Obama talks Sherrod, Education, Not Knowing "Snooki" to the National Urban League
Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 1:30PM
Crappy pictures by me, stuck behind the press platform at the Washington Convention Center Thursday.President Barack Obama said Shirely Sherrod "deserved better than what happened last week" as he addressed the National Urban League in Washington, D.C. on Thursday as part of the organization's annual conference and 100th anniversary.
In a speech that primarily focused on education, President Obama was enthusiastically received by the Urban League crowd. There was lots of standing, applause and cheers as nearly 3,000 people attended the speech.
The Snob was there! Audience members and press alike started lining up for the speech at 5:30 a.m., all eager to see Barack Obama do his whole standing up and talking while being "leader of the free world" thing. (The President didn't actually take the stage until after 10 a.m.)
The closest I'll probably ever get to President Barack Obama.
I was invited to attend by my friends with Blogalicious, becoming part of the "bloggers' pool." All the usual suspects were there! (Xina! Ananda! Stacey! Nyasha!) I even ran into White House staffer Corey Ealons, the director of African American Media and "Blacksnob.com reader."*
As for the speech, Obama directly addressed what he called the "bogus controversy" that surrounded former USDA official Shirley Sherrod. The President called Sherrod "an exemplary woman" and said there was room for blame in the circumstances that lead to her forced resignation. Obama said some of that fault lied within his own administration, but used his strongest rhetoric for cable news and our ever coarsening political discourse.
The President urged the audience and others to look for more responsible ways to examine racial issues.
"The discussion needs to take place not just through TV."
Obama spent most of the speech talking about education and defending his "Race to the Top" education funding program. Obama painted some critics of the program as being resistant to change, pointing out "The status quo isn't working."
Obama also both praised teachers (while calling for more accountability) and emphasized more parental involvement in schools. The President discussed this in reference to his recent visit to the daytime talk show "The View," where he joked about not knowing who Snooki is, but how he does know some teachers.
"I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who are shaping our children's future. I want some teachers on the covers of some of those magazines, some teachers on MTV," Obama said. "I was on 'The View' yesterday, and somebody asked me who Snooki was. I say, 'I don't know who Snooki is but I know some really good teachers that you guys should be talking about'."
*I met Corey during Blogging While Brown this year and was super excited to learn he was a reader. I'm always excited to meet readers (of course), but it was obvious he's been checking out the site for a minute because he told me how great it was when my readers donated to my site so I could move to D.C. and how great that was! You had to be a regular to remember the great Snob-A-Thon of 2009!
Reader Comments (5)
yay! Snob great recap
Great job recapping the POTUS. He is correct who the hell is Snooki! or better yet Who the hell cares?
Shirley deserved better but once again it wasn't his fault. I suppose it is Bush's fault?
@ Scott:
Please turn up your hearing aid. The PRESIDENT specifically said "my Administration made a mistake", on not one, but two occasions during this debacle. The selective hearing of some people who continue to criticize this President really begins to show the intellectual ability or inability to focus, concentrate, and synthesize information pertaining to the topic at hand.
I understand that no one is perfect and I welcome intelligent and factual debate, but please pay attention before you comment. It is truly disturbing that people project their bias instead a factual basis for argument. HE HAS NEVER BLAMED BUSH FOR THINGS HE DIDN’T DO..Remember that!
Now, if you want to throw stones, you could have focused on the fact that the President has not spoken about the payment plan for our debt. Although we continue to hope the economy will turn around, we do not have a payment plan outline that will show the American people where the money is coming from in the next five years. We are cutting programs to salvage money, however as we cut, we also add new debt. Anyone with a kitchen table knows that this cannot sustain our economic peril. We need concrete answers and outlines.
The national budget is always a moving target, and I know that the numbers on that paper are written with invisible ink. We need to begin to get honest about what is working with war, welfare, and work for pay initiatives. It’s time to cut programs to those that are not paying their fair share into the system and begin to have them “learn and earn” for their handouts. Since many of the people who receive government support (I am NOT talking about unemployment or Military disability) are not forced to manually or intellectually contribute, there seems to be a chunk of time where they are not active participants in their own financial well-being. We need to hold them accountable to a worker program that includes but is not limited to: neighborhood cleanup, meals on wheels preparation, vocational education/training, elderly daycare oversight at neighborhood recreation centers, bicycle delivery services (there’s an entrepreneurial idea), landscaping/gardening in local co-op gardens. Hell, at this point I just want to see people get up in the morning and contribute!
As you see, solutions and not sniveling help to build a better nation!
Wonderful recap! Great seeing you! TY for the shout out!