RedBlueAmerica: Why hasn’t Obama brought about racial reconciliation?

The flaring up of racial tensions in recent weeks — five police officers killed in Dallas, videotaped fatal police shootings of civilians in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, La. — has created alarm, rage and grief across the country. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll found 69 percent of Americans say race relations are bad — almost on par with the discontent during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Some critics wonder why President Barack Obama, America’s first black president, hasn’t been able to bring about peace, and some accuse him of exacerbating racial tensions. What should Obama do? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate. JOEL MATHIS When it comes to race in America, there’s still work to do.

That seems obvious to most AfricanAmericans, certainly, as well as anybody sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement. For example: A new study from Harvard this week shows that when both blacks and whites are stopped by cops around the country, blacks are more likely to be pushed around, or have weapons drawn on them, or be subject to the use of pepper spray — and overall were more likely to be subject to use of force, even when compliant with an officer’s instructions.

That’s how things still work in the country Obama leads. One form of justice for African-Americans, another for whites. Other examples abound.

Obama’s critics seem to believe in another story. That yes, there was a time when racism was a big, malignant force in the country, but then the civil rights movement happened, the Voting Rights Act was passed, and everybody lived happily ever after. There might be pockets of racism here or there, but that most complaints about racism amount to “race hustling” — a power grab — and that any real remaining racism is practiced by blacks and directed at whites. It is, at best, a cynical point of view, one that denies the truth of lives lived and stories told by African-Americans.

So when Obama acknowledges how the world looks from an AfricanAmerican point of view, then, his critics believe he is being divisive, that he is pandering and that he is, yes, “race hustling.” They are wrong.

In fact, the president has often acknowledged racial progress in America. “Race relations are better since I graduated. That’s the truth,” he told Howard University graduates in May, but he added: “I am not saying gaps do not persist. Obviously, they do. Racism persists. Inequality persists.”

I lament the deaths in Dallas, Minnesota and Baton Rouge. But Obama did not create racial strife in this country. He simply acknowledged a problem that was there all along. Pretending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. BEN BOYCHUK Who is pretending the problem doesn’t exist? Nobody. Conservatives know it’s bad out there. They also know that cops who abuse their authority are a problem.

Look, when six in 10 Americans say race relations are bad and have only gotten worse — only 38 percent said the same a year ago — that’s a problem. Obama surely did not create racial strife, but he hasn’t helped alleviate it, either.

The president is divisive. He has been from the moment he took the oath of office. He set the tone of his administration during his first Oval Office meeting with Republican congressional leaders: “I won.”

Yes, he did. Yet Obama has never understood that governing demands more than a mere assertion of his will. At its best, the president’s rhetoric can reach great heights. But that’s all it is — rhetoric.

The president proved it again when spoke at the memorial for one of the murdered police officers in Dallas on Tuesday. He delivered a generally uplifting and unifying speech — until he decided to utter one of the most manifestly ridiculous lines to tumble forth from the lips of a U.S. president not named Jimmy Carter: “It’s easier for a teenager to get his hands on a Glock than a computer … or even a book.”

No, it isn’t. Not at all. That is a laughable lie.

But the president said it, and at a funeral no less.

When we talk about healing racial divisions, the difference between liberals and conservatives is really a difference between culture and politics. Liberals have long looked to government to ensure not only equality of opportunity but also equality of outcome. Conservatives believe that equality of outcome is incompatible with freedom.

Obviously not everyone “lived happily ever after” after Congress passed landmark civil rights legislation more than half a century ago. But it isn’t 1965 anymore. There’s always going to be work to do.

“I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change,” Obama said in Dallas this week. “I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been.”

Then maybe it’s time to give the divisive language a rest and meet the people where they are.