I know that people wish that some of us would just stop complaining and let Barack Obama go on and win this thing without any critique of what is going on. But I just can’t do it, if not for the purpose of encouraging Blacks to achieve a new level of the use of political strategy in presidential campaigns, then to do so for the historical record.

In this case, it is worth noting that the Democratic Party platform that will be taken to the convention has now become a document that reflects the nominee’s positions on a number of things.

The most interesting battle in the platform committee was between the forces of Hillary Clinton and those of Barack Obama around the wording of the platform plank on health care. Clinton wanted language that expressed her desire for universal health care that is mandated, Obama’s emphasis on making health care more affordable for adults while covering all children. In the committee, although the language moved closer to the Clinton view of the government’s role in insuring that health care is affordable, the notion of affordability was clearly the dominant theme.

So, this was a negotiated issue in which both sides seemed to win, but there should be some worry about the relatively anemic position of the means by which government would make healthcare affordable. Absent this, Obama’s position as included in the platform can be read to continue to privilege the insurance companies and pharmaceuticals that set the price.

Another telltale sign of Obama’s footprint in the platform is the inclusion of a section on the role of fathers. And like his other forays into this arena, he seems to be talking to fathers as though they were just lying around, not accepting their responsibility because they don’t wish to.

There’s no hint of the reality that although some fathers, especially Black fathers, are negligent, most of them are under significant stress from under-education, poverty, joblessness, prison records and the like. There is nothing in that section that proposes to alleviate this stress so they could practically assume more of their responsibilities to their families.

Then, when you look at the entire platform, African-Americans are mentioned once—in the section on their disproportionate exposure to subprime home loans. We have come a long way from earlier versions of the Democratic Party platform that cited the Fannie Lou Hammer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others whose exploits paved the way for substantial participation by Black delegates and thereby democratized the Democratic Party to make an Obama possible. This version is rather anemic, not mentioning African-Americans in the section on “A More Perfect Union” at all.

However, it does mention Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, Americans with Disabilities and women—indeed; the role of women was addressed throughout the platform document. But in the sections that argue for a prohibition on hate crimes or profiling, it includes the general prohibition of these acts of racial, ethnic, religious reasons—not mentioning the disproportionate impact on Blacks.

Moreover, the section on affirmative action does not mention African-Americans at all, and this could also be forgiven, except for the fact the Supreme Court has created a notion of “diversity” that does not privilege the historical disadvantage of Blacks. Moreover, Barack Obama has even hinted at a conception of affirmative action is that is class-based.

Now, I am aware of the function of the platform as a document that is general and not very policy specific and that it is intended to unite the party around common themes. All I am saying is that if it can be so specific as to support, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the White House Initiative on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, ensure accurate counting of the “growing Latino population, oppose the Defense Against Marriage Act for gays, support the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, there should be some mention of African-Americans since, among all of the “minorities” constitute the largest voting bloc. I know, don’t say anything, just ride.

(Dr. Ron Walters is distinguished leadership scholar and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park.)