by 
Recently, as part of Obama’s re-election campaign, he announced the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama. At the website http://www.barackobama.com/african-americans, people can gain more information about helping out the Obama campaign; they can even become Congregation Captains, spreading the word through their churches about Obama and getting out the vote.
Four Ways to Get Involved
The campaign offers four main ways that African Americans can get involved in Obama’s re-election bid. Congregation Captains will, as the website says, “take the lead on educating others about the importance of participating in this campaign and how to get involved. Working in your individual capacity, you’ll reach out to key community members and mobilize your personal networks with house parties and other outreach activities, as well as provide assistance in conducting voter registration drives. “
The Black Business Captains Program targets successful black business leaders and works to get more business owners involved in the President’s re-election campaign. The Civic Organization Captains Program targets non-profit leaders to “provide education to their organization’s members about the importance of participating this year and opportunities for involvement.”
Get Those Barbers Out
Finally, in what seems to be a very unusual move, the African Americans for Obama also have a group called the Barber Shop/Beauty Salon Program (B&B Program). This program empowers barbers and beauticians to get out the vote and to engage in voter registration and volunteer recruitment efforts. As they say on the website, “You can identify key leaders within the community who should definitely stay engaged and facilitate communication between your personal networks and organizers in the field.”
Pointing the Finger at Obama
Some, however, are pointing the finger at Obama’s new initiative. As Paul Joseph Watson wrote on Prison Planet,
“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’.”
Similarly, Chad Hasty pointed out,
“I thought race didn’t matter Mr. President? I don’t think MLK would be too pleased with you at all. African-Americans for Obama? Give me a break. Under this President, more blacks are unemployed. More blacks are on food stamps.”
Obama seems to want to have it both ways. Race doesn’t matter. At the same time, it certainly seems to matter a great deal to him when it’s time for the re-election.
