With the Iowa caucuses over and the New Hampshire primaries right around the corner, President Obama is in his last year of administration. The Department of Africology and African American studies held a discussion panel on the third floor of McKenny Hall this past Wednesday, Feb 3, to discuss and predict how his time in the White House will be viewed in history.
The panel included EMU history professor Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, Detroit News political blogger Eric Brown, political science professor Barbara Patrick, associate of sociology David Walton, PhD candidate at Michigan State and part time EMU lecturer of women's and gender studies professor Solange Simoes and Brittany O'Neal, a philosophy professor from Long Island University.
This component of EMU's Black History Month activities was moderated by department head Victor Okafor. The evaluation of the president's administration covered his handling of national security, political polarization, the economy and immigration. This discussion ran longer than expected, causing Okafor to provide four questions of discussion instead of the planned six.
This is O'Neal's second panel at Eastern. She praised Obama's push towards a more equal society, tax reform, universal healthcare and executive orders to gun control, but criticized the presidents Middle East policy.
“My overall impression of Obama's presidency thus far is positive,” O'Neal said. “His position on gun control, gay marriage, and environmental issues I think is right on point. Healthcare is key too. I think his position in the Middle East is going to be problematic historically. We're going to have to look back and see how he's going to be perceived internationally.”
Eric Brown said he would hold off any final judgment of the president's time in office until his term is up. Brown was a major supporter of Obama and wrote an op-ed supporting his candidacy in 2007.
Since then, Brown said that he has been disappointed in Obama's policy because his original campaign of Hope and Change “was never defined.” Brown also said that it was never properly implemented in his first term. Obama did not receive Brown’s vote in the 2012 election.
“As for giving him a grade, which was asked of us at the beginning of the panel, [my grade] is an incomplete,” Brown said.
David Walton is an academic from Michigan State University. The EMU alum has received seven academic awards and fellowships since 2012.
“We have to be aware [that] he is the president of the United States,” Walton said. “He is the steward of American imperialism. So part of that is maintaining America's elite role in the global scale. And that is sometimes contradictory to social justice, contradictory to issues that may effect certain communities in particular, like the development of Africa and decolonization of Israel. He's done a lot of good, he's missed opportunities in other regards. ... There's only so much we can realistically expect.”
Murphy gave a much more upbeat appraisal of the president.
“I situate him in the pantheon of the New Deal, of Progressivism, of the Great Society and with the Affordable Care Act,” Murphy said. “That was an important piece of this larger project.”
In her assessment of the president, Simoes focused on gender issues and international views of the United States. She applauded the president for his stances on marriage equality and protection against sexual assault. In comparing his 2009 and 2016 State of the Union addresses, she noted the different policies that were highlighted. In the former, he was addressing issues such as terrorism. In 2016, he was addressing topics such as women’s wage inequality.
