It is puzzling that so many minorities voted for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney considering how disproportionately they have suffered economically during Obama's presidency. Black unemployment under Obama increased at a higher pace than whites, from 12.7% to 14.1%, ending at almost twice the unemployment rate of whites. Now, one out of every seven blacks is unemployed. White unemployment barely increased under Obama, from 7.1% to 7.4%.
Blacks' median income has fallen 11.1% under Obama, more than twice as much as whites. The disparity in wealth between whites and blacks nearly doubled during Obama's tenure. According to CNN, the median net worth of the average white person is now 22 times as much as the the average black person's wealth, $110,729 to $4,995. The disparity between white and Hispanic wealth increased to a 15 to 1 ratio.
Despite these facts, a recent Pew survey found that the number of blacks who thought they were better off now than they were five years earlier almost doubled since 2007. Minorities put Obama over the top in the election. More Latinos voted for Obama in 2012 than in 2008.
It's not that Obama has deliberately targeted minorities. It's that his redistributionist schemes disproportionately hurt minorities more than whites. In part, this is because the net worth of minorities tends to be located morethan whites in home equity. Minorities lost much of that equity when the housing bubble burst. Last year, foreclosure rates for blacks were almost twice as high as for whites, 9.8% versus 5.0% for whites.
The Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO), admits Obama is getting special treatment due to his race, "With 14% unemployment, if we had a white president we'd be marching around the White House. The president knows we are going to act in deference to him in a way we wouldn't to someone white." Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) goes even further, explaining that her black constituents don't want their leadership to criticize Obama, “If we go after the president too hard, you're going after us,” she told her constituency.
Obama essentially gets a free pass from black voters due to one-half of his skin color, even though he has made them worse off. Why is this? It could be because they perceive that he has helped them in his ground-breaking role as the first black man to be president. Yet how valid is this? Racial segregation ended approximately 45 years ago. Minorities are now represented in every echelon of American society, from scientists to CEOs to actors and members of Congress.
Perhaps the real answer to this paradox is that Obama has artificially created a reason for minorities to like him. Obama has stoked the racial divide since taking office in order to make minorities think racism is prevalent, and that he is speaking out about it because he cares. The truth is the opposite. Obama goes out of his way to strategically create and heighten racial controversies. After Hispanic George Zimmerman shot 17-year old black Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, Obama could have given a speech to the country assuring Americans that the shooting was not likely a result of racism, and if it was, it was an isolated incident that should be used to heal race relations.
Instead, Obama had Attorney General Eric Holder deliver a public statement on April 11, 2012 to the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network before many of the facts had come out and before the prosecution had commenced. He said, “Many of you are greatly — and rightly — concerned about the recent shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a young man whose future has been lost to the ages. If we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action, and at every step, the facts and law will guide us forward.”
A month after the shooting, Obama heightened racial tensions even more, saying during an appearance in the Rose Garden, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Considering it has never been clear who was the real victim in the shooting, for Obama to take sides and allude to Martin being a part of his own family sent a strong message to both blacks and whites – blacks should defend blacks against whites, even if they might be guilty.
After black Harvard law professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for breaking into his own house after being locked out, Obama told reporters that “the Cambridge police acted stupidly” in arresting Gates. The police reported a different version of events than the account from Gates, stating that Gates refused to speak to police when they asked what he was doing, and initially refused to even provide identification. Obama should have avoided saying anything about the incident, or said something to bring people together instead of blaming the police. Even the liberal New York Times admitted that Obama's response “represented an extraordinary plunge by a president into a local law-enforcement dispute.“
Another reason minorities may be ignoring their worsening economic condition under Obama is because he is telling them the opposite is true. As unemployment increases, he tells them he has created more jobs. As their homes are foreclosed upon, he brags about new government programs for homeowners, which rarely come to fruition and are little more than smoke and mirrors. He tells minorities that he has healed race relations as president, when he has fomented them.
Obama is responsible for the most racially polarized electorate since 1988. No doubt as a result of his blatant racial pandering, fewer whites supported him in 2012 than in 2008. Exit polls revealed that 4% fewer whites voted for Obama in 2012 than in 2008.
The saddest part about this paradox is that many of the minorities who voted to re-elect Obama will lose their jobs under him. The layoffs began immediately after Obama won re-election. There have been over 100,000 layoffs from more than 125 companies so far, including 15,000 from Hostess, the maker of Twinkies. Ironically, many of the layoffs are occurring in the healthcare industry, due to the unaffordability of Obamacare.
Minorities have been sold a bill of goods based on racist rhetoric. Obama stands for the opposite of color blindness, and has made Americans hyper-aware of race. He has fooled minorities into thinking the questionable Trayvon Martin and Henry Louis Gates incidents represent racism, when in reality, the millions of minorities who have disproportionately lost their jobs, homes and savings are the real minority victims.