Well, the inevitable save-the-date announcement of Barack Obama's true intentions has arrived. Yup. It's all about him. No matter that the invasion of Iraq is getting bleaker by the hour; we could be at the brink of a nuclear war; and Bush appears to be preparing to flee to South America when the shit hits the fan--the conversation must be brought back to the importance of what the country can do for Barack Obama. I mean, wouldn't someone who really served his constituents and country be calling for investigations into the corruption that has brought our democracy to its knees?
He sure has come a long way from young Barry Obama, who tried hard to fit in, rejecting his Kenyan heritage until he saw how useful it could be for him. It's interesting to me that in the only real political campaign he's run, he had his head handed to him by voters on the southside of Chicago who overwhelming re-elected Bobby Rush to Congress. And I have more than a few questions about how he treated his mentor, Alice Palmer, as he ran her over to get her seat in the state senate.
But now, his face and name are everywhere. He's out selling his books and himself. But the conversation shouldn't be about Obama, it should be about this nation and what needs to be done to coexist peacefully in this world and how to enrich the lives of all our citizens.
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2 comments:
I don't agree with your assertion that Sen. Obama embraced his blackness as a tool to help him advance. As an black man who was reared in a mostly white town and who attended mostly white schools, I like Sen. Obama struggled with my racial identity as a young person. This may be difficult to understand for those who haven't lived it, but it's hard being a black adolescent in white America. You are inundated with negative images of black people at every turn, and it is difficuit to counteract that, epecially when you lack black role models and reinforcement at home--like Sen. Obama did (reared largely by white grandparents). Besides, do you really believe that being black is a benefit? If so, tell that the the almost 1 million black in jail in the US. I'm sure they'd agree.
Anonymous,
I have no idea when you posted your comment so here goes a futile attempt at responding to you:
Barack was mostly raised in multicultural Hawaii where his world may not have been "black" but it most certainly wasn't "white."
He specifically chose to settle in Chicago, where he imagined his African heritage would appeal to the large African American population residing within the city, many searching for authentic connections to the African continent and culture. His calculations proved futile because he could not shake his discomfort in predominantly black gatherings. His attempts at "sounding black" were cringe-inducing. Like Colin Powell, he's "not that black." Thus his base was overwhelmingly white up until his campaign targeted specific media outlets, sending them manufactured anecdotal "evidence" of offended reactions to Bill Clinton's SC remarks comparing Obama's campaign there to Jesse Jackson's. Almost overnight his support among black voters quadrupled.
His views of black men are quite condescending for someone who embraced his "blackness" as a way to counteract the inundation of negative images of black people he suffered through. And his willingness to blame the victims of poverty, racializing dysfunctional behavior that is not specific to any one group, would be considered racist if expressed by a nonblack individual.
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