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Michael Meyers: Obama Blew It »

Posted by: stephen-johnson 1 year, 9 months ago

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In 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-johnson

Out to lunch without a sandwich

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stephen-johnson
March 20, 2008, 11:30 p.m.
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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stephen-johnson
March 20, 2008, 11:31 p.m.
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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tanglang
March 21, 2008, 6:10 a.m.
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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cherev
March 21, 2008, 6:45 a.m.
"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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Wolfie2007
March 21, 2008, 12:57 p.m.
Michael Meyers appears to be a man who does understand America and it's hopes and dreams for the future. But what do I know I'm just a "typical white person".
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icono1
March 21, 2008, 7:12 p.m.
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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rimbaud
March 22, 2008, 1:11 p.m.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv5sR9GDVx4
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HOUSEMD
March 22, 2008, 4:08 p.m.
Seems to be a double standard where black to white racism is concerned. For a man wanting to CHANGE america he seems to be heading backwards.
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