The Hell Was She Thinking?? She reminds me of the bunny with a pancake on his head:
Friday, April 29, 2011
The Other Elephant In The Room
For Birthers, Obama's Not Black Enough
Remember when the media regularly asked if Barack Obama was “black enough” to get the support of African-Americans? In 2007 pundits wondered if a black-identified but technically biracial candidate who came of age in the post–civil rights era, was raised far from traditional African-American communities, was educated in the Ivy League and boasted a foreign name might be more palatable to white voters than black ones. Today this query seems hopelessly naïve and endearingly optimistic about the fluidity of American racial identities. After the secret-Muslim accusations, the witch doctor posters, the “You lie!” shout-down and the chimpanzee e-mails—it is clear that President Obama is certainly “black enough” to experience both racially motivated public attacks and exceptional support among racial minorities.
But the tenacity of the birther movement has revived the issue of Obama’s blackness for me. Nearly a quarter of Americans, most of them white, believe President Obama was not born in the United States. The resilience of the birther myth—lately given air by Donald Trump—has even forced the White House to post a copy of Obama’s birth certificate online in hopes of settling the matter once and for all. Good luck—this controversy isn’t about documentation; it’s about deeply held beliefs, even faith claims, about who is and is not a legitimate citizen.
Many on the left say that birtherism is just racism, but there’s more than simple racial animus behind it. I suspect that part of the problem is that Obama is indeed not black enough; specifically, the president is not sufficiently Negro—the historical variation of blackness that is uniquely and indisputably American.
Source - The NationRelated C
Racism Is So Yesterday, Bring On The Class War!
This article actually ties things together in a weird way for me. Mr. Hari contends that the UK should be ashamed for judging someone in a positive light (The Windsors) based on circumstance of birth; while here in America, Our President has been judged harshly based on the circumstance of his birth.
And get this, the author calls himself a Republican (UK) and I believe him. Why can't OUR Republicans make this kind of sense?
"In most countries, parents can tell their kids that if they work hard and do everything right, they could grow up to be the head of state and symbol of their nation. Not us. Our head of state is decided by one factor, and one factor alone: did he pass through the womb of one aristocratic Windsor woman living in a golden palace ? The US head of state grew up with a mother on food stamps. The British head of state grew up with a mother on postage stamps. Is that a contrast that fills you with pride?"
In the U.S., some Whites would most likely say, The Grass Is Always Greener. Some Blacks would refer to this as WPP, or White People Problems. Stay with me now, it gets deeper.
No, it's not the biggest problem we have. But it does have a subtly deforming effect on Britain's character that the ultimate symbol of our country, our sovereign, is picked on the most snobbish criteria of all: darling, do you know who his father was? Kids in Britain grow up knowing that we all bow and curtsy in front of a person simply because of their unearned, uninteresting bloodline. This snobbery subtly soaks out through the society, tweaking us to be deferential to unearned and talentless wealth, simply because it's there.
Meanwhile in America, Our President is constantly disparaged and disrespected because of What Race his father was.
We live with a weird cognitive dissonance in Britain. We are always saying we should be a meritocracy, but we shriek in horror at the idea that we should pick our head of state on merit. Earlier this month, David Cameron lamented that too many people in Britain get ahead because of who their parents are. A few minutes later, without missing a beat, he praised the monarchy as the best of British. Nobody laughed.
What this article has shown me is this: Americans, we're trailing behind England, who we broke from! We need to settle this racism crap and get going on the Class War (already in progress)!
It's been a tough week to be an American With Melanin. Here are some links from much better writers than myself on the true State of Our Union. Peace.
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