Alvin Poussaint and the Obama ‘Psychological Boost’
Dr. Alvin Poussaint, professor of psychiatry and former consultant for “The Cosby Show,” was interviewed by Diverse magazine. He made the usual remarks about what a great moment this is for “African-Americans,” who probably wondered whether whites would vote for a black man for president.
Poussaint noted that black Americans’ “psychological boost” might be moderated by economic uncertainty. Based on his response to a question about Obama’s Father’s Day speech, Poussaint seems to believe the economy is a more pressing concern for black Americans than “pushing personal responsibility.” In that speech, Obama highlighted a series of sad statistics: over half of black children live in one-parent homes, and kids without residential fathers are five times more likely to be poor and commit crimes, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up behind bars. Poussaint’s response:
I think it’s going to be tempered by the fact he’s going to know the realities of the high rate of unemployment, removal of services and how they’re affecting poor people across the board — whether, Latino, White, but disproportionately African-Americans and Latinos. He’s going to know that one of the things he has to do, which he’s working on, is shore up the economy and get people back to work before he starts pushing personal responsibility. It’s one thing to say that when jobs are available you can compete for, but it’s another thing to say that when there are no jobs … It does put a strain on them to take the high road when they’re being pushed out of the work force and being denied social services that they require.
It’s the economy, stupid.
Perhaps Obama’s presidency will give some black Americans a “psychological boost.” More important, I hope they’ll see his presidency as proof America no longer needs nor should desire racial preferences. Allowing a government to prefer some over others based on race is dangerous.
