The Obama Effect: Setting Black children up for failure

As I read this article, Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black Test-Takers, I winced.

Researchers have documented what they call the "Obama Effect." Researchers from Vanderbilt, San Diego State, and Northwestern administered a 20-question test four times throughout the presidential campaign. When they administered the test after Mr. Obama's nomination acceptance speech and then again after President-elect Obama's election victory, they concluded that the difference between White and Black performance had become “statistically nonsignificant.”

I do believe that having a Black man in the highest office of our country is bound to change the thinking of Black students about themselves, as well as change the perceptions people of other ethnicities have of Black people. However, to say that this effect happens literally overnight is disconcerting. It opens up the floodgates of being able to "blame the victim" and exclaim that Black people are responsible for their own inability to achieve.

Since they provided a test to "high school dropout to Ph.D" students, the research can be read two ways. 1) Having a Black man in the highest office changes people's perceptions of themselves, or 2) Black people have been provided with equal opportunities and simply haven't used their abilities and opportunities to this point. If we go with the second point, which I believe people are bound to do, it has the potential to cause us to sit back, justified, with the inequities of our current system.

I do believe that Barack Obama has caused a shift in our thinking that may have some immediate effects and definitely will have some longer-term effects if we continue to embrace the diversity he brings to the table. But I also believe his presence in that office is our opportunity to recognize the injustices that exist for children of color all over the United States.

President Obama allows us to say to our Black children (and other children of color), "Yes, it is possible for you to become president of the United States." And because of his background and childhood circumstances, Barack Obama provides us with the example that allows us to challenge our kids to dream big dreams and aspire to heights they may not have previously thought possible. For some children of color, that is all they need. But, for others, primarily in areas of concentrated pockets of poverty, where children of color are disproportionately represented, school systems are inadquate, healthcare is limited, and economic development is nearly non-existent, more needs to happen to create true change. Without improving the systems in those areas, and without providing adequate educational skills that will allow them to compete in a highly technological world, it is ludicrous for us to say that just because Barack Obama now stands in the White House Black children should perform better.

We need to work hard to challenge the systems and to challenge people to recognize that our inner cities, our communities of poverty, our segregated minority neighborhoods just might hold the next president of the United States, the next Secretary of State, or the next Nobel Prize winner. But in order for the children in those neighborhoods to develop those talents and achieve greatness, we must include them and their communities in our plans of improvement.

Think people in poverty are scamming the system? Think again!

Who's really scamming the system?

Each summer we operate a summer program called Urban Experience. The program is designed to educate people outside of the inner cities about issues that impact our friends and neighbors in the inner city.

This year we are working with the USDA to provide a session called Buck and a Half lunch, the amount per person, per meal that families receive through food stamps. The USDA's goal is to teach people how to make healthy meals with only $1.50 per person.

Our goal at the Urban Experience is to educate people on the time, effort, and obstacles associated with attempting to provide that healthy, buck and a half lunch.

Although I am very aware of the research and commentary that talks about the injustices and inequities in the inner city, it always strikes me harder when I actually see it laid out on paper. I had asked two of the people helping with the Urban Experience to price the menu ingredients at the local Walmart and the community corner store. Despite my awareness, I was still shocked by what I saw.

Before I show you the numbers, keep in mind that...

1. The prices only compare foods that are similar in brand; we did not try to make this look worse than it is by comparing name brand to off-brand.
2. The community corner stores lack the majority of foods needed in order to create this healthy lunch; therefore, without adequate transportation, these healthy meals would not even be an option.
3. The community corner stores offer primarily chips, soda, and snack foods. These high in sugar and fat foods offer the ability for a filling food, though not healthy.
4. When comparing prices, corner stores often offered small sizes (like 8 oz) while grocery stores offered larger sizes (like 16 oz). When comparing prices, we had to purchase two 8 oz sizes in order to equal the 16 oz we needed for the recipe.
5. The corner stores did not offer a cheaper, store brand. All items were name brand.

In the price list below, the first price is Walmart, the second is the community corner store, and the third number is the difference between the two.

Chili powder $3.18 $2.36 +.82

Flour tortillas $1.50 $1.79 +.29

Black pepper $2.50 $1.99 +.50

Green beans $.50 $1.19 +.69

Vegetable oil $3.88 $3.99 +.11

Vinegar $.62 $.99 +.37

Pineapple $1.12 $1.69 +.57

Ramen noodles $.14 $.50 +.36

Salsa $2.50 $2.99 +.49

Miracle Whip $2.12 $2.99 +.87

Paper plates $1.28 $1.59 +.31

napkins $1.64 $1.39 +$1.14

The total amount spent for one meal at the corner store versus the grocery store is $5.93 more. Of course, most of these are condiments and sides. Most corner stores don't stock up on healthy foods for neighbors to purchase.

When you take into account that if someone has no transportation or bus fare and would need to purchase their items from the corner store, $5-$6 extra per day to make a meal ends up being about $150-$180 per month.

Is it really the poor who are taking advantage of the system??

From little things, big things grow

From Little Things Big Things Grow

A Song By Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody ©1992



This song talks about an 8-year strike by the indiginous people of Australia beginning in the 60s. Though it took eight years, the Australian government finally acknowledge the people and returned their land to them. Just this year, the government apologized.

The message is powerful and has much application to us in the United States today.

• "Now you failed to imagine what if it happened to you" ...What if we decided as a country to imagine others' situations as our own? What if we thought about things from other people's perspectives? Would we change bus routes? Would we beef up police presence? Would we improve the schools?


• "We must all play our part" ...Change can't come from just one side. Otherwise, it gets defeated by those who push harder and want more for themselves. We have to be in this together...rich and poor, black and white, neighborhood to neighborhood.


• "It seems to me that if we can imagine the injustice we can imagine the opposite and we can have justice" ...If we truly looked at what was injust in communities across our cities and our nation, we would be able to understand how to create justice. But when we stay focused on ourselves, we miss out on the injustices others face.

We are all very much alike and have similar desires, hopes, and dreams...if only we can look past the barriers that separate us.

In Turner Courts, we are doing little things. In urban communities across America, people are doing little things. But "from little things, big things grow." I look forward to that day.

Wharfies on May Day march, Sydney 1965

As Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the Government of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry.
And I offer you this apology without qualification.

To say sorry means to give respect
It’s long overdue
Now you failed to imagine
What if it happened to you

Now they’re not only words now it’s not just a symbol
Accepting the past, well it’s not always simple
When thinking of yesterday
We live for tomorrow
We can’t face the future now
Till we face the sorrow

Now under the colours, yeah
Of red, yellow, black
We say “Never again”
We say “No turning back”

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

Lighting up the path
With good in our heart
See the more that you look
The better for all
So he sang as he walked
And together we stand
For we’re sure to stand tall
We must all play our part
[Rudd: “indigenous and non indigenous”]
Tears within our brow
Yes forward we struggle and all we’ve achieved
Will be nothing if greed was the only motivation of man
So we can love one another, and with respect for each other
Then we move forward [”reconciled”] together

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

There are moments in the lives of nations
Where hope and history rhyme
And now’s one of those times
Let’s close the gap and if we truly mean it
we can stare down our future and find
we can see through those eyes
And let us not stand with those who deny

It seems to me that if we can imagine the injustice
We can imagine the opposite
And we can have justice

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

[rpt]

All of us are one, because we are human
And if I cut you, you cut me, what comes out?
red blood, not different colour blood, only red blood. Yes.