2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: (I'll regret this) starting around 1970, black wages started to rise and white wages started to fall [View all]forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)But a huge theme of Obama's candidacy and presidency is that he was never going to be a crusader for racial justice because of how readily such gestures and actions would be used against him (this also speaks to why a lot of Blacks aren't enthusiastic for Bernie; there's a strong understanding that being "radical" is too risky, and "selling out" a tiny bit for survival is something that we've been doing for centuries.). The substance of West's attack is that Obama was essentially "selling out" to not scare away White moderates, and when he does talk about race he does it in conciliatory, universal tones, tones designed to elicit empathy, as opposed to the revolutionary message West and others are looking for.
Even if black voters may be quietly frustrated that Obama isn't doing more or wasn't doing more, when it comes to middle aged and older black voters (dunno if the same holds true for Black Millenials) they also know that's how the game is played, and they sure don't want him to be JFKed, RFKed, or MLKed if he makes too many waves.