In his speech to the NAACP tonight, Barack Obama has reminded us of what he has said during the Presidential campaign and ever since he was inaugurated President—that the way to social progress and change and accomplishment is to promote good parenting and family responsibility. Children must be given limits and goals, and must know that their family structure is there for them.
Just like WEB DuBois stated one hundred years ago, Obama declared that African Americans must set the sky as the limits–that there are no controls on what the future generation can achieve. Hard work and dedication is essential, and one cannot expect handouts to accomplish change. Young people cannot all expect to be entertainers, basketball players, and rappers. They have to work to become surgeons, lawyers, professors, journalists, authors, engineers, corporate leaders and every other occupation. Race cannot be allowed to be a limit.
Obama is the perfect leader to promote this necessary attitudinal change, just as the comedian and actor Bill Cosby has done in the past decade. While we can all expect a lot more work by government at all levels to achieve the end of discrimination, it is also necessary to promote self help and willingness to deal with the issues of the black community internally.