Obama addresses race in America - tells it like it is

[cloudy]

I already admired the guy....think he's brilliant, and has shown me the first glimmer of hope for this country that I've seen in a long, long time, but I have a newfound respect for him after this speech: A More Perfect Union.

He tells it like it is, for people on all sides.

snippet:

"The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

Read the speech.

 

[impressive]

Yes. Hope.

 

[Stella_Omega]

That is concise, inspirational, and will not make the sound-biters happy at all.

 

[Belegon]

That is concise, inspirational, and will not make the sound-biters happy at all.

No, the speech (I took the time to listen to all 35 minutes) will not please the political establishment and the sound biters at all.

He stepped up and addressed things directly that they would rather he dance around. He refused to ignore things. He refused to play the game.

 

[christabelll]

Well that settled me.

Hot Damn - A REAL Person who sees more than political advantage and levering and who he can out wit or bully or bride or murder to get his way.

s'bout freaking time.

 

[leecu]

He is a very good speaker, I just hope he can lead.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Many of the comments at the link, however, say different... Some of them make me wonder whether we read the same things.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Shelby Steele had a very interesting piece in the WSJ today on Obama's appeal to whites, and why this association is so dangerous for him:

'How to turn one's blackness to advantage?

The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

'This is how Mr. Obama has turned his blackness into his great political advantage, and also into a kind of personal charisma. Bargainers are conduits of white innocence, and they are as popular as the need for white innocence is strong. Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence.

' . . . And yet, in the end, Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance. Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson were "challengers," not bargainers. They intimidated whites and demanded, in the name of historical justice, that they be brought forward. Mr. Obama flatters whites, grants them racial innocence, and hopes to ascend on the back of their gratitude. Two sides of the same coin.

'. . . Thus, nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama's political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday -- for 20 years -- in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage ("God damn America").

'How does one "transcend" race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol?'

more: The Obama Bargain
By SHELBY STEELE
WSJ, March 18, 2008

 

[cloudy]

I believe everything the WSJ prints

No surprises here.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Just goes to show you-- if you like the guy you can read him as truthful and willing to address racial issues. Willing to acknowledge the complexities.

If you hate him, you can read him as "bargaining" and "playing the race card."

"Fellow traveller" Oo, scary!

'How to turn one's blackness to advantage?

The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

Yanno, that is probably very true-- it's what I would do, if I had to be black and create an advantage for myself. It's is probably an absolute necessity, when a black man is campaigning for the votes of a skittish white populace.

But I wear a mask in American mainstream, and so do you. Big whoop.

 

[cloudy]

Just goes to show you-- if you like the guy you can read him as truthful and willing to address racial issues. Willing to acknowledge the complexities.

If you hate him, you can read him as "bargaining" and "playing the race card."

"Fellow traveller" Oo, scary!

It was printed in the WSJ, so it must be true!!!!!

 

[starrkers]

As long as what someone says is judged against the colour of their skin, nothing will change.

 

[cloudy]

As long as what someone says is judged against the colour of their skin, nothing will change.

Yep, you've hit the nail right on the head.

Sometimes, I hate this country.

 

[sr71plt]

Election be damned, the three candidates standing, combined, stand a chance of healing the nation following the Bush the Lesser years, methinks. (If, of course, the Democrats can do a little less yapping at each other).

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Oh for Christ's sake - is that the best you can do? Make up quotes, and dismiss thoughtful commentary based on having political disagreements with the forum they're published in? Read the fucking words and use your brain. If you disagree with them, make an argument.

Steele's analysis of the dynamic white quilt and black manipulation of it is a a completely valid and highly valuable theoretical lens through which to examine events related to race. Unless of course your mind is so fucking closed by preexisting prejudices and ideology that you refuse to even let the verboten concepts enter your brain. Interestingly, those about whom that really does appear to apply are always the first to accuse me of that sin.

 

[cloudy]

Oh for Christ's sake - is that the best you can do? Make up quotes, and dismiss thoughtful commentary based on having political disagreements with the forum they're published in? Read the fucking words and use your fucking brain. If you disagree with them, make an argument.

Steele's analysis of the dynamic white quilt and black manipulation of it is a a completely valid and highly valuable theoretical lens through which to examine events related to race. Unless of course your mind is so fucking closed by preexisting prejudices and ideology that you refuse to even let the verboten concepts enter your brain. Interestingly, those about whom that really does appear to apply are always the first to accuse me of that sin.

Oh, fuck off, Roxanne. It wasn't your "thoughtful commentary," now was it? Why don't you use your fucking brain first, instead of c & p someone else's thoughts?

Wanna be blunt? Fine: you're a racist, elitest snob who would rather appear intelligent by posting someone else's words. You've already shown how you feel about those "inferior" to you. Shown it abundantly.

Go play polo or something.

 

[amicus]

Not since Slick Willie, yes, the moldering William Clinton, former President, has such a load of utter bullshit been offered the American Public is pasteurized form.

Senator Barack Obama, is as far left and as anti American, anti human freedom, anti the market in general as is his trusted Minister Wright, Louis Farhrakand)sp), Al Sharpton and Jessy Jackson. all left wing racist radicals who hate whites and hate America in general.

Only the far left, 'usual suspects' on this forum are gullible enough to ignore the blatant racism of Obama in hopes the Democrats will regain the White House. You know, those folks that would vote for the Donkey if he had a D on his ass.

You don't have to be a bigot or a racist to understand that black people have never been happy in America. Not because of oppression or even slavery, but the very concept of individual human liberty and freedom, so opposite the tribalism of Africa and the Socialism of Europe as to stick in their craw at every turn of a year.

The Democrat dilemma rests with Florida and Michigan, with the DNC, the Super Delegates, the Democratic National Committee, the 'back room boys of the party', and possibly the Democrats Convention itself; disaster awaits as summer approaches.

Even better, Senator McCain is not accepted by the true conservatives of the party to reflect their views and is a much more acceptable 'middle of the road' candidate that will draw upon Independents and Reagan Democrats in numbers not seen since the 1980's.

Defeat for Democrats across the board in November is how I see it. Read it and weep my wimpy lefties, read it and weep!




Amicus (is back)

 

[Guest]

Welcome back, you silly curmudgeon.

*pats ami on his head*

It's okay, hon. You've been sick. You don't know what you're saying.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Oh for Christ's sake - is that the best you can do? Make up quotes, and dismiss thoughtful commentary based on having political disagreements with the forum they're published in? Read the fucking words and use your brain. If you disagree with them, make an argument.

Steele's analysis of the dynamic white quilt and black manipulation of it is a a completely valid and highly valuable theoretical lens through which to examine events related to race. Unless of course your mind is so fucking closed by preexisting prejudices and ideology that you refuse to even let the verboten concepts enter your brain. Interestingly, those about whom that really does appear to apply are always the first to accuse me of that sin.

Poor baby!


No, I was saying "DUH."

since the "dynamic white Quilt" was spread across this land by brute force and violent social manipulation, it stands to reason that the only way through that quilt is by manipulation.

Someday the NEED for manipulation might pass. YOu'll be able to tell whan that is, because thoughtful commentary such as that you've provided, will sound kooky to the majority-- instead of only to those who are actually impacted by that Quilt of White.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

It wasn't your "thoughtful commentary," now was it? Why don't you use your fucking brain first, instead of c & p someone else's thoughts?

Wanna be blunt? Fine: you're a racist, elitest snob who would rather appear intelligent by posting someone else's words. You've already shown how you feel about those "inferior" to you.

Fuck off, Roxanne...fucking phony.

Oh yeah, citing the words of respected and accomplished scholars and thinkers is always evidence of being stoo-pit. That's why Plato would never quote Socrates, and Aristotle never cite Plato, and so on.

Thank you for providing such a perfect example of incivility, and demonstrating what complete contempt for the ethic of civility that most AHers honor really looks like, Cloudy. Leading with a made-up quote set the stage superbly for the graphic demonstration that followed. The fact that what triggered the tantrum is a thoughtful analyis by a respected intellectual that you just didn't want to seen here adds even more.

 

[cloudy]

Poor baby!


No, I was saying "DUH."

since the "dynamic white Quilt" was spread across this land by brute force and violent social manipulation, it stands to reason that the only way through that quilt is by manipulation.

Someday the NEED for manipulation might pass. YOu'll be able to tell whan that is, because thoughtful commentary such as that you've provided, will sound kooky to the majority-- instead of only to those who are actually impacted by that Quilt of White.

I you.

 

[cloudy]

Oh yeah, citing the words of respected and accomplished scholars and thinkers is always evidence of being stoo-pit. That's why Plato would never quote Socrates, and Aristotle never cite Plato, and so on.

Thank you for providing such a perfect example of incivility, and demonstrating what complete contempt for the ethic of civility that most AHers honor really looks like, Cloudy. Leading with a made-up quote set the stage superbly for the graphic demonstration that followed. The fact that what what triggered the tantrum is a thoughtful analyis by a respected intellectual that you just didn't want to seen here adds even more.

When you bother to think for yourself instead of parroting whatever the WSJ tells you to say, then possibly I'll respect you, just a little.

Until then, you're a fucking snob who even lies about their gender to a porn board.

Respect you? What-the-fuck-ever.

("thoughtful analysis"? BAHAHAHAHA! First time I think I've ever heard fear-mongering called that, but whatever. You have zero cred with me)

I think I hear Biff and Muffy calling you. Aren't you late for your tennis match at the country club?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Poor baby!


No, I was saying "DUH."

since the "dynamic white Quilt" was spread across this land by brute force and violent social manipulation, it stands to reason that the only way through that quilt is by manipulation.

Someday the NEED for manipulation might pass. YOu'll be able to tell whan that is, because thoughtful commentary such as that you've provided, will sound kooky to the majority-- instead of only to those who are actually impacted by that Quilt of White.

Thank you for at least making an argument. And for indirectly demonstating that the theoretical lens Steele has created actually is a useful one.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Oh yeah, citing the words of respected and accomplished scholars and thinkers is always evidence of being stoo-pit. That's why Plato would never quote Socrates, and Aristotle never cite Plato, and so on.

Thank you for providing such a perfect example of incivility, and demonstrating what complete contempt for the ethic of civility that most AHers honor really looks like, Cloudy. Leading with a made-up quote set the stage superbly for the graphic demonstration that followed. The fact that what triggered the tantrum is a thoughtful analyis by a respected intellectual that you just didn't want to seen here adds even more.

Although she said it in words that I might not have chosen, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment Cloudy expressed.

I think you're an intellectual snob, and a regurgitator of words. It's not as if you bother to comment or analyse these quotes you dig up-- you simply present them in lieu of your own thoughts.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

When you bother to think for yourself instead of parroting whatever the WSJ tells you to say, then possibly I'll respect you, just a little.

Until then, you're a fucking snob who even lies about their gender to a porn board.

Respect you? What-the-fuck-ever.

You can respect me or not - I was referring to scholar Shelby Steele. You can honor or not the ethos of civility that makes AH different from almost every other internet forums, in that thoughtful political discourse can actually take place without descending into pointless flame wars. One or two individuals who don't honor the ethos aren't enough to destroy it, persistent attempts notwithstanding.