Black Conservative Lady Is So Mad About Barack Obama, Does Not Seem To Be Sure Why

We are so filled with self-loathing for having started reading this one-kazillion word Crystal Wright screed about Obama's new "My Brother's Keeper" program. Though it is a hellacious slog, we are impressed that she manages to keep up her incoherent rage for that long without collapsing on the ground in a squalling child fit, so good on her. You may remember Ms. Wright from such Wonkette hits as "black people can't swim so don't let them be lifeguards" so you know she is quality.

Before we get into the meat of Wright's temper tantrum, let's talk a moment about what she is SO MAD about. Last week, Bamz unveiled a public-private partnership dealio that said oh hey it would be cool if government and business and schools worked together to increase the success and responsible behavior of young black men. This does not seem like a thing conservatives would be mad at, because better jobs + better opportunities = less broken families and poverty so there is really no downside fiscally or morally but of course Wright is mad because oh christ we have no idea why she is mad.

Sadly, the message to minorities – and blacks in particular – is that we blacks can’t be expected to take individual responsibility for our lives like our white counterparts ... so the government has to do it for us. Blacks should find Obama’s assumptions more than disturbing. Young black men wouldn’t be wrong to find My Brother’s Keeper downright offensive. And everyone should realize that the first black president is not holding blacks accountable to the same standards as whites when it comes to parenting.

And parenting is the real problem here – not the often repeated media narrative of The Troubled Black Teenager upon which society inflicts so many ills , but the long overlooked and systemic problem of the broken black family.

Do you think Wright works at being this utterly blindered in her thinking? So anything that purports to help black people is actually hurting them so all you should do is just ignore everything? Pretty much! Wright's big alternative plan is that personal responsibility and prosperity will magically arise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes, if only babies aren't born out of wedlock anymore, which will be achieved by starving and jailing people who have babies out of wedlock. Genius!

[I]f Obama was really serious about fixing the troubles facing black men, from childhood all the way through to a crime crisis later in life, he would advance policies that reward responsible behavior, not more out-of-wedlock births.

Potential solutions could include making long-needed changes to Clinton’s 1996 welfare-to-work reforms by cutting off aid to mothers who have more than two children out of wedlock. And by punishing black men by putting them on probation for fathering babies out of wedlock and forcing them to do community service or other government work.

Yes, the crime crisis is DEFINITELY solved by giving black men a CRIMINAL RECORD for fathering a kid.

Let's not even get into the fact that just forcing people to stay together because they made a baby does not wondrously make a happy prosperous stable family. Weird, huh?

The oddest part of her entire screed is the fact that Obama actually addressed her pet issue.

The president knows the grim facts. “If you’re African American, there’s about a one in two chance you grow up without a father in your house – one in two,” he said in his announcement. “We know that boys who grow up without a father are more likely to be poor, more likely to underperform in school.”

Apparently, Obama's failure was not following that with "So keep it in your pants, boys, or you go to jail. How's THAT for a social program?" and dropping the mic and walking away. When will he ever learn?

[ My Brother's Keeper / The Guardian ]