A few weeks ago, I wrote a column on the uneasiness of being a young black male in America. I think it is high time I reviewed President Barack Obama’s impact on black America so far.

At the height of the Ferguson riots, I read something very interesting from The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Dowd accused Obama of “outsourcing race”. This is something she had thought unimaginable yet there it was happening.  According to Dowd, the President never made it down to Ferguson but instead dispatched the Attorney General Eric Holder. Given that Al Sharpton was added to the mix, you can see why Dowd gets this impression.

Generally, I would say that the President has performed well on race. For many African Americans just his mere election to the presidency of the United States was enough. It broke the spiritual stranglehold that might have existed in many hearts that there were thresholds that blacks couldn’t cross.

America’s original sin of slavery and its latter day forms like segregation had implanted these barriers in their hearts.

The President led everyone to the Promised Land that Martin Luther King Jr. had dreamed about.

However, I do believe there are a few things that can be improved on. I know it is difficult for Obama straddling the line between Commander-in-Chief and “Brother-in-Chief”. The Commander-in-Chief has multiple constituencies that include the whole of America and as leader of the free world it even extends beyond America’s borders.

During Ferguson, he had to deal with Vladimir Putin and the Islamic State in Syria and al-Sham (ISIS). I can understand why he wasn’t there at the beginning of the crisis in Ferguson but an appearance there would have been great. I think he did a better job with Trayvon Martin, talking about how the young man could have been him and not just his son.

Despite Maureen Dowd’s accusation, I would not say that the President is that far removed, compared to other black conservatives. The first family has been a positive role model for many African Americans. The President started an initiative to help young men. I am thinking he will probably put more effort in this in a post-presidency life.

There have been other black figures in prominent positions in government. In some ways, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice don’t count. These are brothers and sisters who have made it – and good for them for making it.

They have adopted conservative positions that make them assume that anybody who is not going to college hasn’t really worked hard. While they might admit the role of race in America, they might believe it is significantly reduced, which is not the case.

The biggest determining factor for graduating college is not really your GPA but who your parents are. It explains why they are the minority black presence in the Republican Party. If your parents went to college you are more likely to graduate college. How is that possible if most of your men are incarcerated?

Condoleezza Rice came from a middle class family, during a time black people ate at different lunch counters from white men, Rice’s parents both went to college. I am going on this diatribe because Rice, Powell and Ben Carson belong to a group of black conservatism that you might be familiar with.

That is if you watched “The Cosby Show”, which was revolutionary in bringing a different image of black America to television screens. It depicted a black upper middle class family that lived in the city. The father was a doctor, mom a lawyer and children going to college.

Growing up, Ben Carson was my hero. He led the team that led to the first successful separation of conjoined twins at the head. He was a black kid from the ghetto who made it as head of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John’s Hopkins. It was a mouthful and I remember loving him.

Raised in poverty by a single mother, Carson and his brother overcame a lot of challenges. So I cannot say that he doesn’t get it. But seeing him now on Fox News as a talking head and reading his columns in The Washington Times, I am a tad disappointed with the good doctor. Carson has been embraced by tea party crackpots who see him envisioning the values of an America long since gone, but who’s idealized past they want to reclaim. Indeed Carson’s latest book is titled “America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great”.

The “Brother-in-Chief” has two more years in office. I hope he takes full advantage of the opportunity afforded to him to bring more meaningful change. The ball is in his court, I hope he doesn’t outsource it.