BrianGarst.com

Although he hasn’t been afraid to play the identity politics game on other issues, President Obama deserves credit for so far resisting the attempts from people like Jesse Jackson to turn our recession into yet another issue about race.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson has joined black lawmakers in their push to get the White House to do more to directly help African American communities disproportionately hurt by the nation’s severe economic recession.

Jackson, who noted that he was not invited to President Obama’s recent jobs summit, said he has requested a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to talk about economic aid for depressed minority communities. No meeting has been set.

In recent days, Obama has pushed back at the idea that his administration should focus economic revitalization policies on specific ethnic and racial groups. In an interview with USA Today and the Detroit Free Press last week, the president said, “The most important thing I can do for the African American community is the same thing I can do for the American community, period, and that is get the economy going again and get people hiring again.”

The President is exactly right here.  Helping the entire economy is right now the best way to help any particular subset of the population.

Now if we can just get him to look at policies that will actually help the economy, instead of constantly aiming to squeeze it under the twin burdens of higher taxation and greater regulation.

Barack Obama Jesse Jackson race issues