And finally, Senator Barack Obama was confronted Friday by a group of black activists during a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida. Three men from the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement raised a banner reading “What about the black community, Obama?” After the activists tried to disrupt the town hall meeting, Obama took a question from one of the men, Diop Olugbala.

Diop Olugbala: “In the face of the numerous attacks that are made against the African community or the black community by the same US government that you aspire to lead — and we’re talking about attacks like the subprime mortgage that you spoke of that wasn’t just a general ambiguous kind of phenomenon, but a phenomenon that targeted the African community and Latino community; attacks like the killing of Sean Bell by the New York Police Department and Javon Dawson right here in St. Petersburg by the St. Pete police; and the Jena Six and Hurricane Katrina, and the list goes on — in the face of all these attacks that are clearly being made on the African community, why is it that you have not had the ability to not one time speak to the interests and even speak on behalf of the oppressed and exploited African community or black community in this country?”

Barack Obama responded by saying he has spoken out about every issue raised.

Barack Obama: “I’ve been talking about predatory lending for the last two years in the United States Senate and worked to pass legislation to prevent it when I was in the state legislature. And I have repeatedly said that many of the predatory loans that were made in the mortgage system did target African American and Latino communities. I’ve said that repeatedly. Number two, Jena Six — I was the first candidate to get out there and say this is wrong, that there’s an injustice that’s been done and we need to change it. That’s number two. When Sean Bell got shot, I put out a statement immediately saying this is a problem.”