Black economic conditions worsened during the Obama presidency

Evidence

Beyond the increase in explicit racism—the loud racists have gotten louder since the 2008 election (it almost feels like some white people have lost their minds)—black people have suffered tremendously on Obama’s watch. Black unemployment remains high. Home foreclosures continue. The wealth gap between blacks and whites has grown wider. More young black families and children than ever are drowning in poverty. And police have been on what seems like a rampage—killing young black people at alarming rates. In short, black communities have been devastated. And Obama’s most publicized initiative in the face of all this, even as the spate of racial incidents pressured him to be more forthright about this issue, has been My Brother’s Keeper, a public-private partnership to address the crisis of young men and boys of color—a Band-Aid for a gunshot wound. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 20

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘Band-Aid for a gunshot wound’ critique of My Brother’s Keeper connects to the sacrificial-economy analysis in the sacrifice book: symbolic gestures substituting for structural redistribution.