Michael Meyers: Obama Blew It »
Posted By stephen-johnson 1 year, 7 months ago in NewsIn my considered judgment as a race and civil rights specialist, I would say that Barack Obama's "momentous" speech on race settled on merely "explaining" so-called racial differences between blacks and whites -- and in so doing amplified deep-seated racial tensions and divisions. Instead of giving us a polarizing treatise on th
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stephen-johnson1 year, 7 months ago
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From the article:
"I waited in vain for our hybrid presidential candidate to speak the simple truth that there is no such thing as "race," that we all belong to the same race -- the human race. I waited for him to mesmerize us with a singular and focused appeal to hold all candidates to the same standards no matter their race or their sex or their age. But instead Obama gave us a full measure of racial rhetoric about how some of us with an "untrained ear" -- meaning whites and Asians and Latinos -- don't understand and can't relate to the so-called black experience."
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rimbaud1 year, 7 months ago
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Sounds good, but it's not the truth! We have to face up to our inability to understand our different experiences. It's the "untrained ear" (or the intentional lack of understanding) that hears Rev Wright as anti-American and a traitor. If Obama had responded as you suggest, he would have been accused of blowing hot, high-falutin' air. He needed to explain, honestly, his continued respect for Rev Wright, and his love of his grandmother.
Incidentally, lost in the reactions to Rev Wright's rants was his equating the plight of the world's oppressed with those of the USA's.
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crespi1 year, 7 months ago
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Were whites, Asians or Latinos ever sold a slaves in the United States?
Was it ever illegal for Whites, or Asians or Latinos to marry (their own kind)? It was for blacks during slavery.
Was it ever made illegal for Whites, Asians, or Latinos to own firearms?
The first thing the NRA did was to deny firearm ownership by blacks, thereby DENYING THEM OF THEIR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS? (Any of your family ever lynched?)
The Black experience in America IS unique.
But Obama was addressing US ALL as Americans on a complex subject important to America.
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NoWayMan1 year, 7 months ago
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FTA:
"He should have depicted his minister, the Rev Jeremiah A. Wright Jr, as a symbol of the dysfunctional angry men who are stuck in the past and who must yield to a new generation of color-blind, hopeful Americans and to a new global economy in which we will look on our neighbors skin color no differently than how we look on their eye color."
From Obama's speech:
"As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all."
so, Meyers simply wasn't listening.
and I love how the righties on this board now agree with Meyers kumbaya, one-world view. hypocrites.
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stephen-johnson1 year, 7 months ago
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Con't
"Well, I am black, and I can't relate to a "black experience" that shields and explains old-style black ministers who rant and rave about supposed racial differences and about how America ought to be damned. I long ago broke away from all associations and churches that preached the gospel of hate and ethnic divisiveness -- including canceling my membership in 100 Black Men of America Inc., when they refused my motion to admit women and whites. They still don't."
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RedRiverJ1 year, 7 months ago
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Stephen, run for President, I'd vote for you. You have a better insight, are more understanding, caring and 'blind to all color.' That's what Obama should have done, said it because he means it, not because he was trying to save his political career. Kudo's SJ on a good story.
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AlphaGnosisComment removed: Hard Banned1 Reply
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tanglang1 year, 7 months ago
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This has to be one of the best articles I have read about B.O. and his speech yet. Thanks for the heads up. And I agree that B.O. belw it. However, his cult following loves him so much that no matter what he said, they are going to eat it up. It's really quite sad.
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cherev1 year, 7 months ago
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"He should have depicted his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as a symbol of the dysfunctional angry men who are stuck in the past and who must yield to a new generation of color-blind, hopeful Americans and to a new global economy in which we will look on our neighbors' skin color no differently than how we look on their eye color."
Truer words cannot be spoken. Great article. Thanks.
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icono11 year, 7 months ago
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It seems that OBama's speech opened more questions about race and possibly gender than it put to rest. I say gender because OBama later referred to his Grandmother as a "typical white woman" in an attempt ,I guess, to explain why his Grandmother would say all those 'bad things' about Afro-Americans she would meet on the street. (I have meet Afro-Americans on the street and they have said bad things about me racially; But I guess that is ok because I am a 'typical white guy'.)
Is this stereotyping at its best or is he implying that the issue of race, as a negative cultural force or influence, is firmly ingrained in 'our whole society' with little or no chance of true reconciliation by either side?
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rimbaud1 year, 7 months ago
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv5sR9GDVx4
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anioklyComment removed: Spammer
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