Now that Barack Obama is president, blacks are on easy street, right? Not so fast says Al Sharpton. While some view Obama’s inauguration to the highest office in the land as the ultimate coup d’état, Rev. Sharpton views it as merely a singular step in a much larger plan. When asked about the continued relevance of himself and other black leaders while at the 10th annual State of the Black Union forum, Sharpton was very clear in his beliefs that the struggle has just begun, and that the need for national black advocates is just as pressing.
“So the reason I’m here, Tavis …” Sharpton began before the spacious hall erupted in anticipatory cheers. “The agenda for civil and human rights was not just to get some black people into high places. It was to get equality for all of us. The reason I’m here is that we still [have] double [the] unemployment [rate of whites]. We are still No. 1 in the nine worst health diseases in the country. We are still getting an unequal education 55 years after the Brown v. Board of Education [Supreme Court decision]. The achievement gap, black to white, is the same as it was in 1954. The reason I’m still here is that we are still three times more likely to go to jail for committing the same crime [as whites] with the same criminal background. We are still more likely to be turned down for a bank loan. We have the freedom to be president. We have [the] freedom to be the chair of the [Republican] Party. But we don’t have equality on the ground. We did not go to jail, we did not march, and we did not get stabbed and some killed just to get some blacks through. We did that to get all blacks, all whites, all Latinos, all Asians, all Native Americans through. So … until we have an equal playing field, and until a black child, and a white child, and an Asian child, and a Latino child born today have the same equal protections under the law and have the same equal opportunities. … They’d better get used to me and a lot of others, because we’re going to be around for a long time.”
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Sharpton’s assertion, or does the black community have all that it needs in President Obama? Make your voice heard.
–dewayne rogers
