Mr. President,Stop Throwing Black People Under the Bus

It is equally unacceptable to treat Black folks that  way.

To be fair, President Obama did begin to address the challenges of systemic  poverty and failing schools, in his speech. He used the word “poverty” three  times, advocated for the working poor through increase in the minimum wage, and  pledged his support for the creation of public pre-schools, a policy that would  absolutely reduce the economic burdens on working class families.  But  rather than talking about how education and economic policies would strengthen  Black families, which could then create safe havens for children dealing with  adolescent challenges, yet again the president framed it backwards, by making  individual families responsible for broad systemic challenges.

By framing things backwards, he missed an opportunity to talk about how the  Prison Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, and “school reform” have  exacerbated Black poverty.  Aggressive surveillance, policing and  incarceration of Black youth have terrorized Black communities and robbed them  of valuable human capital, as talented young men languish behind bars. These are  things that the president surely knows, especially since he has made some moves  away from the War on Drugs rhetoric. Yet, when I listened to the speech, I heard  resonance of these same ‘get tough-on-crime’ policies that exploded the Black  prison population in the first place.

Claiming that “it’s very hard to develop economically if people don’t feel  safe,” the president proposed using solutions that have been “proven to work” in  areas where violent crime proceeds unchecked. If the unspecified methods to  which the president alludes involve more surveillance, policing, and jail time,  then in fact, these methods will only increase the reach of the Prison  Industrial Complex, and all of the ill effects that come with it.

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