Barack Obama is a black man. Did anyone notice?

[EFerrari]

Barack Obama is a black man. Did anyone notice? He's not only our token "first black president" in waiting. He's a genuine, self-identified, black man. With all that means right now, right here, today, to him and to all of us.

It means, for example, that he knows other black men. He's talked to them, broken bread with them, argued with them and beat them at pick up games if not at bowling. They have shared their successes and supported each other in struggle. Who knew black men might hang out together? Someone alert the media.

It also means that, because of who he is and because of the things he values, he's worked in the black community. He has tended to it just as all our sons tend to our communities if they are right thinking, right acting, right loving people. And that means, he loves that community, loves its beauty, its ugly, and that chip on its shoulder because you know, sometimes you need that chip to get you through trouble. (I'd rather have a chip on my shoulder than nothing at all to hang on to when something just right there is needed in the absence of a cultural highway or of institutional support or of community resources.)

When Obama says he wants to perfect our Union, he might sound somewhat ethereal to some of his listeners. Perfection is colorless, isn't it? There are some of us who hope perfection is the relief from coping with difference, with things we don't know or people we don't understand or practices and rituals that are not ours.

I don't think Obama is saying that we should forget who we are, or who he is, in order to get to that more perfect union. We've had enough of the pretense in this country that we've overcome racial tensions. In fact, we have a surplus of pretense. The Pentagon could shoot pretense into outer space every day (which they may do anyway) and we'd still have plenty on our hands. Well, maybe there is a virtue in "fake it till you make it" -- but, that virtue depends upon knowing that you are faking it. And in being honest about where you are on the road to Making It.

America is a funny little place. We are taught to survive as individual units. We don't do families as well as some countries do, and, we are worse at doing groups like communities, let alone subgroups, like ethnic communities. That has something to do with the Puritans who got here first and basically said, you're on your own, people. And it's also about the hype that this is America, we are all Americans - as if we were so many Navy beans in a pot. But when you think about it, being an American usually involves also being a lot of other things, all in one package, all in one skin. We are Heinz 57 -- that's who we are.

Our America dusts off a founding resentment to greet each wave of immigrants. It's what we do. And the most stinging, most enduring resentment is reserved for the wholly unwilling immigrants that survived the Middle Passage. We may be unforgiving of field workers that cross the Rio Grande but that's nothing like the not so latent hostility this nation harbors for those people who originally outed the limitations of American democracy. They might have built our Capitol but we sure don't want to know their black ghosts hang out around that white and green monument. Or at very least, we feel deeply shamed by those shades. We are a people bound by history to the worst in human nature, by human nature, to human nature. May we someday find the strength in our human nature to ask forgiveness and to forgive ourselves.

In that context, it's completely unsurprising that the American corporate media fans racial tensions to engage their viewers when we have the audacity to run a black man for our presidential nominee. It's no surprise at all that Senator Obama's opposition uses the race issue to get attention, let alone support. This is one of our national themes. This is what we do. We've organized whole industries and major cities and domestic policies around the ongoing national narrative of how we live with the idea of race. What is one primary season -- a drop in our national bucket.

I have a great deal of faith in Barack Obama. Not in his relative conservatism or even, in his ability to wrestle with the corruption in our government without breaking a sweat. I have faith in him, in that person. I have faith in him as someone who is a good son of the family, as someone who not only talks about a village but who worked for years in that "village" -- and, without a ghost writer at that. In someone who will not stage a thrice crowing cock to denounce Jeremiah Wright in time to control the next news cycle. Obama not only knows better and more deeply than that, he can do better than that. I expect him to do better than that.

I accept the fact that white people -- and, other people as well, people to whom establishment approval still doesn't stink rankly enough yet, people who are willing to walk through life cut off from good, deep breathing -- will go into convulsions every time some kind of "blackness" is exploited by the American media.

But you have to ask yourself, what were we thinking to back this very gifted man and yet, to be so unready to understand, in honest and in practical terms, what this contest would entail for all of us? Did we not anticipate these repugnant, race baiting "news days"? Did we not realize that a country built by slavery would, at some level, rebel at taking the last step away from that horror and into a new, different day, in imagining a black man as its leader? Perhaps there are changes, however slow, so painful that the enduring organism just balks -- no matter if that change is the surest way to health and wholeness.

There is no way I can support Obama without also supporting the mission of Jeremiah Wright or of Trinity church or of all the children who look up to both of these men. To try to support one without respecting the other is just another form of repudiating both and all of us, of failing those children and of failing America in the most basic way.

This is our story. We are writing it. This is our choice to make. Let's make a good one for the shades of all our fore-bearers, for the children. We can do that.

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[msongs]

2. the MISSION of wright and his church is to convert everyone to Jesus or you will go to hell. nt

[azmouse]

4. If you don't believe in Hell why worry about what a minister says?

It doesn't affect you.

[H2O Man]

8. I would add

that Rev. Wright does not have the agenda the person incorrectly attributed to him.

[EFerrari]

10. He certainly does not. n/t

[azmouse]

19. Exactly.

Thanks for adding that.

[H2O Man]

20. Liberation theology

is a progressive force.

[EFerrari]

9. Too late.

:)

[me b zola]

13. So have you not been paying attention, or are you being willfully ignorant?

If you had been paying any attention in the last 24 hours you would know that Rev Wright has worked with in the past, and continues to work with people of all of the different faith traditions.

[rox63]

26. You have no idea what you are talking about

And you obviously know nothing about the UCC denomination or Rev. Wright.

[stillcool]

31. The Catholic Church too!!...

[slackmaster]

3. I regard him as a mixed-race man

He's just as white as he is black.

[Bucky]

38. There's no black America or white America. It's all just....

[BlooInBloo]

47. It's funny how white folks make up rules about who's black and white when it suits them...

... ignoring all reality of living in America.

Huh! There's no black people! And if there's no black people, then there's no racism! Woohoo!

Denying racism by denying the existence of American black folks - by god white folks are creative.

[Two Americas]

61. you are right on that

If we pretend that it doesn't exist it will go away, must be the thinking.

Drives me nuts when I hear white folks say "I don't even see color!" and congratulate themselves on that. Or say "I don't care is a person is green or purple or...." Where are these green and purple people white folks love so much?

[BlooInBloo]

65. Colorblind racism is such a wonderful thing - heh!

Colorblind racism: http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=144

And "black people are freakishly colored, like green and purple people would be" is definitely another good one.

[shadowknows69]

93. Ok, I've probably uttered the "I don't see color" cliche myself before

I prefer to use the term "One race, the human race" now but I hope that doesn't make me an "irresponsible white person" in the words of Huey Freeman. I am not, however, ignorant of the fact that racial tension still exists on both sides and I am genuinely interested in furthering the cause of easing those tensions.

Tell me then, sincerely, what can a white man do? How should I act?

[Two Americas]

99. talk about it

I think talking about it is powerful, and you are willing to talk about it and that is great. Knowing that we don't know everything and admitting that is a good first step, so I will say that I don't know - I don't have the answers, I don't have the last word on this.

Here is something I notice, shadowknows69, just because of my experiences as a performer - Sunday mornings are still the most segregated time of the week in America. I have seen too many times when people of color were mistreated in all-white churches, and I so rarely see white people in Black churches - where, in my experience, they are entirely and open-heartedly welcome.

Wherever people are united in a common cause - athletic teams, combat, musical projects - where there are shared goals and a commitment to a greater good, I see people's attitudes about race become transformed.

The burden for racial reconciliation is on white people; I think that is important to understand, and it is not so much a matter of what to do as it is to recognize what we are already doing - avoiding each other, living lives that revolve around strict racial segregation and justifying that in various ways, you know?

It is unacceptable and outrageous that America is still so segregated, and that people are still persecuted and abused and held back because of skin color. Anything we can do to break this down, any time we can speak out against this, we must, to the best of our abilities starting right now, right where we are today.

As I said I don't know all of the answers, but those are a few of my thoughts.

[slackmaster]

67. Nice trio of Straw Men

They go together quite well, but they are all Straw Men with respect to my comment.

... ignoring all reality of living in America.

If you want to talk about the real difficulties many black Americans face as a result of instituationalized racism, the life of United States Senator Barack Obama is about as weak of an example as you could come up with.

[BlooInBloo]

70. Spoken like a true white man....

EDIT: Just for one example, amongst jillions, Obama can't even count on the Secret Service to *try* to save his life:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3219504

Please tell me more about how easy black folks have it. Please.

[slackmaster]

71. Your attempted Red Herring distraction is hereby noted

:hi:

I think it's an oversimplification, an act of intellectual laziness to label as complex a person as Barack Obama "a black man" and leave it at that, just let that be the main way you identify the man.

I'm not denying that the man is black. I can see what he looks like, and it's how he identifies himself. But there is much more to him than that.

[BlooInBloo]

73. hahaha! Riiiiight... It's just *me* who so labels him. hahaha! I'm such a dick that way.

[slackmaster]

75. MY decision to vote for him had nothing to do with his race or gender

You're the one with a problem here.

[Two Americas]

59. that is false

Ever since the Obama campaign started I have been seeing this false statement crop up every now and then.

"Black" is not some sort of pedigree, and in fact there is no genetic basis to justify sorting people into these groups called "races" at all. It is arbitrary and artificial. That is fundamental to understanding the concept of race and and to being enlightened on the subject of racism. The dominant group assigns people to "Black" based on superficial physical characteristics. Human beings who are relegated to this category then suffer as a result of that. No amount of "white blood" will guarantee immunity from being seen as "Black" by whites and suffering as a result of that.

[donheld]

85. Do you know about the "One Drop Rule?"

[slackmaster]

94. I don't agree wtih it

:hi:

[FrenchieCat]

5. Thank you.......

[SeattleGirl]

6. Sssssssh! :everyone is trying to pretend they don't see his color:

I kid, of course.

Your points are spot on, and well said!

[EFerrari]

46. LOL "Return of the Ghost of Barack Obama"

:rofl:

[LakeSamish706]

7. That was a great post... Highly recommended. n/t

[panader0]

11. Off to the greatest expat! Very good post

The one thing that bugs me is that if a man is half black and half white, like Obama, he is BLACK! If a man is one quarter black and three quarters white, he is BLACK! Even an eighth. The whites (and I am 7/8 white or so) seem to think that any blemish on the race makes you colored, whatever color. Why is Barack black (one half) instead of white (one half)??? Now, how would this logic apply to Hillary??

[EFerrari]

22. Don't tell Hillary but we are all African.

Talk about throwing your base under the bus. :)

[Two Americas]

66. "One Drop of Blood"

Excerpts from "One Drop of Blood,"
Lawrence Wright
The New Yorker, July 24, 1994

Thomas Jefferson supervised the original census, in 1790. The population then was broken down into free white males, free white females, other persons (these included free blacks and "taxable Indians," which meant those living in or around white settlements), and slaves. How unsettled this country has always been about its racial categories is evident in the fact that nearly every census since has measured race differently. For most of the nineteenth century, the census reflected an American obsession with miscegenation. The color of slaves was to be specified as "B," for black, and "M," for mulatto. In the 1890 census, gradations of mulattos were further broken down into quadroons and octoroons. After 1920, however, the Census Bureau gave up on such distinctions, estimating that three-quarters of all blacks in the United States were racially mixed already, and that pure blacks would soon disappear. Hence-forth anyone with any black ancestry at all would be counted simply as black.

Actual interracial marriages, however, were historically rare. Multiracial children were often marginalized as illegitimate half-breeds who didn't fit comfortably into any racial community. This was particularly true of the off spring of black-white unions. "In my family, like many families with African-American ancestry, there is a history of multiracial offspring associated with rape and concubinage," G. Reginald Daniel, who teaches a course in multiracial identity at the University of California at Los Angeles, says. "I was reared in the segregationist South. Both sides of my family have been mixed for at least three generations. I struggled as a child over the question of why I had to exclude my East Indian and Irish and Native American and French ancestry, and could include only African."

Until recently, people like Daniel were identified simply as black because of a peculiarly American institution known informally as "the one-drop rule," which defines as black a person with as little as a single drop of "black blood." This notion derives from a long discredited belief that each race had its own blood type, which was correlated with physical appearance and social behavior. The antebellum South promoted the rule as a way of enlarging the slave population with the children of slave holders. By the nineteen-twenties, in Jim Crow America the one- drop rule was well established as the law of the land. It still is, according to a United States Supreme Court decision as late as 1986, which refused to review a lower court's ruling that a Louisiana woman whose great-great-great-great-grandmother had been the mistress of a French planter was black--even though that proportion of her ancestry amounted to no more than three thirty- seconds of her genetic heritage. "We are the only country in the world that applies the one-drop rule, and the only group that the one-drop rule applies to is people of African descent," Daniel observes.

People of mixed black-and-white ancestry were rejected by whites and found acceptance by blacks. Many of the most notable "black" leaders over the last century and a half were "white" to some extent, from Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass (both of whom had white fathers) to W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (who had an Irish grandmother and some American Indian ancestry as well). The fact that Lani Guinier, Louis Farrakhan, and Virginia's former governor Douglas Wilder are defined as black, and define themselves that way, though they have light skin or "European" features, demonstrates how enduring the one-drop rule has proved to be in America, not only among whites but among blacks as well. Daniel sees this as "a double-edged sword." While the one-drop rule encouraged racism, it also galvanized the black community.

"But the one-drop rule is racist," Daniel says. "There's no way you can get away from the fact that it was historically implemented to create as many slaves as possible. No one leaped over to the white community--that was simply the mentality of the nation, and people of African descent internalized it.

http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/wright.html

[futureliveshere]

12. Brilliantly said. K&R. It is ALWAYS our choice.

[Kber]

14. Still?

[EFerrari]

25. Yep. He's still black.

:)

[nichomachus]

15. I don't know about that. There seems to be some question.

Opus the Penguin, in his strip yesterday, asked a deep philosophical question:

Is Obama a black man with a white mother -- or a white man with a black father?

Discuss . . . .

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Great Post

BTW....... you have to see this 82 year old Obama fan
ask Senator Obama a question about water supplies at a rally in NC today.


It is not on YouTube yet but here is a link to the story and the video
She was so impressive Obama asked her to be his running mate.



http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04/28/obama-pops-the-question-will-you-be-my-running-mate/

[blue sky at night]

32. Hey thanks for that....

and to top it off it was on the Fox News Website! I am really starting to like this guy, been supporting him since the primary season began.

[Ichingcarpenter]

41. I think it is a great video of her and Obama today

Sorry for the Fox link but it should hit youtube soon.
The story wasn't very bad either for faux.

I normally never link them as a news source but the video is worth seeing.

Didn't mean to highjack the thread the OP wrote a very good piece
which I nominated.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. RU KIDDING? I'm supporting an uppity guy with color for higher office?

well, let me just say that his behavior and presence in this contest has been good to very, very good. Not perfect, but no person could be. Not bad or fair, because for the most part, he has been on message and staying above the fray. As for that unspoken message that hill and bill have been sending,
his prima donna life, his being uppity, his "wright" problem? Only the MSM, some GOPers AND the most dedicated Hillaryians would believe that crap. And most of those votes were never coming his way.

Who knows what will happen in November, but until then, it is a great event unfolding before us. Not just here in the US, but in europe, africa and asia. Watching the growing pains, the race issues, and religious conflicts be resolved by a spasm of democracy is truly wondrous.

[H2O Man]

18. Good OP.

The goal should be equality based upon mutual respect. That does not mean we do not "see" that a person is male or female; or black, brown, red, yellow or white; or young or old; or any of the other things that we use to identify ourselves and others. It simply means that we consider the content of one's character first and foremost, and that we respect all of the various peoples of the family family.

[TahitiNut]

34. I'm sorry, but absolutely refuse to "Tolerate Diversity."

When I go to a Sunday Brunch, I cannot find it in my psyche to "tolerate" the diversity of foods and beverages. When I go to a restaurant, I have no sense of "tolerance" for the diversity of offerings on the menu. When I enjoy wild flowers, I have no comprehension of "tolerance" for the diversity of blooms.

Vive la difference.

I wallow in it. I'm like a kid in a toy store. There's almost nothing I love more than the MOST diverse community I can find, and the most diverse gathering of friends I can assemble.

My dream is a world where each and every person focused on the unique and special nature of EVERY person on the planet, especially themselves. Why would ANYONE want to be an imitation of somone else?

[EFerrari]

37. Television.

:rofl:

[JuniperLea]

58. TV Is King!!!

I wish I was the man with the mechanical heart
I'd conquer all my enemies alone
I'd tear the guys apart
then scatter the pieces

I wish I was the man in the soundproof booth
I wish I had a chance to stump the band
or maybe tell truth
and maybe I could win a color television

I really love my--television
I love to sit by--television
Can't live without my--television

TV is king
You're my everything

I wish I had the girl with the bouncy hair
We'd ride off in a brand new car
or fly a plane somewhere
like probably Jamaica

I brush my teeth, shampoo my hair, and shave my face
Apply the necessary aerosol
in the appropriate place
And we'll spend the night together watching television

I can't turn off my--television
Don't really know why--television
I understand my--television

You got your works in a drawer and your color's on track
You have to break away but you always come back
You make a hundred changes but you're always the same
You make me so excited and you make me so lame
You're just a tube full of gas and a box full of tin
But you show me your charms and I want to jump in
Oh if only your chassis was covered with skin
'Cause TV you're my everything

I really love my--television
I love to sit by--television
Can't live without my--television
I can't turn off my--television
Don't really know why--television
I understand my--television
I really love my--television

TV is king
You're my everything
TV is king

[JuniperLea]

55. Why?

Because they have no self worth.

Hmmm... Maybe that's why I couldn't join the Obama or the Clinton camps after my candidate dropped out... part of it anyway. I've seen posts from people in both camps that smacked of "fitting in" and nothing more. Parroting what they've read with no thoughts of their own. I'm the girl who ripped the "Calvin" label off her jeans so she wouldn't fit in the crowd... then after too many arguments with idiots about not wanting my ass to be a billboard, went back to Levi's... and ripped those red tabs off too.

The perfect way to drive me crazy would be to tell me I needed to fit in with any group. Ugh... :puke:

[TahitiNut]

63. I share the utter aversion to any commercial display on my clothing.

I've been known to take magic marker to my athletic shoes. :thumbsup: Try surviving in the miltary for nearly four years. I still refuse to wear anything green

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

62. If you were a "good" American, "good" Democrat, you'd like your pablum tepid.

American politics and culture is like Irish cooking. Throw everything in a pot and boil it until the flavor is gone.

[EFerrari]

77. LOL! As a kid, I was helper to a single man with kids.

He didn't think my Mexican cooking was real food.

He took a lot of pride in his own boiling, bless his heart.

lol

[Patsy Stone]

21. I heard that somewhere...

and I also know I'm supposed to be very, very afraid of a black man with strong opinions, because the TV told me so.

[EFerrari]

23. "Blow up your teevee!"

lol

:)

[Patsy Stone]

28. I have turned off cable news

(except for Keef) and I feel much better. I'm still not sure why I'm supposed to be afraid, because they didn't tell me that. So, for now, I'll just imagine I'll be sold into white slavery if Obama becomes president.

Oy...these people! :hi:

[me b zola]

24. I've also noticed that the pundits are desperate to separate Obama

from the Black community/vote. Have you heard the chorus of pundits proclaiming that Obama must denounce a respected leader in the Black community? Their hysterical, frothing at the mouth proclamations as to how Obama should "manage" his relationship with the Black community is beyond sickening.





edited because "heard" has a "d" in it.

[EFerrari]

27. Yes. And that is how this dysfunction continues.

Dehumanizing disrespect.

Not this time.

[H2O Man]

30. There are a lot

of "control issues" at play here. The machine wants to break Rev. Wright, and it is mighty upset that he dared to talk the way he talked today. Now they have to break him, or a lot of people are going to listen closer to him.

[me b zola]

44. It really is about the audacity to walk with your head up, isn't it?

More to your point, the machine was really po'd that Rev. Dr. Wright didn't "show humility". Did you hear their stunned responses to Wright's speech to the NAACP because they had actually anticipated Wright to come out slumped shouldered & apologetic? Rev Wright has been slandered by the press and yet he should be humble and apologize?

How dare those uppity Black men, they make the media and the rest of the machine nervous. How callous of them. </sarc>

[EFerrari]

49. Did you notice all the security he had today?

A lot of big bodies, and then the host asked everyone to stay in their seats until he left the room.

I'm glad they're being careful.

[H2O Man]

56. There have been

numerous threats made against him. This is a strange time. Many of the things people are doing for political gain are actually appealing to the darker impulses of this country.

[EFerrari]

68. Against him and against Trinity. Bomb threats

The spinners seem to have no idea, really, of the forces they are inviting.

[2rth2pwr]

29. Barack gets to choose what kind of people he associates with black or white or whatever.

We can choose to make up our own minds about what that says about him.

[Obamanaut]

40. I sorta get to make the same choices, don't you?. nt

[Dr Fate]

45. True- and recently, Hillary associates herself with white, "working class" voters.

AKA angry white swing voters who claim in exit polls that they "are not ready for a black president."

Voters who would swing over based on Willie Horton style association games and a few well placed & oft repeated smears that are designed to make voters focus on race.

Voters who are easily swayed into believing that the Democrat is racist, elitist and unpatriotic. In other words, future McCain voters.
LOL! They dont call 'em "swing voters" for nothin!!

Hillary gets to choose what kind of people she associates with- black or white or angry or racist. We can choose to make up our own minds about what that says about her.

[crankychatter]

33. I'm watching the National Press thing now

I don't get the panic whatsoever

jeesuz these folks sure live insulated lives

I can just imagine them... tommyknocker green glows... huddling over their computers in their cubicles... cringing inside their trenchcoats at bus stops when they see a Black person or a young person...

freaking completely the f**k out when they hear an "amen"

omg

I have to wonder if the good Pastor did a number before he stepped up to the microphone...

he was riffin... jazzed and standing up for himself


He said, regarding President Obama, "Come November, I'll be coming after YOU... because of American policies."

No quarter asked, none given... he speaks for ME.

[Vattel]

42. you nailed it

they must live INSULATED LIVES. In the real world people associate with all sorts of people with all sorts of opinions; and although I do think it is nuts to believe that AIDs is a govt. conspiracy, I also agree with the Reverend Wright that it is nuts to think that bombing nearly every major city in Japan during WWII was morally justified. More importantly, people who criticize Wright should at a minimum ask themselves whether they have done as much as him in terms of serving their country, caring for the poor, and promoting social justice.

[BenDavid]

35. Has obama during this campaign ever spoke about how he would

help the black community? I can recall Bill Clinton speaking about these issues in the 92 and 96 campaigns and during his 8 years.

I want to build a bridge where every 8-year-old can read a book on his or her own, where every 12-year-old in every classroom in America can log in on the Internet. And for the first time, I want the kids in the poorest urban classroom and the most isolated rural classrooms to have the same educational opportunity at the same level of quality in the same time as the children in the richest classes in America can. And we will do it in the next 4 years if we can build the right bridge to the 21st century.

I want you to help me build a bridge where we make 2 years of college just as universal in 4 years from now as a high school education is today. Now, that's a tax cut worth giving. Give people a tax cut for the cost of community college tuition. Let them have those 2 years of education. We will see the incomes go up. We will see people getting good jobs. And it will make a difference if we build the right kind of bridge to the 21st century. And I hope you'll help me do that.

I also want you to help me in this election period to remind America that for all of our 10 1/2 million new jobs, there are still people in places that have been left behind. I want you to remind America that you can't require people on welfare to go to work unless they have work.

I want you to help me to spark a vast new round of investments in our isolated inner-city areas which have been left behind, help me give the mayors and the others the power to create those jobs and create those opportunities by cleaning up the environment, creating investment incentives, and putting people to work. We cannot ever forget that there are still too many Americans who could no more come to this dinner than a man in the Moon because they're still looking for a job and they need one tomorrow and we need to do our best to make sure that they have their part of 21st century America as well.

Let me just say, for those of you who don't think we can do that, look at what's been done in the empowerment zones that have been created. Look at what's happened in Detroit where, when they became one of our empowerment zone cities, they raised $2 billion in private investment to go with our tax incentives and cash grants, and the unemployment rate in 3 years in Detroit - Detroit, a city I used to hear was gone - has dropped from 8 1/2 percent to less than 4 percent in Detroit, Michigan.

We can do this, folks. We can turn this around if you are committed and I am committed and, I might say, if we get the kind of Congress that will support the kind of policies that will enable us to move this country forward.

Remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner - Pres. Bill Clinton speech

[Dr Fate]

43. Bill said that over a decade ago- what does Hillary say specifically about black folks right now?

Fair question, no?

If you are going to ask what Obama is saying about the black community right now, shouldnt your counter examples concern what Hillary is saying abut the black community right now, as opposed to what Bill said over a decade ago?

Besides using "Willie Horton" style guilt by assocaiation techniques against Obama- or having surrogates talking about "Race Cards" to stir up angry white swing-voters , what has Hillary said about the black community during the 2008 primary?

SOOO- before we tell you Obama's postitions on helping out the black community, shouldnt you give us Hillary's more recent, 2008 primary era speeches on the black community instead of of Bill's old stuff?

[EFerrari]

76. Her implicit position seems to be they can go straight to hell

because she doesn't think she needs them to win the primary.

More DLC pseudo math. It's worked so well for them so far!

[Dr Fate]

97. Which is why the poster had to go back a whole decade to pull up postitive quotes...

...and the quotes were not even from Hillary herself.

[barack the house]

36. ...Stunning post . Highyly recommended.

[Kali]

39. ...

:thumbsup:

[undeterred]

I thought he just had a really nice tan.

Actually, he is biracial, and identifies himself as such.

[EFerrari]

52. He seems to prefer black over biracial or mixed blood.. n/t

[undeterred]

48. I thought he just had a really nice tan.

Actually, he is biracial, and identifies himself as such.

[TheDoorbellRang]

50. We are gathered here today to work our butts off to form a more perfect union

You said it beautifully, sfexpat2000. K&R

[EFerrari]

53. We better get dessert!

:)

[LuckyLib]

51. This is an amazing post. PLEASE send this to your local newspaper!

"But you have to ask yourself, what were we thinking to back this very gifted man and yet, to be so unready to understand, in honest and in practical terms, what this contest would entail for all of us? Did we not anticipate these repugnant, race baiting "news days"? Did we not realize that a country built by slavery would, at some level, rebel at taking the last step away from that horror and into a new, different day, in imagining a black man as its leader? Perhaps there are changes, however slow, so painful that the enduring organism just balks -- no matter if that change is the surest way to health and wholeness.

[EFerrari]

54. Well, I'll submit it to OpEdNews and post the link here.

My local fish wrap won't put it up but Rob at OEN might. Thanks.

[Two Americas]

57. excellent - k and r

"There is no way I can support Obama without also supporting the mission of Jeremiah Wright or of Trinity church or of all the children who look up to both of these men. To try to support one without respecting the other is just another form of repudiating both and all of us, of failing those children and of failing America in the most basic way."

Absolutely. Beautifully said.

"This is our story. We are writing it. This is our choice to make. Let's make a good one for the shades of all our fore-bearers, for the children. We can do that."

Well done. You got right to the heart of the matter and expressed it very persuasively and eloquently.

Thanks sfexpat2000 for your powerful contribution to this very important discussion.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

60. Bravo! K&R for you, the Rev, and common decency.

And, piss on the racists, the apologists, the timid "liberals" who quake at the words of someone who exposes a corrupt system, and candidates who play on the fears of the electorate.

[Major Hogwash]

64. I'll bet all the racists at DU have noticed.

But, they give themselves away too easily, so I won't bother mentioning names.

[KamaAina]

69. He's BLACK??!!

Oh noes! That changes everything! Is it too late to clamber aboard the Hillary bandwagon?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

72. I don't think that word meant what we thought it meant.

:)

[NorthCarolina]

74. The media has been working hard to tell American's this very thing through "association"

with Rev. Wright. In reality, the Rev. Wright issue has little to do with the "terrible things he's said", and everything to do with identifying and underscoring Obama as a black man. BOO...are ya scared yet? :scared:

[Kurovski]

78. K&R. I heard some of the cable news today,

and more than once i heard the media whores talking about Wright blaming America. The whole "chicken's roosting" thing.

But wasn't it bin Laden himself who said basically the same thing? The excuse that he "hates our freedom" seems not so true when you read why he himself said why he's attacking us:

"Several months after being expelled from the Sudan, bin Laden issues his "Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques." It reads, in part:

"Muslims burn with anger at America. For its own good, America should leave ... There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land. ... "

That was the reason. America even had bases in holy sites, as I recall.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/edicts.html

[EFerrari]

79. The chickens come home phrase was Wright quoting

a white diplomat.

[Kurovski]

83. Not one of the news reports mentioned that. And I heard it three times.

They're trying to take Obama down whatever way they can. The media are filth.

[EFerrari]

87. Yes, they are. We need to counter them, not cave to them, in any way we can.

You know that. :hug:

[Kurovski]

89. Yes Ma'am.

:hug:

[Armstead]

80. Obama is a smart black man being undone by a self-centered idiot

Rev. Wright's current antics are not about race or good works or anything else that high-minded.

Jerimiah Wright is the equivalent of that awful NOW woman from New York who lambasted Ted Kennedy as a sexist simply for supporting Obama.

If Wright had a lick of sense -- or was dedicated to something larger -- he would have handled his attempt to clear the record about himself a lot smarter. He did not have to shoot darts at Obama's tires to make his point.

[EFerrari]

82. Maybe you should go back and watch the three speeches.

Wright has done nothing of the sort. But your whore media sure has you convinced he did.

[Armstead]

84. I have seen the speeches, and I can't condone what he's been doing

Wright is probably a good man. He certainly has accomplished good things.

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X when I was a teenager in the 1960's and, although I've mellowed a bit, Malcolm's analysis of race had a lot to do with forming my worldview. So I certainly understand, and even condone, Wright's viewpoint.

BUT he is acting like a jerk at the moment. Sometimes, we'd like to overlook human foibles, if they seem tied to a larger purpose.

And Wright is -- by torpedoing Obama -- putting his own ego and interests ahead of Obama.

He is perfectly free to do that. It's still a free country (I guess.)

But those who believe that Obama is trying to walk a very difficult but necessary tightrope and believe Wright is threatening to defeat that, are also free to believe Wright is being a jerk....From what I can gather, a large portion of Obama's campaign people feel the same way.

[EFerrari]

86. People said exactly the same thing about Martin

when he inconveniently came out against the war.

A poster just today in this forum said this is no time to deal with race relations because people are losing their homes and their jobs and have no health care.

So it goes.

[Armstead]

88. Jerimiah Wright is not Martin Luther King and the times are very diffeent

Frankly, I have a very hard time picturing MLK knowingly sabatoging the candidacy of a Black presidential candidate whom King supported.

King was a firebrand, but he was also a smart political tactician who also knew when to hold his fire.

[EFerrari]

90. The times are so different that people still phone in bomb threats to

black churches.

And, no, the King of your young memory is not the King that stood up for his values. He was not a convenient man. That you have a hard time picturing it is more about you than about King or Wright.

[Armstead]

91. Martin Luther was no fool....Wright is....and the times are different

When the flap about Wright first emerged a couple of months ago, I actually defended him here by posting some passages of King speeches that were very volatile, to make the point that Wright's comment were in line with that tradition.

I also remember living in the days when seeing a Black person in a position of responsibility in a local business was surprising, when a mixed-race couple was shocking, when there were places that black peope couldn;t go....etc.

My problem has nothing to do with Wright's beliefs, message, personality, etc. It is the fact that he is being an idiot at the moment, and is putting his own ego, personal estrangement from Obama....whatever in front of a larger goal that he should be doing everything he can to support.

[slackmaster]

96. "He does not speak for me, he does not speak for the campaign."

Guess who said that just yesterday evening?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080429/news_1n29wright.html

[EFerrari]

81. Link @ OpEdNews here:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_elizabet_080428_barack_obama_is_a_bl.htm

[DemVet]

92. I thought he was a white man. He talks about his white grandmother so much.

Did anyone notice?

[slackmaster]

95. You're not allowed to say things like that in this thread

:rofl:

[crimsonblue]

98. I think you got your title wrong...

from what Fox News has been telling me, "It's a black man; did anybody notice it was Barack Obama? "

[jillan]

100. Correction - Obama is half black and half white.