Obama's "more perfect union" needs Jackson's "more perfect justice"

Senator Barack Obama's tough talk is necessary, but Rev. Jesse Jackson's concerns are also important. While Obama is advocating for a more perfect union, Rev. Jackson is asking for a more perfect justice system. After all, a union can't be perfect without an underlying perfect association.

Obama believes Washington has to play a role in providing educational opportunities and greater economic assistance while blacks play their role of demanding "more of themselves." But Jackson raises concerns about demanding more of ourselves in an atmosphere of imperfect justice.

After last week's "hot mic" moment when Jackson said that Obama talked down to black people, the civil rights icon has come under fire for his comments. He has been dismissed by most young black folks and some older folks too. I wouldn't write Jesse Jackson off yet.

For Jackson, the message is not so much about "white people don't like black people" as it is about, "some conditions are still hostile, and the playing field isn't level for all black people." For Obama, the message is about "work through those conditions because it will take a while to level things up." For Jackson, the question is "When will things be leveled if they can't be balanced now? Have you not been preaching the message of the 'fierce urgency of now'?"

Those who would write off Jackson should keep in mind that both figures have distinct roles. It's not just respecting our elders. It's also remembering the place of those elders despite the changes in terrain. I admit, elders in our communities sometimes forget that we've made some progress. Rev. Jeremiah Wright can't admit that. As Obama said in his speech, the struggles of the previous generations sometimes make the "old guard' a bit pessimistic about the progress that has been made. Perhaps, the older community believes more can be done because of what "they know."

Other leaders believe Obama has fairly balanced his delicate role as a black candidate aspiring to lead a country with a white majority. "He can't be totally focused on the black community," said Kelvin Shaw, of Shreveport, La., to the Associated Press. "We need to be talking about not one race, but what affects all people," he said. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, the city's first directly elected black mayor, also defended Obama's stance in the wake of Jackson's comments. Asked whether Obama had touched on issues that were relevant to the black community, Mallory said, "I think he absolutely has."

Just look at what happened in the past year or so. The Jena 6 were jailed for a schoolhouse fight after white students hung a noose on a neighborhood tree. Unarmed motorist Sean Bell was shot 50 times in his car the night before his wedding. A black professor at Columbia found a noose hanging on her office door. And Don Imus used a racial slur to describe the women of the Rutgers basketball team.  

For Jesse Jackson, these incidents threaten the safety and peace of African Americans. When Amadou Diallo is shot for no reason and more blacks end up in jail than in college, Jackson wonders why minorities are provided with opportunities by institutions that tolerate bias incidents and sometimes defend those incidents citing freedom of speech?

I believe Jackson is trying to say that, "Obama, you are the leading mouthpiece of the black community, everything that affects black people should be your concern." And perhaps Obama is saying that, "Well I have a bigger role here. I am the leading mouthpiece of the community, but I have to speak for other communities that have put me in a similar position. I am our advocate, but I am their advocate too."

Perhaps both Jackson and Obama's messages are necessary messages. What Jackson shouldn't demand of Obama is that Obama takes on the responsibility of speaking for only the black community when he is running for president of the entire United States of America. In our support of Obama, we should also not ask Rev. Jackson to "shush" when the things he is talking about are really happening.

African Americans need to reconcile the progress made by Obama's candidacy with the role that leaders from the previous generation have to play to sustain that progress being made. I love me some Obama, but please keep me some Jackson around. There are things Obama can't talk about that Jackson will. We all need both of them to be who they are.