I think the worse part of people claiming that Barack Obama isn't addressing "Black Issues" is the presumption that they know--and can define--what actually constitutes "Black Issues." So if you don't think the Michael Bell and the Jena 6 are somehow civil rights icons than somehow you aren't interested in "black issues." I'm thinking about this as I watch this video of these fools disrupting an Obama event because he isn't addressing "the numerous attacks that are made against the African community or the black community."
Hmm, maybe. I don't so much have a problem with these cats calling Obama out--I have a problem with them noit coming correct. Almost every charge they lodged is patently false. If you want to hit him on something ask him what is he plans to do about the justice system and the wanton jailing of black men on BS drug charges. I'm not sure if that's a "Black Issue." I think there are plenty of "Black People" who are tough on crime, and would disagree with my position. I stand on it because I--as an individual thinker--believe that it's best. Not because I claim to be a stand in for all "Black People."
UPDATE: Here's video of Obama and the hecklers. I like the old guy who snatched down the sign
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I'm not down with heckling, so I'm glad they stopped that. But I have no problem with black people questioning Obama more on a regular basis. I hate that he (and the Dem. Party) can so take our votes for granted. I DO want him to talk MORE about fixing the racist criminal justice system, for example, and the economic problems of our inner cities, and the wack tax code that helps lead to the sorry state of many of our inner city schools, and...
I'm also bothered by the way these were "attacks that are made against the African community or the black community, by the same U.S. government that you aspire to lead." as though George Bush planned the Sean Bell shooting, the Jena incident and the subprime mortgage crisis. You could argue that government action causes the subprime crisis, but it was mainly an unintended consequence of a misguided push for higher rates of home ownership.
I'm coming at this as a non-black person, so that should be the caveat on my statement (I'm sure my bar for Obama on black issues would change if I were black, or at least my take would be more nuanced).
Taking the long view of what he's done in his life, it seems (at least to me) like black issues are extremely important to him.
I think this because of
- his choice to be a community organizer in Chicago.
- his work as a civil rights attourney.
- this running Project Vote! in Chicago 1992. His work with Project Vote! permanently changed the racial makeup of who votes in Chicago. And that is quite specifically how Obama thought about his work with Project Vote.
There's a great article on it from Chicago magazine, which was written in 1993, well before Obama ever held elected office.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/
"By 1991, when Obama, law degree in hand, returned to Chicago to work on a book about race relations-having turned his back on the Supreme Court clerkship that is almost a given for the law review's top editor-black voter registration and turnout in the city were at their lowest points since record keeping began.
Six months after he took the helm of Chicago's Project Vote!, those conditions had been reversed."
And this is what Barack said about the results in 1993:
"If the politicians in place now at city and state levels respond to African-American voters' needs, we'll gladly work with and support them. If they don't, we'll work to replace them. That's the message I want Project Vote! to have sent.""
"'We won't let the momentum die,' he says. 'I'll take personal responsibility for that. We plan to hold politicians' feet to the flames in 1993, to remind them that we can produce a bloc of voters large enough that it cannot be ignored.'"
Also, his "heart-and-soul" bill in the Illinois Senate was about curbing police brutality by requiring police officers to videotape interrogations (to prevent them terrorizing people they had arrested). This is of course an everyone issue, not necessarily a black issue, but still police brutality is an issue that disproportionately affects young black men. It's telling, to me, that this is the battle he decided to fight as a legislator. And won, too. He even got the police on board through heavy negotiating, in the end, and they of course didn't like the bill.
I get being concerned about what he is and isn't saying on the campaign trail about a specific issue, because the long view of what someone's done in their life doesn't mean they won't start selling out as an important politician with more at stake.
After all, Obama's choice to be a constitutional law professor doesn't fit with his selling-out on his FISA compromise vote. He must surely know that was a bs choice.
But I do personally think the long view, and what choices people make when there isn't an election at stake, tell you more about who they are than the words they speak on the campaign trail.