By 34,000 Black Churches Will Not Support President Obama Supreme Court Choice Because He Refused to Nominate a Qualified African American Woman Jurist
Another slap in our face
Washington, DC – The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African echo the deep raw sentiments of the black community about President Obama’s Supreme Court choice. The black community has supported him 100% and defended him even when he misspoke concerning the deaths of Michael Brown and the other countless black youths. “President Obama energetically peppers his words to blacks with talk of responsibility in one public scolding after another,” Dyson writes in The Black Presidency. “When Obama upbraids black folk while barely mentioning the flaws of white Americans, he leaves the impression that race is the concern solely of black people, and that blackness is full of pathology.”
He has refused, in most cases, to say anything about —-as a black man was choked to death on videotape. His justice department that is supposed to protect the lives of all Americans has repeatedly failed Black Americans. They have refused to bring civil rights charges against any of the racist white cops who have murdered innocent African American youths. Against this backdrop, he expects the black church and the black community to defend his choice of another privileged Harvard educated white male in the name of democracy. We will not. Black women organizations have sold their birthright early in his presidency for an invitation to have tea with the first lady. They have refused to speak with power and wisdom in the spirit of Dorothy Height, Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan of the real needs both economic and health of poor African American girls and women. This is why the black church is forced to advocate for justice and equality for all black women.
Rev Anthony Evans, NBCI president, says that President Obama has intellectually assaulted the collective black psyche with his pick of another white male who he believes is qualified. He continues to choose and overlook qualified and in some cases overly qualified African American women jurists to serve in the nation’s highest court, even though African American women have consistently supported him as both senator and president in the 90% percentile. His choice of another white male is the height of disrespect to every black woman in America. We ask the simple question, what does it take Mr. President for you to recognize black women as equal to anyone else? In 200 years of the history of the Supreme Court, a black woman has neither served nor ever been nominated to this body. President Obama continues to show his disdain for black women while celebrating in their support for him by refusing to nominate any one of them even the eleventh hour of his presidency. This is why the black church will stand for the dignity of black women and refuse to support his nominee to the Supreme Court. After all, he is married (to a black woman who is a lawyer and fit all the qualifications of a nominee) to the court and has two beautiful black daughters. This is a moral shame”
In his 2012 book The Price of the Ticket, Columbia professor Fredrick Harris argued persuasively that Obama felt less compelled to act on behalf of black Americans in part because African-American leaders were unwilling to apply pressure to the first black president. In contrast, other liberal-leaning constituencies, particularly gay rights activists, treated Obama like any other president, aggressively pressing him to adopt their policy goals. The black church feels no such restraints.
His silence and non-action continues to cause death in the black community. His White House has refused to defend the human rights of black Americans. This is why students were forced to create the Black Lives Matter Movement. President Obama’s most publicized initiative in the face of all of 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,” writes Glaude.
He has treated us like the general society has – as second class. He has done everything in his power not to show any favoritism toward black Americans. He has done a prefect job of not doing anything for African Americans. African Americans continue to suffer in every catalog in this democracy and there has been no real improvement under his administration. Glaude, in “Democracy in Black”, argues that under Obama, “black communities have been devastated.”
About NBCI
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino churches working to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment. NBCI’s mission is to provide critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants, churches and the public. Our methodology is utilizing faith and sound health science.