As I occasionally do, there is a comment on my post "The Top 10 Racist Moments of the GOP Primary (So Far)" that merits further discussion. Nomad (who needs to claim his book prize) perennial critic of Barack Obama, and long time commenter here on WARN observed that:
Everything you say is true about the Republican assault on issues of concern to black people:
"the 2012 Republican candidates are stirring the pot of white racial anxiety, this is a means to a larger end—the destruction of the country’s social safety net, in support of vicious economic austerity policies, and protecting the kleptocrats and financiers at the expense of the working and middle classes."
What you fail to mention is that a Democratic president, who "happens to be black", is leading the charge. Clearly racism is being used in a novel way here; to align black people behind policies that are antiblack, in their support for a black president. Diabolical. The irony is hilarious. Tea party on one side of the political divide working against their best interests in their support for the super-rich; and black people working against their best interests in their support for a conservative black president.
I wonder if a similar list of racist moments, albeit intra-racially racist, could be compiled for the enigma in the white house? I'd nominate this moment. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-to-congressional-black-caucus-stop-complaining-stop-grumbling-stop-whining/This is a very sharp (and quite rich) observation. Partisanship colors--pardon my pun--how voters assess a given candidate's job performance and efficacy. Moreover, allowing for the historic and groundbreaking nature of Barack Obama's election, the white backlash he has experienced, his ability to code switch as he plays the black authenticity game, and given their long standing loyalty to the Democratic Party, African Americans' support of Obama makes sense. However, has that deep well of support paid any political dividends to the black community?
Certainly, Barack Obama has not engaged in the type of racial triangulation game that is typical of black conservatives like Herman Cain or Allen West (where they signal their acceptability to white people, and White political interests, by playing the exceptional pro-white negro), nor has Obama had a Bill Clinton Sister Soulja moment where he threw a black person under the proverbial bus in order to make white middle America feel comfortable.
[Well, one must ask: does the Reverend Wright exercise in realpolitik political abandonment count in that category?]
I never expected a Black radical to win the U.S. presidency--thus, my qualifier that Barack Obama is a "president who happens to be black, and not a Black president." I knew that he was a corporatist, who in another generation, would have been an Eisenhower-Rockefeller Republican.
So help me out, did folks actually believe that they were getting a black freedom fighter who was going to be the second coming of Dr. King with their vote for Obama back in 2008? And if the choice is between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, what is a better use of the black (brown, young people, poor, working class) vote strategically?
18 comments:
I have held off judgement of the POTUS however ,I am looking at the reality of this entire situation. 1. How could we have thought in our wildest dreams that a magic negro could just pop up out of the twilight zone , and become President of these divided states.2. I ask myself are my People better off then three years ago.3.AA unemployment is at an all time high , mass incarceration at an all time high.I am not going to beat up on the President however, reality is reality. Now it is election year and he is asking for a shout out. We haven't heard anything but an imitation of Al Green in 3 years. It is a beautiful thing seeing our 'Black" President boarding Air Force one with his intact family and all, but what have we received for our 90+percent support? The illegal aliens obtaining jobs and our neighborhoods , I could go on but be realistic what has having a "Black" President who seems to dismiss black folk ,speaks to us in a condescending manner benefited our concerns and interest? Why are we not demanding anything for our vote? This administration has sit us back 30 years and I believe this was the only reason for it in the first place. We are 14% of the population we did not elect the POTUS , a lot of white folks who wanted to feel good about something did , and their employment figures are rising while ours is falling.This administration has been a coin with tales on both sides for the AA community. The sad thing is that I don't even see a viable alternative for us. I wish Mr.Obama well.We cant take the fact we have a Black President and pay a house note or find gainful employment he has to show us something before November.
I knew I was voting for a Center Left (sorta) Democrat, not a flaming liberal, like I am. In fact, I remember having a conversation with an ex friend who's a con, back before the election. She was babbling that insane garbage about how P. Obama is a socialist. I asked her if she thought I was a socialist. She said no. I said well I am further to the left than he is, so he can not be a socialist.
That did not change her mind, though. No wonder she's an ex friend. But I digress. But the point is, some people care more about their mental constructs, be they self created, or spoon fed to them by some political operatives, than objective conclusions based on crunching the data. Objectivity is inconvienent. Truthiness is all they care about.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
Here's the Political Compass for the 2008 race. Last time I took the test myself, I landed basically dead center of the Left/Libertarian box. That means Denis Kucinich was not only closer to my political heart. But I was to the left of even him!
Oh. And for the record, the Center Left (sorta) candidate is always a better choice the wing nut. But I wish we really had a real, viable left party here in America. We don't.
OG,
You nailed it...Obama never really was our savior but he knew he could leverage our desperation and need for a noble Black savior( it is a legacy script for Black Americans this need for Black iconic saviors in America)
So understanding this truth that Obama is just a creature of circumstances created not by the experience of Black America but the blowback of White America where do we go from here?
None of the GOP candidates warrant our support the lesser of the 2 evils has allways been the litmus test for Black voters.
So here we are in 2012 trapped again by circumstances, powerless and impotent still a people in a land where our interests never matter, where we are reactionary and a afterthought aggregate group
I am going to ride with the Occupy forces and take my chance with them 99% makes more sense than being a Black voter in America.
So understanding this truth that Obama is just a creature of circumstances created not by the experience of Black America but the blowback of White America where do we go from here?
@Anon 10:56
This Presidency like the O.J.Simpson trial has touched some deep seeded fears within in White Amerikka. "Oh my God the sky is falling" ,"We have got to take our country back" and they will,some of them vote against there best interest. They have with out realizing always fallen for the same BS that we do. I saw a video with Marten Luther King , Harry Belafonte , Sidney Poitier,I believe it was called Round Table circa 1963 , and they were discussing the very same talking points that Tavis , Al,Jeese,Cornel West are using now.What has changed since 1963?, as long as there is this two party system nothing ever will. They have already told us that Romney will be running against Obama and no matter how many times he F&%$ks up that is just who its going to be. There is no difference between the two except skin tone , just as there has been no difference between Obama and Bush.They are like lego's inter- changeable.We cant win for losing.
Having a jive-talking corporatist stooge of color committing egregious and undeclared acts of war against Africans and African states, while simultaneously suspending Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens - doesn't bother wannabe Jack and Jill respectable negroes in the least.
Living vicariously through the Hon.Bro.Preznit's high-life hijinks is more than enough to keep they teefs shiny and white and it oughta be more than enough for you nappy-headed field hands too!!!!
Stop axin the Hon.Bro.Jivetalk to uphold any moral baseline above that of your standard run-of-the-mill cockroach - oh - and make sure you get your blackazz out to vote next November too!!!!
nor has Obama had a Bill Clinton Sister Soulja moment where he threw a black person under the proverbial bus in order to make white middle America feel comfortable.
Sorry? What are we calling the Shirley Sherrod situation?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/obama-white-house-dragged-into-ag-departmentnaacp-flap/1
lol, and she's an impeccably good negroe!
He has always been quick to repudiate bad negroes with whom he formerly associated. {why it tickles me to call him the Hon.Bro.Preznit}
Og: Just a clarification on your comment about "White Amerikka" and wanting to "take our country back".
Please check out the "Take Back America" conferences, well before the Tea Party. In fact, their keynote speaker in 2006 and 2007 was Barack Obama, crying to "take back our country" before those "racist" Tea Party members wanted the same thing.
Only the politically immature or uninterested could have thought Obama was a "freedom fighter. The masses were simply stoked with the idea of having a prezdent that looked black (and was "treated" black by whitey).
The best use of the "brown" vote is to write in "fuck all y'all" and send the message that we will no longer tolerate these election con games.
Yes, I'm dreaming...
I honestly believe that some black folks voted for Obama because they thought they would elect a "true black leader" for black people only. They thought that at last they were getting their forty acres and a mule.
Americans seem to want to settle for less and less seeing from what we've seen of politicians and candidates. The message being sent is that Americans want charisma, someone to tell them what they want to hear as opposed to true righteousness which goes against' popularity. Americans seemed caught in putting charm ahead of truth.
At least that's how I see it.
What I mean by anti-black. Since a disproportionate number of the poor are black, due to systemic racism; to be anti-poor is to be anti-black. Hence a president who is anti-poor is by definition anti-black. A president who is anti-justice, for that matter, is anti-black. That's why I was surprised that there was not more downright indignant black outrage at this:
"Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.
... Obama met in secret with the CEOs of health insurance corporations and pursued a vision of healthcare reform that they had secretly influenced. In so doing, he misled Congress and the American people. He is quite open, in contrast, about his willingness to slash Medicare, as well as Medicaid."
This is about as blatant as any president has ever been in his attack on New Deal/Great Society core Democratic principles, and by implication, upon people who are black and poor. What kind of loyalty from black people is such a president due?
We keep living our dreams vicariously through him, because we think of him as one of us. 'Homeboy makes good.' But. He ain't homeboy. He didn't grow up in a black community; nor a ghetto of any kind. How many ghetto nerds do you know that grew up in the household of the vice-president of a bank? He was raised in a white family and is a product of that family's system of values. Not only that, some of his family apparently worked for the CIA. That is not necessarily to say that BHO is a CIA creation. Such a connection, however, would explain his modus operandus of deception disinformation and manipulation of public perception. It would also explain his penchant for the clandestine remote-controlled war we are now waging.
Don't forget that President Obama thre Van Jones under the bus. And Revered Jeremiah Wright. And Shirley Sherrod, initially.
I didn't expect him to be a savior, I expected him to be a Democrat. Not a Democrat for blacks but a Democrat for the Democratic party that encompass all races not just blacks. I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he hired on the very bankers whom had just been bailed out as economic advisors. I was hopeful during the first several months when he passed several laws, until I found out how arbitrary they were. Not defending Van Jones and ACORN sholud have been a clue but, wasn't. By the time the healthcare debates came around I was cheering for him, as was about 70% of Americans. A clear majority. When he spit in the face of the majority by taking the public option off the table, it was a blow. Things went downhill from there as he played the role of impotent in the interest of compromise while being bulldozed and silencing his strongest voices by accepting and parroting the Republican memes. By the time his encouragement of dismantling S.S. and Medicare came around, helped of course by stemming the flow with payroll tax cuts, while allowing the previous Bush tax cuts to be bartered, I was done.
I find myself now wishing he weren't elected because when the true meat is felt, it will be the Democratic President that will be blamed. Same as it was for Clinton with Fannie and Freddie, bank de-regulation, and off shoring jobs. All Republican ideas pushed on him under the threat of impeachment because of his wandering memeber. All proven horrible for the country, but lucrative for the 1%.
As to who might be best next term, I tend towards the nihilistic view, give it back to Republicans and let them continue their overreach until there is an occupy movement on each street corner. Don't let the continued slow decline be at the hands of a Democratic President much less the first black one. Yet, that is easy for me to say in warmth and comfort. It may be too late anyway.
@sabrinabee
"I didn't expect him to be a savior, I expected him to be a Democrat."
That was my expectation as well. At LEAST he would be a Democrat and we could rollback the GOP excesses. Turned out there was only minor differences between Obama and Bush. And because Obama is more effective in implementing rightwing policies, even aligning Democrats behind them, he's effectively worse than Bush. Worse because he has neutralized the opposition. I think the PTB are quite happy with his performance. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were making his reelection inevitable. Look who he's running against. Look at the gaffs Romney keeps making. By the time election rolls around he'll be as unelectable as McCain was 4 years earlier. It seems almost orchestrated. The quality of the field of GOP candidates virtually guarantees an Obama second term.
Dear People of Brownness (like myself, however I'm genetically and ethnically plaid, so I'm naturally biased O_O)---
Barack Obama is half AFRICAN. Just ask Paul Mooney. Half AFRICAN. His mother's heritage gives him relation to George Bush Cheney, and everybody that came over on the frackin Mayflower. Just because Brohim is Brown doesnt exactly make him "African-American" in the same sense as 'we' (?) think of the term "African/Afro-American". Think you'uns thusly--for example, my heritage consists of African field negroes (hat tip to m'dOOd FIELD!!) and on my Pops side... ALL HOUSE!! (not a ONE was a slave.. theys was massa's chillens massa even gave 'em land too), Irish slaves (yes, Irish were slaves too, not indentured servants--that sh*t came later, First Nations (aka 'native Americans'), Germans, French, Danish, and all kinds of 'fuggary' as OHNWorld would say...
Our Commander in Chief's wife (at the time of this typing) has that heritage down PAT. Just looking at her she resembles Shea Butter, Argan Oil, and a 400 degree curling iron.
Brother Obama can empathize because he grew up during the freedom struggle (Free Huey) and because of the color of his skin. He can grok the entire madness and mayhem because yes, he can 'feel' m'dOOd Mr. Spock (like I can) being multicultural, and try to use some form of logic on illogical humans (good luck with that.) However. He isnt Malcolm. He isnt Huey Newton, or Huey Freeman for that matter, and maybe we should stop looking for some bombastic 'Black Power' 'In yo face brotha' to 'sock it to the man'--- we're a bit past that thanks to BET's ignorant arses. Unfortunately, because of the actions perpetuated by the 'this is how a REAL n!99@ rolls' attitude in everyday life and structure which is a DAMN shame (bling blingity bling bling from blackface, to killer pimp movies to Soul Plane)-- people need to realize that they are only reflecting the way the stereotypical "WHITE MAN" views "Black" people, and NOT how "Black" people should view themselves. Martin didnt lose his life for this s#!t.
Martin didnt lose his life for this s#!t.
"This shit" being the materialist, predatory militarist, corporatist psychopathocracy with which "massa we sick?" Double-O Bama has contaminated the formerly sterling black moral brand...?
I dont blame Obama... this nonsense has been going on before he was born or thought of. As Brother Paul (Mooney LOL) said quite notably, to paraphrase, it was here before he was here, and it will be here after.
They finally found a viable scapegoat in the form of what THEY have titled "Supernegro" (see Richard Pryor in both Supern!993r and the first black President). The US has become their "Rock Ridge" of sorts (see Blazing Saddles) and everyone is acting like a blend between "The Sheriff is 'getting nearer'" and an uppity negro who needs to know his place.
as for "This s#!t" see "Return of the King" episode of "The Boondocks" Season 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eSVr9S7YE
You made various good points there. I did a search on the topic and found mainly folks will go along with with your blog.
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