At the end of a long campaign for the Democratic party’s nomination is the brick wall that reminds us all that we are a nation built on the premise of supremacy. This is the mortar in our national joints. You can’t be mad at President Clinton and his wife for using that knowledge no more than you should be upset with Reverend Wright for overstating the obvious. This is our reality, and collectively we are too scared of what lies beyond in order to change it.
One of the biggest reasons for my choice not to support OBAAMA has been my feeling that his candidacy was an offer to a low budget racial reconciliation. I don’t want white to have to suffer the same way that Blacks have in this country, but I don’t want white’s responsibility to still be the burden of a colored person, particularly a Black male. After several generations of supremacy in this country it will require more effort than placing a plastic bottle in the recycling container, or wearing a ribbon on your lapel because you donated money to GreenPeace.
I am looking for a lot more from white than they may honestly want to give up. Equity in terms of access to education must be fought for, because if Black children aren’t taught with the same vigor and zeal as the white then we are conscripting these children to a lesser life immediately. I appreciate that the dialogue is being raised again and again, but what we are NOT confronting is what continues to make these discussions invalid. When will America remove its caste system from our collective socio-eco-political minds?
OBAAMA’s candidacy has shown me that we still cling to this notion feverishly. People are working serious overtime to maintain the status quo. I need to see some white stand up and say that they are willing to spend some time as the ‘wretched of the Earth’. When that day comes then I might consider casting my vote for BARACK HUSEIN OBAAMA.
blank stare. your not gay for obama. your the same color. that’s all that matters.
nah, I kid. I overstand your stance. Standing for something > …
DP,
You’re killing me.
“…collectively we are too scared of what lies beyond in order to change it…”
Obama may not have said anything new or bold in his speech this past week, but the fact he made the speech was new and bold. He isn’t to blame for white’s wish for “post-racial,” and believe that white will learn soon enough that his presidency won’t change the supremacist past and present. Don’t make either of those his burden. He’s the best candidate.
DP, while I agree with what you say…you have stand behind him and give him credit because he has done what no other politician or leader has ever done. He admitted to the problems in america and did it in a way yhat the whole world will see. This wasnt local or national news, this was international news. He put america on front street for the whole world to judge us by. and its about time, we need to start living up to what america sells to the rest of the world.
youre right, this will change nothing and it will force a black man into an extremely compromising position [||]. Theres no way this country is really ready to confront and break our deep seeded supremecist habits.
It dont think that anybody would be able to change the game in four or even eight years. it doesnt matter. there needs first to be a major readjustment in the attitudes about poverty and inequality in this country. most presidents dont do anything but talk anyway. and obama is the best talker. i’d rather have a president do nothing right now and just talk to us the right way, help change attitudes and establish equality of opportunity and access as a concrete policy positions as well as a positive value (we already value it, but don’t understand it well enough to implement it). you know what the bottom line for (WHITE) people out here is YOU MUST LEARN – (c) krs
the bush administration has been a seven year long reductio-adabsurdum of the empirialist/neo-liberal policies we’ve been riding with for the last 50+years. its been exposed as foolish and dangerous domestic and foreign policy. the country is more ready for change now than ever. if the majority of the voting public is really ready to have the conversation about change, then we really need to have it. cause its a lot better than nothing
let’s nor rely on the voting public to make a change as we all know the voting public’s vote jack shit in todays america. Not only do they continue to Jim Crowe the black man, they even have gone as far Jim Crowing(sp?) the less desirable white.
The last 7+ years of this presidential idiot should of taught us all that when we vote we only voting on an ideal, an ideal that the so called delegates can determine was baseless whenever they want. The voting publec wanted Gore as president ( why I will never know), but we got Bush instead. Becuase of the delegate system and the electoral college. and until we change that, our votes are useless, and we cant change that because our votes are useless….
“One of the biggest reasons for my choice not to support OBAAMA has been my feeling that his candidacy was an offer to a low budget racial reconciliation. I don’t want white to have to suffer the same way that Blacks have in this country, but I don’t want white’s responsibility to still be the burden of a colored person, particularly a Black male.”
I kind of agree with this, altho I voted for O.. I’ve always had mixed feelings about his strategery of constantly downplaying race, though i understand why they thought it was necessary.. it has played out like O is selling white people a shortcut to absolution, like “hey we can vote for this guy and then all is forgiven, without us actually having to think about race or work through it..” .. and now the Rev Wright thing has brought the inevitable reality check to those “post-racial” dreams..
and altho I loved the speech, people tend to hear what they want to hear and what most people took from it is a focus on everyone’s individual perspectives and prejudices, rather than a clearer awareness of the historical/institutional racism that makes up the objective reality underneath all those opinions..
I have a question that you might scoff at … but forgive me for “not getting it” if I seem to stumble.
You see, I am a white guy … whose extended family by and large is from england and scotland. I however, was born over here in the New World, and because of that, I definitely identify with America as my identity, and have really no pronounced connection with Europe that I can see.
Obama is from Hawaii. He grew up there and in Indonesia, places which are predominately Asian — with white and african mixed in to hawaiin culture. He is the product of a Kenyan father and an White mother, and has grown up around Asian family members.
I know that any guesswork I make into his mind is really just that — guesswork… but it has crossed my mind that perhaps through his upbringing he does not identify with being an African American in the same way that African Americans who are raised within african american communities of Mainland USA.
I’m not trying to take the pundit position that you see on cable news or on byron crawford’s website that Obama “isn’t really
continued from before!!!
“isnt really black enough” I would never take that position, because I think it is already pigeonholing what it is to identify with a certain culture in a way that is not appropriate…
All I am saying is that when we just call Obama the “black candidate” and leave it at that, we are ignoring that in our country, people have a whole web of cultural feelings which they have inherited from their ancestors… what others percieve us to be based on our appearance is not what determines the way we feel inside.
From looking at me, you never would guess that I listen to hip hop about 5 to 7 hours of the day, or write about it, or do a radio show about it. I look like everyone’s definition of a lame white dude (tall skinny with clothes from the damn gap) … I think people get where I am going with all this.
daesonesb,
I dig what you are positing, but the reality of America is what has to be acknowledged at some point. Hopefully sooner han later. Obaama is a Black candidate. Obaama is a Black male candidate.
His diverse upbringing notwithstanding, he has to recognize what visceral response his image generates in people’s minds even before he has uttered a word. To his credit he does know this and this is why Senator Joe Biden made the “he speaks so well” remark a year ago.
America is constantly allowed to overlook their colonial treatment to peoples that do not reflect the image of the OG Dutch settlers. This includes the indigenous Americans and all the other peoples that have had a foot in their ass from colonial capitalism.
When do you(and myself) think we should acknowledge the freedoms and liberties that should be intrinsic to all humanity and not just Americans? Read: white.
This may mean that we have to spend a few extra dollars on our t-shirts so that the corps dont use slave labor. Nothing will stop my fate from being working class, but maybe the discussion can bring some people out of abject poverty.
>>>When do you(and myself) think we should acknowledge the freedoms and liberties that should be intrinsic to all humanity and not just Americans? Read: white.
Education would be my first thought.
I grew up in Pike County Kentucky, where the majority of people were poor whites who lived in trailer parks and what was referred to there as “hollers.”
These people in my area were never offered that great of a highschool education. Their parents couldnt teach them much because they didnt have much education themselves. They didn’t learn very much before dropping out or graduating. All their education got them ready for down there was to work at a low wage job.
Alot of them would get hooked on Oxy’s or end up getting a girl pregnant before the age of 18. It was hard to see people who had a lot of potential see their dreams collapse like that.
Without education, there is no foundation for social mobility in the south, in the big city, or in any poor area… You know in Germany motherfuckers are getting free university education? All it takes is a little bit less spent on war and a little more spent on the future.
There’s obviously more to it than this, but I’m not sure where else we’d start as a country.
Good drop man… you’ve got me thinking about things.
Education is a MUST.
And that education has to include a shift in the paradigm of capitalism. I’m not talking about communism either, but humanity can’t survive if we continue to drive this shit until the wheels fall off.
You know I only post on SNEAKER FIENDS UNITE! blog posts but I have to say that this is a very interesting and though provoking post. I don’t have time to read all the comment but I will return to do so.
I do wonder, who the dems will pick considering that there is no way Hillary can win enough votes at this point an time. Barack would have to do something really bad to lose. With all the in-fighting on the dems side, i think the winner will be a republican… again. I predict McCain will be the new president.