Originally Posted by samira

@ highlighted: In the begining of the elections they were heard making negative statements against him and I will not be surprised if they still see him as "different"...yep, as in the African one...After the Iowa elections, it still appears that some African Americans are still not too happy for him...check this out:

"I'm concerned that some of my brothers and sisters might be voting for Obama just because they badly want to see a black president, even if it means compromising their values and sidelining goals to improve and empower Black America. I also have a very bad feeling about the fact that so many white people (many of whom are unenlightened and racist/blinded with white supremacy as all get out) are so cool with him. Yet they can't stand an Al Sharpton or a Carol Moseley-Braun or a Cynthia McKinney.

To sum it up, I think Obama is a symbol of the way mainstream black politics are heading in the US. Abandoning real progressiveness in favor of buttoned-down kumbaya feelgood-ism (like the ever-so-vague "politics of hope") and acceptance of corporate culture and the corporatist economy as "empowerment". Is a man that claims racism is 90% of the way over and "conservatives and Bill Clinton were right about welfare" and who feels that telling black girls to close their legs would be“the single biggest that we could do to reduce inner-city poverty” fit to represent Black America?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/0...il-rights-era/

From all that I've read about him, he didn't even really know anything about black culture or black history before he met Michelle Obama. She's the one who actually hipped him to his roots in this country, it sounds like he was (and still has many traits of) a white-washed black kid from an all-white suburb."

Originally Posted by sidney

Have you read his book?

Originally Posted by samira

Nope...and do not intend to either. However, I read Clinton's and she is terrific.

Originally Posted by samira

@ highlighted: In the begining of the elections they were heard making negative statements against him and I will not be surprised if they still see him as "different"...yep, as in the African one...After the Iowa elections, it still appears that some African Americans are still not too happy for him...check this out:

"I'm concerned that some of my brothers and sisters might be voting for Obama just because they badly want to see a black president, even if it means compromising their values and sidelining goals to improve and empower Black America. I also have a very bad feeling about the fact that so many white people (many of whom are unenlightened and racist/blinded with white supremacy as all get out) are so cool with him. Yet they can't stand an Al Sharpton or a Carol Moseley-Braun or a Cynthia McKinney.

To sum it up, I think Obama is a symbol of the way mainstream black politics are heading in the US. Abandoning real progressiveness in favor of buttoned-down kumbaya feelgood-ism (like the ever-so-vague "politics of hope") and acceptance of corporate culture and the corporatist economy as "empowerment". Is a man that claims racism is 90% of the way over and "conservatives and Bill Clinton were right about welfare" and who feels that telling black girls to close their legs would be“the single biggest that we could do to reduce inner-city poverty” fit to represent Black America?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/0...il-rights-era/

From all that I've read about him, he didn't even really know anything about black culture or black history before he met Michelle Obama. She's the one who actually hipped him to his roots in this country, it sounds like he was (and still has many traits of) a white-washed black kid from an all-white suburb."

Originally Posted by samira

Nope...and do not intend to either. However, I read Clinton's and she is terrific.

Originally Posted by sidney

This is the problem with us. We are forever deciding who is black enough...

I went to Kindergarden, first to third grade in a small town in Massachusetts. I was the first black kid in my school. I remember fighting EVERYday... I am not exaggeratting. I mean EVERYday in the first grade. I was called nigger to my face by parents. My mother had to bring some representatives from the Nation of Islam and Black Panther party, in NY, to stem some of the issues my brother and I were having. This was normal for that time (as I have said before, I don old small...)...

This is the type of racism that Barack always recieved. How black he is, was never in question when police would pull over his car when he was in high school. Or the institutionalized racism that overtly existed at that time.

It is deeply insultive, amongst other things, to constantly question someone's blackness because they don't wear a kinte koffi. Especially to those that grew up in that time. When being called a nigger was not only politically correct, but commonplace.

Black America.... Crabs in a barrell...

When the white man hates us, it's because we are black, when he likes us, it's because we are not black enough...

It is well...

Originally Posted by sidney

So let me understand what you are saying....

A man who was raised by his American mother and maternal grandparents, because his Kenyan father esentially abandoned him, should now go a fix that same village of the abandonning father before he is possibly elected the first black President in US history?


ok............

Originally Posted by OlaMichael

LOL Sidney, whilst I am with you 100%, I must say that sometimes it's best to ignore certain statements (no pun intended) otherwise you spend more energy trying to reason with err.......... [fill in the blanks] lol.

I read her response just after she posted it and I thought, how do you even begin to reply to it??? This is why I just read most of the time on NR.

Originally Posted by sidney

This is the problem with us. We are forever deciding who is black enough...

I went to Kindergarden, first to third grade in a small town in Massachusetts. I was the first black kid in my school. I remember fighting EVERYday... I am not exaggeratting. I mean EVERYday in the first grade. I was called nigger to my face by parents. My mother had to bring some representatives from the Nation of Islam and Black Panther party, in NY, to stem some of the issues my brother and I were having. This was normal for that time (as I have said before, I don old small...)...

This is the type of racism that Barack always recieved. How black he is, was never in question when police would pull over his car when he was in high school. Or the institutionalized racism that overtly existed at that time.

It is deeply insultive, amongst other things, to constantly question someone's blackness because they don't wear a kinte koffi. Especially to those that grew up in that time. When being called a nigger was not only politically correct, but commonplace.

Black America.... Crabs in a barrell...

When the white man hates us, it's because we are black, when he likes us, it's because we are not black enough...

It is well...

Originally Posted by Abike

Just because you dont intend to support doesnt mean you cant have an open mind to at least read his book.....your "I dont intend to either" sounds a bit "childish". Not childish as in you Samira are a child, but childish in terms of, I aint voting for him so am not doing x, y and z....what ignited your interest in Clinton? Was reading her book not part of it? anyways, i know we are all entitled to our opinions and for those who can vote please do so that day.....it is well....