African Americans For Obama

February 28, 2012 by Sam Rolley

As a part of his re-election strategy, President Barack Obama is working to entwine race and religion into his 2012 campaign for the Presidency.
Earlier this month via a video message, Obama announced the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama, saying he didn’t believe there is a better time than Black History Month to kick off the initiative.
“Every day, I think of the generations of African American men and women who overcame slavery and oppression, risked their own safety to cast a ballot, even gave up their lives to help build a country that lived up to its founding principles, “ said Obama in his call-to-action video.
Visitors to the President’s re-election website can opt to volunteer for the campaign by “organizing in barber shops and beauty salons,” “organizing black businesses,” “organizing civic organizations,” “organizing congregations” or “organizing at historically black colleges and universities.”

The initiative has led some people to ponder what might happen if one of the white candidates organized a similarly racially exclusive campaign initiative. Paul Joseph Watson writes in a recent Prison Planet article:

Imagine if Ron Paul announced a national campaign called ‘Whites for Ron Paul’ – he’d be vilified as a racist. And yet Barack Obama has done the equivalent of precisely that with his launch of ‘African Americans for Obama’…
Again, imagine what the reaction would be any of the Republican candidates launched a ‘Whites for Romney’, ‘Whites for Santorum’ or ‘Whites for Gingrich’ campaign. There would be non-stop uproar. But Obama does the equivalent and gets a free pass.

A recent report by NPR says that Obama is focusing more heavily on black voters this election season amid concerns that black voter turnout will be less in 2012 than it was in 2008, though the President still carries favorability in the 90 percent range among blacks.