"Obama: A Day Late And A Dollar Short" Book - The Continued Mis-Analysis Of The Black Political Establishment

Who raised the hopes of the Negro and how has this entity profited?  Are the "Obama Limited Edition Plates" that populate their households evidence of this marketing effort?  Will he get away with the very same thing in 2012, making the Negro happy about his future yet again?

These are the questions that Jeter and Pierre are unwilling to answer in their book, based on my review of their video on C-SPAN.  Instead they put America on trial and they enumerate the antics of the right-wing enemy to Black America.


C-SPAN Video: "A Day Late And A Dollar Short"

As a self-professed analyst of Black political activism (and all of the games and hijacking of our racisl interests that take place as a result) nothing infuriates me more than listening to a group of complicit operatives provide a dose of "self-prescription" and get it all wrong in the process.

Such is the case with these two Washington Post journalists Jon Jeter and Robert Pierre.  Their book "A Day Late and a Dollar Short: High Hopes and Deferred Dreams in Obama's "Post-Racial" America" will no doubt be appealing to the average Black person who's sympathies reside with the Democratic Party and the notion that Barack Obama as president represents a "new day" for our race and our interests".

The key point of frustration with these two authors is that they pretend that "Black America" is not complicit with the present political machine that is in power.  Jeter and Pierre make the mistake of looking toward the White House and Capitol Hill - all the while ignoring the "little baby steps of failures and dreams deferred" that were look past at the local level while Black America conspired with the Progressive-Democrats to bring forth this day.

What do you do with a people who are living the dreams as they had laid them out decades in the past yet, upon achieving them they fail to acknowledge the flaws and misappropriated purposes that had carried them forth?

With this point dutifully achieved after a long period of struggle Mr Pierre chooses to focus upon the "entrenched Right Wing" interests who refuse to share with Black people and the need to change the structure of America so that all that "we" as a people had struggled for can be accomplished.

I would have been far more pacified had these two gentlemen stated: "For Black America to achieve what we are striving for we need a Black president AND a Black majority in both houses of Congress - with 'non-Clarence Thomas-type' Negroes".  At least this would have allowed me to latch on to the parameters of the next plateau of their continued struggle.

Few people see that their type of thinking is merely "Boil The Ocean" leftism - dressed up with more flowery words that provide the facade of a sound strategy that has the chance of being implemented.

Jeter and Pierre, like Roland Martin, Cynthia Tucker, Al Sharpton and many others are merely "permanent strugglers".   Their product in the American political discourse IS the quest for something better "IF we just believe that it is possible".........fighting those who resist us along the way.


No Self-Prescriptions Allowed

If there was ever a need for a clearer definition of the "Institutions In Black America" and requirement that the "Political Arm" be moved outside of our "Secret Space" - look no further than this presentation.  Those who are most active in their role as the "writers" within the "Black Establishment" have no propensity to "self-analyze" and thus "self-indict".

Absent the necessary transparency - those with the pen and the microphone will simply but quietly achieve the goal that they convinced our people would bring forth a new day and then transform themselves as the leaders who direct us up to the next plateau.

Who among the Black community will challenge them - asking that they show us the benefits that we were promised upon faithfully following them?

Who will demand "earnest money" at intervals along the way next time, instead of remaining loyal and waiting for the "Big Pay Back" to appear in the form of a check or other convertible currency?

It seems to me that the forces of the Black Establishment are now merely a "diversionary force of griots".  Their job is to formulate a narrative of grievances by which our people will stay united behind them, leading us on to where they choose.  The benefit to our community is not the measurable gain in competency or material wealth.  The key benefit to our community is that we remain UNIFIED and UNIFIED BEHIND THEM and their LEAD.

When they see Barack Obama in the White House, yet disappointing them - they must be made to see themselves

When they see the Democratic Party in control of both houses of Congress and still they suffer - they must be made to see that they asked for too little

When they come home at night with their grievances still intact about their schools, their economic situation, the ineptness of their schools - they must be made to see that they chose the array of leadership and the message that they brought forth

Greater than the need to "Change America" is the need to change the CONSCIOUSNESS of those who perpetually call for change yet fail to see that they are now living in the disassembled wreckage of all that they had worked to assemble.