Cross-posted from the Brave New Films Blog.
Courtesy of Too Sense.
Barack Obama is saving face since he didn't show up in Jena. He wrote this letter to AG nominee Michale Mukaskey. Here's an excerpt:
In recent months, our nation's attention has been focused on the racial strife in Jena, Louisiana, and the disparate treatment of six African American youths. As Attorney General, will you commit the investigative resources of the Civil Rights Division to ensuring the fair treatment and execution of the law in cases such as the Jena 6, as well as the recent acquittal by an all-white jury of eight prison guards accused of killing a young black male at a juvenile detention center in Florida?
I am happy that Obama is showing some character here. It is called the Department of Justice, so he is calling for Justice to be served to everyone everywhere. I want to see more, concrete Civil Rights-related statements like this from Obama.
One Love. One II.
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About Garlin Gilchrist II
I'm from Detroit. I created Detroit Diaspora and am a National Campaign Director at MoveOn.org. I currently live in Washington, DC with my beautiful wife Ellen.
After graduating with degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, I became a Software Engineer at Microsoft. By day, I helped build SharePoint into the fastest growth product in the company's history. On my personal time, I sought out opportunities to connect my technical skills with community building efforts across the country.
This led to my co-founding The SuperSpade: Black Thought at the Highest Level, a leading Black political blog. I served as Social Media Manager for the 2008 Obama campaign in Washington, and then became Director of New Media at the Center for Community Change.
Today I work at the crossroads of traditional political organizing and online activism. I speak before diverse audiences on empowerment in revolutionary new organizing spaces, increasing civic engagement & participation though emerging technologies and protecting civil rights in the age of the Internet.
Why is this being applauded. Obama may be in a presidential race, but is this the message that we want to send? “It’s commendable to make a high profile move by sending a letter to the AG nominee (who holds no power at the present time), and it’s great that you have been as vacant on the issue as you’ve been until this point.”?
There are more leaders doing more than Obama about this who are to be given such recognition on the issue who not only have put their necks out there, but who have put their entire bodies into the issue by being present in the dialogue that affects the adjudicated outcome in Jena. Obama should have chosen someone more involved in the issue to say confront, and he chooses a nominee to address instead of officials that currently hold more direct authority on the issue?
Uh uh … not good enough.
@Dude is fake,
You echo my sentiments actually in that this statement is PR at the end of the day. As I indicated, I’d like to see more concrete, meaningful statements from Obama on such issues. I’m hoping that this is the sip before the big swallow.