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Shallow Nation

July 17th, 2009 at 12:33 am

Obama NAACP Speech (Video, Photos) 7-16-09

Here is the Obama NAACP speech video from July 16, 2009. See the full video, photos, transcript and pictures here of the President Barack Obama address to the NAACP centennial.

Obama delivered a sobering 45 minute speech to the NAACP convention at the Hilton Hotel in New York City commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. established in 1909 by founding members W.E.B. DuBois Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moscowitz, and others.

His message was one stressing personal responsibility while acknowledging that discrimination in the U.S. has not been entirely eliminated.

He said: “We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else. We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.”

The Obama NAACP speech reveals the President also stressing: “To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.”

Read more and see the Obama NAACP Speech video and photos below.

He continued the exhortation: “It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.’