Not free to be Black?

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell wrote in a recent piece entitled NAACP Has Role: Hold Obama Accountable that the now 100-year old civil rights organization must still advocate issues on behalf of African Americans to the new president just as much as the group would if the president was white.

Given the competing interests and agendas weighing on the president, it does make sense that the NAACP would still have to work to make sure African American concerns are not overlooked.

At one point Mitchell raised some ideas about race that might be worth considering:

Although Obama was referred to as a black candidate, he could not run a campaign that looked like it was carrying the banner of black America, nor could he accept the support of several established black leaders because whites considered them too controversial.

So while he is called the first black president, Obama has not been free to be a black president.