Obama’s Black Box
Why did Barack Obama embrace -- and refuse to renounce -- the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church? Joanne Jacobs has a simple answer.
Framed by the Founding Fathers and the quest for “a more perfect union,” Barack Obama’s speech was a moving call to get beyond race to our shared concerns as citizens.
But it’s not so easy to get beyond race. Not when Obama chose to join, attend and donate to a church that embraced the old, tired us-them racial divisions.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s views “weren’t simply controversial,” Obama admitted in his speech. “They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country — a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America.”
So why not walk out? Because Obama found his identity in Wright’s church. In hearing the congregation shout and sing, he wrote in his book and quoted in his speech, he discovered himself. “Those stories — of survival, and freedom, and hope — became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.”
The day before the speech I finished Bliss Broyard’s One Drop, which is about her discovery at the age of 23, after growing up as a Connecticut WASP, that her dying father had walked across the color line. Anatole Broyard, a writer and New York Times book reviewer, chose to live as a white man despite his birth to a light-skinned New Orleans Creole family of about one-quarter black ancestry.
Bliss Broyard obsessively asks why her father obscured his racial identity. The answer seems obvious: He wanted to be his true and complete self, not stereotyped or dismissed as a “black” writer. In New Orleans, his family was part of a long-established Creole culture that tried to separate itself from dark-skinned blacks. There was no mixed-race middle ground when they moved to Brooklyn. Anatole Broyard’s parents and his older sister passed as white at work to get jobs closed to blacks. During World War II, serving in the Army as a white officer, Broyard was assigned to command a company of black stevedores in the tropics. Who would choose to be a stevedore?
Bliss Broyard tracks the family genealogy and history. When intermarriage was illegal, a white Broyard passed as “colored” to marry a “free woman of color.” In search of slave ancestors, she finds a slave-owning forebear. She meets Broyard cousins who live as blacks and others who consider themselves white.
She understands the folly of the idea that “one drop” of African blood makes you black and marvels when her book of short stories is listed as African-American literature despite no racial content. Yet she’s obsessed with race. Her father’s Choctaw ancestry arouses little interest, yet she searches incessantly for signs of blackness. Her father was an excellent dancer who liked jazz. Ah! The secret comes out! Bliss herself, pale of skin and preppie of upbringing, sees her ability to dance as a sign of her ancestry.
Enough already.
Anatole Broyard climbed out of the box that society wanted to stick him in and his daughter tries for 500-plus pages to stuff him back in. Americans are supposed to be able to escape the past and create themselves. Blacks deserve that right too.
Abandoned by his father as a toddler, Obama was raised by a white mother and Asian stepfather and then by white grandparents in multiracial Hawaii. But there was no future in Chicago for a biracial, transcultural Hawaiian. He had to be black — especially if he wanted to build a political career. His mother’s atheism wasn’t viable either. He had to join a black church that would connect him with black culture. He found a black leader who became “like family.” Wright was a “crazy uncle.” Or a father. “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community,” Obama said.
Eventually, on our march to a “more perfect union,” Americans will get beyond our divisive, destructive obsession with race. But maybe not in 2008.
Joanne Jacobs, who blogs on education at joannejacobs.com, is the author of “Our School,” a book on a charter school that prepares Mexican-American students for four-year colleges.
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23 Comments
1. Noga:“Anatole Broyard climbed out of the box that society wanted to stick him in and his daughter tries for 500-plus pages to stuff him back in. ”
“Eventually, on our march to a “more perfect union,” Americans will get beyond our divisive, destructive obsession with race.”
These two statements contradict each other’s moral purposes. According to the story Jacobs tells, Anatole did not “climb out of the box imposed upon him by society”. He managed to shift unobtrusively from one box into another, that is all. He exchanged the box of blackness for the box of whiteness. And he did it because he could, due to the fluke of having white enough skin to “pass”.
His daughter knows that this is no real human progress, but a defeat by succumbing to the racial paradigm that creates this “divisive, destructive obsession with race.”
Obama in no way fits into these narratives that Jacobs tells us about. He is a man pretty comfortable in his own skin. He is authentic in his outsiderness, differentness.
It is possible that unwittingly, and by maybe going along with his wife’s wishes, he painted himself into a corner staying with that church and that pastor. Sometimes when you stand too close, you can’t quite see clearly. And Obama missed the irony of the contrast between what he clearly saw wrong in Imus (”He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.”) and what he did not see as clearly in Wright.
From a simple human relations point of view, he owes Wright some loyalty, even when he sees him clearly now, that he spends less time in that church. It would go against his basic sense of decency to completely shun a person who had been a friend to him. There is something to be said about loyalty to friends.
What emerges from this kerfuffle is simple: Obama is still a man in search of his own identity, his politics, his worldview. These have yet to form in a way that is fully coherent so that Americans can make an informed decision about whether they want him for a president or not..
Mar 19, 2008 - 5:30 am 2. William:So let’s see…he’s in the part of the party that likes this fire going. He’s been getting mentored from James Wright that loves to keep the fire HOT… his wife certainly likes it getting hotter.
Mar 19, 2008 - 5:48 am 3. William:Does it really matter what B.H.Obama says? He has lost all credibility… if in fact he ever had any! We need to put the medias feet to this fire. Even they know how fraudulent he is.
So let’s see…he’s in the part of the party that likes this fire going. He’s been getting mentored from James Wright that loves to keep the fire HOT… his wife certainly likes it getting hotter.
Mar 19, 2008 - 5:49 am 4. sharinlite:Now he wants to pretend he’s going to help us put it out. Nice!
Does it really matter what B.H.Obama says? He has lost all credibility… if in fact he ever had any! We need to put the medias feet to this fire. Even they know how fraudulent he is.
Let me see, he “can’t disown him” because he is “family”, like a “crazy uncle”. It appears to me with all I have listened to and seen that Barack enjoys the “black” adulation but wants the “white” adulation as well. He is neither fish or fowl but a nasty creature all of his own making. I asked myself weeks ago why his wife was so angry and made such hateful remarks..today I know the answer. Was it also her “crazy uncle”? No, it is the shame of the African-American power structure that they chose to keep their people as victims regardless of where they ended up on the income level. It is perfectly alright to be a millionaire “victim” so long as you can prove you are “black” enough. For shame!
Mar 19, 2008 - 7:58 am 5. RHM:Personally, I think in 2008 ANY connection to organized religion is a minus. The Rev. Wright is an especially odious creature. But it’s still not a deal-breaker for me. I still support Obama. I also kinda admire his balls – he didn’t just throw the “reverend” under the bus like every other politician would have. It doesn’t sit well with me but it’s not enough to get me to support Hillary or McCain who also have some pretty ugly connections.
Mar 19, 2008 - 9:23 am 6. Gerald Arcuri:Listening to the whole controversy precipitated by the Obama-Wright relationship I wonder what Bill Cosby would have to say about it. As much as I would like to fully accept Barack Obama’s explanation, I think his rhetoric rings somewhat hollow. Reflecting on the larger issue of African-Americans in the context of American history and culture, I am tempted to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s remarks about the RAF after the Battle of Britain: “Never have so many done so much for so few”… and yet there are still a few of those few who, despite all evidence to the contrary, prefer living as victims rather than as fully-enfranchised citizens. To those remaining few, the rest of us would wish to say, “Get over it”.
Mar 19, 2008 - 9:34 am 7. Realista:So, Now Barack Openly “Plays the Race Card”.. “We have to discuss race now”.. ONLY BECAUSE HE IS OUTED for 20 Years Attending AND FOLLOWING an “Afrocentric Black Nationalism Theology” that “Damns America” and “Damns Whites” for All Evils?
Barack has manipulated “RACE” since the start of Democrat Party Contest. Statements that blacks vote 90% for Him… “Racist”. Statement that Jessie Jackson won S. Carolina… “Racist”. Statement by Geraldine Ferraro that “he would not be where he is, except for being Black”… “Racist”, just like Ferraro was picked to run as Vice President over Dukakis… because she was a Woman”.. “Sexist”? NO, THEY ARE NOT!
But BARACK IS A RACIST, by 20-year Silence!
The TIME IS OVER FOR Barack “TO Have It Both Ways”!
Mar 19, 2008 - 9:40 am 8. Angry African:Come on! If he doesn’t address it you say he hides. If he does – then you screw him for saying that he plays the race card. You HAVE to make up your mind.
Mar 19, 2008 - 11:55 am 9. william:http://angryafrican.net/2008/03/19/obama-is-no-mandela/
Actually AA . Obama screwed himself.
Mar 19, 2008 - 12:09 pm 10. David Thomson:“Barry” Obama attended Harvard Law School. The guilt tripped whites who were his classmates never got particularly excited over “victims of oppression” like Jeremiah Wright. He is supposedly justified in acting like a fool. Obama failed to realize that middle America thinks otherwise!
Mar 19, 2008 - 12:31 pm 11. D-illinois:OBAMA IS AN EXCEPTIONAL SPEAKER BUT ONCE AGAIN I COME OUT WITH A FEELING OF BEING DUPED. DID ANYONE ELSE GET THE IMPRESSION THAT OBAMA TURNED THIS ALL ONTO THE WHITE MANS SHOULDERS. YOU CANNOT BLAME THE AFICAN VIEW BECAUSE THEY HAVE SUFFERED. OVER HISTORY MANY CULTURES HAVE SUFFERED YET THEY HAVE RISEN ABOVE THE HATRED AND IMPROVED THEMSELVES. YES IT WILL BE HARD, BUT IN ORDER TO IMPROVE YOURSELF YOU NEED TO FORGIVE AND MOVE ON. I SEE NO MOVING ON IN WRIGHTS SERMONS, ALL I SEE IS CONDEMNATION AND HATRED FOR ANYONE WHO IS NOT AFRICAN AMERICAN. YOU CANNOT GO TO A CHURCH FOR 20 YEARS, CALL YOUR PASTOR YOUR RELIGIOUS HEALER, AND NOT FOLLOW EVEN SOME OF HIS BELIEFS. BE CAREFUL, WE MAY HAVE A WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING.
Mar 19, 2008 - 12:38 pm 12. rvastar:There are 3 – and only 3 – possible contingencies here. And Obambi would be excoriated by our leftist media for any one of them if they applied the same standards to Democrats as they do to Republicans.
Remember: Obama has presented himself to the American public as a deeply spiritual, deeply Christian man with strong ties to the church that he has attended for 20 years. With that in mind…
Contingency 1: Obama knew Wright’s views and agreed with them.
If this is the case, then Obama’s speech yesterday was an utterly meaningless farce and the man is nothing but a degenerate liar. Nothing else needs to be said or demonstrated – such a person has no place in the White House.
Contingency 2: Obama knew Wright’s views and did not agree with them.
If this is the case, then Obama is a rank opportunist of the foulest sort. It means that his attendance at Wright’s church was nothing more than a cynical, calculated effort to garner favor amongst Chicago’s grievance-minded black population by attending a church fronted by a professional grievance-monger…and all the while, doing so when he supposedly didn’t agree with these people’s views! Furthermore, all in the name of pursuing power, he’s exposing his young, impressionable children to Wright’s demagoguery. So much for advancing the best interests of the public, eh?
Again, such a person has no place in the White House.
Contingency 3: Obama didn’t know Wright’s views.
If this is the case, then he is again exposed as a complete fraud and liar, because how can someone be as deeply spiritual as Obama claims to be and yet remain completely ignorant of your pastor’s political/societal views – over the course of 20 years?!?
If this really is the case, then he’s just another “Christian” Democrat, for whom going to church is no different than kissing babies – it’s a photo op.
It boils down to this: Barack Obama is a member of a church that espouses the same societal views as those found in the Nation of Islam. And we want to elect this man to the Presidency?
Again, such a person has no place in the White House.
But besides the fact that any one of the reasons listed above should disqualify Obama for the Presidency – and again, one of them must be true – the one thing about that speech that is particularly odious is this: this a**hole just threw his own grandmother under the bus in order to deflect criticism away from his association with a wretched demagogue like Wright!
His grandmother, people!!!
This is the woman who raised him. And he did this in front of the entire world for… everyone to see.
There are no words…this guy is a pr!ck – plain and simple.
Democrats: This is your “New Man”? This is your agent of “change”? This is the man who’s going to lead our nation away from the “politics of cynicism”?
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Obamas are nothing but the Clintons Redux – a slick talker with a gift for gab and an obnoxious, overbearing wife. Maybe that’s the reason his supporters are so eager to have Hillary drop out of the race. On some subconscious level, they know…and her sticking around in the race only reminds them of how utterly, morally bankrupt they and their party have become.
Mar 19, 2008 - 2:03 pm 13. crystal:I have two comments about the two issues at hand. The first comment about racism in America and the Second about Senator Obama’s affiliation with Minister Wright.
First off let me start by saying that I have been a stark Obama supporter since the day he announced his candidacy. I have been criticized by many who question my loyalty to the Clintons and why I am supporting Sen. Obama. Many say that I am only supporting him because he is black. To that I respond in anger, because you are pretty much telling me that I am incapable of making a solid/sound intelligent political decision. I also, say, He is the best candidate in the Race. Many have said that I am in some way unfaithful and unappreciative to the Clinton’s for all that they have done but I lost my respect for them as a high school student back when all of the allegations about Monica Lewinsky surface came out as well as the other imperfections of Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Clinton stood by her man. I am not holding a grudge nor am I unforgiving but I do not think that someone who cannot stand up to her husband for adultery and subjects her young daughter to a relationship that shows that you should stand by your man at all costs is not the person I want leading this country and is not the person I want representing me as an American.
1) As far as race in this country, I feel that Senator Obama’s speech was necessary and long over due. I have not heard such a powerful message in my life from someone who is still alive and in the political position that he is in. He could have been just like everyone else and just hid under the covers or walked on eggshells but he said what needed to be said. He did what needed to be done for so long. There are many on this blog that claim that the are infuriated and don’t want to feel like they have done something wrong, if this is what you feel then obviously you are guily of what he’s talking about. The hidden and blatant racism that still exists in this country because people are too afraid to talk about it and deep down inside many don’t want to change. I know that my statement will be unpopular, but the truth hurts. As Sen. Obama said, Minister Wright comes from a different time and place, he grew up in a turbulent time, when he was made to feel that he was less of a man/ citizen because of the color of his skin, not in some Third World Country, but in this Great Country of America. Although many will say that things have changed, African Americans are much better off than they have ever been, or slavery ended 200 years ago, get over it. I pose this question, how much has really change, yes I admit, it is illegal to lynch someone or murder someone and some of us are able to receive a higher standard of education and therefore are blessed with better jobs than those before us. But, it was just two years ago when a 16 year old female high school student in Texas was sent to jail for pushing a white woman. It was not even a year ago, when the gentlemen from Jena, Louisiana were about to spend the rest of their lives in jail over a school house fight that they did not start. To this day, none of the White young men who pulled guns on them in public or hung nooses to begin the incident have had charges pressed against them. While on the subject of schools, has anyone been to a public school in a predominately African American neighborhood and then left and went to one in a predominately White neighborhood? It’s disgraceful that over 50 years after Brown vs. The Board of Education, I still have to send my sons to schools outside their neighborhood for them to be afforded the same education and facilities as others. If you think I’m over-exaggerating why don’t you visit one of your local schools in the predominately, African American community and see the condition/year of the books, the quality of the teachers/staff, the condition of the buildings, the condition of the football fields and gymnasium. Stick around until school lets out and see the condition of the buses they are subjected to ride on. Then the next day, go to your local school in the predominately White neighborhood of your choice and see the difference. New books, fresh paint, new buildings, the best teachers money has to offer, state of the art football fields and gymnasiums. A vast difference. If you are ever in Houston, TX, why don’t you check on Jack Yates and then go to Katy High school if you think I’m lying or over exaggerating. But enough on this, as I can go on and on, on this subject!
2)As far as him not cutting Minister Wright under the bus and totally disassociating himself, I totally disagree with the message but I know that you can’t judge a man by a few sermons out of 20 years and his beliefs about Louis Farrakan. Just as Sen. Obama said, he knows not only the words that you and I hate but he knows the man that he and apparently, many others love. He feels that he is like family to him, then who are we to judge, I’m sure everyone on this blog has a relative that they see very often that makes racist, homophobic, or anti-semetic remarks. (Go ahead and deny it if you want but you know it’s true). In my opinion, he would have been just like every other crooked and dishonest politician out there had he done that. By being honest and saying know I’m not going to disown my Minister/Uncle because it’s the popular thing to do and it is what every other politician would have done, I feel that he did the best thing possible. For those of you who say, “how can he sit there and listen to that crap for 20 years and claim that he doesnt share these views?” I say, I have attended Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, TX for 15 years now, I have heard my minister say controversial things about homosexuality (both good and bad), I have witnessed him pray for G.W. Bush’s inauguration which I totally hated, and I have knowledge that he will be performing Jenna Bush’s wedding, etc. I totally disagree with these things, but I know the man outside of the negative things. I know how he can uplift a community and give them a feeling of meaningfulness. I have seen him convert what some would stereotype as thugs into choir directors, videographers, choreograhors, and ushers. I know the man who has prayed for me and my family time, after time, in the wake of personal crisis. This is exactly what Sen. Obama says/feels about Minister Wright and although I disagree with what he said, I agree with his relationship with Sen. Obama. His views/actions have nothing to do with those of Sen. Obamas. You cannot judge a man by his friends, I don’t care what anyone says. If this were the case, we would all be horrible people the day we were born! I also say, What Would God Do/ What Will God Do? Would he turn his back on Minister White/ Sen. Obama, would he send them to the fiery gates of hell? Not my God, My God is a Healing God, He’s a Forgiving God and he would want all of us Christians to do the same. He would not judge Senator Obama’s character because of what someone he is affiliated said/did, he would treat him as his on man and forgive anything that is wrong and show him how to make it right.
To those of you who say you will vote Republican if Sen. Obama wins the Democratic nomination I have a few questions for you: Can you truly afford the gas, can you truly afford the increased Interest Rates? Do you want your children/ grandchildren fighting a war that has been proven to be unnecessary over and over again? Can you afford these things? If so, please tell me what I am doing wrong, as I am a 25 year old, middle classed, college educated African American female. I am married, and have two sons. I make a decent living compared to others in my neighborhood, I’m pretty young and can’t afford a huge expensive house, I live in an older predominately African American and Hispanic neighborhood. I work for one of the largest banks in America. I have a 401 K plan and had been saving in my personal savings accounts until this year when gas prices skyrocketed and my mortgage went up $100/ month. I would go out and try to get another job but with jobs being shipped overseas day after day, I need to keep my seniority. So please don’t think that I’m just some Angry black women looking for a handout!
Also, Barack did not bring race into the race, the Clintons, the Media and the people who needed any little thing not to vote for him did. He only defended himself yesterday. But once again, THE TRUTH HURTS!
Mar 19, 2008 - 3:01 pm 14. fred lapides:some history: Broyard did not want to be a stevedore in WWII? sure. He was “white.” Blacks were segregated in the American military as we fought Hitler’s racial policies. Integration took place in 1950.
What of the many “reputable” but evil
white ministers–Pat Robertson and Falwell, for example…why are they not disowned? oh, they are white, I had forgot.
Mar 19, 2008 - 3:19 pm 15. Lisa Brehm:The “TRUTH” as Crystal likes to filibuster about is that Obama is indeed a racist and an empty suit. A radical, empty suit at that. Oh yeah, and as most liberals believe- government solves everything and is the answer to ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS. Give me a break!
Mar 19, 2008 - 7:34 pm 16. Engineer-Poet:crystal, you have NO substantive rebuttal to rvastar’s devastating analysis?
Obama’s campaign took off after he appeared on… the Opran Winfrey show. The fact that you identify with him so much just proves the point that this is not about his policy positions or accomplishments, this is about validating yourself and your racial identity.
While I am utterly disgusted with the policies of the Republicans and want to see the majority of them repealed, I am just as disgusted with identity politics and those who practice them. I’m going to be holding my nose come November no matter who’s on the ballot, and if you stepped outside of your mental box you’d see why cynicism is going to enjoy a bull market based on the fundamentals.
Mar 19, 2008 - 10:59 pm 17. Dan:I agree Engineer Poet.
I was listening to radio when Obama was in Ohio and a lady had taken her 15 year old daughter to see obama. They asked to tell us one thing that Obama stands for and the mother said change and hope, that’s it. Her 15 year old said he was really cute and has a nice smile and her mother agreed.
The mother claimed that she had taken her daughter out of school so she could experience politics and get involved. Now that’s a hell of a lesson. Vote for the cute one.
I would vote for Obama only if he supported to stop women’s suffrage based on what I have seen from the Oprah crowds.
Tucker Carlson stated on Morning Joe that rev. wright said that Natallie Halloway was a slut. Tucker had done a report last year on the rev and read this in the rev transcripts.
The sad thing is, I don’t think that would change these young college girls minds about obama because he is sooooo cute.
Mar 20, 2008 - 4:49 am 18. @##$%:Dan says
“I would vote for Obama only if he supported to stop women’s suffrage based on what I have seen from the Oprah crowds.”
Based on pasts and comments on this blog, conservative Republican suffrage should be abolished.
Mar 20, 2008 - 9:43 am 19. rvastar:The sad thing is, I don’t think that would change these young college girls minds about obama because he is sooooo cute.
No, Dan, the sad thing is that people like Crystal are typical of the American public nowadays – ignorant, indocrinated fools.
Take your pick of her insipid “arguments” – the Jena 6, public school funding, gas prices???, interest rates??? – her “arguments” perfectly illustrate the dangerous place that Western Civilization currently finds itself in. By allowing Leftists to gain control over all the major mediums of information sharing and dispersal (ie. the education system, the news media, and the entertainment industry), the civilization that’s responsible for enlightening the world with Science, Reason, and Rationality has been reduced to a state of dumbed-down, adolescent, emotive silliness.
Her Jena 6 arguments are simply flat-out fabrications and misdirection. Want the real story? Enjoy:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/jena6 (and the Atlantic can hardly be considered “conservative”)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.html
Her public school arguments are also equally worthless, as I’ll wager you dollars-for-dimes that the real causes of the problems with the schools she’s complaining about lie at the feet of 1) the local government, which I’ll bet you anything is made of up of a black majority…and probably has been for the past 20 years, and 2) the attendees parents, in the form of higher percentages who are single parents, high school drop-outs, non-college educated, receiving public assistance, unemployed, etc. All of which mean lower tax revenues for their localties and higher percentages of what tax revenue there is going to fund other public assistance programs like housing assistance, food stamps, etc., thus short-changing their school systems.
I’m not even going to go into the silliness about gas prices and interest rates.
But will any of what I’ve stated above register with someone like Crystal? Of course not. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the victim narrative that’s been drilled into her througout here life; therefore, it must be discarded. I guarantee you she doesn’t even have the courage to read the two Jena 6 stories that I linked to. Why? Because people like her are deathly afraid of having their world views challenged.
Near the end of her post, she says “So please don’t think that I’m just some Angry black women looking for a handout!” But that’s exactly what you’re looking for, Crystal! You’re looking for a big ol’, heaping-helping of sympathy – waiting for white people to suddenly “see the light” about how existence is just so difficult for you, then fall down on their knees, confess their guilt, and…I don’t know…have a parade or something.
Well, guess what? I don’t have any sympathy for you. You wanna know why?
Because you live in the wealthiest country in the world.
You have a college education.
You have a full-time job sitting at a desk.
You own your own home.
You’re married and you have two children.
So, IOW, you are better off and have an easier life than probably 95% of the human beings that are alive on this planet.
That’s why I don’t have any sympathy for you. And that’s why I’m not buying the bulls**t Obama’s trying to sell to the American people – that somehow, the wealthiest, most leisured people in the world are in need of saving and “hope” and “change”.
Go to an Obama Revival – and that’s exactly what they are, good old-fashioned big-tent revivals – and you know what you’ll see? A bunch of idiots listening to a preacher tell them how terrible everything is…clapping and yelling and swooning and fainting…then driving home in their Volvos, Lexus’, and BMWs!!!
The fact that so many people in this country are so emotionally fragile and weak is infuriating!!!
I really, truly fear what the next 50 years may hold in store for humanity.
But maybe I shouldn’t worry..maybe Obama’s got the answer.
Or maybe Oprah.
Mar 20, 2008 - 9:50 am 20. Dan:rvastar
Lets not forget the racist black hooker falsly accusing Duke Lacrosse players. The hooker got a free education from jesse jackson for her troubles. I’m sure the black organizations at the college have taken her in and justified the whole thing. Let me guess, she was called the N word as a child.
Mar 20, 2008 - 12:47 pm 21. Crystal:Well, rvastar, if you describe me as an “ignorant and indoctrinated fool” it’s your opinion, and you entitled to it, but it’s funny how I feel that those words describe you perfectly as well.
I’m not even going to respond to your response on my Jena 6 comments, but there were thousands of people there not too long ago that felt the same way I did.
1) The local government does have a lot to do with the state of the two schools I chose to compare, but does that make it right. It wasn’t the local government that passed Brown vs. the Board of Education. Therefore, the federal government should have done more than passed a few laws and left it in the hands of the “local” government to fix, because as we see over 50 years later, it’s still un-finished business and schools are still unequal. While there are a great deal of African Americans in the local government, there is a good mixture of all races within it. So no, it has not been ” made of up of a black majority…and probably has been for the past 20 years.”
2) The area Jack Yates is in is actually in the heart of the medical center here in town. There are certain areas of the neighborhood that have people who are “single parents, high school drop-outs, non-college educated, receiving public assistance, unemployed, etc. ” but don’t all inner-city neighborhoods have their fair share of people like this? That doesn’t mean that their children don’t deserve the same chances as children’s who’s parents are “married, high school graduates, college educated, have never received public assistance and have jobs.” There are also a great deal of professionals (doctors, attorneys, entrepreneurs, educators, etc) that live in the neighborhood as well. There are homes that have been there since the early 1900’s that have been passed down from generation to generation. There are a few but not as many as you would think places where housing is accepted in the neighborhood. The school lays dead in between the University of Houston (my Alma Matter) which is a “melting pot” and Texas Southern University (a Historically Black College, and predominately African American). There are a number of elderly people who are as you would say, “single parents, high school drop-outs, non-college educated, receiving public assistance, unemployed”, but they worked all of their lives and own their little homes and not too long ago, the government tried to make them sale their homes so they could build parking lots for a park and ride to the nearby Reliant and Toyota Center.
You don’t want to comment on my silliness about interest rates and gas, well don’t… Just answer my question, what are you doing that I’m not where you can afford these outrageous prices? I just want to know what I’m doing wrong?
I have know problem with having my world views challenged. They are challenged everyday, on blogs like this, on the radio, and in the workplace. They have been challenged most of my like, I believe you are the one who is close minded and afraid of the challenge to change for the better. BTW: I read the article.
As I said before, I’m not some Angry black woman, nor am I looking for sympathy. I learned a long time ago that people like yourself will never see the “light” and would always be the same and there’s nothing I can do about it. Other than these high gas prices and interest rates life is not so difficult for me but it is for others in my community of all races. My parents taught me the long time ago that if I believe in God and apply myself at all times I don’t need anything from anyone so I’m not looking for yours or anyone else’s sympathy. I’m simply stating my point of view.
You are absolutely right I have been blessed to attain a college education, a full-time job sitting at a desk, I own my home, and be married with two children I don’t need sympathy from anyone/anything. I worked my butt off and earned all of the things mentioned above. But I am in need of being saved from the shape that George W. Bush has placed our country in and I have hope that it will happen. As I know, Senator Barack Obama is the best key I have to attain those things. Apparently, I’m talking to a someone with little or no faith.
We can sit here all day and call each other names, and argue about our opinions but it will not solve the injustices and problems of this nation.
Mar 20, 2008 - 2:15 pm 22. Lily S.:You write very beautifully and this is such a wonderful piece!
Lily S.
Mar 24, 2008 - 9:57 pm 23. emily:Zrii For Life!
http://zrii-for-life.blogspot.com/
As i read these posts I truly wonder to myself why it is so hard for white folks( not all but many)to just hear what someone like Crystal has pointed out. Why the negative assaults and disrespectful words. OK you can disagree–I grew up in a family where debates and differences in opinions were encouraged–but the hostility I feelthat comes out towards black folks who are trying to help educate those of you who truly have no idea what you are talking about!!, I don’t understand. I’ve been reading as much as I can in the last couple of weeks and the negativity and character assaults seem to happen when someone either white or black points out how racism plays out in this country. I read Crystals posts and I didn’t read anything that makes me think that she deserves being called “ignorant” and “fool”. You should ask yourself–Why are you white folks so so ANGRY??In Obama’s speech he spoke about everyones pain. It was the most inclusive speech I have ever known. And yet you insist that he is racist. Where is the evidence to support that?? Those of you who say its because of the church and Rev. Wright. How much do you guys actualy know about this church?? I challenge all of you who are spending so much energy denying and spouting off hateful words towards people you are threatened by, to go sit in a black church for a few weeks, or spend some time as Crystal said in an inner city school and talk with teachers then maybe you can have a valid opinion. And by the way, I am also not an angry woman–I am a biracial woman who grew up middle class. I Dont feel deprived or victimized, and i am grateful for my ife and love my country. However, I live every day with the reality of the complexity of race relations in this country. White folks want black folks to stop talking about it and move on-but until white people start to listen and acknowledge the reality that the history of slavery and what followed has continued to play out in our country, in a more subtle way, nothing will change.
Mar 28, 2008 - 1:06 pm