in his turn is hammering the communities on every aspect of morality from absentee fathers to the abusive language being used by rappers, expecting better from them and instilling a belief that they can achieve their goals to a far greater degree by themselves.

Rev Jackson on the other hand, is still living in the generation of protest and victim politics primarily focused in calls for racial justice and redress. While this still has a major part to play in focusing attention on and assisting the community, it must start to become collateral to a desire for more self-reliance and greater ambition from individuals and the community.

The answer has to be that while both methods are still relevant, the way forward must be steered towards the high expectations of Cosby, Obama and a new generation of black leaders and role models. That in turn it will ensure that the next generation aspires towards those achievements rather than the anger and victim politics which lends itself to justifying reasons why people can’t succeed.

In that emphasis the African American community will play a far more central role in designing the future of the United States and build on their success stories which are becoming more and more commonplace every day.

If Barack Obama can be president of the United States of America where is the ceiling? What office or position of power exists that is beyond the reach of this community?

What better role model for African Americans and South Africans can there be than this man who would be president?

* The writer would apologise for Obama’s apparent failure to express a desire to kill or die for anyone. The kids today, huh?