Barack Obama no longer knows where to turn. Between the murder of two black Americans on Tuesday and Wednesday and the assassination of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday, his speech changed dramatically. Thus, a few hours apart, the American president came to condemn the "serious problem" that constitutes racism in the United States, then to denounce "hateful attacks, calculated and despicable" which there are " no justification possible. A double speech which reflects well the complexity of the positioning of Barack Obama compared to the minorities which he never really supported throughout his two presidential terms.
Caught between two waters
It was written, Barack Obama, as the first black president of the United States, was to work to improve the condition of minorities within the country. At least, that's what everyone imagined. Including the Republicans. "They wanted Barack Obama to take measures in favor of minorities to be able to say that he was not the president of all Americans", analyzes Thomas Snegaroff, historian specialist in the United States and author of Geopolitics of the United States (PUF).
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"The difficulty of Obama's task is that if he was too favorable to the blacks, he would have been accused of favoritism, while if he did nothing, the minorities would have accused him of denying its origins, ”points out François Durpaire, historian specialist in the United States and lecturer at the University of Cergy-Pontoise.
No specific measure in favor of black Americans
Unlike the LGBT community for which he worked a lot, "Barack Obama has always said that he would not make a plan specifically dedicated to a minority", underlines François Durpaire. Nevertheless, the Obamacare reform was implicitly perceived as a measure in favor of these same minorities, the main beneficiaries of the system by their social origin. Apart from that, therefore, no action. Just "an example that had a positive impact [on the black community]", according to Thomas Snegaroff.
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But did the American President really have in his hands the power to improve the socio-cultural situation of the United States? Thomas Snegaoff believes not. "If we waited for him to solve all the racial problems in the United States, we were wrong because he does not have all the powers. The lecturer at the University of Cergy-Pontoise goes in the same direction, taking the example of police blunders. “They are municipal police, not a national police. Obama could not have a direct influence [on this issue], ”analyzes the historian.
A century of slavery and 50 years of segregation
Finally, Barack Obama has arrived at the head of a country historically plagued by racism. "It must be said that he is the president of a country which has known a century of slavery and half a century of segregation", summarizes François Durpaire. It is therefore obvious that this equation with several unknowns could not be solved by one man.
Nevertheless, and as Thomas Snegaroff points out, "the situation of black Americans has deteriorated under Obama, to the point that today the cultural divide in the United States has returned to near its level in the 1960s." meaning, Barack Obama failed in what he was elected for, so that "today, the black population is very disappointed with the mandate of the first black president of the United States", concludes Thomas Snegaroff.
- United States
- Racism
- Barack Obama
- Dallas
- Minorites