Their Ancestors’ Ghosts
By pm317 on September 21, 2009 at 3:20 PM in Current Affairs
I think the recent race-baiting strategy of Obama (his are footprints in the sand) and his cronies backfired royally. Carter and many of Obama’s minions in the media went around casting every American who is questioning Obama’s reckless policies and his inability to communicate them in coherent terms (fired up, ready to go is not coherent) as a racist.
Nancy Pelosi even went in front of camera and cried fearing violence from the purported racists, I said cried — I would post the video but I can’t stand her. Instead I will give you a link where you can see the video and read additional commentary.
The realization that all this was backfiring came quite soon when Obama started acting like the good cop with his bad cop actors pushed to the side. He must have also sent a memo to his other media minions because they started talking about how it is not racism but just change. I am of course alarmed at their tactics but also watching the race dynamics in this country with some intellectual curiosity.
As an immigrant from India, I am new to this black/white dynamic in America.
I don’t look at myself as a colored person, even though someone in my work environment once referred to me as such in a conversation which felt strange to me. I don’t acknowledge my skin color status here in America through the black experience because that is not my heritage. In fact, I saw this same confidence in my foreign students coming from Africa. They did not want to be mistaken for the local AAs. They were proud to highlight their heritage and their distinct identity. What would it take for that kind of confidence to build in certain factions on both sides of the black and white divide in America, that they don’t have to be chained to their ancestors’ legacy?
I deplore anybody using stereotype or prejudice. I am also uncomfortable with the other two phenomena — the “white man’s burden” on the one hand and the racial bias on the other. Both equally cripple true democratic discourse. For instance, in people like Senator Byrd, there is evidence of bigoted behavior from the past. Did it have an impact in his decision to dismiss Hillary Clinton’s candidacy during the Democratic primary? Was it fear of being accused of racism if he didn’t support Obama and the specter of his KKK days being plastered on TV? Senator Byrd surely ignored that Hillary Clinton won WV handily and that she was the more experienced candidate. He must have known that Obama was an empty suit but still endorsed him. How many others suffered from this disease of white man’s guilt or fear before they voted for Obama?
On the other side of the divide, we had AAs voting for him in droves without the slightest regard for his merit or lack of it as a candidate. Even now, majority of them feel that the recent opposition to him is based on racism. In their racial bias, they did not pay attention to his lack of qualifications or experience and now feel that he should be given a pass. While a state senator in Chicago, he did not necessarily take good care of his constituents who were predominantly AA — see this fantastic Flineo video for a bit of evidence on that. In a nutshell what you see in that video is Obama’s grand accomplishment. With the incoming fire on ACORN these days, and Obama as a champion community organizer who propped that organization up, you have to wonder what he really did accomplish. Where are the results?
This much is certain. He used chicanery of the first rate to manipulate these diffident people in perpetuation of their own fears and false pride. He recognized that he can get more votes by crying racism than not.
Obama has squandered a wonderful opportunity in helping people on either side of the black and white divide come to terms with their ancestral ghosts. Imagine a different scenario where he would be truly race agnostic and encouraged people to be as such, wouldn’t that have been a confidence building measure for true racial progress? If he thought he needed to stoke race flames during the campaign to win, shame on him. But what is his excuse now?
While everyone reflects on this new race dynamic intruding on our democracy, we can’t let Obama and his minions off the hook for politicizing a grave and tragic national history (Bob Herbert of the NY Times is still at it, he didn’t get the WH memo). 
In that context, ridicule is a powerful tool for most of us who are not drawn into their distortion, pro or con, to call them out. One such tool, a visual aid is this interesting flowchart from missourah.com (click on the picture to enlarge) — an Obama guide to who is a racist. If enough of us, rational and sane people keep talking about how these politicians and the corrupt media are out to manipulate you even with as serious a topic as racism, may be someday they will stop using it as a weapon or a crutch.
A sidenote about the flowchart: It is a well done chart. A “brown” person like me will get stuck in that endless loop at the bottom right corner which makes me chuckle. The loop accurately highlights the fact that the racial minorities can’t be labeled racist unless they believe that the dominant race is in fact superior to their own which is rare.
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Sara and Linda for digging up the flowchart for me and to Lisa for her observation that it would have been a lot easier a generation ago to dig up other names with bigoted personal history like Byrd’s. The task of finding more names is made difficult because law of the land holds in spite of some politicians shortchanging the progress we make.
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Wow! such a long winded post. It could have been said in a simple sentence. Obama is a race baiter. See?
It is a good post. Only an immigrant could have discussed this topic with objectivity, not having been born with a racial chip on his shoulders. I too, am an immigrant citizen. I had a few experiences which my American born friends identified as racist which at the time I ascribed to rudeness, lack of culture, etc. My confidence in my own heritage allowed me to say, “your loss, not mine” to those who seemed not to welcome my company. In time, when it becomes obvious to others that racial considerations are not part of your make-up, they usually come around and learn to judge you as a human being.
Thank you, pm317!
I think that’s the key word, “confidence”. And just as the constant racist-labeling delegitimizes the office of the President (not that I consider the illegal usurper British citizen anything but a resident), so does the ridiculous focus on race-only delegitimize the authenticity and confidence of African Americans. These are people complex and true humans with souls and beating hearts, not a collection of melanin molecules, and I wish we could move beyond that.
Yep, the key concept is confidence. The confidence to move beyond and be your own person. Poverty makes it difficult but those who do come out of it can help and not hurt — remember Prof. Gates? Still playing the victim card and setting a bad example for those who are trying to not get dragged down by the past. For the whites, the same thing, get past their bigoted ancestry because they are not that person/s if indeed they are not. What do we make of politicians who prey on them?
Thank you, felizeart, you and I are kindred spirits.
What you get out of something is limited by your capabilities.
There you go again, Markie-Mark, insulting a blogger but having the big el zilcho by way of response. Gee, pm317 wins by proxy, huh, Chester?
You could do us all a favor and just say, “I’m Mark Connette and I’m as dumb as pounded manure”. See?
It was never talked about since you know who got selected. It just seems that this administration and pelosi are making this topic worse for their benefit. The baiting started with the selected one and all hell broke loose.
I took a look at the chart and didn’t find a place for myself. Actually, I support some or even many of Obama’s stated objectives, although I never believed him in the first place when he stated them during the campaign. And that is exactly what I have against him. I don’t like manipulators and liars and don’t believe that every politician is either one or the other or that they have to be. I don’t like Obama’s methods and don’t believe the end justifies the means. Manchurian Candidate is a very apt description for this multi-racial, multi-cultural figurehead we have in the White House now.
It is definitely hard to find an honest, honorable politician in national politics these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist or can’t exist and I don’t care what color they would happen to be or what schools they would have gone to.
Ghandi is probably as good an example of a principled political figure as anybody.
Thank-you pm3l7 for your fine post. Although I’m American born and raised, I have witnessed and experienced first-hand some bigotry when I was a chlld. I’m 61 years old and was raised in a rural, “wasp” (white, Anglo-Saxon protestant) area of the mid-west. Although my family ancesty was caucasian, they were too new off of the boat and were Roman Catholic to be fully accepted in the small community I grew up in. However my family never talked much about it. They just worked hard and were glad they lived in this country. It gradually died out and with new people moving into the community after I moved away, the old prejudices died out. This has been the American experience for many immigrant families no matter what their skin color.
This, of course is not to say that “racism” has not existed and does not currently exist in this country. But,as you have so eloquently pointed
out, Obama and his supporters are playing the “race card” inappropriately and this false labeling of many American citizens as racists because they don’t agree with his policies, is not only hurting him and the democrats but it’s also creating a more “racially divisive country” rather than uniting us as a “color-blind” society.
I am a Southern white male and have gone through a lot of emotions dealing with the piece of dog dung that is Obama. BUT, I don’t see him as an African-American, or mulatto or half this, and half that. Instead I see him as a crook and a liar who should be indicted for a whole series of crimes, not the least of which is the source of the money with which he bought his mansion, and the deal that allowed him to appropiate half of another lot through the machinations of a convicted felon’s wife. That he has black skin, or brown skin, is three quarters Arab and one quarter black on his father’s side and half white on his CIA operative mother’s side is irrelevant, none of that is an excuse, and does not make his actions any less criminal than if he was white, red, yellow, or green. Barac Hussein Obama is a crook, and I hope like Nixon he ends up having to wave goodbye as he slinks back into oblivion. However, being President he has the power to coerce those in the Federal Justice System, and pardon those whose crimes make his own case uncomfortable. I am sure those who know things, are aware of this, and as a result have mixed feeling about their safety. I am sure, too, there are those with dirty hands, on his account, as co-conspirtators and accomplices, that have been promised before he leaves office they’ll recieve a Get Out of Jail Card. The result is the same as it has been for decades: Criminal enterprise in the name of politics continues and emeshes every aspect of our daily lives. The Mafia are small potatoes by comparison, and with Chicago Politics in force nationwide, we’re all screwed, black and white. The racism baloon is a smoke screen for dirty deeds done under the cover of national interests, national security, and a whole raft of other plausably deniable forms of deciet.
Well said. When do you want your ear back? It’s poking me.
Great post–I really think the flow chart is missing a few loops. For instance, It’s always North vs. South. But I think we out here in the West also need some kind of different loop, we’re such a mix of ethnic and racial groups, and I even see a bit of difference in the political divide also.
For instance, I was terribly pissed off when our Gov. appointed Bennet to fill Salazar’s seat when Salazar was appointed to Obama’s cabinet. Our ex Speaker of the House in CO was/is a wonderfully dedicated, hard-working aisle-crossing Dem, Andrew Romanoff. Many, many people expected him to be appointed. He would have been there in the House still if not for term limits. But the Gov. appointed a man–with lots of money behind him–who had been brought in from out of state to make some improvements to the Denver Public School System (which needed them). He was doing a good job at that when Ritter appointed him, though he had NO political experience. Now there is an upcoming primary rivalry. Many, many Dems are now concerned that the upcoming primary will weaken the ticket and the Repubs will regain the second Senate seat, which they had for over thirty years before the 2008 election. I was one of those people who lost much of the respect I had for the Gov. when he didn’t choose Romanoff. Obama has already given his two cents on this issue, backing Bennet, which will definitely make me not vote for him. And I believe there are many, many long-term Colorado Dems and ex-Dems who will not vote for him either.
All I’m saying is that party lines in Colorado, which is now deep blue and already looking to turn back to a reddish tint, are divided on different issues maybe than they are on the other side of the Mississippi.
There never really was slavery out here, so it becomes an almost different question about one’s personal genetic heritage. It becomes more about who settled here first for some issues. The poor Native Americans are always left out of any issue because, of course, they were the only ones here first.
I love the flow chart!
(Obama = half-black) = irrelevant
(Obama = half-white) = irrelevant
(Obala = pathological liar) = extremely relevant
Any questions?
Sorry. “Obama”, not “Obala”
Obala is fine. Obala doesn’t know who he is either. I mean like, he doesn’t even own a birth certificate.
You’re spot on. The veneer is superfluous when the core is rotten.
Good essay, pm. I really liked the flowchart:all roads lead to hell. Pretty much sums up where we are.
I didn’t watch the Obamathon on Sunday, but read excerpts. The idea that the President can sit for an interview and proclaim to the Nation that he’s not following the ACORN debacle very closely or that he wasn’t aware that they were receiving big Fed funds, marks him as one of history’s more stunning serial liars. Add the race-baiting to the dialogue, all this “good cop,bad cop” nonsense and I’m beginning to think he’s one nasty piece of work.
Sorry, I simply don’t believe he doesn’t know what the WH crew or Nancy Pelosi are doing. I’m afraid that the wedge they’re driving is absolutely deliberate. The whole approach is beginning to creep me out. It’s almost as if they’re begging the public to rise up.
Dangerous times!
Wasn’t that a joke?? Did he seriously expect us to believe that? He promised them a ’seat at the table’ and now he doesn’t know a thing about them???
If he does know, he’s a liar. If he doesn’t know, he’s one of the most inept leaders of all time. Personally I think it’s both.
Agreed. He is both a compulsive liar and an inept bungler who talks way too much–an extremely dangerous combination.
An excellent post, if I, a low educated,uninformed, white racist, do say so myself.
If the conversation were truly to shift from race, it would have to go to class and then the Obumble would be in real trouble. They are truly classless as could be witnessed by her highness wearing a halloween costume to the posthumous award ceremony for the fallen soldier given the Medal of Honor.
Excellent post! This is the type of “race conversation” America should be having.
Here’s more of the conversation – Mark Levin’s interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
Brilliant article pm 317. Your articles are consistently excellent but this one is the best. I agree with felizarte. It does take someone who comes into this culture from the outside without the cultural baggage and to properly assess the situation. In a large sense that is what De Tocqueville did in his book Democracy In America.
Mr.Obama is poised to play the race card again when he and his cohorts in Congress attempt to rush through their immigration bill with amnesty for 12 million people who are unlawfully in this country. Interestingly, some of the Republicans claim this is a back burner issue for him, but my sense is he will do it again. And when he does, sure as God made little green apples, his minions will play the race card and he will claim plausible deniability while imploring both sides to confine themselves to civil debate, while blowing the dog whistle.
I could give him the hypocritcal words to do it, but why bother. With the little groper there with him, and the Soros agenda on his brain, he has got all the help he could possibly need.
Thanks, PM317, felizarte, and any other immigrants here.
I know, as a Canadian, I feel baffled by this historical slavery load that Americans still carry.
To be fair, I’m sure Americans regard the historical burden of the English/French dynamic in Canada with the same lack of understanding.
Every country has a history with good and bad stuff. The successful ones find a way to acknowledge it and still move on.
Americans, born and raised here have reason to be very proud of this country country, But I think that as an immigrant American citizen, I am prouder because I chose to be an American and I know all the reasons I love this country beginning with its majestic Constitution that guarantees individual rights all Americans as human beings. A Contract between the people and their government forged by very wise and strong individuals in a time that seems to be Divinely inspired and nurtured.
I am sad that the younger generation, even the college educated, do not seem to have an understanding of American History and all those outstanding leaders and people who contributed to the building blocks of this country. Many cannot even recall the name of the First President of the U.S. How in the world can these provide informed feedback to those they elect to represent them?
And our leaders of today do not seem to have the slightest interest in honestly informing the people? In fact, one gets the feeling that they are deliberately hiding many things from the people. The sad situation goes beyond republicans or democrats. I pray the people will wake up and do their individual part to protect and preserve this great country.
felizarte, did you read my this other post?
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/08/26/obamas-summer-of-wee-wee/
I am amazed at how powerful the American Constitution is and how influential it has been for other democracies.
No. I’m sorry I missed that one but thanks for the link, I was able to read it just now. Indeed, we seem to be traveIing in parallel universes. I came over in the sixties to Los Angeles, by way of San Francisco and my first stop was Haight-Asbury to see the “Flower People.” Those were very fascinating times. Had my first exposure to how media could be slanted in covering events that end up on TV based on events that I personally observed first hand.
I must say that the best way of understanding U.S. foreign policy is from outside the United States. I am now of the opinion that the American people are just as misled about America as peoples of other countries.
Thank you pm. Glad to make your acquaintance.
Another solid article, pm317. Thank you.
In short, the American electorate was had. I know others take issue with this statement but I stand by it: 69,000,000 were bamboozled, hoodwinked, and flim-flammed.
When George W. Bush was president, the liberals took their scapel to his faith, and the millions of evangelicals who shared it.
Now these same people are intent on using race to inflict wounds on millions more.
These insults are personal, not political, and they are disgusting!
Great article!
I’d really love to be a fly on the wall during an immigrants’ panel discussing this aspect of US society/culture. Living in it is one thing. Seeing it from the outside must be interesting, indeed.
Sounds like Obama is back tracking after getting his AFrican American Express Race Card Gold denied, And close to a miilion people showed up last saturday with a pair of sissors. Don’t you just hate it when that happenss. I hear he keeps moving Air Force One to different Location because he’s afriad Because the Bank of Hope and CHange is threatening to repossess it because his content of character account is empty. And if he doesn’t get his crap together we will forclose on the white house as well.
LOL..victim of foreclosure because he bought a house he could not afford..
Good post pm317
pm asked”How many others suffered from this disease of white man’s guilt or fear before they voted for Obama?
…answer: Enough, that’s what helped inch him up. And that IS why he played the race card, banking on the guilt feelings.
What a great observation, if he truly was transformative and would have become race agnostic. That was most us Hillary supporters probelm, we were. We had been past looking at race long ago if ever. I’ve talked about bumps in my road as a young girl, confusing then too, considering they used to be my friends before I was labeled “white girl walking alone”.
But I disagree that AA’s think many who oppose Obama are racist. I believe from what I’ve observed, they are just claiming it now for politics. The latest poll showing 12pct of Dem’s think that way sort of confirms that, too. Gee, didn’t they say if Obama didn’t win that was going to prove we were racist.
And yes, again, most people who accuses others of being racist, usually is themselves.
Thanks, pm317. bho the fraud and his cronies in Congress, the faux media, ACORN et al who shout racism–the ones who shout racism and not the ones who don’t–are looking a little silly right now.
pm317– we can always count on you to offer a thoughtful and interesting perspective on issues. This post is especially important because we’re all questioning ourselves and how we think about those not exactly like us. I thought I was beyond seeing race when I looked at someone until last year when it was thrust in my face every time I tried to have a political discussion with a BO supporter.
An interesting thing I heard tonight on Greta’s program: Tucker Carlson admitted he was approached by the BO campaign during the SC primaries with the meme that the Clintons were racists. He said it was implied that journalists should run with the story. This was the first time I’d heard a journalist admit to where the vicious rumor started – with BO.
Thanks, Portia. Yes, I also heard Carlson say that but it didn’t hit me until now reading your comment that he really said that.
The SC Primary proved that the 0bama/Jesse Jackson Jr/Clyburn/Brazile Race Team was loaded for bear, laying in the bushes waiting for any and every opportunity to use the race card against the Clintons.
It was the most insideous thing I have ever witnessed. Sean Wilentz’s 2/27/08 account of “Race Man: How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton” that outlined the events of the SC Primary seems to no longer be available at The New Republic. The link below gives an abbreviated version of it. The original version covered Jesse Jackson’s role as the campaign’s race man. I regret that info is not part of this version.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obamas-race-bait/question-53511/
Tucker confirmed everything that we suspected.
Obama’s team should be ashamed of themselves.
Out of all the people in the world, they throw the racist card at Bill and Hillary Clinton.
It’s BEYOND disgusting.
But it appears that what was done behind the scenes is slowly coming to light.
Trillions were spent bailing out banks. The proverbial sky was falling when the economy was going towards full collapse. Low and behold the president acted swiftly with much criticism, but now economist are saying the united states has avoided a long recession due to the measures president Obama initiated. Trillions spent bailing out banks. Did you march in the streets? Did you write that the president did a good job? No, why not? Marching and protesting because the president proposed giving “all” Americans health insurance. This doesn’t seem backward to any of you? “we” all are and will be paying taxes for a myriad of things and this (health insurance) gets you “all” up in arms? This is clearly why politicians say one thing and do another. It’s something like, I beat you because I love you.
Your comment does not make much sense. Besides it hurts to read all the bold font.
Mikee:
Who you talking to Willis?
Stop the whatever you’re trying to say fest!
michael, you are on the wrong site. i highly recommend kos or some other liberal chat for you. the views here won’t change because you are stamping your feet and yelling.
Re: “white man’s guilt” – I have enough to regret about the things that I have done to be even slightly concerned about things that I had nothing whatever to do with. Thus “white man’s guilt” sails right by me without leaving the slightest mark.
There is a backlash occurring certainly. People are sick to death of this “racist” charge, and it trivializes real racism when it does occur. So, the tactic or “crying racism” is both cynical and dangerous.
It could well have been that Sen. Byrd couldn’t take the possible “race” stories if he endorsed Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama, in which case, it would be practical, not racial concerns which motivated him. But, Sen. Byrd could have just been engaging in some long-time unknown personal vendetta against the former President, too. That said, politicians generally support their party’s dictates at some point or they risk their political careers. The DNC, in the case of Barack Obama, was clear from the beginning that they would do whatever it took to install Barack Obama as the nominee for the party. It was quite obvious to everyone which candidate the party wanted, since they cheated the voters in two states in order to fix the process. Maybe Sen. Byrd just saw the writing on the wall and decided to go with the flow, who knows? The back-room political deals that seal our fates are an ever-present fact of life in the Capitol.
Mountainaires, the 0bama campaign cheated voters in many, many more than two states. 0 won all the caucuses by 12-17, even when he lost the primaries in the same state. 14 states had caucuses. Of those 14, 4 had both caucuses and primaries. It was the 4 that had both where the proof came of the obvious, blatant falsifying of the results. They obviously had the same instructions for all 14 caucus states.
Dr. Lynette Long analyzed the results in those caucus states. She has written 14 math books. She says it is a mathmatical impossibility for a 12-17 point win in caucuses when he either lost or bearly squeeked by in the state-run primaries.
Did anyone see Tucker on Greta last night??
He talked about how Obama said nothing when his supporters portrayed Bill and Hillary as racists, and he’s doing it again with the protestors.
and this quote is very true:
“While a state senator in Chicago, he did not necessarily take good care of his constituents who were predominantly AA ”
That jerk didn’t give a crap about the AA’s there, and so many of us turned a blind eye. There’s just no way in hell that Bill or Hillary would have looked other way when a landlord friend was screwing over Black tenants, then turn around and get him to help them buy a house. It just wouldn’t happen.
But as I’ve said before: No one in my family talks to me about Obama anymore.
I also noticed that there are some white people that feel this need to… I guess make sure that they say something nice about Obama before they criticize him in front of me. They’ll say something like, “Obama is a nice guy, BUT,etc, etc.” Then I’ll make it clear that I don’t like him either and I can see the sense of relief wash over their faces, & they feel free to say what they really want to say.