Obama on Black Dads

So Senator visited Apostolic Church of God in Chicago to give a "lecture" on what it means to be a Father. To be honest, I have often made the remark that the main issue that needs to be addressed in the African American community is the disrupted family structure--disrupted for many historical reasons but disrupted for sure. I have also believed that there has been a vacuum in leadership in the Afro-Am community and that Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson need to address this issue aggressively. (This by the way was one of Jeremiah Wright's messages). If Sharpton and co. were doing that, then Obama wouldn't have to make this speech. To that extent, I think Senator Obama's was on point and the speech was important and necessary. I do think certain phrases were unnecessary, e.g. "any fool can have a child." True but impolitic. BTW, I am very happy that Obama didn't shy away from going to another black church. I believe these churches are doing important work and that Trinity should not be a synecdoche for the Black Church. Black churches are diverse and should be seen as that.

Anyways, the main question is how is this speech interpreted by (i) the African American community (ii) the Mainstream Media (iii) Conservatives (iv) Ethnic Whites. There has been an interesting range of responses in the blogosphere. Some will read this as an effort to appease white voters who believe that blacks are solely responsible for their uneven progress. Others, on the other end of the spectrum will see it as a much needed act of leadership.

Black commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates has just written a book, The Beautiful Struggle, about his own exceptional father so I was quite interested in finding out his take would be on this. Here's an excerpt,

Here is my beef with how this is already being reported. Barack Obama is basically touting a message that you will hear coming from any serious black person in any black community. Louis Farrakhan was saying this shit thirteen years ago, but I didn't hear anything about Louis Farrakhan offering "a strong rebuke" to absent black fathers. That's because this isn't really about black fathers, or black families. It's about Barack giving voice to white frustration. That's not a reason for Barack not to say what he's saying. He did it in front of a black crowd, and it was the right thing to say.

Here's a video of Obama's remarks.