Neither failure nor success

The statistics speak for themselves: Since US President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the lives of African-Americans have not fundamentally improved. Compared with the white majority, blacks are still disproportionally affected by poverty, unemployment and violence, their educational and career opportunities are poor and their life expectancy is shorter.

Admittedly, to expect Obama to manage in five years what no previous president has been able to accomplish - namely the balancing of living standards and the creation of a post-racial society - is foolhardy. But even if the bar is set lower, Obama's record is disappointing. Has Obama launched any great national initiative to improve the situation of black people? Even his most ardent supporters would have to admit that there have not been any.

Obama has held back

In fact, when it comes to issues important for African-Americans, issues like affirmative action, high unemployment rates among blacks and violence, Obama has held back, not only politically but even rhetorically. Of course, Obama gave a moving speech in the case of Trayvon Martin. But even though this rhetorically gifted president has been able to speak about the US relationship with Islam, there has been no comparable speech on the current status of African-American society.

Yet it's still too easy to simply call Obama a failure, as his growing band of critics have done when evaluating his handling of the numerous national and international crises. To fairly judge the first black US president, we have to expand our horizons. When Obama entered the White House, the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, not to mention wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under pressure

In his first year in office, the world economy was teetering on the brink while at home the US unemployment rate climbed over 10 percent for the first time in decades. And while the war in Iraq was subsiding (at the time), the conflict in Afghanistan was gaining momentum and resulting in dramatically increased US casualties. This is not a justification for the president's actions, but provides a context for how precarious the situation was when Obama took office, and how much pressure the new president was facing.

Certainly, the counter argument that the crisis in the American labor market has disproportionately affected blacks, and requires special measures, is valid. But Obama's statement, that he could not just make laws to help blacks, speaks to his personal attitude on the subject and his way of doing politics.

Obama's style

Supporters of the president point out that blacks disproportionately benefit from measures Obama has introduced, such as extended health insurance or the proposed minimum wage increase. This is true, and corresponds exactly to Obama's cautious political style, which has seen him avoid advancing individual, possibly politically controversial measures. But it is not the great political plan many had expected from the first black president. Even here one must remember: the Obama of today is not the supposed savior of his first presidential campaign - he's a normal politician.

Obama's contribution to the improvement of race relations should not be measured in his daily political acts or major policy speeches, as it is much larger. With his historic election in 2008, his re-election in 2012 and his overall mixed record as president to date, Obama has done something none of his 43 predecessors could do: He has not only shown that a black American can be president, but he has proved that a black American can be just as mediocre a president as a white American.