On February 27th, President Obama spoke in the White House to propose his new 5 year, 200 million dollar initiative for young black men. He started his speech informally by telling personal anecdotes from his high school life. One story included him getting high and feeling indifferent towards school. He then connected his personal life to the number of unsuccessful black youths of today's generation. Obama stated that these young African American youths often have structural situations that don't give them equal opportunities for them to succeed. Mr. President cited the Trayvon Martin case as evidence to make his point that African Americans are unequally treated in this country. He also stated that he wishes to expand this program for all unequally treated minorities in the US. He wants this initiative to tackle economic insecurity entirely for minorities. Immediately after this was proposed, dozens of non-profit organizations showed support, and many large corporations joined the president. In fact, The Kellogg Foundation committed $750,000 to the initiative. The White House officials said that they'd use their $200 million over the next 5 years
for "early-childhood development, school readiness, educational opportunity, discipline, parenting and the criminal justice system."However, critics have noted that this initiative would not effectively solve the issue, because the main issue is not the structural limitations, but it is the social racism and violence that occurs very often.
After learning about the media's affect of public opinion towards the President, let's look at the way he presented this initiative. Although we know that the approval rating of presidents steadily go down as they go through their term, would his mention of "getting high" decrease his approval rating by a quicker rate? Or, because the news (at least the NYTimes) reported on this as a great, revolutionary initiative, would his approval ratings go up?
Also, do you think this is a solution that will effectively change the issue of African American inequality? Or is this just another initiative that's just sucking a ton of money? Obama doesn't seem to have a clear plan to solve the issue, but do you think all this money would help him find a viable solution?
NYTimes
3 comments:
First off, I don't think it's any one thing that can make a President's approval rating go up or down unless it's something huge. I think this is an important step to helping minority groups succeed , but I wouldn't be surprised if many Americans were ignorant to what this plan even is. In this case I think it was wise of Obama to link these societal issues to his own childhood - to me it added a vital link between someone as important and sometimes distant as the President to minority youths who "have had the odds stacked against them in unique ways." I also think something more personal than his other speeches makes him seem more invested in this issue. Sure, he may get some backlash for this speech, but I don't think it will be significant enough to erode the message and purpose of his initiative. Furthermore, it does seem like this initiative is gaining traction, but only time will tell if it will just fizzle out. I do think it will take much more than one initiative to solve our country's societal problems. I think it's also important to emphasis what Mr. Neal said in the article about Obama's agenda not addressing the systematic forms of racism. So while I think this initiative is an important (maybe in symbolic?) step forward, it will take much more than just a step for this initiative to produce any positive results.
Like Susan said, I don't think Obama's admission of getting high in his youth will have a substantial effect on his approval ratings because it is a thing of the past, and it isn't too uncommon for teenagers. If anything, hopefully this speech, including that tidbit of information, reached black youths and made the president seem like a person who can relate to them, not just a distant figure indifferent to their needs and concerns.
Ideally, the initiative will be backed by solid organization and planning regarding how to approach the issues faced by African American youths, because if it is not, it seems like it wouldn't be difficult for the initiative to fade when more immediate crises and issues come to light. Often times, it seems like more recent events and developments most strongly influence our perception of what issues are of greatest importance, although as this example shows, there are also persisting issues underlying the surface that should be addressed as well.
I think this will affect minority inequality because it will give these people opportunities and guidance to succeed in school and life and ultimately allow them to get a higher paying job and a more successful life than they possibly would've had without the program. Like other people mentioned above, I think that this initiative is definitely on a more personal level for Obama, so he is more likely to want this initiative to be successful and help people find the right paths.
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