Obama and the black vote 2012

President Obama has officially launched his reelection campaign for 2012. His strongest constituency remains American blacks, while many others have wandered in the wilderness or have abandoned him for now.

In light of the statistics, with blacks only representing slightly more than one-eighth of the population, Obama would probably do well to steer clear of race in general during his upcoming reelection season. After all, he was elected as the president of the United States, which includes blacks, but the other 87 percent of the country as well. Even if every single black person in the United States (including those in prison) voted against him, there's still another nearly seven-eighths of the population to attempt to sway.

If anything, this should be given more thought. The more likely scenario is that many blacks will continue to harbor unrealistic expectations and it would be wiser to cater to the U.S populace in general. A disillusioned black community is likely to do what it has always done: vote Democrat, typical and not very powerful, because there's no need to try to get their vote. Additionally, if they feel the way they've felt, they'll probably just not even bother voting.

Perhaps some may say it's actually problematic that Obama's skin happens to be dark, because that means he's expected to be a black Superman. He is expected to do the "black" thing in any situation where race is involved. What might not be so obvious is that the "black" thing isn't agreed upon within the black community, so the "black" thing could arguably be anything, would definitely be prejudiced and, coming from the president would actually be, dare I say it, racist!

This obviously puts Obama in a difficult situation. It didn't help that he was given the Nobel Peace Prize as he was taking office (before he'd had a chance to do anything). The expectations upon his shoulders were so staggering, it's quite possible that they were impossible expectations. The midterm elections showed how the populace was unhappy with his performance under those extremely high demands. Stay tuned!