Colonialism is to BLAME for Africa's PROBLEMS!

President Obama,

Enough is Enough!   Young African American students are baffled by your audacity to suggest that the contemporary problems of Africa should be disengaged from the legacies and exigencies of colonialism, neo-colonialism and western oppression.   

  As people of African descent and on behalf all those who embrace principles of human equality from around the world, we go on record to express our outrage by your words which the media is broadcasting around the world - African leaders, stop blaming colonialism and Western oppression for the continent's manifold problems.

  We invite people of good will to join us.   We insist that you   reconsider the basic assumptions, language and values that you bring to critique and create Americas foreign policy towards Africa in the 21 st century . 

  Your comments epitomize blaming the victim analysis, and at the same time give a pass to those who are most responsible for the conditions of Africa without benefit of a genuine apology, much less reparations. 

  Your very words poison the spirit of balanced analysis of very complex issues and suggest a tone of chastisement and condescension that is more than hurtful.   Your comments fuel the culture of entitlement and racism that has so permeated the consciousnesses of people all over the world.   

  Words have power. As president of the United States , your words can be lethal in that they represent Americas support and justification for systemic and on-going economic exploitation of Africa ..   

  The African continent, consisting of diverse countries, many carved out by the European interests of the 1886 Berlin Conference, has been devastated by the centuries of slavery, human and material exploitation upon which western wealth was built. This same kind of exploitation has led to the near extinction of native people in the United States .   

  We are not in a post-racial America or world.   African nations have literally been free of colonial rule for 52 years and less. And, the systemic legacy of European and American oppression is still present. We would expect you and your administration   to exhibit a greater level of empathy and understanding of the complexities and interconnections between how the interests of western powers control the options and environment in which very young African nations meet their global realities. We expect no less consideration or respect than you give to the Middle East and   Eastern Europe and emergent Asian nations that have emerged from embroiled liberation struggles of varying degrees.   

  We have expected more from you not only because you are the leader of  the most powerful nation in the western world, but also because you have first-generation  genetic linkage to Africa.  Understandably, we  are are extremely disheartened by your words and by your politics.  We are disheartened most especially because, as  young people, we bought into your message of hope and transformation.  It pains us, therefore, to think that the caption for your administration of change might very well be politics as usual.