Bettering black lives: President Obama's missed opportunity

I like President Obama. I voted for him once. I am unclear, however, what verdict history will ultimately render on his presidency.

Some of historians' perceptions will no doubt be influenced by the success or failure of the Trump administration in its efforts to dismantle or improve upon Obama's initiatives. But it seems likely that Obama will be given credit for how he handled the financial crisis, for his work on health care, for his drawdown of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, for the Iran nuclear deal, and for his work on climate change.

One important failure of Obama's presidency was in his ambition to improve race relations in general and the plight of the black community in particular. I can think of no major disparity — whether in health, education, crime, housing or income — that showed major improvement under the Obama administration.

Yet in many ways this kind of progress was the implicit promise of his campaign. His election would make white America feel good about itself for electing a black president — and black America would see real improvement in its place in America.

Unfortunately, his election met the first goal but his presidency failed on the second.

Obama missed a rare opportunity for an African-American with stature and credibility to move beyond a civil-rights approach to the problems in black America and to speak honestly about what we ourselves can and should do to improve our condition.

Whenever I mention to whites the concerns I have about the significant amount of work that only the black community can do to address the cultural issues associated with fatherless families, or the self-policing needed to combat the epidemic of black-on-black crime, or the attitude adjustments needed to make educational excellence a reality, I'm told: "Well, only you could say those things in the black community; I'd never be able to say such things."

Obama's biggest failure was his not saying those things. A leader must always find a way to say what people need to hear, not just what they want to hear. As president, he could have given voice to the open secret about some very painful cultural truths in the black community. In doing this, he might have sparked the necessary, soul-searching debate that could lead to real and positive cultural change.

Instead, Obama retreated to the traditional civil-rights agenda of the past 60 years. On crime, he focused on suing police departments, demanding more minority cops, and implicit bias training, rather than on challenging the black community to do more self-policing by creating a culture that simply would not tolerate criminal behavior.

He could have traveled to his home city of Chicago, where civil order has broken down in parts of the city, and met with parents of children who were victims of gang violence. He could have spoken to the need for an inward-looking social movement to address the cultural aspects of violent crime.

Most important, he could have stated the simple sad fact: that, while police misconduct can never be tolerated, young blacks are much more likely to be shot and killed by a black thug than by the police.

These messages would have legitimized and provided needed cover for large segments of the black community that want to work with the police and want to stigmatize rather than normalize criminal behavior.

In a similar manner, the Obama administration seemed to view all educational disparities as resulting from overt or systemic bias in the education system. His administration was more likely to sue school districts for discipline disparities than to challenge black parents to read more to their kids and attend parent-teacher conferences. He needed to tell America what my parents told me: "If you get in trouble in school, I'm going to believe and support your teacher." That small cultural shift could pay huge dividends in our educational system.

Rather than showcasing groups like MAD DADS, a grass-roots group that is trying to change the culture of crime, Obama appears to have accepted the Black Lives Matter narrative on the sensitive issue of police violence, which Heather Mac Donald has clearly demonstrated in her book "The War on Cops" is distorted and inaccurate. This has led us to the "Ferguson Effect," where police will likely go into the fetal position, resulting in more inner-city deaths and destruction.

Perhaps most important, Obama needed to acknowledge the painful truth that many of the stereotypes the broader community entertains about black America are too often deepened and confirmed by our own words and deeds. He needed to challenge not only those who hold the stereotypes but also those who continue to reinforce them.

President Obama had a chance to be the mirror image of Lyndon Johnson — who was a catalyst for significant attitude changes in white America with his courageous stands on civil rights.

It may have taken a white Southerner to persuade white America to look at itself and make changes. Barack Obama had the same opportunity, through the power of the presidency, to ask black America to look inward and re-examine some of our attitudes and behaviors.

That is a missed opportunity that will not likely return soon.

Peter Bell is a former chair of the Metropolitan Council and a senior fellow at Center of the American Experiment.