Barack Obama is running for Senate in the good state of Illnois, Hey wasn't Lincoln from there? Man I hope Obama doesn't go to the theater EVER. Hey Obama if someone invites you to see a show staring the great great great great grandson of John Wilks Booth DON'T GO. It's a TRAP!
Ok nuff of the funny business and on to the big question IS OBAMA black enough? In my humble opinon NO, its a moot issue and people need to stop hating on him. It's a good thing that he is not considered black enough. Why you ask? Well because he has a white momma and he was raised by his white grand parents. Now of course he probably got looked at funny when he went to the mall with his mom and he probably got teased cause his daddy is from Africa so I'm sure he got the jokes about his daddy fighting lions and riding elephants. Ok fine but that's as far as it goes.
Barack Obama did not have your normal “Black community” experience. He was born in Hawaii. His father left the family to go to Harvard to finish his engineering education and from there returned to Africa when Barack was young. His mother stayed in Hawaii, so he never really knew his father except through letters. He grew up in Hawaii, Indonesia (his mother remarried to an Indonesian man when he was six), and back to Hawaii at age ten where he was mostly brought up by his Kansan grandparents. Until college, he never lived in a "Black" community. He now lives in and identifies with the African-American community of Hyde Park, Chicago.
If people in their backward logic want to think that this man isn't black enough then let it be, at the end of the day he is a black man. People need to see past the Harvard education and really understand that.
The bottomline is that in the past "black" candidates are usually portrayed as trouble makers who will whine and complain at the drop of a hat and make big speeches but really not do anything (ex. Al Sharpton). America needs a leader that can bring both races together so we can get over out stupid prejudices and Obama is the man for that job. I'll be watching for him in 8 to 12 years.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Is Barack Obama Black Enough?
A recent posting to a Web blog asked the question if U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was "black enough."
In all of my years of covering journalism and politics, never have a seen a politican so focused on the future and in touch with his base.
U.S. Senator Barack Obama is not only the most charasmatic politican I've ever met, but also the most diverse.
On April 21, I stood in a local hotel bar talking to two men who many would have labelled as "ignorant rednecks" and listened intently as they described the man they feel will "be the first Black president of the United States."
"He's so charasmatic, but hell that's expected for a politican. But, what's so different about Obama is that he's got it covered on all ends."
As I shifted my weight from foot to foot in anticipation of a trip to the ladies room, which is where I was headed when they stopped me, I began to understand the thing that most journalists always forget: I'm not just covering the news; I'm living history.
Four separate occasions, I have covered Barack Obama, each time I somehow manage to put something in his hand and this most recent occasion take a photograph with him. That's the point: He's the most accessible Black leader in America. That's not to say that his security isn't tight. Believe me, it is. But, he comes off as the kind of guy who never forgets where he comes from.
During a recent interview with David Mann, the star of Tyler Perry's hit play, "Meet the Browns", I asked Mann if he felt that the play would have to change now that a diverse audience was playing more attention due to the success of Tyler's movie, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." Mann's answer could be Obama's.
"You kinda have to dance with the person that brought ya," Mann told me in the high-pitched, slow, southern accent that has made him famous. "Black people brought us to this dance, and that's who we're going to keep dancing with. We may switch partners from time to time, but at the end of the dance, we're going home with the people that brought us."
The same is true for Senator Obama.
In the last 6 months, I've covered half a dozen separate Black-oriented events that Obama not only attended but delievered a speech.
As a professionally trained journalist and skeptic, I went looking for signs of a sell out with Obama. I looked for it his CBC reception at Pearl Night club in Washington, DC in September. I tried to find it at the Black Press Week dinner a few months later in March. And I just knew I'd see it at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' 35th Annual Dinner on April 20.
Unlike what is common with most politicans, Obama never used the same speech. Journalistically, it's almost fun to find something wrong with a public figure, but Obama hasn't made me laugh yet. He's always 'on' but not in the fake, "cameras are rolling" type of way that most would expect. In my presence, Obama hasn't missed a request to sign a program, kiss a baby or even pose for a photograph with a cynic journalist.
So, for anyone who asks if Barack Obama is Black enough I can only say. Give me five...on Barack Obama that is. Obama is the safest bet that Black America has had since Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court.
Written by De Carla Livers, Managing Editor for Black Press Magazine. Copyright 2005. D. Livers.
Read an article and see pictures of Barack Obama at http://www.blackpress.org/joint
March 1, 2007
UPDATED from April 2005 entry
I think it's ironic that nearly two years after we weighed in on this, the headlines are now screaming, "Is Obama Black enough?"
Seems like a perfect wag the dog trick to divert the truth issues behind the election and its significance.
We're doing a follow up podcast series on this at http://www.blackpodcasts.com this month.
DC Livers, managing editor
Black Press Magazine.com
a division of the Historical Black Press Foundaiton
Post a Comment