Last year, when Sen. Barack Obama was making the circuit of conventions for journalists of color, the question was whether the prospective candidate was black enough. This year, when he appeared before the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago, the presumptive Democratic nominee joked, “I’m too black.”

Obama appeared Sunday at the close of the convention in a session aired live on CNN to talk about his observations from his trip to the Middle East and Europe, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. economy and questions from the journalists about faith, affirmative action, immigration and apologies for slavery and to Native Americans.

About 6,000 journalists convened in Chicago last week to discuss coverage of communities of color and the status of journalists of color in the news industry, particularly given a recent wave of buyouts and layoffs that cost 1,000 jobs in June alone, according to some estimates.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a coalition of four national associations -- NABJ, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National American Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association -- that places its total representation around 10,000. The organization challenges the journalism industry to make its staffs reflect the country’s diversity, and it advocates for fair and accurate news coverage about people of color.

Obama originally had been expected to appear at a town hall session on Thursday at the convention, but the overseas trip and other commitments by Republican opponent John McCain’s campaign disrupted those plans.

Obama’s camp rescheduled the senator from Illinois for a brief 30-minute session on Sunday. Despite several invitations from UNITY, McCain’s campaign did not squeeze in an appearance for the candidate.

Obama told Sunday’s audience his foreign tour was important because America needed to “project ourselves on the world stage with a sense of humility, a sense that we are listening to others. One of the problems with our foreign policy is the sense that we’re very clear about our own interests but not so clear about other people’s interests. And that makes us less effective in advancing our security and the issues that are important to us.”

He also said he believed that the visit made world leaders “confident I know what I’m talking about and what I’m doing.”

Obama also took on the criticism that his trip was “audacious,” despite that McCain was not subjected to such scrutiny when the Arizona senator went on a similar trip after capturing the Republican nomination.

“Now I admit we did it really well, but that shouldn’t be a strike against me,” Obama said. “If I had been bungling and fumbling my way through this, I would have been criticized for that.”

Reaction to questions directed to Obama was somewhat mixed, but largely positive among attendees, who included non-journalists and communication students, as well as working journalists.

Asked if an Obama administration would issue an apology to Native Americans for centuries of mistreatment by the American government, the Illinois senator said he would want to look at the nation’s historic treatment of all groups of color and that he would consult with those impacted before crafting a blanket statement.

Further, he said, “the more important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds,” noting that by “every socio-economic indicator Native Americans are doing worse” than other Americans.

“I’m more concerned about delivering a better life,” Obama added. “The best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people that are unemployed.”

“I think he was just put on the spot. I think he did the best he could,” said Jeremy Coby, a bookkeeper and photographer for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes newspaper.

“He did address the issue,” Brenda Sam, a circulation employee at the same newspaper, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “We are concerned about health issues and the economy.”

Leonard Pitts, a columnist for The Miami Herald, said, however, he was unhappy with Obama’s response to his question about how the candidate has handled portrayals of him as a Muslim and whether he had basically thrown Muslims under the bus to pacify critics.

Obama said it was a “no-win kind of question” because if he corrects anyone who identifies him as Muslim, he risks leaving the impression that there is something wrong with being Muslim. The senator said he has addressed the issue previously, most notably in his 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention.

“I have visited mosques here in my community, repeatedly, and met with Muslim leaders on a wide range of occasions,” he said. “So what I would ask is that I am treated like other candidates in terms of expectations, and that people look at my entire record.”

Asked if he could have gotten as far as had if he were Muslim, Obama replied, “That’s a hypothetical that I don’t know how to answer. I will tell you this: The American people are more tolerant and more open-minded than I think a lot of the pundits give them credit for.”

Pitts said Obama didn’t really address the question.

“It seemed to take him a little bit off stride,” Pitts told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “I know he mentioned he has visited mosques, but unless The Washington Post is lying, according to its reporting, none of these have been since the campaign began. It could have been ‘I visited a mosque when I was 15’ type of things.

“I understand his problem, but part of the thing that has made him so successful was his willingness to show some political courage and to speak truth to power,” Pitts said, who wondered whether Obama’s willingness to speak up has been reined in, to some degree, when it comes to Muslim-Americans.
 
Pitts said he wanted to see Obama challenge those who asked if he is Muslim by asking, “What if I were?” To do otherwise, Pitts said, “is to let the bigots win, and as people of color, I don’t think you should ever let the bigots win.”

Asked whether he thought too many immigrants had been allowed into the U.S. and “who should be allowed” into the country, Obama said the issue wasn’t whether to let immigrants in but to develop an official policy that makes it easier to become legal and discourages illegal immigration and penalizes employers who use illegal immigrants to avoid paying fair wages. He also said there should be greater equity across the board for immigrants as well, pointing out that “it’s much harder for Haitians to immigrate, despite similar circumstances in need” as other groups that have been admitted legally.

“I think he was very good,” said Carlos Ardila, a student at Columbia College in Chicago. “I didn’t like that fact that there were only four questions and they were probably diluted and talked about and discussed in advance.”

There was criticism that the Obama session lasted only 30 minutes and only four reporters in the audience, who were pre-selected, were allowed to ask one question each. Some noted members of the ethnic media were not among the selected questioners and suggested that the questions were pre-screened.

“I think when something like this becomes an issue of time control, you have to have that kind of (format),” said Ivan Roman, executive director of NAHJ, one of the UNITY partners.

“The questions are not picked in advance,  they’re not vetted, and they have to focus on questions that are not going to be asked on the campaign trail,” Roman told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Roman said questions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are pertinent “because our communities are affected and they have an economic aspect. But the Native Americans have to ask about an apology because no one else is going to ask it.”