Do black people in this country really know what they want?
Everybody is on the Obama bandwagon because he gives us hope and he is not like the old school black leaders. So why are we being suckered into this Clinton race angle?
For the last sixteen years you negroes have hailed Bill Clinton as the first black president. Now, him and his wife make one confusing comment and they are defending themselves all over TV instead of talking about things that matter. I know all you educated people know what an analogy is. She might have chosen a bad example but you can’t tell me you honestly think she was trying to disrespect Martin Luther King. Even if the Clinton’s were bigots, don’t you think someone should have noticed that when Bill was the leader of the free world for 8 years? We weren’t worried about that because he played a saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show and if that’s all it took to win our support then we are stupid anyway and probably shouldn’t be voting.
We have to be bigger than that and keep focused on more important things. No matter how hard the media tries to bring this to the forefront we should resist and focus on the things we need to get our problems in order. Personally I think that if you are a black politician and all it took was one comment to move your support then you haven’t heard any issues and must be doing a bad job. Support Obama because of his agenda. Don’t support him because of this foolishness. Also, if Barak Obama believes all that noise he talks during those speeches he would silence this entire conflict now and move on to bringing people together. If he uses it to his advantage he’s not better than Jesse or Al. He’s just a professional politician like the rest of them and he’s trying to get elected. He’s playing to the same emotion Hillary Clinton did when she cried. He’s supposed to be Bobby Kennedy. He’s not supposed to need to entertain this kind of thing.
I’m not the brother that doesn’t believe in racism. I grew up in the deep south so I know it’s a very real thing. It’s so real and so volatile when you are faced with it, it’s impact should never be weakened by exploiting it where it isn’t. Let’s say Obama plays this race card and wins. One day there’s going to be a real racist jackass who’s going to say or do something that we really need to address. How is mainstream America going to accept that after watching us go crazy behind a few comments from a family we adopted as our own years ago.
10 comments:
Cliff, Obama has to push back against the foolishness coming from all corners of Hillary's campaign. The problem is nothing happens in isolation--consider the NH Clinton campaign guy who resigned a few weeks ago for bringing up Obama's past drug use, her campaign director Mark Penn's bringing up cocaine in reference to Obama, the MLK-LBJ comparison, the anonymous Clinton advisor who said, "If you have a social need, you're with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool," BET founder Bob Johnson apparently bringing up the drug use and his fairy tale of a denial. This is a concerted attempt by Hillary's people to drive up Obama's negative ratings and they're doing it by playing the edges of racial politics. It's unfortunate, but remember how well it worked for John Kerry to ignore the Swift Boat attacks. We don't want another John Kerry (and of course we don't need Democrats Swift Boating each other, but so far that Swift Boating has all been coming from the Hillary camp).
Oh, and I forgot to remind everyone of Bill Clinton's Sister Souljah moment in 1992:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Souljah_moment
I understand your point but Obama's whole drawing power stems from the fact he's supposed to be different than the old politicians. I think he should have kept focused on his message of change and keep moving. If he plays into it then he's just normal and you can't be a normal man with a name like Barack Obama and win. A black man can't win the race game when he needs white moderate voters. That only works where the electorate is overwhelmingly chocolate.
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Both candidates came out yesterday and tried to squash this beef. There may be people on the fringe or even people in the campaigns who are facilitating this beef, but it is the media who is running with it. I watched CNN for 2 hours yesterday and they never mentioned that both candidates came out yesterday and said that they did not want the issues to be clouded by this. They both want to bring the country together. John Edwards even chimed in on the situation saying that democrats have worked to bring American's together and fight for equality. And that the situation was getting out of hand. This is most definately a ploy to take your eyes off of the issue. And we bought it. So what does that make us?
As for your question, do black people know what they want? Hell no, this is a perfect example of why it will be atleast another generation or two before we get our shit together.
It seems that you want this to not be about race, which is impossible. If I'm not mistaken, in your blog a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned the racist connotation of Hillary bringing up Obama's past drug use.
A black man, as a class, probably the single most hated being in history, is running for president. Race will come up. To date, Obama has yet to "play the race card." As a matter of fact, he stated that he has never commented on it.
I can't say that Hillary's statement makes her a bigot (and let's remember, she was the First Lady, not the Vice President; she could arguably be a bigot where her husband is not), but it does make her ignorant. She is running for President of the United States, not the PTA. For her, and presumably her speech writers, to look at that and think it was worth saying in a public forum speaks VOLUMES. It doesn't make her a bigot, but it is indicative of her being out of touch, and that IS worth of blacks who support her to review their decision.
I am also not one of the black folks that lauded Bill as the first black president.
Any president, black or white, that does nothing while 800,000 Africans are being slaughtered isn't quite on "my" side.
Hey Breez,
You may not have lauded Bill as the first black president but millions of us did and everybody knows it.
I was very upset with the drug remarks concerning Obama but playing this race card on his side is not the way to go. He can't win that battle. That's why he came out today and tried to play the story down. That can't be his focus. Part of the appeal that got him this far is that he is different from other politicians. If he tried to play this angle he is going to lose. He can't do what the Clinton's do and win. He has to be better than they are to turn people towards him.
Peace Cliff. You keep saying that Sen. Obama has to be above this, but, as Breez said, HE hasn't commented on it. There are those within his camp who probably have, but he has yet to directly address it. What you have yet to point out, however, is that when questioned about it, Clinton has been taking notes from the Republicans, and tried to spin the blame for WHAT SHE SAID to Sen. Obama's camp. If the people in Mr. Obama's camp are to be held accountable for what they say, and he to be accountable for what Hillary says, then why are you in defense of Hillary and her camp w/the frivolity with which they've been talking about Sen. Obama's past drug use? When exactly should she be held accountable for what comes out of the mouths of the people in her camp and from her own lips? Just food for thought.
Peace Brother,
Man, I'm glad you wrote this. For years, I've taken black folks to task who, with a wink and a nod, regarded Bill Clinton as "the first black president." Now that he and his wife are getting the drop on Obama with the only ammunition they have (that of race-baiting) black people who loved this piece of shit are being rudely awakened.
It's our own fault. A few presidential nominations and some meaningless overtures convinced black folks to let their guard down. When will we stop falling for the okey-doke?
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