Saturday, January 05, 2008

Obama and Race in America - Guest Blog

Andrew C. White of "The 10,000 Things" blog - who incidentally is white - wrote a fitting reply to a racist and hate filled rant about Barack Hussein Obama's win in the Democratic Iowa Caucus.


Republicans are ugly.

[The racist drivel f]rom freeperville:
Is Hussein Obama the weakest Dem for the General election?
Iowa Caucus ^ | January 3, 2008 | nwrep

Posted on 01/03/2008 9:07:11 PM PST by nwrep

Did the weakest Dem candidate for the general election won tonight? I think so.

By sending forth Hussein Osama out of Iowa, Democrats have unwittingly weakened their general election prospects.

Hussein's exotic mixture of radical liberalism, Kwanzaa Socialism, antipathy towards the unborn, and weakness against his jihadi brethren will all come back to destroy him against almost any Republican opponent, even the snake-grope from Hope.

I think we as Republicans should be celebrating tonight at the coronation of Hussein, in whose presence millions of Democrat women, from elementary school teachers to journalism majors to law school grads to dykes on bikes will go weak in their knees.

As defenders of this great Republic, and of the pinnacle of Western civilization that it represents, we should all come together tonight and agree on a common strategy that will keep the White House from becoming a madrassa.

God Bless America, Land of the Free.

My brother asked me back at Thanksgiving dinner “Is America ready to elect a black man or a woman as President?” To which I answered, “We’re as ready as we’re ever going to be before actually doing it.” He replied, “I hear you… but are we ready?”

If Obama continues and becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee (and his chances got a lot better last night) it is going to get ugly. Real ugly. Racism is alive and well in America. We are ready to elect a black man President and if Obama wins the nomination we will elect him but his campaign, and everyone else on the Democratic side, is going to have to be ready to win a race war. Us white folks are mean sons of bitches when someone threatens OUR power.

I’m not talking about the KKK or Stormfront obvious nutcases but mainstream Mom and Pop white folks that don’t think of themselves as racist but really don’t want those people living in their neighborhoods or dating their daughters. The ones that live in towns across America that are 88% white and 12% other and really don’t have much if any association with black society.

And make no mistake, electing a black man threatens white power, control, and dominance. Note also that Obama is a black man despite being 50% white. We have never claimed half-whites as white. They are black. We don’t claim them as even half white. They are black.

As an aside, it was a revelation to me as a teenager when a friend told me he got the same from black society. That it was a real struggle for him because he wasn’t treated by the black community as black. It had never occurred to me that he wasn’t black despite the fact his skin color was closer to mine then most of our black friends.

The Republicans will come at Barack Obama with the Hussein stuff. The Osama-Obama stuff. The Indonesia-madrassa stuff. Heck! They’ll probably blame the current unrest in Kenya on him and claim that he’ll bring the same to America (something the worst amongst them can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy). But it’ll be race that is their strongest gut level, divisive playing card… and they will use it.

I am half hoping they do and that they overplay their hand. I think we need to be ready to point out the ugliness, the racism, overt and covert, of their actions. They’ll claim we’re playing “the race card” but we can’t be side tracked by that.

And we can’t foist this off on our black friends and compatriots.

This is a battle within white America to get the hell over itself and its... our ... racist past… and present. White Americans need to “lift up” our own people out of these ignorant views. Most whites have no idea just how racist America is. Black people don’t need educating on that subject. They know. White people do. And they need to hear it from other white people. Their peers. Us. Not liberals to conservatives. Not educated to uneducated. Not Democrats to Republicans. White average Americans to white average Americans.

The Obama campaign itself needs to steel itself… and I do mean steel… and be prepared for the attacks. The have to respond and they have to respond well. They cannot ignore it. At the same time they need to stay above them and keep their campaign about a positive vision for Americas future. They can’t allow themselves to get bogged down and lost in a race war.

The rest of the Democratic community needs to be prepared to do the ugly, trench work on this one. We need to talk race and we need to talk it openly and honestly. Preferably not angrily. I’m thinking a passive-aggressive approach may well be best. Let the freepers froth at the mouth about race while we talk dispassionately and openly about it. Let the ugliness be repellant all by itself. I’m not sure. I think it will depend on a case by case basis but I am thinking that is the best overall approach. Shine a light on the ugliness and place it smack dab in the middle of the village square but stand off to the side and allow Americans to say “I’m not like that” and come to the healing message, the reconciliation, of brotherhood and away from the ugly troll of racism convulsing in the light of day.


plez sez: it was only a matter of time - in this case, a few hours - before the racists and pinheads would begin a full frontal assault on Barack Obama. as he has done this entire political process, i expect that he will continue to take the high road and not gravitate to those elements of our society who are so hell-bent on the destruction of anything good.

as Andrew White writes in his blog entry, it is really going to be up to upstanding white folk to distance themselves from this racist rhetoric, childish name calling, and hate mongering. i cross-posted this blog entry not to call attention to the hate, but to applaud those who will support Barack Obama on his merits and his ability to be the one who unites us rather than divides us.



plezWorld purposely omitted a link to "free republic" as i do not want to provide additional traffic to this right wing racist site.

[Hat Tip: This blog entry is also cross-posted at the albany project]

3 comments:

Peter said...

http://bgdboom.blogspot.com/2008/01/kappa-alpha-psi-fraternity-inc-97-years.html

Unknown said...

Don't sweat the critics. Obama is flying above the racist or partisan bickering to raise politics to a new level of hope, inclusion and inspiration.

I predict that he will win in New Hampshire by double-digits. Write it down!

peace, Villager

The Stepfather of Soul said...

That's a great article. It's too bad that such brutal honesty can't make its way into the mainstream discourse on topics beyond the election!