Mrs. Lee has done nothing here in Oakland, our people are dying and out of work and power in Oakland. Why is that Mrs. Lee

And this is the reason why we shouldve listened to Marcus Garvey. Yet we can still do it, please I encourage everyone to read about Marcus Garvey. Had we’ed listened to him we wouldnt have to depend on white folks to decide our fate . Pleeeeease read about Marcus Garvey and lets get moving….I’ve already started and we are The Go-Getters Union,LLC

You know what i find some funny is that Mr Dyson who can write brook ,give speeches, and be on talk show sharing his view and get paid . That is the easy part, but Mr Obama decided that teaching writting book, abd giving speeches was just sitting on the side line getting paid. He decide to get in the fight by running for office not just running his mouth. So i say to Mr Dyson dont talk us to death get off your soap box and show us some your back bone. An if you think for one second it didnt take back bone and the path create by sister Shirley, brother Jeese, brother Sharpton and othters to take this journey all by him self when most blacks who already was carrying the clinton banner. Please my brother i respect your write to speak but you, me, nor the world can ever question that man back bone

Good Morning Mr. Martin,

I watched your broadcast this morning Washington Watch November 8, 2009. You hosted the distinguished panel that included Dr. Dyson, Congresswoman Lee, Mr. Belcher and another sister. I agree with Dr.Tyson, that the President must take a tougher stance with his political initiatives. As Dr. Tyson said, the presidents supporters are a given and so are his opponents. The opponent’s political positions aren’t going to change regardless of how positive, productive and intelligent the president’s initiatives are, that’s why they are his opponents, 2 major different political strategies. The republican’s strategies are to move this nation into a monarchy third world status that is why people in other communities in addition to the African American community elected the President to stop this destructive course. The President must stand up and be not a Blackman but a Man about in taking a stronger stance and follow through with his campaign positions that will help make the United States a stronger nation for the benefit of All Citizens. The citizens of this country Need that healthcare initiative. The President and that useless, backstabbing, self interest congress and senate standing around with their tails between their legs allowing the extreme right wing conservatives to have their way with their stalling in moving that bill through the system. They are never going to appeal to that group. As stated this morning on your show that former President Reagan wasn’t concern with his distracters opinions, he moved forward with his initiatives. I’m old enough to go back further than that, former President, Lyndon Johnson didn’t allow himself to be restrained from his initiatives with the great society and as a result of former President Johnson taking his strong stance that African American citizens enjoy not our optimum but at least the level of Freedoms that we enjoy today, he didn’t ask for his opponents support to push those initiatives, he told them that he expected their support because, “This is your President calling on you to do what is right.” Former President Johnson was able to push the Civil Rights initiatives through because of his strength and backbone. It wasn’t a popular view at that time and his immediate predecessor, former President Kennedy hemmed and hawed on the same issue because of his distracters critical analysis of the possibilities of those initiatives might bring. My second concern is that the current political administration, as well as some of our pseudo African American leaders demonstrates this overwhelming strong emphasis on lending a hand of help to the poorest most indigent part of the African American community. As an African American Man from the poor educated working class where growth and opportunity has been pulled out from under me and others like me, and we always vote to stand by and observe our so call leaders appeal to the poor uneducated unprepared populous who may or may not even vote to continue to ignore the poor educated working class in our aspirations for growth and has pretty much relegated us to direct service providers to the ignorant poor who may or may not even vote, we won’t be forgetting any of you come election time. For years the educated working poor has stood by while we watched our pseudo leaders cater to the ignorant poor, a lot them making bad life choices and promoting them out of turn over the educated poor with their government financially appropriated programs to become our career equals when a lot of them didn’t and some of them still haven’t made the sacrifices that we made to be propelled to leadership over us. A lot of this so called networking stems from old fashion nepotism that a lot of the community has accepted as, “The Way It Is.” Everybody’s talking about fair play except when it comes to the poor educated African Americans with decades of education, experience and credentials. I know this is just a reflection of what is going in the larger society and believe me we know that is where it came from in the first place. This is the practice that enabled so many uneducated indigent non-qualified and under qualified European Americans to land government funded employment over the poor educated African American class by making them comparative candidates for employment after the largest African American pursuit of post high school education during the 1970’s and early 1980’s. This was done to circumvent our growth process. If we are going to be a united front then be fair to all of our community. We aren’t going to wait until the leaders get a sensitive heart.

It amazes me to no end to see those in the Black community who decry President Obama for not doing enough in the Black community while the community itself is disorganized, unfocused, lack direction and still are struggling after being in this country for over 400 years.

I realize that there were factors and powers working against us to keep us in mental apathy, but once again, instead of rallying together and making us the economic and social force that’s needed in order to effect real, tangible change that would not only benefit our communities, but our world; we once again fall to the familiar and tired refrain of someone coming along to ‘help’ us. Getting Black folks to do anything in tandem outside of the Electric or Cha-Cha slide is a daunting task indeed. We did it during the 2008 election cycle and then we went right back to doing what we’ve been doing…waiting and complaining for others to do what we should and most importantly, could have been doing.

Because of our experience and history with America, Black America should be cognizant that there are larger forces behind the superficial being presented to us as a distraction. The President of the United States in all actuality holds little power in America as it has been abdicated to the corporations through them exerting their influence and power through infiltration of the U.S. Congress. The economic crisis was engineered and is still under the control of those who benefitted the most from the bailouts; do we really expect those who have obtained such power and influence to give it up so easily and that they would allow one man, albeit duly elected by the majority of the people, to erase what they have studiously built for so long? C’mon now, America…

There are many issues that have a symbiotic relationship to each other that will prolong not only the problems in the economy, but other areas as well. Lack of quality education in our communities leads to disenfranchised and unskilled workers who cannot become the entrepreneurs, small business owners, etc. who power local and the nation’s economies; who then turn to illegal means to support their families; which leads to entering the judicial system that feeds the prison-industrial complex; which leads to more social programs to deal with the collateral damage wrought by the loss of parental figures, etc.; I could go on with the six degrees of systematic failure for days, but the point is every issue is relative to another and when you look at where the heart of the failure in terms of our communities lay, the reflection in the mirror reflect our own visage.

Bottom line, Black can complain until Judgment Day about who hasn’t done what and what we need, but until we recognize our own failures and shortcomings and begin to seriously address and act on it, no one entity or organization is going to take us seriously and that includes President Obama. If we really want change, we need to wake up and not place the burden on one man’s shoulders as it will require the efforts of all of us and keep in mind it won’t be quick nor easy.

SOLOMON…THE SLAVE NAME HAS NO POWER…TRUTH IS,BOTH BLACK AND WHITE,YOUNG AND OLD…ARE GOING TO TOSS THIS BROTHER…TOO AND FRO…AND SIFT HIM AS THO HE WERE WHEAT…FROM HERE TO ETERNITY…WHY…BECAUSE THEIR HAS NEVER BEEN A BLACK MAN\FAMILY…TO BE THE UNDISPUTED KING OF THE WHOLE WORLD…IN OTHER WORD’S THE BROTHER MIGHT BE A…PROPHET…SENCE ALL OF THE OTHER PROPHET’S BEFORE HIM WERE BLACK…WHITE SUPREMACY IS GOING TO TRY AND MAKE SURE THAT THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER PERSON OF COLOR,TO HAVE THAT SPOT AGAIN…THAT’S WHY THEY ARE GOING [OFF]…AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHO THE NEXT…UNCLE TOM…WHITE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO PULL OUT,TO HELP THEM REACH THERE GOAL…THEY HATE THE BROTHER BECAUSE HE HAS TO MUSH…INFUENCE- AS PROPHET DO- OVER ALOT OF PEOPLE…REMENBER WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT MALCOM X…POLITICAL PEOPLE SEEM’S TO FORGET THAT IT IS…GOD…WHO PUT’S ONE UP…AND WHO TAKE’S ONE DOWN…SOLOMON

I think that we as black people act like the president owes us something. We are not the only race that voted for him. yes we need jobs. In this small that I live in the white folks own and run the business and if you have education they will give the jobs to their cousins, nieces,grandchildren before they will give the job to one of us. Don’t put all the responsibility on the president these groups such as the NAACP and Civil Rights people never look at the way the towns are hiring whites over blacks and others. I live in a small southern town where all the plant jobs are gone but a few and the state and county jobs are totally controlled by the white population. All the black business leaders and politians here just turn and look the other way to them out numbering us 20 to 1. So instead of judging what our president is doing get on the band wagon and take a close look at how the jobs in very small communities in the south is being ran and held by those who want to see the president and blacks suffer the most due to the ecomomy. Our president didn’t create these problems he want to fix them. To the brother with the negetive response to our president don’t for forget during his speech he said that we must work together to turn this country around. Ask yourself what are you doing to make sure the jobs are being appointed to the deserving or to the color of skin. That is what they do to make sure that we as a people stay on the bottom. Don’t judge help him. As far as race goes you all look the other way to a lot of things. If you didn’t we would own more, be closer people and would love more.

there’s an old observation I’ve noticed time and time again. If a blackman gets a position of upscaled levels he has to do that job 10x better than his white counter part in order to be equal and still white society will find a way to water that recognition down. obama is listening and while he wants to reach across party lines he has to understand this is a much bigger stage than the one he had at harvard and the need him to do all that he can. now on the other hand he needs us to keep supporting him and stay positive. we didn’t get here on obama’s watch we got here from the tearing down of the country during republican 16 of the last 24 yrs.

I agree with so much of what has been said in these comments. I just want people to stop judging our president! Will Mr.Dyson and others agreeing with him be able to do the JOBS that Pres. Obama has to deal with all different countries. I pray for this man every day that he listens to God guide him to getting our economy and jobs back on track! You forget it took 8 years for it to get like this, now ignorance has hit so many people looking for President Obama to fix everything over night! Did he know we would have so many crazy people shooting people from the streets to on the military bases? NO! Along with the crooked banks! Now let me say another thing about a lot of our african americans, you need to stop selling drugs and allowing the drugs to come in to our neighborhoods, and stop having all these fatherless babies. Along with the sexual and violent abuses. I know you do not want to look at your selves, but Pres. Obama needs African Americans to step up to the plate and take themselves out of the slavery they keep themselves in! I have been African American going on 50 years,
so don’t think I am a white person! Lets cut the crapp and keep praying for this man and start living right and doing what’s right! DON’T LOOK DOWN ON THE MAN UNLESS YOUR PICKING HIM UP! ALL STAY BLESSED!

I am so tired of the crap from some Black people, especially those who whine because the President is not standing on his head dancing a jig or acting like a ghetto thug on the front lawn of the WH to please those whose only purpose is to play the role of crabs in the barrel.

Well here is a big clue: President Obama is NOT THE PRESIDENT OF BLACK PEOPLE. HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

LET ME REPEAT: President Obama is NOT THE PRESIDENT OF BLACK PEOPLE. HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Here is a second clue: Black people did not elect President Obama. Black people, along with white people, Asian people, Jewish people, American Indian people, East Indian people, religious people, non-religious people, all sorts of people elected President Obama.

Now for a suggestion: why don’t all of the pontificating black commentators, pundits, so-called black scholars and intellectuals pool their knowledge and make some concrete efforts to benefit the black community? Like tutoring or job training programs? Like teaching standard english? Like trying the get people like Desmond Hatchett, who fathered 21 children by eleven different women, to keep it in his pants?

Trying doing this instead of fighting each other to appear all over white network and cable teevee helping the racist and bigots undermine the President. Dyson IS about his own personal agenda and not that of black people.

I would like to hear people like Dyson, Smiley and the rest of the black commentators, pundits, so-called black scholars and intellectuals explain why they did not have the cajones (yes, that is the word I want to use) to whine about George Bush and the republicans during the previous eight years. President Obama is in office for eleven months and they can’t wait to whine WHILE OFFERING NOTHING OF VALUE TO THE CONVERSATION.

Here is a suggestion for the barrel of crabs clawing to keep everyone else in the barrel: Get up off of you hind ends and start doing for yourselves. Can you speak standard english well enough that an employer would want to hire you to represent his/her business? Do you have a high schood diploma and if not, WHY the h*** not. Are you another Desmond Hatchett? Have you picked up the trash littering your street, block or neighborhood lately or do you add to the problem? Have you stopped your children from breaking the windows of empty houses on your street, you know, those house lost by your former neighbors who lost jobs or do you sit an watch as they throw bricks? Do you send your children out into public with their behinds showing?

What are you doing everyday of your life to make it better for you and your community, your children? Besides sitting around whining?

One final suggestion: don’t place too much stock in what people like Dyson has to say. Look at his actions in the black community.

Look at the actions of all of the pontificating black commentators, pundits, so-called black scholars and intellectuals. Add to this group the so-called ministers who are more interested in what is in the collection plate but can’t be found out in their communities. Can’t get those custom made Italian suits dirty, don’tcha know.