The Racial Narrative vs. Reality
By Ani on December 2, 2008 at 11:10 AM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Current Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Race, Race Card
In her Washington Post editorial, He’s Not Black, Marie Arano discusses the election of Barack Obama and mentions something no one bothers to talk about:
He is also half white.
Unless the one-drop rule still applies, our president-elect is not black.
We call him that — he calls himself that — because we use dated language and logic. After more than 300 years and much difficult history, we hew to the old racist rule: Part-black is all black. Fifty percent equals a hundred. There’s no in-between.
That was my reaction when I read these words on the front page of this newspaper the day after the election: “Obama Makes History: U.S. Decisively Elects First Black President.”
The phrase was repeated in much the same form by one media organization after another. It’s as if we have one foot in the future and another still mired in the Old South. We are racially sophisticated enough to elect a non-white president, and we are so racially backward that we insist on calling him black. Progress has outpaced vocabulary.
To me, as to increasing numbers of mixed-race people, Barack Obama is not our first black president. He is our first biracial, bicultural president. He is more than the personification of African American achievement. He is a bridge between races, a living symbol of tolerance, a signal that strict racial categories must go.
Well, this was originally what Barack Obama was supposed to be – a post-racial candidate. Ms. Arana indicates there is much racial mixing in our society and others so as to render old labeling out of date and useless. However, as fascinating as this article is, as she details her own rich cultural heritage among others, and it is certainly worth a read in its entirety, she seems to be placing the blame on the media and the American people for the labeling of Barack Obama as black.
While she is right that the media did push this narrative for all it was worth, Ms. Arano neglects to mention that a great deal of the responsibility for that label belongs with President-elect Obama himself. He did nothing to disabuse the media of this notion which he could have done at any time by continuing to trumpet his own mixed heritage.
Even Obama himself seems to have bought into the nomenclature. In his memoir “Dreams from My Father,” he writes, “I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America, and beyond the given of my appearance, no one around me seemed to know exactly what that meant.” You can almost feel the youth struggling with his identity, reaching for the right words to describe it and finally accepting the label that others impose.
It was a label he imposed. In his run for the presidency, his first campaign narrative was that he was the post-racial candidate. How nice if he would have stuck with that. Instead, he very clearly brought race to the forefront of his campaign by playing the race card with impunity almost every day since January.
He was very clear to define himself as bi-racial, for instance, when he was campaigning in New Hampshire, very early in this years’ primary season. However, at the next primary, in South Carolina, he suddenly became “black” and there was absolutely no mention of his white Kansan mother. It was as if she did not exist. Is this not disrespectful to an equally important part of his heritage? It is easy to understand why he did this in a state with so large an African American population. I am sure I remember several articles before Super Duper Tuesday indicating that certain AA voters were not relating to him as being ‘AA enough.’ Was this a reason for his assuming an affectation once he got out on the campaign trail in these states?
Subsequently, his white grandmother who raised him and put him through private school only got a rather negative mention in his ‘monumentally important’ speech on race, and he soon after referred to her in a very insulting, limiting and quite frankly, inaccurate fashion as ‘a typical white person.’ So much for post-racial. His speech on race was a very well orchestrated diversion, since his candidacy was in much hot water after his close 20-year relationship with the racially divisive Reverend Wright was revealed just a few days earlier. Again, he played the race card rather than answering the question of what he was doing in that church in the first place, deflecting blame onto the ‘racial divide’ in this country rather than taking responsibility for his actions.
He claimed this ‘narrative’ of the black candidate for himself, as opposed to a bi-racial one, because he needed to pull the African American vote away from Hillary Clinton and aim a wrecking ball at the popularity the Clintons always enjoyed within the African American community. Professor Sean Wilentz’ brilliant article in The New Republic, “Race Man,” has often been referenced here, and details just how the Obama campaign played the race card to their advantage to accomplish this very mission.
Ms. Arana further states:
The explosion of “minorities” in the United States in the past half-century has guaranteed that ever more interracial mingling is inevitable. According to the 2000 Census, there were 1.5 million Hispanic-white marriages in the United States, half a million Asian-white marriages, and more than a quarter-million black-white marriages. The reality is probably closer to double or triple that number. And growing.
The evidence is everywhere. If not in our neighborhoods, in our culture. We see it in Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Ben Kingsley, Nancy Kwan, Ne-Yo, Mariah Carey. Yet we insist on calling these hybrids by a reductive name: Berry is black. Kingsley is white. Kwan is yellow. Even they label themselves by the apparent color of their skin. With language like that, how can we claim to live in a post-racial society?
Interracial mingling is a very positive thing – showing that we are breaking down all sorts of barriers and just taking each person as we find them, without regard to labels or skin color.
Few who see Barack Obama, it seems, understand that he’s 50 percent white Kansan. Even fewer understand what it means to be second-generation Kenyan. It reminds me of something sociologist Troy Duster and bioethicist Pilar Ossorio once observed: Skin color is seldom what it seems. People who look white can have a significant majority of African ancestors. People who look black can have a majority of ancestors who are European.
In other words, the color of a president-elect’s skin doesn’t tell you much. It’s an unreliable marker, a deceptive form of packaging. Isn’t it time we stopped using labels that validate the separation of races? Isn’t it time for the language to move on?
How much more honest would Obama’s campaign have been if he had moved on from labels as well, being that he promised to do so. It is exhausting that those who choose to write articles about this subject turn a blind eye to his part in its current cause. Our ‘language’ isn’t the only thing that needs to move on.
The ‘unreliable marker’ of which Ms. Arano speaks is indeed a deceptive form of packaging. Contrary to what he would have you believe as being a detriment in his campaign, President elect Obama’s skin color was something he used to his advantage. He enjoyed a solid 90-95% voting bloc within the African American community, while doing basically nothing to earn their votes, apart from using his appearance as a victory in itself for those voters.
While many may understandably take his election as a great triumph and a huge leap beyond our painful past, he has set race relations back in this country with the insulting ‘labels’ he and his surrogates suggested in order to corner those who did not believe in him into voting for him. Politics is a bloody business, and obviously, President-elect Obama, his campaign manager, David Axelrod, and their surrogates used every trick to get to victory.
Earlier, Ms. Arano mentioned that “progress had outpaced vocabulary,” but it was the Obama campaign that pretended we had made less progress on racial issues than we actually have. When voters who chose not to embrace Obama’s candidacy were routinely referred to as racists, Archie Bunkers, and low information voters, so as to deny the fact that there were myriad excellent reasons for people not to support him, how can we as a society possibly have a real discussion about the issues Ms. Arana poses?
Clearly, since Obama received more “white” votes than any candidate since Carter, the ‘racist’ narrative he imposed is not an applicable one. He is a bi-racial President-elect. Why can’t this be celebrated as a way to move us forward just as much as him being the first black President?
It will be interesting to see if he now tries to mend the fences of the pain he caused. Somehow, I tend to doubt it will be addressed at all.
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
Perhaps the most interesting remark that Obama made regarding his mixed racial heritage is when in the context of the new dog ruminations he referred to himself as a “mutt like me.” A “mutt” is not a snobbish purebred, full of inbred idiosyncrasies, but an affable democratic mixed-breed dog that is safe to bring into the house: an all-American dog who will be comfortable with the whole family. You can bet that his use of the word “mutt” was a carefully calculated ploy to endear himself to Americans of all races. Of course, when it suits his purpose, O can be all-black all-the-time. As far as racial identity goes, he is an opportunistic chameleon.
As far as racial identity goes, he is an opportunistic chameleon. - oowawa
………………..
We Will Not Be Silenced Promo Clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXA3fXpCFk
Great catch, oowawa, thanks for mentioning this…opportunistic chameleon is a an apt term.
And he won’t address the “fences of pain” because he’s going to have to fully exploit them again next time ’round — should he make it that far, God forfend!
I just read this thread. It’s so typical of the anti-Obama movement that you take a completely typical trait of a great politician — the ability to appear differently to different people, or at least to transcend labels, and the willingness to emphasize different aspects of oneself for the benefit of different audiences — and interpret it as evidence of Obama’s nefariousness. Seriously: you cannot name a successful politician who doesn’t do this. Just for example, Hillary Clinton completely transformed her persona over the course of the primary. In fact, had she launched her campaign as a fiery populist instead of as the experienced, inevitable Democratic machine insider, she might very well have won the nomination.
What is being discussed here is how Obama used racial labels to his advantage in this campaign – he transcended nothing.
I mentioned several times in the article that it would have been wonderful if he did, in fact, do what he said he was going to do — instead he did the opposite and set race relations back in this country by falsely labeling and insulting as racist or backward those people who did not ote for him.
Hillary could have reinvented herself whenever she liked but if you honestly think the DNC backstabbers would not have acted exactly the same to do everything they could to push him for the nomination instead, I fear you are sadly mistaken. Additionally, the press never stopped vilifying her or trumpeting him — they did it from the first to the last. They had the ‘historic’ narrative they wanted — and hers had to go.
Obama capitalized on that, pretending that his own mixed heritage did not exist. His white mother and grandmother became an inconvenient footnote. That is not transcendence or transformation — that is called lying.
You can claim that he “set race relations back,” but you’ll have to show me evidence of that. In reality, he became the first politician with significant African heritage to be elected as the head of state of any Western democracy, anywhere, anytime — and he did so with a remarkable degree of white, Latino and Asian support. Any number of public polls show that both whites and blacks are more optimistic about race relations in this country because of Obama’s election. I certainly have black friends who are surprised and pleased that America just elected an African-American (or, if you prefer, half African-American) president. And I certainly know many, many white liberals (myself among them) who are delighted by the same thing.
How you can argue that this campaign has “set back” race relations is beyond me.
There were set back when good, decent people who chose not to support him for valid reasons were called racist — and this was done constantly — by his surrogates, by the media. This memo was circulated constantly this year.
Do you have any idea how painful it is to be labeled a racist when you ARE NOT one??
What is more disturbing is that people in the AA community bought into this and some felt that if any were not voting for him, it MUST be because of his race — as though all his inexperience, flip-flopping on important policies like FISA, his touting of Blackwater, his flip lops on Israel, his touting of Bush’s faith based initiatives and so on had nothing to do with why we would not want to vote for him.
Let us not do revisionist history now, please.
Thank you. Voting for a man because his skin is black does not improve race relations, whether your skin is black and you voted in solidarity or your skin is white and you voted in guilt. With Axelrod as his Svengali, BO knew what to say, to whom, to corral people’s concealed psyches into votes. This has been all smoke and mirrors, style without substance.
To paraphrase another comment, it’s not so bad ‘being called racist when you’re not,’ when you see your black son afraid to reveal to his classmates, he supported HRC, for fear of being called an Uncle Tom.
Exactly. Racism is racism, irrespective of the color of the perpetrator.
“Do you have any idea how painful it is to be labeled a racist when you ARE NOT one??”
Michelle Obama probably knows how painful that is.
Just saying…
Michelle ODrama IS a racist. And she hates America. Just sayin’.
Thanks for proving my point, OIAF. Everybody knows which supporters of who were spreading hate against whom.
I didn’t have to prove your point UBM - everyone with a brain knows that the Obamas hate America. And all you have to do is read MeeeeChelle’s nonsensical, poorly written, grammatically incorrect thesis about all of her hate to understand that she’s a class A RACIST. It’s a joke she and her fraudulent husband are trotting off to the WH. No hate from me, just stating FACT based on the words from the Obamas themselves.
You should read Bill Cosby’s doctoral dissertation. You’d probably consider him a racist as well. He quoted from Stokely Carmichael’s book “Black Power”… which makes Cosby, ipso fact, a white-hating Marxist!
I don’t give a crap WHO wrote racist rants, it’s wrong on both sides. Your side got away with it playing victim for all these years. Now, that’s OVER. No more ranting about hating whitey for you. Now the playing field is even. You got your black President, so I assume there will be no more of these vile theses that make zero sense and are pitiful descriptions of an America that made Bill Cosby a millionaire hundreds of times over and MeeChelle the First Lady. Now, let’s be Americans and stop the crap. It’s going to backfire on y’all now.
UBM,
Give me a break. I am here, my dear — watching. No revisionist history, please. The Clintons were smeared as racists — and by extension, those who voted for Hillary and refused to support Obama (and we had excellent reasons for our lack of support for him, I might add –as you well know, even if you personally disagree).
What Michelle listened to was not a scintilla of a fraction compared to what we had to. Please do not attempt to say otherwise. We know better.
Then explain her thesis… I took umbrage that toilet paper like that meets academic standards for a BA.
I took it as insight as to her disposition.
Don’t count the chickens yet he won’t be elected until the electoral college votes.
Your eyes are complete, utterly, wide shut, “sf”.
You must have limited news sources/outlets to not see what was going on. Or you’re a victim of wanting to hear/see what you want.
The race card was thrown down by the uhbama camp and uhbama supporters from the very beginning; that is NOT transcending race. Arrogance of people selecting someone for President based on genetic traits that give more color to a person’s skin is absolutely backward as all get out.
I have proof, RIGHT HERE, from good ol’ progressive sources documented right there in the blogosphere.
ready?
Media twists Bill’s words
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801130004
uhbama fails to lead by standing up for the Clintons and shedding light that Bill’s words were twisted; instead, he twisted the knife and used RACE to deflect
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/12/obama-camps-memo-on-clin_n_81205.html
People on the left with Clinton Derangement Syndrome perpetrated flat out lies:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/did_clinton_darken_obamas_skin.html
Around the same time Bill Clinton was knifed by the “african american” group of folks, Senator Bill Perkins from NY made this statement:
“New York State Senator Bill Perkins used quite explicit racial stereotyping in a speech aimed at discouraging his constituents from voting for Clinton by saying, Harlem “is not Bill Clinton’s backyard or his plantation. Underscore, plantation.”
yea, that’s not racist, and I never heard a peep from uhbama.
Not using race, or transcending race, which one is it SF?!?
Here:
“Jamal spoke of this, Sean Wilentz spoke of it. If Obama didn’t want to be compared to Jesse Jackson, maybe he shouldn’t have put R&B in his SC advertisements, shouldn’t have sent black-only emissaries to the Black SC community, and should have put Wright, who was doing the rounds, on pause. The message in South Carolina put out by Obama’s campaign, whether the media wanted to ignore it or not, was “Vote for me I am Black.” To then come back and smash Bill Clinton for mentioning Jesse Jackson, that’s audacity; Axelrod made this clear through his surrogates, while he had Obama say that what the Clintons’ said was “unfortunate.”
Here’s uhbama during a debate admitting it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQY_9ZcsjpQ&feature=related%3cbr
How about an article from NPR?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91769883
And LAST but certainly not least, SF…
how about a ridiculous idea to market drugs based on RACE? From Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=race-in-a-bottle
SF..turn your voting card in.
Perception is everything, I guess, huh?
Just don’t say that Bush didn’t give someone out there (albeit christian nutjobs) just as much to ‘believe in.’
Different sides of the same coin.
2012Hillary
Thank you for this work. I get tired of explaining this all the time.
Destardi,
Thank you so much for taking the time to post all of this.
Amazing work Destardi, thanks!
Okay, try this one on.There is now a petition drive for the Illinois governor to name “another African American” to fill the seat left vacant by the election of BO to the presidency.
Yup, we certainly are post-racial. /snark
Jesse Jackson Jr and other AA electied officials in Illinois are demanding the seat be filled with a black person. I am already gagging. I thought we were “beyond” the racial labeling. Isn’t that what all the pundits said?
And your point about his white heritage being an “inconvenient footnote” is equally false. In his convention video and his 30-minute “closing argument” infomercial, he almost completely focused on his white heritage, and blatantly deemphasized his multiracial, overseas background. He did so for blatantly political purposes, of course — he was selling himself to middle Americans then, and wanted to present his more reassuringly American side. This is what politicians do, and being an incredibly skilled politician, he did so incredibly skillfully. But to pretend that he ignored the white, Kansas side of his family tree is ridiculous. By the end of the campaign, that is *all* he was emphasizing.
As for Hillary: as I have pointed out many, many times on this site, she began the primary as the universal choice of the Democratic Party establishment. She began with around 110 super-delegate endorsements and commitments, Obama began with zero. This notion that the conservative, risk-averse Democratic Party establishment began the ‘08 campaign by secretly wanting to push the unknown, half-black, Muslim-background candidate named Barack Hussein Obama instead of the universally known, extremely popular wife of the ex-president with a well-established national fundraising network and a huge lead in the polls is simply delusional and ahistorical.
I would respectfully suggest that read an article that Donna Brazile wrote for Salon the day after the election 2004, called “The Obama Factor”. It began there.
There is plenty of valid research to indicate exactly the opposite of what you are talking about. Whatever network she started with — she was never the choice of the DNC. If that were really true the Dem party leadership would have held Obama back from running this time so as not to pit the ‘woman’ candidate, against the ‘black’ candidate — only an idiot would not know this would be a problem going forward.
Dean, Kerry hand picked Obama. Why do you think he was the keynote speaker in 2004. The message was ’stop Hillary.’
You are entitled to your opinion of course, but the party leadership made their preference for him known very early on and helped beat the drum that she should step aside (especially Nancy Pelosi).
Why then, did she have dozens of public endorsements from the public leadership, while Obama had none? You ascribe way too much power to the DNC and the media. Waaaay too much power. Trust me, I’m part of that network and I know whereof I speak. They matter but they aren’t dispositive. Obama won because he ran a better, more organized, more disciplined, better messaged and strategically shrewder campaign.
To get even simpler about it: Obama won because he out-organized and out-campaigned Hillary in Iowa. If she had won that caucus — and she was leading by 20 points a mere three months before January 2008 — she would be president-elect today, no matter what the DNC or anyone else thought about it.
The media doesn’t have that much power?
They trumpted him and trashed her at every turn. He told many lies and was called on none — whereas she was raked overthe coals constantly. Shrewder camapgin? He outspent her 3, 4 and 5 to 1. By the way, thosands of instances of documented caucus fraud, anyone? This was reported to Dean early on and documented — he never touched it witha ten foot poll. He was on national tv calling out race baiting (meanwhile Obama was the one doing it — yet he never once defended Hillary against all the misogyny in the media). These facts are also part of the mix — a very big part.
The media did nothing to tout the real facts. Explain how people with master’s degrees think that “Obama voted against the war” — they don’t even know he wasn’t in the Senate at the time.
The media defeated Gore with their willingness to spew the lies of the right wing (like dishonestly repeating the claim that Gore claimed to have invented the internet) and completely ignored Bush’s history (bankruptcies, insider trading at Harken, walking away from his National Guard service before it was completed, etc.)
As for Obama being half black, wasn’t his father also of Arab descent? That actually makes him less than half black. As for his being a half white KANSAN, uh, no. My parents were New Yorkers but I was raised in Ohio from the age of 3 on. I am a midwestern er, not a New Yorker (not that there is anything wrong with that). Also his grandparents were hardly your typical midwesterners. They were Unitarians, a very liberal, open minded church which even accepts agnostics (which some reports say they were). How many Kansans, let alone Americans, are Unitarians?
Also Obama, like Colin Powell, does not qualify as an African American in the cultural sense of that term.
This is not a criticism, but there is little in Obama’s background that is “mainstream” American. His heritage and experience are unique.
“As for Obama being half black, wasn’t his father also of Arab descent? That actually makes him less than half black.”
Thank you for repeating this meme, Bernie. It shows precisely the type of misinformation and disinformation campaign to which Obama was subject. Effectively so in this case, for others repeat this lie on this board from time to time.
The “Obama-is-Arab” meme was spreaded by Rush Limbaugh and Monica Crowley, but it was started in February by an Internet gadfly by the name of Kenneth E. Lamb.
Compared to this, Hillary’s campaign was a tiptoe through the tulips.
Oh, poor bambi, someone called him an Arab. It had no legs and he won. What’s your point?
What you mean, “no legs”? Two people in this very thread proclaim it as the truth. Them legs are still walkin’.
Just because it didn’t destroy the man doesn’t mean it didn’t do damage — or continue to do damage.
My point is nobody called Hillary Clinton a “Jew.” Nobody tried to present her as a frightening alien… and to have that depiction stick with a percentage of the populace.
Everything that the Hillaryites whine about is just part of the usual rough-and-tumble of campaigning. I thought the whole basis of her campaign was that she was tough enough to withstand the Republican Attack Machine? All she did was complain about glass ceilings and unlevel playing fields.
And when the chips were really down, she opened up the tear ducts.
I watched it all. I took notes. And I will not forget.
Gawd, I’m so tired of you sore winners. We not only have to put up with Obama in office, evidently we have to like it.
Why don’t you give it, and us, a rest.
LOL somebody seems to have forgotten Hillary the evil monster, Hillary the evil war monger, Hillary the evil Neocon. It’s funny how the BOBOweenies have forgotten their more recent past. It’s as if they are prepared to have their beloved BOBO repeat it, by living it, and them cheering him all the way.
Clintons didnt cry for what Obamas people and AA did to them, after all they did for them!!! Media did, Obama did, but not Clinton. I saw those vishes attack by Obama on Clinton, we all see that!!!So why You”undercoverblack” are trying to tell US otherwise?? Stop blaming those who didnt do, what You are blaming them for. Clintons never say anything racial, but AA and Obama,Michelle Himself did. Why Obama say??? “I am not black man, I am MULATTE”??? He do not want to loose AA support, they want HIM to be black, and HE IS NOT. THIS is so disrespectful to his mother and his grandparents, and all us white.AA dont own Obama, he is not one of them, because he is one of US, and AA people must to get use to this pure fact!!! MULATTE!!! 50/50!!! He is not Afro-American nor BLACK, He was born in Hawaii, not Africa, or we may be wrong on this to????!!!
UBM - Who the hell do you think you are? Does your azz know if OVomit is Arab? How COULD YOU? Not one person on this planet has ever seen a legitimate document that describes his place of birth, race, etc. You’re being IGNORANT, but that’s to be expected from someone who pisses and craps love for his black brother. Get this loud and clear “black man” the race nonsense is done. Whatever color that nut thinks he is, America bought the black crap. I think he’s ARAB. That’s my right buddy. And you can’t prove he isn’t so STFU until you can. Unless and until you see anything that remotely resembles documentation of who the hell FRAUD-bama is then you have nothing to say.
Ummmm… do you know what Arabs look like?
Uhhh…Yeah. I dated a Moroccan man, actually lived with him, named Amal and he looked a helluva lot like Fraudbama.
By the way, wanna hear a great story about your “black brother?” My good friend in Chicago a few years ago was in a crowd in Fraudbama’s poverty stricken district that he left behind in worse poverty, violence, homicides, etc. A 15 year old boy went up to the Fraud and said he was hungry, his parents were both dead, he was living with his grandmother who was ill, and he didn’t know what to do. The Fraud told him to stop asking people for help. That was tired of it. Tired of people looking to him to solve their problems. Yup. That’s YOUR black brother. The FRAUD who never, ever, ever has helped “his own.” Because they’re not his own. You may think he’s like you, but he’s not. Give it a rest. And come back when you have proof of his lineage and his race.
So you pal around with Arabs? I hope you’re on some kind of watch list.
This was in 1990. Pre-9/11. He’s a major, wildly talented fashion designer now who pals around with Naomi Campbell to be honest.
One of the reasons I booted him out of the house was his attitude towards women. Sort of like Fraudbama and the Alice/Hillary/Palin situations. He was living in my home, ordering me around. That didn’t last long.
He should have known better than to mess with you. You are too fierce, lady!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIJVLxhmbXw
Did you notice how quickly UBM labeled an arab a terrorist? It took like a nano second now that BOBO is elected.
WildChild you are so right. How RACIST and shameful of UBM.
TexasDem…LOL…Thanks.
I always knew UBM was a racist.
apparently BOBOweenie self righteousness peeked when it was BOBO on the receiving end. But now that he’s in, prepare to bathe fully in the darkness of their true face.
The good news is we have a free ride now. I don’t have to walk on eggshells afraid that if I say the word “boo” I’m a “racist.” I can shoot the rudeness right back to the customer service biotches who give me hell all the time. Woot Woot Woot. No more censorship for me.
I want to say thank you, though, for a well-written article and a respectful exchange. I had hoped that this site would evolve in this direction after the election, and I’m delighted that it has.
You are welcome. And by the way, I always have a respectful exchange.
As for evolving, NoQ has been presenting a lot of good information for a long time. I am sure we will continue to do so. I am proud to be one of the writers here.
As if the blog needs your approval. Get over yourself and your faux president.
You keep ‘missing a beat.’ In order to gauge intent, try putting things in chronological order. Which came first; ‘my grandmother who is afraid of blacks is a typical white woman’ and the ensuring brouhaha over his choice of words; or ‘I wouldn’t be where I am today but for the love and support of my grandmother.’ Maybe that will help you to see things in their proper perspective.
Hillary did NOT present herself as “the …inevitable Democratic machine insider.” It was the mainstream media that painted her as such. Even now that description evokes, in my mind, images of CNN’s Candy Crowley and Gloria Borgia. Later on I heard Borgia say that Terry McAuliffe described her as such. It was an unfortunate mistake on McAuliffe’s part if he did indeed describe that way because many people came to believe that’s how Hillary saw herself and when she showed her true populism they thought it was phony.
By the way, will there ever be a time when Obama supporters defend him without resorting to a comparison, no matter how tortured, to Hillary? Just asking.
Thank you for the great article, Ani. I think people need to be reminded the Obama is bi-racial and that it’s not uncommon for interracial marriages - when I was growing up it was a no-no - to take place nowadays. He could have been “the great uniter” if he had gotten pass his own skin color and built on the fact he’s biracial. Instead he decided to play on his skin color and bring in the race card.
That is sooo true. A real person of vision would have handled these issues in an entirely different manner. Not a “well, they’re going to say I don’t look like the other presidents on dollar bills” and “well, they’re going to say I have a funny name.”
He was trying to WIN by any means possible, division included. A politician, and base at that, nothing more, nothing less.
OT, BUT MAYBE MICHELLE COULD SHARE SOME OF HER PIE
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1090653/Barack-Obama-buy-rare-20-000-rhodium-ring-wife-say-thanks-support.html
He is also not very funny. I guess one could call him a half-wit.
He certainly lacks the empathy gene — and also the humor gene — I’m thinking that humor and empathy are two expressions of the same gene??
Yep — he is a half-wit. No common sense.
I know a lot of supposedly people with hi IQ — and none have common sense to go with the hi IQ.
I have said many times since the elections, “He’s half white!” Sometimes I scream it! Is that because I am a racist? No. It is because Barrakula is just a make believe character in hopey changey democrat’s minds and the whole fantasy they have created of him is false. even the fact thta he is black. It is false. I hate kies and liars and Barrakula is one big lie. He is an opportunist.
I hope I am alive to see the day that a full black person is elected POTUS and wants the title removed from Ofraudma and taken for them!
George Bush ain’t a cowboy, either. I’ve said it before, we don’t elect politicians to be president anymore. We elect actors who can play president on TV. Obama has the luxury of being black when convenient. When it’s not, he’s the son of a white woman from Kansas. He plays to the crowd and reads what’s on the TelePrompTer. He’s an actor.
I would say being black was a net negative.
Tell that to my red headed 20 y/o nephew from Roseville, CA who writes rap - damn well, too.
He’d rather be black than white? I’d guess that’ll last until his first police stop.
Too late for that.
Like many young people from the suburbs, for better or worse (and you can guess what side that comes down on), he’s immersed himself in a culture that, again, the media has shoved down his throat.
I wrote dance music in the 80’s and 90’s, had my own publishing company and did ok on a small scale. By about 1983 my demo singers that were black said hip hop and rap were already on the way out in the black community.
Thing was, the record companies loved it. It was self-generated, cost nothing to produce and they made a ton of money selling it to middle class kids. It effectively killed dedicated song writing and as far as I’m concerned the popular music business as a whole, but that didn’t stop it from being in almost every commercial and movie for decades.
The point is, being black helped Barack Obama in the demographics he needed to do well in. You may say it’s only token support and I may agree. But it doesn’t change the facts.
…and may I add, full black, both parents from America…in other words, a regular domestic black, and not an imported variety.
Ari - really good and relevant piece.
I don’t think Obama would have been elected had he campaigned as bi-racial and played down his so-called “black experience.”
Between being the hero to AA and the final puzzle piece to rid white Americans of the lingering guilt of racism, Obama set himself apart from whom he really was in order to get elected.
While I do believe he has experienced situations as an African American because of his outward appearance, we don’t know yet whether he will govern based on that experience.
Thanks - he certainly has not ‘legislated’ in the past based on that experience. Voting twice for the bridge to nowhere yet voting against aid for Katrina victims is one case in point.
What you note here is very valid - I am afraid he was meant to be merely a symbol of change by the DNC - “The new face of American politics,” sending some sort of signal; whether or not anything will actually be done to alter conditions or education in this country.
And, I think we can look at how he treated his own constituents as well. When his office received numerous complaints about the Rezko and other privatized public housing buildings, it fell upon deaf ears. When questioned about this Obama did the “I didn’t know about them” act. Showed me that he wasn’t that concerned about what happened to his own race, people he was directly responsible for. Of course this was kept out of the public’s eye by the media who didn’t even bring it up during the Rezko trial.
And one more point about the media’s involvement. The media sure remembered to run articles discussing the research that showed that most white Americans’ unconscious racism would prevent them from voting for Obama. This was a clarion call to any Liberals who were even considering not supporting Obama, and contributed to the pressure on Hillary to withdraw. It’s the research that us Liberals have relied upon to make these discrimination arguments. And here research was reminding Liberals that their lack of support for Obama was probably due to even more unconscious racism they didn’t even know existed or that they had. The timing of the release of these research findings was certainly suspicious to say the least.
What Obama played most effectively was Liberal white guilt, the hope of Liberals to transcend racial divisions, and the further pitting of Liberals insecure that they weren’t Liberal enough.
Amen! He wants to forget about his white side. Doesn’t that make white folks proud? Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t it the white side of his family who loved and cared for him? You think he would embrace both sides with open arms.
uh…right, his daddy abandoned him and his white grandparents raised him.
Obama identified himself as black to win the election, plain and simple.
I wonder if Obama is not even 50% black, and that is what he is hiding in not releasing the vault copy of his birth certificate.
It’s already well known that Obama is actually 94% white and 6% black. That 94% is 50% caucasian and 44% Arab. Obama doesn’t want to release personal documentation because his race will be listed either as white, arab or both since he is legally unable to be specified as black.
According to a site that traces ancestry that I read at the beginning of this long campaign; the Obama family is mostly of Arab ancestry; very little “black” in the family. But this mystery man has invented and reinvented himself so often that no one is sure who he is; different names, different nationalities, different versions of his childhood - he even had to write them down to keep his lies straight. What I find absolutely baffleing is how two shrewd political parties didn’t call his bluff! He fooled them twice; shame on them.
wodej, You are right!!!
When the going got a little rough for Barack, as when his Pastor and mentor Rev. G** **** America was finally revealed, out came the “historic” race speech.
An extraordinary use of race as slight-of-hand. Barack is an an epic fraud - A charlatan for all the ages. Historic indeed.
I am talking about for a long time, and no one is paying attention about. Black people are just as stubborn as white. OBAMA IS NOT “BLACK” for once and for good. Stop this lies about “first black president”, because He is NOT , because He is “MULATTE”
I feel like black people acting as THEY OWN OBAMA. He is their President, not OURS. NO , His not thers. I can say one thing, Obamas MOTHER is disrespected by all, it is like She does not important. So , there we go again, because She is WOMAN, She has not the same right to be recognise as His HALF, half of obama, just His Father, who did nothing for Obama as Father, and as Husband for His Mother. His Father was only donor, His Mother rise Obama untill She died!!!!!!.Black people wont like to hear about Obamas white Mother, because they want Him to be BLACK, and He is NOT!!!!!!
woopiedo1 — you make a great point about his mother. He completely put down his mother, uplifted his father to get Blacks to vote for him. And the women’s groups were silent.
Now, as the Supreme Court conference comes up on Dec 5 you are going to hear how sexist it is that his mother’s sole citizenship does not allow one to be “natural born”. I’m just waiting to hear what crap will come out of Kim Gandy’s mouth.
And who did Obama write a book about? his father who abandoned him, not his mother or Grandmother who raised him. He hates women and he hates whites in my opinion.
If he had a decent bone in his body, it would be evident and he never would have had the arrogance to run for POTUS with no experience. He would have waited his turn and earned it!
If he is not elegible under the Constitution experience makes no difference. He still wouldn’t be eligible.
I have not read either of his books but from what I have heard about them, it did seem odd to me that they were so much about his father instead of his mother and his grandmother who gave him everything. I have often wondered if the book writing was, even back then, to set the tone for a future run for national office. Otherwise, it would seem to me that he would have been moved to have penned a third book on the strong females in his life.
thank YOU FembotsForObama…
I will like to hear from ALL WOMAN GROUPS, were they were in Primaries and were they are now. No metter what is their skin color, how any WOMAN Group can be so silent about. What about all Grandparents, They dont tell US about beying stuck with their grand children because their parents dont want to rise them, just as Obama father did. Now He is Obama HERO???, nothing as much about His Mother. Did He wrote a book just about His Mother or His Grandparent??? NO!!!, All is Just His father!!!How many times Obama were with this man- once or twice??????But All is about this man.And we have millions of children rise by a single mother, but why We should feel sorry for Obama??? Media is so deep with Obama, but now we can see shifting from and asking(as CNN did )”DO WE TRULY KNOW OBAMA”??? WOW!!!
Excellent article Ani.
“…he has set race relations back in this country with the insulting ‘labels’ he and his surrogates suggested in order to corner those who did not believe in him into voting for him.”
Not to mention the supporters who felt completely at liberty to apply these labels during the campaign, and still do so.
When Obama began applying these labels early in the primaries is when he lost support from me. His speech on race was the most insulting thing I read. He claimed to speak for the Black church calling them inherently racist, and called his grandmother an insulting label. The use of labels only seek to divide people; thus, his politics of disunity was evident early on. No matter how “bipartisan” Obama’s administration might be, his successful effort in dividing this country will endure. He made enemies out of Democrats and others who might have supported him had he lived up to his promise of being post-racial.
Thank you, Ani. It is what I have been saying all along - just so much more eloquently.
Hmmmm….Frankly I care more about his birth certificate an his refusal to show the official long form than I do about his biological make up…Sorry…But I just do and I would if he was Schawrtzneggar too…But then again I know where Arnie was born…Austria…and currently he is ineligble to serve as POTUS. Richardson has dual citizenship and would have been ineligible as well…I see this as a dangerous end run around an important constitutional issue…
Me, too.
I was telling my (now ex) boyfriend about the birth certificate which he thinks is no big deal that it is fine right now for you to agree to bend the rules because you like the politician. so what happens when it is someone you don’t like and we have gone ahead and set a precedent like this?????
silence
I really hope the SCOTUS will really look at the issue and not be concerned about the fallout. Truly, what if he is not eligible and we challenge him after he is finished with his term? Everything he has done has to be undone. none of it would be valid. I would rather have weeks of riots and protests rather than years of confusion about what is and isn’t America anymore!
should change Your boyfriend… just kidding
Give the guy a break. It is not uncommon for biracial children (and children adopted by parents of a different race) to go through a stage during late adolescence or early adulthood in which they question their racial identity. In many cases, like Barack Obama or Halle Berry (raised by her single white mother), people who have been raised in a white environment will choose to live their adult lives in their alternate racial environment. Nevertheless, they have unique insights into the white world and are indeed “post-racial” in many ways.
Growing up in a white or multi-racial world, these children have often escaped some of the worst consequences of victimization identity that occurs so often in poverty stricken minority communities, which is why Obama’s campaign sounded so different from that of, say, Jesse Jackson. On the other hand, he would have discovered as he grew to be an adult that he was not quite like the other white or Hawaiian kids he knew.
In essence, that is one of the major themes of “Dreams of My Father”–who am I? There are lots of bi-racial children, like Obama, who make the transition to adulthood very well because they have very supportive families. It is not a particularly easy transition to make, however, and not one that is made in a particularly intellectual or calculating manner.
I am very aware of the difficulty he had with his identity when he was in college - an age where all young people seek their identity.
I felt from the beginning of the primary that he had not yet resolved this issue. However, I did not particularly care to see him work it out on a national forum at our expense. He really should have waited until he matured.
He actually rejected his real self, which was more white than black because he grew up with a white family. He choose his father’s identity - but not even really that, because he did not grow up in Africa. I see him as a white man passing as black.
btw, I actually have a college age nephew, who grew up biracial in Hawaii WITH his father in his life. He does not try to pretend that he grew up in the ‘hood’, etc.! I think Obama’s ‘issues’ have more to do with feeling abandoned at a young age than with his color.
One point most miss, Soertoro/Obama isn’t a “young man” - he’s almost 50 and if he hasn’t matured by now, I doubt he ever will.
The guy he wants to be, JFK, was still in his 20s when he had been in combat, rescued his crew and become a hero at about the same age as Soerotoro/Obama decided to take a world tour with money someone else paid for. He should have “found” himself then, like most of his peers did, instead of using us to experiment on now.
If the stress of the campaign has caused uncontrollable nervous ticks he certainly isn’t ready to handle the stress of facing Putin or the stress of handling the latest terrorist crisis in India. Anyone who thought the presidency was a place to work out personal problems and shortcomings should have been stopped at the nominating convention before the Greek temple was built.
Absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly that Obama still hasn’t “found himself” yet, which is also dangerous for us as a country.
And what I find interesting is how we are supposed to give Obama a pass on writing a book about searching/finding his identity. The book was done for political reasons and money period. It wasn’t done to heal anything. He capitalized on the sentiments that were brought about during the Million Man March and the missing black father movement. And instead of choosing to be inspired by what was in his life, he focused on what was missing. This is the epitome of self-pity and living like a victim. This could be inspiring for others to move beyond these problems but as far as I see Obama hasn’t, and this is further evidenced by the fact that he relied upon political relationships to move ahead instead of doing the hard work himself. The only way one can effectively do this — get others to do things for you (ala Emile Jones who admits to making him a senator) is to continuously give them a sob story.
Frankly, I expect more from my leaders.
This has nothing to do with “giving the guy a break” — this has to do with him using race, racial labeling, “white guilt” and a lot of insults to those who did not vote for him — all very deliberately to win an election.
Axelrod crafted every moment of his ever changing narrative and Obama gladly was front man here — do not think for a moment this is a man innocently wandering along searching cfor his identity. His identity, like his policies, always shift with the prevailing winds, dictated by whatever will get him the farthest.
My (all) Black close friend said the same thing during the primary.
deliberate is the right choice of words
And it started with his books.
“…as to increasing numbers of mixed-race people, Barack Obama is not our first black president. He is our first biracial, bicultural president. He is more than the personification of African American achievement. He is a bridge between races, a living symbol of tolerance, a signal that strict racial categories must go.”
Oh well, fuck me!
How many times did I keep posting that he was half-white? But nobody seemed to listen.
Perhaps, if more whites had insisted on this point, the election might have turned out differently. But many allowed 0bama to get over on this narrative. In fact, many accepted him being the black candidate.
Yes, he’s half-white. Even more white than black because he has no sociological roots in the AA community. His father was an African with whom he had NO contact.
For the life of me I will never understand how so many white people let him get away with this. You all had the power to burst the AA community’s bubble throughout the whole Primary and kept silent as you were being called racists. Even the Clintons, as they were being called racists, should have responded with incredulity since 0bama was half-white. They should have stated that they do not buy into the one-drop rule.
The purpose was to keep reminding the AA community that he was not one of theirs and perhaps that might have thrown a bit of a wrinkle into their solid support. Enough to keep Hillary competitive and the focus on 0bama’s lack of experience and credentials. At the beginning of the Primary, a lot of AAs did not know 0bama and were supporting Hillary.
But no one zeroed in on this and the AAs like me who did were dismissed because so many biracial people like Halle Berry, are considered black and are the victims of racism. Halle Berry’s success and ability to make it in Hollywood is because she attached herself to the ‘black’ label. Certainly, 0bama learned the value of that.
Whenever someone talks about him being the first black president, I never fail to correct them by calling him either the first biracial or person of color president.
AAs hate to be reminded of this. And it could have worked wonders early on in the Primary.
Actually, Mimi. I think plenty of people did mention it early on — but the media had their incessant drumbeat and their ‘historic’ narrative and ignored everything else. They have been acting for an entire year like millions of us didn’t even exist. How many articles were sent to newspapers and if they were not glowing praise of “The One” — they were ignored.
Likewise, I can’t tell you how many times I called the DNC and wrote to them complaining about his race baiting — it fell on deaf ears. They liked it and used it for their own ends.
I am at a loss to know what actually would have gotten through. I wish I had the answer.
I don’t think this would have worked. Most blacks in this country have white blood. I have a friend who is half-black/half-white and he looks 100% black and as such has been treated that way his whole life.
The whole point of racism is that people are judged by their skin COLOR not their genetic make-up.
That said, Obama never did look even half-black to me, doesn’t he have Arab blood in there somewhere?
The black side of Obama’s heritage is not the same as most African-Americans. Most black people in this country came here by force. They were captured and brought in chains to be slaves and do slave work in the cotton fields of the Old South.
When they were emancipated these African-Americans were not given full equality. Between the KKK, Jim Crowe laws, and the segregation and poverty that grew from this their experience was not and is not Barak Obama’s. Yet he shamelessly conflated his ‘blackness’ into theirs and exploited his Kenyan ancestry to win both the nomination and the general.
Obama’s privileged birth and life never ever let him once experience what we normally mean when we say ‘black experience’ in America.
He never experienced poverty, he never experienced segregation (overt or covert), he never experienced having to go to the back of the bus, he never experienced red-lining, he never experienced being denied a seat at the lunch counter, he never experienced not being able to get a drink of water from certain water fountains, he never experienced not being able to stay in the same hotel as his baseball team mates, nor did he ever have to attend inferior or separate but equal schools. He does not know that experience. Yet he was able to convince millions of black Americans that he did.
I find him lacking in character for this and so many other things.
bert,
And this is exactly my point.
No sociological, cultural and little historical connection to the AA community.
And as far as the comment upthread about most AAs having white blood, yes true. But that blood for most has been generations removed. I can trace mine fairly close, but these are not people I knew. Trust me, there’s a difference between having one white parent. Also, as 0prah Winfrey learned on the Henry Louis Gates PBS Special, many AAs have NO WHITE BLOOD. 0prah can identify/empathize all she wants to with the many female slaves who were raped by their white masters, but none of her ancestors experienced that horrific fate.
My bff is biracial. She and her siblings look white. It’s different in each case. It also depends on the point of view, too. People looking for Anglo-Saxon characteristics, often see Mediterranean-looking people as non-white. But yes, I know many biracial children who look no different than me or my siblings.
In 0bama’s case, what stands out are 2 things:
He was raised exclusively by his white mother and her parents in a geographical location removed from a vibrant AA community.
His father was African and returned to Kenya and 0bama had no contact with him.
0bama pretty much lived in a racial bubble until he went to college. And although it may have shocked his system once at 0ccidental College in CA when he realized people saw a black man, his perspective is still different than say mine having understood this from birth.
So let me get this straight being black means living in poverty and experiencing Jim Crow. If that is the case, then I am not black. I am of a wealthy black family, from the Carribean and I was born well after Jim Crow. The stupidity, arrogrance and ignorance on this blog is shocking.
How? I am being very serious, do not intend to offend you Mimi, but there is no way to deal with the obvious pain of AAs without touching on painful subjects. Please tell us how we can burst the victim bubble with words of truth. My feeling after this primary is that unknown to both blacks and whites, blacks actually have the upper hand. All it takes is some whining about racism, whites are conditioned now to think they are meanies, blacks are conditioned to think they are victims, the whites cave, the blacks get a pass. Not all, not the ones who actually have a larger view, but I think you know who I mean. As I remember, we often did mention he was part white, frequently adding a derogatory opinion about his white half (I can tell you, dissing Grandma in public is not a cultural value with my family), and my feeling, subjective though it may be, is that the AA reaction was more like “Stop trying to throw water on my (black) parade.” First being happy because he’s at least as black as a lot of AAs, then not being happy at all unless he’s all “black.” This is more victimhood talking! Looking for an excuse to continue to be a failure at heart and blame an unchangeable external cause.
As I recall, here in America “blacks” on average are 15% “white,” whatever that is. “Whites” are darker than they used to be, and redheads are actually dying off worldwide. In fact, light colored people are definitely the minority in the worldwide population. Yet I’d not say, whites deserve an extra pass because they are outnumbered, or that I’m not a real person because I’m melanin challenged. I’m aghast to see how many AAs apparently seriously feel that they are such failures as humans, they can’t be “real” people because of their skin color, until someone who looks like them is president.
Like the post says, this one-drop idea is the poison in the social well. The other part is the 100% idea, that 100% ancestry or skin color or whatever defines a person.
Here I spent years with children trying to teach them to appreciate the rainbow family idea, and now if any progress has been made there it has been sullied by the bleach and ink groups, to stretch the metaphor. At the moment the most practical solution might be to mandate burqas for both sexes for about 30 years, so people get learn to pay attention to words and results instead of appearance.
I agree that the msm conspired with this narrative. However, I think more whites should have openly CHALLENGED it, made an issue to the point where 0bama would have had to deal with it.
All I’m saying is that 0bama should have been boxed into a public corner and he wasn’t. The mere fact that there are segments of the AA community who don’t even know he has a white mother demonstrates how 0bama was able to dodge the issue and come across as one of the AA community.
I don’t think it would help. Many of my close friends are black (I can bring myself to the term AA, since I can’t find one human on this earth who aren’t AA), and they refuse to see the white side of him. To them, someone with some black is paramount. Heck, some of them even liked McCain a lot before BO showed up.
It’s a sense of pride. They let emotion took over and stop logical thinking. Same with some of my white friends. They see this as a chance to show the world that this country can in fact elect a black person.
I am in total agreement with you on the point that Obama does not share any of the black experience with any of the black people in this country. He’s a fraud. The only connection is MO.
All I can hope for now is that he don’t screw up too badly for the rest of the minority in the country.
I mean to say, who aren’t African.
I agree, but I also wish AAs would have made that argument as well, Mimi. Remember that the Clintons couldn’t utter one syllable about race in their defense because the MSM would just twist it as racist. Instead the Clintons chose to keep quiet so as not to exacerbate matters. That the Clintons were muzzled just proves that Obama’s race-baiting work.
That is, Obama’s race-baiting worked because the Clintons couldn’t prove a negative — that they weren’t racists.
trixta,
If the AA community had been able to pull themselves out of the hysteria over the prospect of the first AA POTUS, then Hillary Clinton would be president today.
That was the problem. The reason we are even having this discussion. It was hopeless on that end. And believe me, I did my best to get a dialogue going. My words fell upon deaf ears.
Like it or not, the ball was in the white community’s court. Why there were never public cries of:
What about your white mother!!!
I’ll never understand.
0bama should have been forced to deal with this.
another great piece Ani.
Obama and his supporters do not want to heal race relations. They are using their skin color, not for equal rights anymore, but for an unfair, biased advantage to have more. So in essence, the very thing they are screaming about they are guilty of themselves.
A fraud is a fraud. Obama just took advantage of the situation.
I’m more worried about the future. I’m not a caucasian. And I’m more worried that if Obamas presidency fails, which I know it will, America will remember, and non-whites may never have a chance again. Not for a long time.
you may be right and it’s too bad to take such a sensitive and divise issue and use it for his own selfish reasons.
I have the same feeling about this benny. I think Obama could really ruin it for AA’s and non-whites in general. If he was the “real deal” then it would be a great thing, but he isn’t, is he.
When Fraudbama fails, which he will, and when this country figures out the trash they “elected,” there won’t be another AA in the White House for another 30 years I bet. He will cause such a backfiring against AAs when the truth comes out. How about lying and refusing to disclose his BC? People who hear about that get creeped out. It’s so unfathomable that this jerk sits around flipping America the finger, hiding behind three law firms, to prevent us from knowing who and what he really is. This will get out there. It already is. He will be exposed more and more for the liar, criminal, cheat and thief he is. The AAs who voted for him will be as dismayed as we are when they don’t get what he promised. He’s in bad shape. Big time. And he might set race relations back 60 years.
Yes; and, in a perverse way, this will prove the racism. That one man was made the exemplar for a whole race. When he fails, Whites, who assuaged their guilt by voting for him, never have to support another person of color. Blacks, who conflated their self-esteem with his election and so voted for him, will be too deflated (and embarrassed) ever to come out of the closet again.
He does call himself “black” because it is in his best interest for him to do so. He knows that no one has or will question him for fear of pissing off many in the AA community.
The media has their new “darling” - they let us know months ago. Never you mind that BUSH was their darling, so was the IRAQ WAR. So, never a discouraging word will be uttered against him.
And, the Bots will see to it, as well. Take a look at the vapid responses under the article in the WP.
Just as Bush became the jilted darling, so will Obama. On the one hand, he may have a longer honeymoom with the MSM being a multiracial Democrat; on the other, if the economy tanks or an international crisis hits (or both), he will very quickly become the lightning rod of criticism by his former enablers.
Thanks, Ani, for discussing this issue which continues to weigh heavily on me. Like the others, I feel a slap of insult every time I hear “the first black president”. You can bet your ass that if his mother or grandmother had been on the scene, things would have played out differently. G.D. NOW, G.D. NARAL, etc.
Speaking of G.D., does anyone know what happened to Jeremiah G.D. Wright? He was so brilliantly witty during the campaign.
[...] The Racial Narrative vs. Reality …as opposed to a bi-racial one, because he needed to pull the African American vote away from Hillary Clinton and aim a wrecking ball at the… [...]
Of course, this blog had absolutely NOTHING to do with the reinforcement of the “Obama is black (and that’s scary)” narrative. Nah, this site surely never engaged in pimping non-existent tapes that, according to Larry Johnson himself, contained Michelle Obama using racial slurs against white people.
Take a hike small penis. We females are in no mood for you today. You must have a death wish to spew that with the diaries posted here.
Huh? “We females”? I musta missed to memo that this blog is now female only and that Larry Johnson had gender-alteration surgery….
Yup, you missed the memo, along with the diaries about women being torched, beaten and killed. Get lost oh oblivious one.
Listen, moron, spending 2 days talking about the horrific brutalities that women in asian countries endure (after its been going on for 100s of years, wow, you guys are real pioneers), as horrible as those atocities are, doesn’t mean you can hide behind that reporting when the subject of the many, many ,many lies and disgusting accusations made by this site’s writers are questioned (or mocked).
In other words, fuck off.
ADMIN, PLEASE BAN THIS POSTER FOR USING INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE.
Boy, you sure are a very intelligent person! Your entire litany of retorts consists of “Johnny is dumb” “Johnny is getting dumber” and “ADMIN BAN THIS PERSON!!”
Who knew they were letting pre-schoolers blog these days?!?! lmao
I never used dirty language, kid. Not like you. Grow up.
Johnny….Vescere bracis meis…chuckle…
Coriipe Cervisiam!
Benny,
Seems you have no problem with Strawberrybitch’s “small penis” retort (nor with her screen name).
Your plea to administrators seems a hypocritical attempt to censor only the posters with whom you disagree.
That’s weasel shit. You should grow some ‘ads. Or go fuck yourself.
But seriously, the best thing for you to do would be to try to debate people on the issues. This kind of fake, opportunistic prudery is lame and cowardly.
Has Mr. O’Malley just discovered that women have been abused for many, many centuries in many, many countries and that women have been trying to stop it for the same number of years?
From the abusive tone of his comment it sounds as if he thinks nothing is important unless it concerns That One or his consort Michelle, who can also be abusive of females she does not favor.
Perhaps O’Malley should walk in women’s shoes for a few miles before passing judgment upon the time he considers wasted at No Quarter talking about how women are treated worldwide and even the U.S. while they were trying to exercise their right to run as president and vice president.
Johnny:
You O-Bots may have questioned and mocked accusations, but you were rarely, if ever successful at rebutting or convincingly disproving those accusations. Usually the best you could muster was a reference to the official campaign website where the accusations were denied and called “smears”, and that was your empirical evidence.
Last time I checked the burden is on the one doing the smearing to prove their accusations. Last time I checked, you and your ilk have proved nothing, except that perhaps we should all be investing the the tin foil industry…
Just so that I understand…are you saying that, the man who would be President is presumed to be eligible under Article II of the U.S. Constitution until an individual citizen, with legal acumen, reserve funds, and uncommon inner fortitude, puts his life on hold to launch a civil suit in state or federal court aimed at obtaining a judicial ruling as to eligibility; opposed by the candidate, who argues, he doesn’t have to prove his eligibility in this forum because Plaintiff lacks standing;… I am exhausted just writing about this.
Why do you assume BO is Constitutionally eligible for President, rather than demanding incontrovertible evidence he is?
God damn, just got back from ground school and flight school and you’re still here? What a sad little life you have. And child, you wouldn’t have the balls (well you don’t have a set anyhow) to say fuck off to my face. I’d snap your neck like a stale bread stick. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go give my babies a bath and get ready for MA class. My husband and I are going to beat each other senseless with Kumdo swords than more then likely have mad passionate make-up sex afterwords. Eat your heart out. But seriously dearie, get a life.
Hey, O’Malley, your “O”-inflatable doll just arrived. Wouldn’t you rather be stroking it than your keyboard?
Ahem. Benny?
I didn’t think so.
lol…O’Malley…Strawberry is in the mood to troll spank….chuckle…This will be fun…Carry on!
johnny wont know what hit him. lol
Go away Johnny boy.
Well, you still have some stops to make at CNN with Anderson Cooper and then onto Dem Bob Beckel at Fox since they also reported the story.
Oh wait…I bet that hasn’t crossed your mind yet.
So now run along complaining, about something that hit the MSM, to the other participants. See how Cooper and Beckel respond about forwarding news from other reporters about the tape.
This wasn’t Larry’s story. There are actual journalist who were floating it. Larry, Cooper and Beckel just reported someone else’s story.
If you are going to flog someone at least be accurate and consistant with your flogging.
Wow, rewrite history much? Nobody pimped the non-existent tape anywhere near the extent that Larry J. pimped it.
CNN et al mentioned the story as a rumor. Larry Johnson spoke to it as gospel. Larry’s own words were:
“I know people who have seen it”
“my sources are good on this”
“they are holding it to have maximum impact when it is released”
“its going to be released soon”
If you think that those statements somehow compare in any way to any of the mainstream reporting on the matter, well, then I guess that explains why you are a supporter of this hate site.
troll still obsessed over the tape. as I stated, dumb and dumber.
The tape exists you moron troll. People chose not to use it and they let your boss have a “free ride” to the White House, which in NO WAY is he qualified for, nor does he deserve. I am grateful the tape stayed out of it. Now Fraudbama will go crash and burn on his own and go down in history as the worst President ever. Way worse than Bush. And no one can scream racism, or blame anyone else. It’s all on the Fraud and he’s not up for the job. Why don’t you get lost troll? No one here cares what you spew out of your little baby piehole.
Ohhh I think we have a winner!!!! Your complimentary tin-foil hat is in the mail! Add it to your collection….
Of course your explanation makes perfect sense. The people who hated him the most, the people who have this magical tape in their possession even as we speak, “chose not to use it”.
My god, what are they putting in your drinking water?!?! Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had all week!!! LMFAO
I’m jumping in this fight too. Why else would the Obama campaign release a statement that What Michelle REALLY said was “why’d he”, not “whitey”???? Why the hell else would they say that unless Meechelle admitted it was true?
Again, no such statement was ever released by the Obama campaign. So ya may as well jump right back “out” of this discussion, sweetie.
And yes, I’m using the term “sweetie” just to piss you off.
I guess you are ignorant to the various ways campaigns get information out these days.
Obots…slow on the uptake.
Considering that Soertoro/Obama’s secret identify still hasn’t surfaced, please don’t give up on the tape just yet. But your obsession with it surfacing does bring to mind that “where there is smoke there is fire”, and you’re emitting a lot of smoke over it.
You’re right, if by “emitting smoke” you mean “laughing my ass off”….
Like it or not there are reporters who claimed to have seen it on both sides of the political fence.
You can’t claim it doesn’t exist, especially when Obama released a statement after denying the tape that revises the text to a simply misunderstanding.
How do you revise words on a non-existent tape?
LOL.
Obama brought me to this site with his racism and lies about the Clintons and Ayers. The thought that the Obama’s racism reflects on me or this site, is ridiculous.
The Obamas falsely played the race card and ispired sheep like you to bleat racism anytime someone doesn’t agree with them. That isn’t racism.
That is having a difference of opinion…wake up sheep.
correction…’simple’ misunderstanding
Obama released a statement on the tape? Wow, that’s a good one.
I’ll personally send you $1,000 if you can produce this “statement” from the “Obama campaign” that in any way, shape or form even comes close to acknowledging that Larry Johnson’s magical tape exists.
I guess it takes many layers of bullshit around you at all times in order you sustain your own sad, little personal reality. LOL!!!
“Why’d he”….instead of “whitey” is what came out of the Obama camp.
Funny how the Obots were here in force when this came out…but I guess you missed the memo.
You are the one wrapped in bullshit if you think that Obama is anything more than the Dem version of Bush.
He was selected….deal with it….you are a sheep.
You are slaying imaginary dragons over a selected President. That is like standing up for the Constitution in the name of Bush. LOL
The only racists were Obama and his supporters who falsely played the race card on anyone who didn’t agree with him. And, you sheep, are still fighting imaginary dragons based on that false premise.
Wake up sheep!
So in other words, no, you can’t prove a thing.
Some sole blogger claiming to have heard from someone what someone else was REALLY saying does not equal an Obama statement, nor does it equal an acknowledgment of the (fake) tapes existence. It’s about as credible as Larry’s breathless, David Icke-like rantings that the tape exists and by God he has seen it!!!
As for slaying imaginary dragons, don’t flatter yourself. More like stepping on dung beetles….
The only one ranting about Icke is you. Like I said you are fighting imaginary dragons in your head.
The people here took it as a rumor until proven otherwise….that is politics you fool!
You are the one all wrapped up in something it wasn’t.
The rumor is Michael Brooks of Media Matters was the first source and Sy Hersh was the confirmation.
Take it up with them. They are the ones who saw it.
Larry reported the political news on a political website….that’s it.
Personally, I could care less if the tape sees the light of day. I have seen how the Obama’s treat their neighbors and that is proof enough for me. They don’t care about those who they claim to help. Period.
You are getting caught up in a tanget pretending it is the real issue as an excuse to be abusive.
correction ….Obamas treat
Prove Obama is a natural born citizen.
Do you remember who those reporters are? I just took a quick Google and can’t find anything like that.
Holy cow I got it! Anything bad and considered a possible “scandal” about the Obama’s that is false and probably truly just another smear Bots talk about. Constantly.That is how you know they might just be correct.
It’s the ones they dont talk about that gives me pause.
So let me get this straight. In dead-ender bigot world (your world), any time anyone points out how ridiculous, unfounded and false any particular smear is, that makes it true?
Wow, you folks are seriously deluded. Seriously. Deluded.
If we’re so full of crap, then leave. Oops, you CAN’T leave. It’s your scumbag filthy JOB to be here lying. Your boss is a criminal fraud. You know it too. Otherwise why be here lying through your teeth all day? Can someone PLEASE mop the troll slime off the floor before someone slips?
Actually, my job is in risk management, but that’s neither here nor there.
And I could leave, in fact I keep leaving and coming back to check posts. That’s kinda how the internet works, ya know?
But yeah, You folks have just utterly and totally proven me wrong and proven all your smears right.
Oh wait, that’s right, not a single person here has been able to anything of the sort….
I just truly enjoy watching ignoramuses foam at the mouth all day. It’s like a car crash, ya know, ya just have to slow down and take a real good look…..
And another (funny) thing. Do you actually believe for a minute that if I was being paid to post comments about Obama that this insignificant site would even be on the top 1,000 list of blogs to visit?
I just like to come here because it’s where some of the lowest of the low, the bottomest of the bottom feeders, and the tin-foilest of the tin-foil hat wearers call home. Who could possibly resist?
Well, you guys sure did give me a “troll spanking”!
But only if “troll spanking” is defined as “Not being able to prove a damn thing” or “trading in more conspiracy theories than David Icke”, that is….
It’s been a slice, and while no one here was able to actually produce any kind of rational thought (or evidence of any of their disgusting smears), it was still a bit of fun to watch as you grasp at the straws of your circular logic.
Maybe I’ll go pick on the hillaryis44 crowd now… No, on second thought, that would be like just staying here, and I’ve had enough of this silliness…
Yawn…yeah….yeah…there hasn’t been a sheep like you since this morning I’m sure.
LOL…wait a few and another will replace you.
If by “sheep” you mean someone who resides in reality and follows rational thought and logic, as opposed to someone like yourself who believes every batty conspiracy theory as long as it helps explain why youre such a loser and your life sucks (its all OBAMA’S fault!!), then thanks for the compliment!
No…sheep just follow the herd….there is no rational thought there. LOL
But it explains a lot in why you can’t think for yourself and are upset when others do.
I bet you just patted yourself on the back after writing that. “Boy, I sure showed him!”….
Yep, I’m such a sheep that I supported Obama when the actual real sheep were all pulling for Hillary. But now that he actually won (hurts, don’t it?), since the guy I supported when very few did won, now I’m a sheep.
Alex Jone’s Prison World is thatta way ——–>
No, I’ve been debating Bushbot for years. There is no glory debating with sheep.
Anyway, Hillary won the most primary votes in history…the DNC ‘Al Gored’ her.
You supported the selected candidate…sheep.
He was presented in 2004 to anyone who watching the convention. Not very imaginative or painful…sheep…LOL.
Jones AND Ickes….even more imaginary dragons in your head!
oh yeah I get it. You think you’re smart because you use words like “circular logic”
only the smart ones voted for Obama, right?
Is he holding his little head in his hand will he is going circular? Just wonderin’ …. in the end those supporters left will be all of this ilk.
I think that Meeeeemeeeemeeeechelle is 100% AA …. so you lose.
lol….Hey Bee…
But Michelle 0bama is black.
An excellent article!!!! As an AA female who did not vote for Mr. Obama, I have experienced much anger from my family because I insisted that Mr. Obama was not being judged by the content of his dubious character but by the color of his skin. I insisted that he was neither qualified nor experienced enough to be even running for president. Most AA’s voted for him simply because he was half Black. Other groups wanted “hope and change” or were such haters of republicans that they would rather put such an unqualified person in the presidency of this country. Still many voters blamed the republicans alone for the financial crisis and the loss of their money. Mr. Obama did indeed use race to divide this country. That is the worst form of racism.
Very well stated!
Most AA’s voted for him simply because he was half Black.
I’m interested to hear you say this. Do you really believe most AA’s even acknowledged his half whiteness?
No. Most AAs selectively ignored his white mother.
Some, and I find this astonishing, didn’t even know his mother was white.
My poor 9 year old niece got into a scrap at school over this.
I heard many instances where AAs were unaware of 0bama’s heritage.
Pitiful!
Nothing like pulling stats out of your ass, eh?
So which is it? You say its amazing that “most aa’s” (again, a stat your pulling out of your ass) don’t know Obama’s heritage, but at the same time, your fellow hate-mongers are saying that NONE of us truly know the REAL Barry Soetero (scary) HUSSEIN 0bama…
I think we have the real makings of an honest to goodness case of group-schizophrenia….
Hey 0′Malley, I’m AA and live in the black community. It’s astonishing how many people I have personally met that do not know he is biracial. Add to that people I know in different parts of the country have found the same thing.
Is there anyway to know for sure the numbers of people who do not know? Not unless you do a survey, stupid.
But it proves to me that the msm did not do their job. And that is the problem. There’s no doubt that there is much about 0bama that we do not know. I can only vouch for my small segment of the country. And I’m telling you, a lot of AAs around here did not know and still don’t that his mother is white.
indeed…Remember the bit from Howard Stern’s show…and the film taken at the polling places…Some folks will go to great lengths in the pursuit of Bliss through ignorance…
yep, most of the ones I talked with believed that he was from the hood too and had lived a life of poverty and pulled himself up from the bootstraps, so to speak. The astute ones at least realized that he was a legacy of Harvard.
His half whiteness did not matter to them. My husband and many others said that they were voting for him because they were not going to pass up an opportunity to vote for a “Black” man for president before they left this earth. I kept saying that he was not Black. He was biracial and not qualified to hold such an important job at a time like this in our history. Their response was that everyone was biracial. My husband even mentioned his White grandfather on his mother’s side, something he had never talked to me about although I was aware of it. They just did not care. Many felt that they had been voting for White people for president every since they had been voting. So why shouldn’t they vote for a “Black” man? My usual response was that their vote was a racial vote and not a vote for the best person for the job and that it seemed to me that the White people of America were the ones who had actually come a long way since it was their huge number of votes that gave him the White House. We do not talk about political issues any more. Mr. Obama’s name is not mentioned. It is a sore topic in my family. A few of us in my family still do not and will never support him. We think he is a disgrace to America for what he has done to race relations and civil rights in this country. We think that ultimately Black people will suffer for what he has done.
Yep, that’s how Barry started his inexperienced run for the Presidency after 2 years of being in the US Senate. They have shown litterally anyone can be president, the oldest to the youngest inexperienced hustler that can bamboozle and hoodwink the weak minded saps that drank his koolaid. lol
He then realized he couldn’t compete, so he had to resort backwards and down a lowlife path of playing sexism and the race card. The kind of change O-shit! and his crew to want this to be the only thing he has ever RECYCLED.
You Betcha!…Don’t even have to be born in the USA
lol. nice one
I know this is off topic, but since we are discussing race and the campaign, I would personally love to see a Native American run for president and win. That would be a great thing. I think America will have truly come full circle then.
Hmmmm…that would be interesting. Could it happen? Hmmmm….
Post racial candidate? Give me just a moment while I stop laughing.
If Mr. Obama did not constantly yammer on about race, had he not chosen to identify as only black even in his books, had he adopted some asian kids and married a woman of mixed/unstated ethnicity THEN we would have a post-racial candidate.
What we have is all about race, sold to the weak minded by David Axelrod. Bleh. The electorate makes me sick.
Another excellent post, Ani!
I would like to know how “affirmitive action” will play out in the near future. Personally, I think there is no longer a need for it since America is now so racially diverse. Where does Obama stand on this issue? Anyone?
Ehemmm…affirmative action wasn’t just racial…Females benefited too…sigh…Folks tend to forget that…
Now thanks to the new Messiah, we have achieved racial harmony so there is no need any longer for affirmative action. Did you pick up your free multiracial unicorn yet?
I guess it’s because I don’t know any woman that were helped through affirmative action and I do know AAs who have been helped. Just my own personal experience.
Do you know of a female policeman…firefighter…construction worker…I am 48 years old and these did not come into existance until I was in Junior high and high school…Had to do with physical requirements which were amended to be more inclusive of females…in other words the field was leveled…
How about women in the media–tv, radio, newspapers, etc.? Before Affirmative Action women were virtually locked out of professions in these areas.
The article itself is disingenous, and comments from “OBAMA IS A FRAUD” are sad glimpses into the mind of a generation of people mourning the passing of the idyllic “Leave It to Beaver” America where you never actually SEE black or brown people unless they are in a subservent role. As Ronald Reagan said in a 1980 debate vs. Jimmy Carter, “I remember when America didn’t know it had a race problem”.
The irony, the social impact and policy implications of that truthful slip of the tongue was lost on Reagan, and I supect they are lost on conservative blowhards pumping each other into a frenzy like insecure frat boys.
The point is (to paraphrase Carter’s retort), there are Americans who ALWAYS knew there was a race problem. I’ll grant you all the black and brown miscreants,UNQUALIFIED (as opposed to the qulaified, competitive) Affirmitive Action hires (statistically, white women are biggest beneficiaries. Furthermorequotas are mostly filled in entry level jobs, not Ivory Towers), welfare fakers and malcontents, and there would still be a hundred fold more examples of real, ungodly, unAmerican terrorism and institutional racism against people of color.
Forget slavery, forget the 1960s,it’s that much harder for anyone TODAY the darker their skin or the more negroid their features are. That doesn’t mean that a minority can’t make it, rather, because the USA is the land of oppotunity one just needs to accept that true game changing opportunity comes harder to folks who don’t look like the previous 43 Presidents.
I am so tired of guys like “OBAMA IS A FAKE” being born on third base and acting like they hit a triple. Just reading these comments resigns me to the fact that even with a half white figurehead in the White House, I am never going to be percieved as “fellow, equal American” by the likes of this crowd.
correction…”affirmative action”
Thanks Ani for the article. I think people need to be honest about what really happened during the past year or so. Maybe we can learn something. I salute you and the other authors of NQ for your tireless efforts!
Ditto Galt…well said…
Thanks. And thanks for sticking with us.
You’re welcome. This past year has reminded me we have yet to address anything that is fundamentally responsible for the behavior and apathy we saw, and results of those actions or inaction as it were. More to come from me, once things settle down a bit more.
Does it matter?
How bout we make a deal: Obama can show Larry his birth certificate and Larry can show Obama his whitey tape.
We have had 5 bi-racial presidents in the history of the United States.
Lincoln was bi-racial and was one of them. Why do you think Obama is such a big fan of Lincoln?
Obama would never admit this tho.
The difference between Obama and the bi-racial Presidents of long ago is, the bi-racial presidents in history did all they could to hide their race of non-white.
This is fact and this is history. Do your research. Google it, then research it more.
Yet white people and people of color refuse to look back in to history and remember the bi-racial presidents in our history.
Obama is not history!
He is just fooling the people.
Obama can sell miniatures of his birth certificate and Larry stills from the video as cellphone chotchkeys and keychains.
Black white whatever the first bit of news that I hear is he is going to buy a thank you ring for his wife for thousand of dollars.
Right in a time when American is undergoing god alone know what, with bail out here and bail out there Obama is thinking diamonds.
That is like a slap in the face of all those that are feeling the pinch and wondering what this Christmas will bring, Mr. Bling, Bling sure as hell does not have them to study, let the good time roll with the first color me money President.
Have you been naughty or nice? Santa’s watching you… Maybe you’ll get a chunk of coal in your stocking.
I did not vote for Obama Bob so I feel no pain at this it all you poor ones that wasted that vote. You will now have to sit and watch as he throws it in your face, Mr. Bling will live it up for the next couple of years all thanks to you guys, am sure we aint seen nothing yet that ring is just the start.
Mr. Bling, Bling is just getting warmed up, I agree he should now spend like he never has before, this is a once in a lifetime chance so the sky is the limit now.
Obama should get some rodium spinners on his armored limo with the license plate, “Messiah1″ and tool around D.C.
dumb trolls. lol
Not only that, American made isn’t good enough for the Obamas. Italian designer, South African rhodium and blood diamonds. . . Yuck.
Did you know that although some white supremacist groups refer to themselves as Aryan, Aryan actually refers to Indo-Iranian language and culture? Meaning that if you call yourself Aryan, you’re saying you’re East Indian or Iranian.
Obama should get the remix version of the whitey tape with the Britney Spears soundtrack and give an autographed copy to Michelle for Xmas.
And Michelle can give Obama an autographed copy of Bill Ayers’ book: Fugitive Days, with the re-edited ending where Ayers, the 8-years old apprentice Obama and the rest of their cohorts succeed in stopping the Vietnam war.
Mr. Splendy Bling…Fraudbama…is throwing a week long, seven day Inaugural blowout…to the tune so far of 240 Million taxpayer’s dollars. Isn’t that great? He’s going to break DC apparently. He couldn’t CARE LESS about the dumbazzes who voted for his fraudulent butt and how they are spending their holidays, broke. He couldn’t care LESS if any of you can feed your kids, etc. It’s all about his scumbag ego and giving himself the coronation of a lifetime. Great. You fools will wake up some day an figure out who this jizzbrain spending all of our cash and leaving you hanging out to dry is. We’re laughing at you now, you’ll be crying soon.
Obama should make it a week and broadcast it all over the world. It can be the Messiah’s Inauguration festival. Ben Affleck can do a play, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears can sing and dance. Chris Rock can do some standup. Then they can pick a name at random from a telephone book and raise the taxes of the lucky pick.
Hey Bob so when is Obama going to get that new Hummer with the heavy sound, you know that is just how all typical Black males do it once they run into some good times.
The bling has to be there, its natural Obama is no different than the average black male, what is happening now is the public is now going to see it, 240 mil of taxpayers money for an inaugural is joke that should be double with the party going on for a week, throw in a public holiday there also that is how its done, just typical black styling.
Will one of the regular posters PLEASE chatise SJ for that biggoted comment that can’t be rationalized any other way? Is anyone here a true, intellectual conservative whose politics may conicide with SJ, but will not tolerate such blatant racism.
Anyone? Bueller…Ferris Bueller?
Mr. Splendy Bling deserves italics to go along with the bold…..chuckle….Why that is splendid Oisafraud…lol
President Splendy Bling!
Hey Fraud, are we still on for lunch tomorrow?
Oh, I could say a lot on this subject! I was born in 1947 in the upper South and raised there–and I’ve seen the polite labels go from Negro to colored to black to Afican-American. I always thought colored was the best term, since the vast majority of black Americans have white heritage. (I’ve read that about 30% of Americans who identify as white have black African heritage).
As to the one-drop rule: this wasn’t ubiquitous. In some states, like VA I believe, if a person was no more than 1/16 of African descent, then he/she was legally considered white. People may have socially thought differently, however. And, of course, today people are referred to as black if they appear to have Negroid heritage. It’s become like an ethnicity. But, if someone is raised among a different ethnicity–like Obama was–we’re referring only to the fact that it’s obvious that he has African heritage.
I think people need to get away from emphasis on African genes and stop expounding on the topic of the first African-American President, the first black first lady, black kids living in the WH, and so on. Obama certainly used his ethnicity to get votes, despite claiming post-racialism, and showed himself to be a typical pol who uses any possible link to voters to win them over. I believe he WILL try to move away from all this, and the media needs to let him do so. He’s an American who happens to be of Kenyan descent–and Celtic, apparently, and many other ethnicities.
So do you fall into the genetics camp regarding behavior or environment? He’s half-black/half-white but his environment for his formative years was white. After college, environment black. Still 50/50, no?
Santa should put a copy of the whitey tape in all the stockings of the Republicans. And he should put a piece of coal in the stockings of the Dems with a note, “Sit on it long enough and hard enough and you might get a diamond. Love, S.C.”
Great analogy, seeing as how the whitey tape is about as real as ole St. Nick…. LMAO!!!!
Still slaying imaginary dragons….not very effective risk management.
Why don’t you research how the Obamas treated their black neighbors before you trying smearing us with their deeds. They help to steal proper housing, schooling and medical care from their neighbors.
The true racists are the ones who let poor folks freeze in the winter with sewage in their sinks while standing on their backs pretending to help.
Diverted grant requests for math and science from them and shoved them out of the hospital when they were sick.
You are disgusting to ignore the truth in the name of fighting a tape!
Have some perspective!
Oh, okay, I think I see now. Since there’s another, completely unrelated (and, as with all your other smears, completely unsubstantiated) smear out there, I should ignore the fact that No-KKKwarter tried to smear Michelle Obama with a tape that doesn’t exist.
Gotta love wingnut logic…
Wow…you are dumb.
At least the educated Obots know what scandals those comments hit.
And really, you can’t prove a negative that the tape doesn’t exist. So try that somewhere else.
Besides, Sy Hersh and Michael Brooks aren’t exactly minor names with horrible reputations. It is they who are rumored to confirm the tape.
You are trying to justify being abusive over a tape you can’t prove doesn’t exist.
There are documents that prove Michelle helped to deny her neighbors medical care. There are documents that prove Obama steered all math and science grants away from students that desparately needed those skills to go to college. Just like all of Chicago knew that pay to play, Rezko, and Obama stole from those projects. They helped steal proper medical, schooling, and housing from their neighbors for their money men.
While you are upset over a tape.
Like I said….how disgusting!
Slaying imaginary dragons while real ones are hurting Chicago citizens.
I am done with you.
What a dope you are. I have to prove a negative? Did you go to school in Moronville or something? The onus of proof is on the inbred fools like yourself that claim such a tape exists.
Or, we could do things your way. I declare that you have sex with goats. Now, unless you can absolutely prove beyond a doubt that you never had sex with a goat, then we must all assume that it is true, right?
And if you even get angry that I said such a thing, well, that just proves even more that you had sex with goats. After all, where there’s smoke, there’s fire (and sore goat asses)!!
Holy fucking dumbfuck!!!
Hey Risk Management Clerk,
One more thing.
If you have a different point of view then express it.
But do not use vile language and characterizations. If you have some deficiency in your life that requires you to do so (like you didn’t get that 3% raise this year or people made fun of you at the Christmas Party) then you should go to Daily Kos which requires that kind of language.
I said you can’t prove a negative you clown!
And WTF….your whole disgusting rant is based on poor reading comprehension.
Keep your bedroom fantasies off of the board!!!
ADMIN!!!!
Hey Risk Management Clerk,
There IS a tape of Obama speaking at a gathering of Islamic radicals that the L.A. Times has surpressed which they attribute to their supposed source.
If the contents of that tape were ever to be revealed it would be the end for Obama who has played a game of burning both ends of a candle to achieve his goals.
As far as the other video, two African American adults have spent 20 years of their lives closely associated to a certain church and its pastor who regularly preach and condone hate. I would have a hard time believing that some of that has not rubbed off.
Cuz we all know Obama is the only politico who listened to a nut job preacher.
What preacher isnt a nut job?
But hey, say anything to make yourself feel better. Wont change the fact that for once, the good guy won.
“What preacher isnt a nut job?”
You have real issues.
excuses excuses excuses: name me ONE pol in power you know that sat for 20 straight years that in the pew of a LUNATIC; who became so tight with him that used all his sermons to learn and practice how to speak, that became his spiritual mentor during ALL those 20 years; a pastor who gave him the rights to his own sermon to write
his book, married him, blessed his home, baptized his children, blessed his POTUS campaign, became his spiritual advisor OF HIS campaign (until it blew up his arse).
TWENTY YEARS is ALL of BO’s adult life:
NO other POL would have survived that. NONE.
Now ask yourself why did BO?
The Wright-Obama affair was disgraceful and would have made UNELECTABLE any other candidate.
WOW! You really are a dumbass with those comments about preachers. You’re really sick in the head. It takes a special kind of stupid to say something like that. But this does not surprise me from a hate filled Obot.
Everyone should read:
Havana by Stephen Hunter
You will be very scared about Obama/Castro
And after that, read “Alice in Wonderland and the Truth about 9/11″ by David Icke. LMAO!!
cant read, troll?
Ani- I have been saying he is bi-racial like me for quite a long time on this blog. The old die hard democrats loved to just jumped on me everytime I mentioned it, almost as if they were offended that he was half white. I guess now the trolls are saying he is half white now to make sure the whites honor him and bow to him as they do and then everything will be hanky dorky.
Really thought provoking and observant.
Sadly, the media, the DNC, and the upper echelons of the Dumbocratic Party, as well as Obumble and his minions, all have the blame for the race nonsense that they pushed.
It has become a sad fact of life in America that if you’re black and have a gripe, you hollar race. It’s become the catch all to cover any incompetency an AA person has. This doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist, but it’s not as pervasive, nor as one sided, as the AA community would like everyone to believe.
Every one of us is racist to some degree. It is a natural event to be suspicious of someone who looks different or acts differently than us. There is even racism within races. I see it all the time between Hispanics from Salvador vs. those from Mexico or Guatemala.
The answer is to recognize that we all have that trait and to work hard to eliminate it. As the world grows smaller and more inter-marriages take place, this will happen.
Impeachment is for the birds
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/impeachment-is-for-the-birds/
Time to ban Johhny O’Malley. He’s trying to hijack Ani’s discussion.
What we are talking about Johnny is how Obama promised to be post-racial and instead used race to divide the electorate to win the election.
Bye, bye
Yep, he dividied the electorate. Which of course explains that he won basically the same percentages of subgroups as Kerry, Gore and Clinton did before him. The only difference was the huge gap in support he had in the youth vote.
But keep makin stupid shit up if it makes your sad lives any more amusing. It doesnt really matter now, does it? The good guys won for once, and that just kills your little black heart doesn’t it???
I won’t be shedding any tears for you and the other merchants of hate…
I guess you haven’t really studied or understand the statistics of the past election for this:
has been proved to be a big canard. That was NOT the
“only” difference nor made THE % difference AT ALL.
Read up.
ANI’S THREAD HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE BOTS. Remember, bots who comprehend next to nothing but pretend they know it all.
BO would have said he was from Mars if it would have gotten him elected. Good old American style pragmatism, “whatever works” “by any means necessary’ and “the ends justify the means.” He ran on some anti-war speech but then chose pro war mongers to his cabinet; he promised public campaign financing then decided against it, then Fisa, then Nafta, then he makes out Clinton to be a racist along with her husband( a la OJ and Mark Furman)to get the focus off his radical, socialist buddies. Like I said right out of the pragmatists playbook. Morals, don’t matter, honesty’s for the birds, everything is relative and I’m going to create a New World Order, “I’m the one we’ve been waiting for.’He used the colors green (650 million) and black (only 6%) to get elected.
Barry Soetoro is a FRAUD.
I do not understand the point of your article. So what? What are you trying to say? I appreciate the time you spent on this, but so what? What is your point? A lot of verbal dribble and you do not really make a point. I give you a “B-” as a college paper. What is the real point of your article? What are you trying to prove?
Assuming that everything you say is right, so what if Obama used both his white side and his black side? Would you expect any different? Is this the point of the article? Why is this important?
Is your thesis that black people should not have voted for Obama? If so then say it! Say it right up front!
Are you saying that Obama said that people that did not support him are racists? Then say it straight out! Say that Obama claims that 46 million people are racists. If you believe he set race relations back (I assume from a white point of view) then you should say it up front and spent more time proving that very strong statement.
Are you saying that Obama has no right to be black and white at the same time?
Are you saying that Obama would not have won if he was not both white and black?
Are you saying that it is a crime to call yourself black or have anyone else call you black if you are half white? So what?
I guess what I do not understand is why is any of this important?
Surely you jest. If you can’t figure out that the article is talking about Obama using the race card to his advantage and using labels to hurt and blackmail people into voting for him, then you are not reading it properly.
Why don’t you stop being so insulting and give it a little thought first. He is the pretender here. Anything to win. He can certainly be white and black at the same time and the fact it he spent a great deal of his campaign ignoring his white heritage because it advantaged him to do so.
He pulls out what he needs when he needs it. No one else here seems to have a problem following this.
I do not understand your points and the article is not very clear on what it is trying to prove.
What is the narrative? Barrack Obama used the so-called race card to his advantage? If that is the narrative then it needs to said more clearly and proven more throughly and it needs to be explained better why that matters and is relevant. If that is the thesis then is the real point of piece that if he did not “play-the-race-card” he would not have won? Or by playing the so-called race card Obama is not a good person and will therefore be a very bad president? if that is the premise that it should be said more clearly.
Or that Obama is different then all other politicians because as you interpret from the piece that he pulls out what he needs when he needs it. That would be quite a strong statement. Imagine a politican pulling out what he needs when he needs it.
She tries to start something, but really does not end up anywhere.
She ends up with 197 comments (and counting).
Big deal!
Let’s see you do it, fresh boy. I double-dog dare you!
Love to see some articles on this website that had some different points of view. The Obama bashing is getting very old.
Actually, the site should go back to being a site about Larry’s insightful knowledge of the inner workings of the CIA and about international security.
All this Obama bashing serves no useful purpose. It is just the same 100 people on here flagilating amongst themselves.
I’m just funning ya’ Paul. I tried to tell ‘em the same thing but nobody listens to ol’ Bob. We’re (the human race) not ready to be civilized yet. Bashing is somehow still more fun and dramatic than reasoned discourse. Someday… but until then, let’s bash away on anything and anyone that’s remotely relevant!
Something many fail to appreciate also is that colour of your skin does not really identify your origins, cultural and social influences do.
When you are raised by a white mother and grandparents, the cultural influence are white and all that that implies. His influence with the black community only began at around age 10, when he started spending time with Frank Marshall Davis.
From a developmental point of view, that is very late. Internally, meaning his earliest influences, Obama is white. He rejects that because he rejects his “white” influences. That was implicit in his “typical white person” statement.
He only started cultivating his black heritage at this time after he told his mother that” her experiment on him had failed”. From there he turned away from his white family.
Needless to say there have been deep issues with Obama’s identity, and unfortunately it has been too easily framed in terms of his skin colour. I wish that it were that simple.
Merchants of Hate, now that is a funny statement coming from OBOT< John O”Malley! The onley seller of phony goods is Barry Soetoro. Who sold a pack of lies to the American people, along with the assistence of coporate controlled media. Why doesn’t Mr. Soetoro release his original BC? Where are his educational records from Harvard, Columbia, Occenidental? His medical records? How did a presidential candiate get away with this????? It is funny watching CNN, critize Mr. Soetoro for not ansering the tough questions? Lol…., this was coming from Campbell Brown, “who accused Barry Soetoro for not answering a question, LOL….where do they get off?
answering
Who cares about all this stuff? What is your point? Irrelevant.
I can not watch Anderson 360 nor Campbell. They are so unreal. Just not to long ego, they were so much in Obamas corner, so were those changes came from. Anderson360 was working for Obama campain, on His own time, Campbell was trashing Hillary,Sarah Palin so badly, and now CNN is asking those questions. Campbell is so ingorant and sarcastic, just watch Her mouth, can see ignorance …. They must be in a hot water. Wonder, who help this two to, to start different behavior as they should from begining. What a such TWO unorofessional people.Fire them, fire all like them…
Obama’s white half is racist against his black half. Which makes his black half angry and racist against his white half which makes his white half even more angry and…
Very nice post Ani! Thank you. Incidentally today “The World” on PRI had a gues from Ghana that just like BO was biratial ( father white mother black). His skin color is the same a BO; yet people in Ghana would call him white and BO black. So he made some excellent remarks about how the BO being “the first black american Pres.” meme was a complete media created narrative and other great points about black as skin color, “experience”, etc etc.
Very interesting and on target with your post here.
You can listen to it here
http://www.theworld.org/
Click on the audio button around the minute mark 30 min. –half an hour into today’s show) when she talks about the cheers that BO election had in Africa and goes on to interview this journalist from Ghana.
Look Obama is Black, no AA in the USA is saying Obama is half white they are calling him black one of them they are no way interested in what little white he has in him, they voted black.
The natives of Kenya says Obama is black and African they also don’t give a hoot about his white mother or grand mother. America has a black man as President so there is no need to try and find some solace in saying well he is part white.
Obama is Black people voted for a black president and deal with it. Maybe some wanted change they wanted to see how the country would run with a black man at the head, well they have what the wanted now its left to be seen how successful he will be or not be.
If he makes a mess of things what part are we going to blame the white part of the black part?
Probably his SOS will be blamed.
Johnny O’Malley, the Irish Virus laid down the law on No Quarter today. What happened No Quarter folks? Too much turkey leftovers keeping you sleepy?
The only thing Johnny laid down was a pile of crap.
That pile of crap was Obot Thanksgiving leftovers.
What if Obama legally changes his name to Barry Dunham? Would that help? Maybe he should change it to Mr. White. Would that help?
Maybe you should ask those who lived in the Obama/Rezko projects if his name was the issue.
I have read on a conservative site (Free Republic) that Obama’s lineage breaks down as follows:
50% White
44% Arab
6% African American
Can anyone verify?
25% Italian, 25% Irish, 25% Arab, 25% African. But can we dissect his lineage even further?
wrong….44% Arab 6% Black…
so,He is black only because He looks black. 6% not makes Him black. For me He looks more ARAB, then black. Sorry to AAs, and I am not racist, just with common sense, OK??
That One is 75% baloney and 25% filler. His bots are 100% flakes.
Ferd, I loved your response above dissecting Mr. O’Malley’s comments. You made me smile.
so what?
It’s an ugly ring from an ugly man to an ugly woman.
Where’s the COLB, Obutthead?
Probably up his backside with a handful of razorblades, just the way he likes it.
Um, Benny? Where are you when we need you?
All of the discussion and debate here is good. And scientists in every discipline have argued and discussed these very same issues without coming to any consensus.
My favorite though is Dr. Spencer Wells’ theory that all modern men/women are descend from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago and migrated from there to the ends of the earth. He has proved this through DNA. Of course, there are some scientists who disagree with him.
He has written a book explaining his theory and documenting his visit to Africa and to the tribe where a descendant of this one man lives. He took his DNA sample and tested his theory in the lab.
I find his theory and proof good enough for me, as I have always believed we came from the same place. Which is also why I believe all men, as Jefferson wrote, are created equal.
The book, The Journey of Man is not an easy read because of all the DNA scientific stuff. More easily accessible is the National Geographic special out on DVD, of the same name, The Journey of Man. Wells’ meet up with the tribe and with the descendant of this one man is documented. It is thrilling to watch the scientist at work. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it.
I have a few links to write ups of Wells’ work below.
I have also read and saw on a 60 Minutes piece that most of not all of us have blood from many races in us – six degrees of separation.
That is why it behooves all of us to treat every one with respect and love and tolerance.
As for sfhillary’s comment: “It’s so typical of the anti-Obama movement…” What you call an ‘anti Obama movement’, I call the loyal opposition.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1212_021213_journeyofman.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journey_of_Man
What is more interesting is that every human on earth can be traced back to ~36 women (via mitochondrial DNA).
Go figure FB.
Strawberry:
Apparently lineage should be traced through the woman. That’s going to be a kick in the backside for sexist jerks everywhere.
But what about that whole Adam and Eve thing? Wasn’t Eve created from Adam’s rib? Didn’t the Big Guy in the Sky create dudes first?
what are you? dumb or something? lol
Sure he created men first. You always have a prototype and then you work out all the bugs on the next one - hence women!
Hey buddy! We don’t need no science in here suggesting that we’re all from the same ancestor. If we do that, then we can’t say Obama is playing the race card. So take your books, and your fancy college egghead elitist learnin’ and beat it!
Um…bob. I’m the least educated person here at No Quarter. I was just a lowly poly sci major. Most have Master or PhDs. Get over yourself.
Who says I don’t have a PhD? Get over YOURself. It’s nice to see you acknowledge your ignorance and lack of education though.
dumb and dumber
The Obot’s PhD stands for Poopo-head Degree.
Or Pope of Hope Degree.
…or jd’s…
Psst: Bob…race is not a primary genetic charateristic.
Who said it was?
You did, dickweed:
You are not only a poor troll but apparently one with memory trouble, to boot.
No, if I had said, “race is a primary genetic characteristic” then you could have said, “race is NOT a primary genetic characteristic”. But I didn’t SAY that. You interpreted “If we do that, then we can’t say Obama is playing the race card” to mean: race is a primary genetic characteristic. I didn’t say it, you interpreted.
Now, do I call you dickweed at this point to try to bully you or make you feel small or release my anger? Or whatever you were trying to do?
Useless article. I agree it says nothing. There is no point to it.
And your officious post is useless, too, as no one here asked you for it. Try irrelevantbots.com if you want to post unwarranted dreck.
If your standard is requesting others’ opinions then all of our posts our useless.
You and your fellow bots with your inane posts are useless because you shine no light a particular subject but do shed a lot of heat.
No one here at NQ requested your presence and if you say anyone did, then you are one delusional troll.
Heat, light. You say potAto, I say potato. And who requested your presence here, Ferd ol’ buddy (or is it dickweed now?) I don’t recall seeing your invitation from Larry.
I did.
The point was: 221 comments. 222 including this one.
[...] The Racial Narrative vs. Reality : NO QUARTER He claimed this ‘narrative’ of the black candidate for himself, as opposed to a bi-racial one, because he needed to pull the African American vote away from Hillary Clinton and aim a wrecking ball at the popularity the Clintons always … [...]
Who cares about his biracial genes. It’s his bipolar personality that’s going to bring us all down.
That and his double-speak.
Oh no. He has a mild case of schizophrenia. True thing. That’s why he won’t release his records. He supposed to be on meds. When he goes off of them he stutters and thinks there are 57 states and great lakes in Oregon.
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/011266.html
Booooo! Hisssss! Let’s not. Let’s keep talking about his biracial identity and race and genetics and whitey tapes and birth certificates and Ferd being a dickweed.
I have a niece who is 50% Korean and 50% an Albanian, Norweigian, English, French blend. She is married to a man who is 50% AA and some North American Native blood on his father’s side and 50% South American Native and German blood on his mother’s side. What are their two children? My niece calls them mongrels, affectionately, of course. Those children are the future of this country. They are a Caucasian/Asian/African/South American blend. They are three races mixed. At one time I celebrated this kind of breeding. After I read that children such as my great nephew and great niece would have a very difficult time finding a bone marrow match because of so much racial inter-marriage I have had a thinking shift. I suspect that in 50 to 100 years miscegenation will be frowned upon for medical reasons once again.
Clap, clap, clap!
No Obama isn’t Black, more of a half breed. His name is also Not OBama. He was adopted by Leo Soetoro and no one ever shows Proof that he Legally changed his name back . He is Not A Citizen , but born in Kenya period. We will never refer to him as President. But Mr Soetoro Period
Clap, clap, clap! You left out whitey tapes, genetics and Ferd being a possible dickweed, though. C-, please revise and post again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ5SVDYBNrY
look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, i know your dreams
I’ve been everything you want to be
I’m the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality
Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.
I’m the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
I’m the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality
Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set you free
You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your god’s name
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, i know your dreams
I’ve been everything you want to be
I’m the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality
Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.
I’m the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
I’m the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality
Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set you free
You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your god’s name
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality
Somebody posted this song a while back and I was really impressed by how prophetic of the O personality cult it seemed (it came out in 1988–by Living Colour) Note the line “Only you can set you free” and compare that to “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Hello? The “one drop” rule means he is black; if a man has “one drop” of black blood, he is black. Apparently, this writer has it exactly backwards from the actual antiquated rule. It’s not “one drop” white; it’s “one drop” black.
Obama is bi-racial, multi-cultural, and American.
So freaking what?! He’s still a Narcissistic Personality Disorder, an opportunist, and a liar.
I’m so sick of black people heralding some new sort of world because of Barack Obama. He’s not new; he’ll soon enough prove himself to be just the same old corporatist, imperialist, power-hungry, unitary executive we’ve seen for the past 8 years!
And then the bots’ heads explode.
Ooooh la la. This is my biggest pet peeve about this man and the election. So many good points were mentioned. I could have written this myself. “By any means in the banking world” means “FRAUD” and ethics vioaltion. So I can sum up your article with this..’by any means’. I think it’s worth a second read.
Good Luck to Hillary. So brave, so grounded. God speed you on your new journey Hillary. Wear your long black coat that flaps when you walk, when you journey to repair the damage to our reputation that Bush’s cronies did.
i think it is interesting to point out that barack’s heritage is partially arab through his father. they were involved in the slave trade as my memory from reading history recalls. so to take obama as the “one” says to me a lot of willfull and just plain ignorance is involved by the voters who heardled his arrival.
UBM get over yourself.
Comment by sfhillary | 2008-12-02 13:25:20
I just read this thread. It’s so typical of the anti-Obama movement that you take a completely typical trait of a great politician — the ability to appear differently to different people, or at least to transcend labels, and the willingness to emphasize different aspects of oneself for the benefit of different audiences — and interpret it as evidence of Obama’s nefariousness.
_____________________________________________________What makes him a great politician? Seriously, he has never accomplished anything other than run for higher office, he never did anything to help the people in his district in south side Chicago so what makes him a great politician?
Also because he allows people to project what they want on him by leaving himself an open slate, all that does is allow (if he is ever called out for anything)him to say I never said that (although he doesn’t really need to do that since his supporters do that for him), but more importantly it sets up a lot of people for disappointment.
When will you Obama supporters learn, he is not and has never been a new kind of politician, he did not campaign “above the fray” that was all an illusion (as is the illusion that the Republicans alone are responsible for the economy when in fact the DNC did nothing to prevent it knowing they could benefit from a bad economy this election. In fact John McCain tried in 2006 to put regulations in place to prevent this, it was Dems, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank et al who said there was nothing to fix. Stop blaming republicans for everything and take a damn close look at the Democrat party and before you call me a republican, I am a registered Democrat, who like many others for years believed the Democrats portrayal of the evil republicans, that is until I saw for myself this year who was really the corrupt party) that so many people bought into. He is just as if not more corrupt than any politician.
Kim said,
Whoa. You’re bidding to make a name for yourself as the Samantha Power of Houston Democratic politics. Stop hurting the cause with this kind of nonsense. Kevin Lamb is a right-wing kook.
I have been saying this to people for the last year. BO is not the first AA president….
we don’t call mixed race people “black” anymore.
It is disrespectful to use this language, but yet BO is OK with it?
Obama has abandon almost every single campaign promise, and he isn’t even in office yet. I read today that now he will not be pushing the windfall tax against big oil…no taxes on rich, …no Iraq pull back, …no don’t ask, don’t tell repeal,.. no closing of Gitmo, and no change IN CIA…
HEY, THIS IS BUSH’S THIRD TERM, IS THIS THE change AND hope YOU ALL WANTED??
Well, in a calculated sense to garner a certain segment of a voting bloc, guess the Obama campaign was crafty enough to jump on the race theme as soon as possible. Nice move, pretty savvy
Al
http://ontheseventhday.wordpress.com/
Check it out. The first official Barack Obama holiday has been created in Alabama to celebrate the first African-American president: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/metro.ssf?/base/news/1228295853158070.xml&coll=2. Here’s an interesting quote:
“The resolution also contains language to make it difficult, if not impossible, to overturn. It says the Obama Day “shall only be deleted from the county holiday calendar by a majority vote of all the members of the United States Congress, both House and Senate, and a unanimous vote of the Perry County Commission.” More hopey-changey celebrations to come, I suppose.
“Ms. Arana indicates there is much racial mixing in our society and others so as to render old labeling out of date and useless”
This is something that I think is hard for white people to get their minds around. It’s a point I’d assume Arana would understand because she has hispanic heritage, but obviously she doesn’t. Race mixing isn’t new. MOST BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA ARE OF MIXED HERITAGE. Maybe not a parent, maybe it’s a grandparent or a great grandparent, but the fact is, the vast majority of blacks in America can trace their ancestry to places other than Africa. Thomas Jefferson’s indiscretions aren’t rare in black history.
But now all of a sudden i’m supposed to pretend Obama isn’t black like Harold Ford jr. because Ford has two black parents? Even though the guy has green eyes, light skin, and wavy hair?
Like I said, I’d figure that a person like Arana would get the point because she has heritage with an ethnic group that is fundamentally of mixed racial heritage. Trying to shoehorn race into an objective concept is what causes problems. Whether it’s telling people they are black, or telling people they aren’t.
Think about it.
A leader leads a GROUP of people.
To grow as a leader, a person needs to DEFINE the group he leads, and increase its size. He wants people to appreciate him and NEED him, so he shows the group who their enemies are, and how they need him as a leader in order to survive. People who look white to everyone else consider themselves to be black, and are considered by nearly all other blacks to be black, because they learn to be so expert picking out “black” characteristics.
Six weeks ago I heard a would-be leader tell the 7,000 person congregation of an African American Chicago church “One drop of Black blood is more powerful than all the White blood in the world.” When I complained to an African American from another church, they said “Oh, we’ve heard that all our lives.”
I think African American leaders have created the Black-White crisis in order to increase their success as leaders. Leaders in every kind of group do similar things.
“People who look white to everyone else consider themselves to be black, and are considered by nearly all other blacks to be black, because they learn to be so expert picking out “black” characteristics.”
You don’t need to be black to be able to do that, just not be really naive about race.
My white friend knew just as easily as I did that Rashida Jones (this was before we knew her name or father) was probably part black.
But as for why black people feel the way they do, it has nothing to do with some BS conspiracy theory about trying to become leader.
Part of it is insecurity. We see white features as better than our own so we are quick to claim people with these features as being part of us.
Part of it is history. If you had an openly interracial relationship, you pretty much weren’t welcomed in the white parts of america.
Part of it is expectation. I doubt people see obama for the first time and say “he’s white.” if you are a person of color in america, then you are treated as not being white. period.
Part of it is political. Most blacks are of mixed heritage to any degree and dicing ourselves up even further just dilutes our political power to fight the problems we all have to face as a whole.
In case you missed this, elsewhere: