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Title: I need your help': Obama calls on black voters 'to put on your marching shoes' in fight against unemployment
Source:
Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... -shoes-fight-unemployment.html
Published: Sep 25, 2011
Author: Daily Mail Reporter
Post Date: 2011-09-25 08:20:28 by Sebastian
Keywords: None
Views: 3152
Comments: 4
# Black unemployment levels at 16.7 per cent - a 27-year high # Mr Obama hit back at black leaders who say he isn't doing enough # The President's popularity among black voters slides from 83 per cent to 58 per cent in new poll Barack Obama has told African Americans to 'stop complainin,' 'put on your marching shoes' and follow him into the battle for jobs and opportunity. Speaking at the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington last night, the President hit back at leaders who say he's not doing enough to fight black unemployment. At 16.7 per cent it is nearly double the national average and at a 27-year high. Scroll down for video 'Stop complainin, stop grumblin, stop cryin': Barack Obama urges African-Americans to roll up their sleeves and fight for jobs at the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington Addressing some 3,000 people at the dinner, Mr Obama said African-Americans need to have faith in the future - and understand the fight won't be won if they're not on his side. 'It gets folks discouraged. I know. I listen to some of y'all,' Mr Obama said before admitting: 'I need your help.' Indeed, during the speech, Mr Obama sounded like he was discussing his own embattled tenure. 'The future rewards those who press on,' he said. 'I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on.' The president will need black turnout to match its historic 2008 levels if he's to have any chance of winning a second term. He acknowledged blacks have suffered because of the recession, and are frustrated that the downturn is taking so long to reverse. Support: Looking stunning in black sequins Michelle Obama joined the President on stage in a show of support 'So many people are still hurting, so many people are barely hanging on and so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way,' Mr Obama said. Referencing the civil rights struggle Mr Obama added that the fight for what is right is never easy. 'Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,' he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. 'Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do.' Famous attendees: Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, left, and actor, Cuba Gooding, right, cheer on Mr Obama The turnout of black voters in Barack Obama's victorious 2008 presidential campaign was phenomenal. Some 65 per cent of eligible African-Americans voted that year. But, three years on and there is discontentment in the black community as their unemployment rate hits a 27-year high. Currently, more than 16.8 per cent of blacks are out of work compared with just 8 per cent of whites. The numbers are even more bleak for black men, with 19.1 per cent being jobless. What's more the black unemployment rate has now remained above 10 per cent for four years. And it's showing at the polls. Just five months ago, 83 per cent of African-Americans held 'strongly favorable' views of Mr Obama. That number has now dropped to 58 per cent, according to a Washington Post-ABC news poll. When Mr Obama asked out-of-work black Americans for help at the Caucus awards dinner last night observers may have felt he was also pleading for a lifeline in his second term bid. Topping the to-do list, he said, is getting Congress to pass the jobs bill he sent to Capitol Hill two weeks ago. The package of payroll tax cuts, business tax breaks and infrastructure spending will benefit 100,000 black-owned businesses and 20million African-American workers,' he said. Republicans have indicated they're open to some of the tax measures - but oppose his means of paying for it: hiking taxes on top income-earners and big business. Caucus leaders remain fiercely protective of the nation's first African-American president, but in recent weeks they've been increasingly vocal in their discontent - especially over black joblessness. 'If Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House,' caucus chairman, Rep Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, recently told McClatchy Newspapers. Like many Democratic lawmakers, caucus members were dismayed by Mr Obama's concessions to the GOP during the summer's talks on raising the government's borrowing limit. Mr Cleaver famously called the compromise deal a 'sugar-coated Satan sandwich.' But he also said his members are keeping their gripes in check because 'nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president.' At the caucus dinner last year, Mr Obama implored African-Americans to get out the vote in the midterm elections because Republicans were preparing to 'turn back the clock.' What followed was a Democratic rout that Mr Obama acknowledged as a 'shellacking.' Where the black community turned out in droves to help elect him in 2008, there was a sharp drop-off two years later. Some 65 per cent of eligible African-Americans voted in 2008, compared with a 2010 level that polls estimate at between 37 per cent and 40 per cent.
BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT AT 27-YEAR HIGH
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#1. To: Sebastian (#0)
(Edited)
Just out of curiosity,does anybody know what happened to Cuba Gooding's career? He was flying high at one time,and with his talent there is no logical reason for him to have virtually disappeared from the scene. I did hear reports of extreme arrogance from him that made him hard to work with,so maybe he just managed to piss off one of the movers and shakers in Hollywood,and got blackballed? BTW,what does it say of Barry's popularity with the jetset black crowd when the biggest celebs he can get a photo op out of shaking hands with are George Foreman and Cuba Gooding Jr? George will show up anywhere there is a free lunch,and Cuba Gooding Jr is probably happy to be invited anywhere.
#2. To: sneakypete (#1)
You don't know of IMDB.com? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000421/
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Replies to Comment # 1. Just out of curiosity,does anybody know what happened to Cuba Gooding's career?
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