SMRs and AMRs

Sunday, February 09, 2014

In meetings with young black men, Obama tries to leave a mark

By Zachary A. Goldfarb, WashPost, Updated: Sunday, February 9, 3:00 PM

CHICAGO – Kerron Turner sat with a more than a dozen other teenagers in a classroom at Hyde Park Academy High School on this city’s troubled South Side, nervously settling in for an unusual meeting with the president of the United States.

They told their stories: Turner worried about the gangs he passes on his way home from school. Robert Scates had dropped out of high school and was working to catch up in time to graduate.

Lazarus Daniels feared what would happen to his anger if he couldn’t play football anymore.

Eventually, it was President Obama’s turn to check in — to say how he was feeling emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually.

Obama’s quiet visit a year ago to the “Becoming a Man” program for inner-city youth in Chicago, along with a follow-up meeting several months later, would test whether Obama could transform the symbolism of his presidency into something more personal, one young man at a time. The meetings left a mark on the president, who has used them as motivation for a forthcoming White House initiative on young men of color that he promised to launch in this year’s State of the Union address.

(More here.)

1 Comments:

Blogger Tom Koch said...

President Obama could play a unique and positive role in helping black males (any males for that matter) understand their role in a family goes beyond the 'creation' of a child.

7:45 AM  

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