A few weeks ago, MSNBC aired a special entitled "The Black Agenda" that purported to be a sober discussion of the challenges facing Black America and possible solutions. As usually happens with cable news, though, the program devolved into a muddle of shouting matches, uninformed assertions, and unproductive discussion. The principle achievement of the program was to bring to light challenges in the Black community - a fifteen percent unemployment rate, chronic poverty, etc. - that are rarely discussed in the national media. There was one moment in the broadcast in particular, however, that not only shined light upon the political challenges facing African-Americans, but upon the fundamental misunderstandings that Americans hold about our democracy.

The moment came when civil rights leader Al Sharpton and public intellectual Cornel West got into a coarse argument regarding Obama's failure to address Black economic suffering. West placed all of the blame for a lack of progress on the Black agenda squarely upon Obama's shoulders. For West, it is Obama's fault that government has not addressed the economic challenges plaguing Black America, and no one else's. His argument is basically that the Black president should automatically move to address Black concerns, regardless of the political realities or consequences.

Remarkably, Sharpton was the reasonable one in this exchange. Reflecting a better understanding of the current political climate, Sharpton insisted that Obama alone should not be blamed for lack of progress on the Black agenda. Rather, he said (with a troubling lack of self-awareness) that the failure rests with all Black leaders who have failed to move Black issues to the political forefront. His point was that Obama, as the President of the United States, does not have the responsibility to advance the Black agenda. That responsibility rests on the shoulders of Black political leaders, activists, and intellectuals such as Mr. West.

Sharpton's point reveals a larger truth about our political system that Black leaders seem to have forgotten: as a minority group, Blacks cannot rely on the government to take up their agenda willingly. Political pressure must be applied to government, so that our leaders cannot ignore the Black community. If they choose to ignore the urgent problems facing African-Americans, they must be made to understand that such a choice carries a heavy political price. This is a reality that applies to all interest groups and agendas, but Black leaders seem to have forgotten it.

Mr. West's opinion fails to take that reality into account. In his mind, President Obama exists a the sole political actor capable of bringing economic relief to African-Americans. He doesn't factor in the failure of Black politicians such as Bobby Rush, Charles Rangel, Maxine Waters, and others in forcing Black suffering into the national spotlight. Neither does he take into account the timidness of Black intellectuals such as himself, Glenn Loury, and others when it comes to drawing attention to and decrying unemployment and poverty in the Black community. Thus, he fails to understand that the hopes of an entire community cannot be pinned upon one person, no matter how historic or transformative we view his presidency to be.

All of this is to say that Mr. West doesn't seem to understand, at least in this instance, that any solution to the economic challenges facing the Black community cannot be enacted by a single person - let alone an embattled Democratic president who sometimes has trouble crafting a coherent political message. Any solution to Black unemployment and poverty will take a concerted effort by activists, advocates, Black lawmakers, intellectuals, and sympathetic political leaders. People of Mr. West's ilk don't seem interested in building such a coalition, though. They persistently peddle a political fantasy that seeks to discredit President Obama while doing nothing to advance African-American interests.

Perhaps most importantly, people like Mr. West continue to frame Black interests in terms that are not conducive to progress. The simple fact is that even the best economic arguments will fall on deaf ears when they are couched in racial rhetoric. Even if the racial rhetoric is absent, conservatives will misconstrue calls for targeted jobs programs as racial or discriminatory in nature. In order to better communicate to the national community and head off race-baiting politicians, Black leaders must re-cast the debate in terms that all Americans can understand: African-Americans are American first and foremost, and any policies that help them are not helping some inscrutable Other at the expense of everyone else. Rather, those policies are helping fellow Americans who are sorely in need. Furthermore, it must be emphasized that the very same policies that will help reduce suffering in Black communities can also be applied to the nation at large, and to great advantages.

As long as leaders such as Mr. West continue to lay the Black agenda at Obama's feet and insist that he take up the cause single-handedly, though, there is little hope for change. African-Americans must realize that no politician can do for them what they must do for themselves - exercise the political power accorded to all democratic citizens.