• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Obama isn't black enough...

Al Sharpton's comments mentioned above:

"I think the identity politics should not be based on race," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a 2004 presidential candidate. "It should be based on agenda and policy -- who stands for our best interests. We cannot put our people's aspirations on hold for anybody's career, black or white."
Click to expand...

Now that's a fine piece of doubletalk. Identity politics should not be based on race, but they should be based on who looks out for "our people's" aspirations. To whom is Sharpton referring when he says "our people?" Americans in general, or black Americans? I strongly suspect the latter. Nevetheless, he contends identity politics shouldn't be based on race. Brilliant.

Without naming Obama, Sharpton added that "just because you're our color doesn't make you our kind." He pointed to President Bush's secretaries of State, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, as examples of African-Americans he said haven't necessarily worked in the interest of the African-American community.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of how Maya Angelou was quoted in The New Yorker years ago for proclaiming that Bill Clinton was American's "first black President."

Good lord.

AS
 
Last edited:
headscratcher4 said:
That's about the point I threw the TV out the window. African African American...did she here herself? Did she have any concept of how stupid that sounded.

African African American.

Rant done.
Click to expand...

Well said. I couldn't agree more with how stupid it sounds, and I hope it illustrates how stupid the whole "African American" descriptor is in the first place. It's also ridiculously stupid when used by PC journalists who refer to black persons in the UK as African Americans. Huh? An Englishman who is black is somehow American?

AS
 
Being an incurable news addict, I really dread this inane discusion (and the countless others and countless new ones) on Obama, and the "black" vote.

When some people post about this, I get the impression the underlying question is "hey, I'm not a racist, but what about all those other racists who seem so concerned about skin color?"

I saw that woman interviewed on Colbert. She really should remove her head from her butt and come up for some air, she seems severely oxygen-deprived.

Let's try to hate each other for reasons other than skin color.

After all, it's just politics, the entertainment division of the industrial-military complex ....

Charlie (props to Zappa for the last quote) Monoxide
 
Let me say that it's sad that what once would be regarded as a triumph for black freedom in America is now looked at through the prism of racialist ideology.
 
Darth Rotor said:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1292678.ece
Click to expand...

How weird is this:

One analyst argued that a Sharpton candidacy would “put Obama on the spot” by forcing him to address awkward civil rights issues such as police brutality and racial profiling that he tends to steer clear of. One Democratic blogger argued that Sharpton was “just what the doctor ordered to keep Obama on the straight and narrow”.
Click to expand...

I just posted yesterday in another topic a bill Obama sponsored in the Illinois Senate to fight racial profiling.

Requires the Department of State Police to provide training to State Police officers concerning sensitivity toward racial and ethnic differences. Requires the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board to provide for similar training for probationary police officers. Provides for a 4-year traffic stop statistical study based on information that must be recorded on the face of a uniform traffic citation, warning citation, or uniform stop card by State and local law enforcement officers. Provides that no reimbursement by the State is required for the implementation of any mandate created by this amendatory Act. Effective immediately.
Click to expand...

And here's a bill he sponsored requiring that in any case involving a homicide or certain sexual offenses, the interrogation must be taped.

His record is easy enough to look up.
 
Heh.

One Democratic blogger argued that Sharpton was “just what the doctor ordered to keep Obama on the straight and narrow”.
Click to expand...

How loaded is that statement? Geez.

Do what Al says, Barak, or you will be labeled an Uncle Tom.
 
I know my black friends on LJ are up in arms about this, as most of them term it, b*llsh*t.

They consider Obama black enough. My friends that are "part" black are generally considered black, unless they're so light that they "look" white - in which case generally the black side of the family refuses to have anything to do with them because of this very issue.

And yes, since most of them are from non-slave pasts my darker skinned friends wouldn't fit in to that group either. One, for instance, has a Filipino mother and a Kenyan father who is some big big name in the Knights of Malta. Etc. He's lived a decent life and is getting (at 34) his PhD in Math in Iowa! So, does this mean that he hasn't had to deal with the "Black Experience?" Ha! As if. People that are prejudiced or racist are just as much so with him as they are with anybody his skin color. Same with my other friends.

It's just a cop out. And really I can't believe the machinery of this bull is getting ramped up so early.
 
mollyblack said:
It's just a cop out. And really I can't believe the machinery of this bull is getting ramped up so early.
Click to expand...

I've been watching Obama since 2004 and have grown to admire him a great deal. As I mentioned in another topic, I wrote to him to pay my respects last year. I made a point of telling him I am a retired military man who has voted the straight Republican ticket all my life. Thought he would appreciate that. :)

Anyway, what I admire is that he is facing tremendous obstacles under fire and holding up well. He's got enemies from both camps putting him in their sites (yes, that's a pun). He has to please the black agenda hacks, and he has to not offend or "scare" Whitey. A very, very fine line he has to walk.

As a result, Obama has to work not the proverbial "twice as hard", but four times as hard, as anyone else. He has to guard every spoken word. The pressure must be enormous.

So whatever his politics, I watch with what I must admit is glee as he makes his way across the battlefield. It's like, "Wow! Look at him go!"

I find it fascinating.

So major props to the man.

I must admit I harbor a fear that he is wearing a mask and that it will slip and we will discover he's a raving left-wing nutjob. But that's the Republican in me. :)
 
Last edited:
Luke T. said:
lga.gov/legislation/legisnet92/status/920SB0375.html]bill Obama sponsored[/url] in the Illinois Senate to fight racial profiling.
Click to expand...

Looks like that was back in '01. I wonder if he is doing anything anymore in Illinois now that he's gone national.:boggled:
 
steverino said:
Looks like that was back in '01. I wonder if he is doing anything anymore in Illinois now that he's gone national.:boggled:
Click to expand...

Actually, I thought about the fact that was in 2001. Makes it less likely that he did it for Presidential aspiration purposes, don't you think?
 
mollyblack said:
It's just a cop out. And really I can't believe the machinery of this bull is getting ramped up so early.
Click to expand...


Slow news period, I guess, Molly. Iraq is the same old same old-bombings and shootings, Bush is in the early throes of lame-duckism, and there can only be so many stories on how much snow there is in upper New York. Obama is fresh, relatively unknown, and it looks like everybody has an opinion to express, no matter how il-thought out or not, and is willing to say it loudly and often in front of the camera.

Sadly, it will get worse. I may have to look into another overseas job to get away from the drumbeat of politics...

BTW, Happy birthday Tony, you're my favorite Knucklehead on the Political Forum (and yes, that is a compliment)
 
headscratcher4 said:
Ok, so there is some sort of media made-up controversy circulating around attempting to suggest that Obama won't necessarilly appeal to black Americans because he didn't experience the Afro-American experience. In other words, white mother and affrican immigrant father preclude him from understanding 400 years of oppression herritage, etc.

Now, what gets me isn't the argument. I don't really care about it. But, I saw a woman...an editor of the on-line Magazine Salon ... essentially making this argument, straight faced on the Colbert Report (he, on the other hand, was having a hoot with it all). Anyway, she called Obama and African African American. That's about the point I threw the TV out the window. African African American...did she here herself? Did she have any concept of how stupid that sounded.

African African American.

Rant done.
Click to expand...

Maybe Obama isn't black enough. Maybe Obama isn't white enough. But can anyone deny he's mulatto enough? biracial enough? brown enough?
 
Luke T. said:
Actually, I thought about the fact that was in 2001. Makes it less likely that he did it for Presidential aspiration purposes, don't you think?
Click to expand...

Let's not get carried away Luke. Maybe he had his sights set on the '04 national senate race. There was a high profile racial profiling case in suburban Chicago at that time (An affluent white suburb next to the suburb where I grew up.) Jesse Jackson was all over it. And the incident predated Obama's bill by a mere nine months.

http://www.adversity.net/policefire_2_highland_park.htm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom