Blacks who won't be played: "Duh Bro Gotta Go!"

President Obama recently announced, reading from a script on his teleprompter, that he was launching a 2012 initiative called "African Americans for Obama." Some have raised questions about a double standard they see it as represented in a political environment that would hardly tolerate with equanimity the prospect of, say, Newt Gingrich announcing the launch of a "Caucasians for Newt" initiative. But there are other questions that bear examining.

How have Blacks fared under the Obama administration? Many initial expectations were certainly unrealistic. Not only did President Obama inherit a significant deficit. His policies have compounded the problem by such unimaginable multiples of deficit spending, that only a fool would think he could deliver on all his promises. You can't fund social initiatives on funny money indefinitely. Furthermore, how much have his extravagant spending initiatives actually helped Blacks?

According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012), the unemployment rate is 8.3 percent as of January 2012. The unemployment rate has doubled since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. Obama’s first year in office (2009), saw a record jump in the poverty level from 13.2% to 15% -- defined in 2010, as at or below an annual income level of $22,314 for a family of four. The percentage of people in deep poverty was 13.5 percent of all African Americans and 10.9 percent of all Hispanics, compared to 5.8 percent of Asians and 4.3 percent of Whites. Under Obama, child poverty has jumped from 19% to 20% and among the 18-64 demographic, the level jumped from 11.7% to 12.4%. Blacks and Latinos were disproportionately hit, based on their higher rates of unemployment.

While you won't hear about this on MSNBC, there is considerable debate in the African American community about whether the Obama administration has actually helped or hurt the economic situation for American Blacks, as a quick search of the Internet will quickly verify. Some feel that they have been "played" by the President, precisely in such initiatives as his launch of "African Americans for Obama," and have no desire to be taken in again.