Michael Eric Dyson scolds President Obama
Michael Eric Dyson scolded President Obama for concentrating his response to Emanuel AME Church massacre on gun control instead of racial hatred.
ED SCHULTZ: I think the president showed tremendous leadership today, we have to talk about this. Even it’s — a time of mourning and a time of healing as the president said, were you surprised at how strong his comments were on gun violence?
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, MSNBC: I was surprised and disappointed that the president obscured the obvious racial dimensions that begged relief and address, here is — if you look at the descending order of greatness of nuance there, Bernie Sanders talked about the ugly stain of racism, Hillary Clinton talked about race, guns violence and division. And then President Obama, oh, who by the way, Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about this, and then he talked about hatred across the races. Huh?
The question is, Ed, when will this president finally see that he doesn’t have to run from his race or run from blackness which are obviously there, and the tether to the issue of gun control and violence in this country. He must use his bully pulpit to excoriate those forces that are demonizing all American citizens, in this case those who happen to be African-American.
When a young man goes into a church and says, I’m here to kill black people, the president cannot pretend this is an issue of gun violence because if that man had a knife, he would have tried to kill the people with a knife. It doesn’t matter the implement. Although, of course, it makes a big difference in terms of our gun control issues. It matters, the hatred in his heart to do away with these human beings. I think, again, what we need is upfront leadership that articulately addresses the issues at hand and that shows how they converge together, not separate them.
Michael Eric Dyson is correct. The President’s timidity in dealing with racial issues has not been successful in those that hate him see him as anything but a black man to disrespect. Why not use his bully pulpit in a proactive manner?