(Images Source: CNN)

BY STEVEN HSIEH
 

You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy.

Is President Obama taking his base for granted?  Maybe part of it – Check out this clip from a Congressional Black Caucus meeting in Detroit.  The speaker is Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

“We’re supportive of the president but we’re getting tired, y’all.  We’re getting tired… Our people are hurting.  The unemployment rate is unconscionable.  We don’t know what the strategy is.  We don’t know why, on this trip, he’s around the United States but not in any black communities.  We don’t know that… When you let us know it is time to let go, we’ll let go.” (Fox News)

The California congresswoman says she thinks black people are hesitant to attack the president. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart has more.

“…the relationship between Obama, black members of Congress and their constituents is like that of children of divorced parents… Mom won’t say anything bad about the father in front of the children because they’ll shout back: ‘Don’t talk bad about my father!’ … All that changed at that in Detroit on Tuesday.”

That town hall meeting video has gone viral.  And Ms. Waters took full advantage – appearing multiple times on MSNBC and CNN. The congresswoman was absent on Fox, however – who opted to discuss the issue with Republican Congressman Allen West -- the black caucus’ first Republican member in 14 years.

He says black Democrats aren’t helping African Americans – making his point with this – uh, historical analogy.

“…you have this 21st century plantation that has been out there where the Democratic Party has forever taken the black vote for granted and you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation… I'm here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”

MSNBC’s Tamron Hall gave Waters a chance to respond.

Waters: “It’s a little bit outrageous… As a matter of fact, Mr. West’s brother is here.  He found himself out of a job.  And he asked his brother to help him, and his brother told him to come to me, to come to us…”
Hall: “It seems that people these days will say anything for a sound clip, and obviously their actions don’t match it.”

But is it a moot point? A Wall Street Journal columnist suggests – Mr. Obama’s support within the black community isn’t likely to go anywhere.

“…it’s quite obvious why Obama is ‘not in any black community’: He takes the black vote for granted. Upward of 85% of blacks have voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every presidential election of the past half-century.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment among African-Americans is nearly 16 percent. That – compared with the national rate of 9.1 percent.

Transcript by Newsy.