Damn my full-time job and full-time school career! Because of all this real life stuff I was unable to hop-on immediately to share my realization about Ted Kennedy's emotional support for Barack Obama yesterday.
I spoke on the historic nature of the moment - Camelot, with all it's magic and prestige and unassailable political clout being willingly handed over to a black man. It was more than emotional and powerful, it was, I believe history will bear, the flag that announced the last lap of generational change in our political life.
Caroline and Patrick rounded out the picture of family solidarity but it was Ted Kennedy who drew on the emotional connection so many of us feel for the Kennedys that struck a chord with me. There is the obvious symbolism - a silver-haired, aging white man from the Northeast beside a young, spry, black Man with a trans-global heritage - but I saw something else as Teddy shook with passion about Barack.
This is the speech, perhaps, he'd hoped to one day give for JFK, Jr.
The emotional undercurrent of his support for Barack is the type normally resolved for the beloved children or tolerated in-laws in a family very cognizant of their legacy. It was like seeing an uncle groom his nephew to take over the family business.
Only this family business is American politics and Barack, white momma not withstanding, ain't exactly part of the family.
Really, could you not have seen the same intensity of emotion had Obama been replaced by JFK, JR?
Though he denied often any desire to run for political office it is no secret that almost everyone with fond memories of Camelot expected JFK, JR. to grow into an elected official.
And while we will never know what could have been it seems safe to assume that JFK, Jr. would have been the beneficiary of all the magic the Kennedy family can offer: an elder statesman hitting the campaign trail to work decades old relationships in his favor, a spotlight shy Caroline willing to emerge from the shadows to compare him to her father, Patrick serving as emcee for a crowd of rabid young voters thirsty for the kind of vision and inspiration that defined JFK and Bobby's legacy.
Only the candidate is black and his being black was never mentioned.
A pretty good day to be American.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
My folk, my folk
It has taken a much more disciplined writer than myself to expound upon the real "fairy tale" in this Democratic race: Bill Clinton's supposed savior status within the black community.
Now, y'all, I know how some of us feel about a "good" job and we remember fondly the 90s as a time when you could tell your boss to kiss your black ass because you knew another "good" job right down the road. But time may have made your memory fuzzy, much in the way crack makes a whore disillusioned about her sex appeal. So consider this Clinton Re-hab:
The Clinton Fallacy: Did blacks really make big economic gains during the '90s?
By Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Posted Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 12:46 PM ET
Hillary Clinton's campaign deployed President Bill Clinton in South Carolina for the specific purpose of delivering the black vote, aiming to remind African-Americans of the good times when Clinton was president. Which raises the question: Why do so many people think the Clinton years were good times for black America?
A hopeful African-American electorate was at the core of Bill Clinton's successful bids for the presidency. In many ways, the scandal-marred, deeply partisan years of the Clinton administration proved disappointing in the face of such early optimism.
Welfare reform, the growth of black imprisonment, and the public abandonment of progressive African-Americans like Lani Guinier are some of the most memorable racial disappointments of those years. Even through these disappointments, African-Americans were among Clinton's strongest supporters because many believed Clinton's era was an economic boon.
But there is evidence that Clinton's unmatched popularity among blacks confused many about the true economic impact of his presidency. In a 2005 article I co-authored in the Journal of Black Studies, I analyzed five national surveys from 1984 through 2000. The data show that nearly a third of black Americans held false understandings of black economic conditions during the Clinton years.
By the time Clinton left office, many African-Americans incorrectly believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites. In the '80s, barely 5 percent of blacks believed blacks were economically better off than whites. By 2000, nearly 30 percent of African-American respondents believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites.
This belief is simply wrong.
Rest here:http://www.slate.com/id/2182745/
Now, y'all, I know how some of us feel about a "good" job and we remember fondly the 90s as a time when you could tell your boss to kiss your black ass because you knew another "good" job right down the road. But time may have made your memory fuzzy, much in the way crack makes a whore disillusioned about her sex appeal. So consider this Clinton Re-hab:
The Clinton Fallacy: Did blacks really make big economic gains during the '90s?
By Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Posted Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 12:46 PM ET
Hillary Clinton's campaign deployed President Bill Clinton in South Carolina for the specific purpose of delivering the black vote, aiming to remind African-Americans of the good times when Clinton was president. Which raises the question: Why do so many people think the Clinton years were good times for black America?
A hopeful African-American electorate was at the core of Bill Clinton's successful bids for the presidency. In many ways, the scandal-marred, deeply partisan years of the Clinton administration proved disappointing in the face of such early optimism.
Welfare reform, the growth of black imprisonment, and the public abandonment of progressive African-Americans like Lani Guinier are some of the most memorable racial disappointments of those years. Even through these disappointments, African-Americans were among Clinton's strongest supporters because many believed Clinton's era was an economic boon.
But there is evidence that Clinton's unmatched popularity among blacks confused many about the true economic impact of his presidency. In a 2005 article I co-authored in the Journal of Black Studies, I analyzed five national surveys from 1984 through 2000. The data show that nearly a third of black Americans held false understandings of black economic conditions during the Clinton years.
By the time Clinton left office, many African-Americans incorrectly believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites. In the '80s, barely 5 percent of blacks believed blacks were economically better off than whites. By 2000, nearly 30 percent of African-American respondents believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites.
This belief is simply wrong.
Rest here:http://www.slate.com/id/2182745/
Monday, January 28, 2008
Camelot Comes To Harlem
I grew up listening to my Mother wax poetic about how altruistic the Kennedy's are.
My grandmother had three commerative plates on the wall, hung in a place of honor: White Jesus, Martin and Kennedy.
They are not southern or southern baptist or black but the genuiness of their spirit has, for numberous reasons, spoken to our community for generations now.
So as I sit here today and hear the Kennedy family effectively hand over the torch of their legacy to Barack Obama I am afraid that I may be dreaming.
Win or lose, this man not only looks presidential today - he looks like great American history in the making.
And who would know what that looks like better than a Kennedy?
Live stream: http://www.cnn.com/video/live/live.html?stream=stream1
My grandmother had three commerative plates on the wall, hung in a place of honor: White Jesus, Martin and Kennedy.
They are not southern or southern baptist or black but the genuiness of their spirit has, for numberous reasons, spoken to our community for generations now.
So as I sit here today and hear the Kennedy family effectively hand over the torch of their legacy to Barack Obama I am afraid that I may be dreaming.
Win or lose, this man not only looks presidential today - he looks like great American history in the making.
And who would know what that looks like better than a Kennedy?
Live stream: http://www.cnn.com/video/live/live.html?stream=stream1
Friday, January 25, 2008
This is my Party and I'll Kick Your Ass if I want to!
In this election cycle minorities, women and working class Americans with democratic leanings should be ecstatic. Instead, far too many of us have been marginalized, insulted, condescended to and dismissed...by our own Democratic Party. I cannot speak for anyone beyond myself, a young African-American female who has voted in every election big and small since she was 18 years old, but I imagine I am not the only one tired of being caricatured as an idiot, regardless of who I support.
I am an Obama supporter but that is not what this petition is about. This is about our party not recognizing itself as such. For 40 years the black voter has helped keep the Democrats viable and in exchange we have gotten the leading party statesman wagging his finger at us for daring to think for ourselves.
We have watched elders like Mr. Rangel sell his political clout, ostensibly on our behalf, in exchange for a seat at the table of another Clinton White House.
CNN reduced black female voters in S.C. to nothing more than cliches of race and sex, overlooking our ability to think as mothers, daughters, sisters, entrepreneurs, students, activists or Americans.
Gloria Steinman suggested that black female voters should ignore the history of racism within the feminist community and forgive her for a poorly written and ill-advised op-ed in the New York Times.
Through this all the Democratic Party has allowed its strongest, most faithful constituency to be treated like an after thought. I cannot be certain what smarts more: their silence in this storm of hatred and race-baiting or the clear assumption that we can be brought back into the fold in time for the general election.
I am tired of this. And I am betting that I am not the only one.
By signing this petition you can send a message to the Democratic Party: the black vote is not to be taken for granted. Neither is it to be bargain-rated.
Should this party and its candidates continue to treat us this way, your signature says you will revolt.
It is a new day in American politics. The Democrats are not the only show in town. And I do not hate a vote for McCain or an Independent candidate nearly as much as I hate being treated like the help at my own Party.
If you feel similarly please sign here and spread the word.
I am an Obama supporter but that is not what this petition is about. This is about our party not recognizing itself as such. For 40 years the black voter has helped keep the Democrats viable and in exchange we have gotten the leading party statesman wagging his finger at us for daring to think for ourselves.
We have watched elders like Mr. Rangel sell his political clout, ostensibly on our behalf, in exchange for a seat at the table of another Clinton White House.
CNN reduced black female voters in S.C. to nothing more than cliches of race and sex, overlooking our ability to think as mothers, daughters, sisters, entrepreneurs, students, activists or Americans.
Gloria Steinman suggested that black female voters should ignore the history of racism within the feminist community and forgive her for a poorly written and ill-advised op-ed in the New York Times.
Through this all the Democratic Party has allowed its strongest, most faithful constituency to be treated like an after thought. I cannot be certain what smarts more: their silence in this storm of hatred and race-baiting or the clear assumption that we can be brought back into the fold in time for the general election.
I am tired of this. And I am betting that I am not the only one.
By signing this petition you can send a message to the Democratic Party: the black vote is not to be taken for granted. Neither is it to be bargain-rated.
Should this party and its candidates continue to treat us this way, your signature says you will revolt.
It is a new day in American politics. The Democrats are not the only show in town. And I do not hate a vote for McCain or an Independent candidate nearly as much as I hate being treated like the help at my own Party.
If you feel similarly please sign here and spread the word.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I know you are but what am I?
If I had said it once I have said it two trillion times – there is no such thing as the “black community”.
That is not to say that black Americans do not share a great many social and cultural markers. We do. However, in the world of politics it would be a mistake to think we all share the same left-leaning principalities. We run the gamut from small business owners deathly afraid of mandatory minimum wage increases to green citizens who wants our government to tackle the issues of global warming.
We are not a monolith.
Neither are we children.
In light of the Clinton’s latest guerilla political attacks I find it necessary to assert both of these simple truths.
The 90s were great for America in general and for black Americans in particular. President Bill Clinton became for many of the face of that relative prosperity. Then there is his obvious love of a round ass and soul food. Add all of that up and you get a community happy to, for once, have a president with whom they can identify. We even crowned him, with a wink and smile, our first “black” President.
It would seem Bill didn’t get the wink. Neither did he or Hillary get the notice about black Americans not being foolish children in need of chastising. That is the latest ploy of the Clinton camp as they run against a dynamic, talented, qualified challenger in Barack Obama, you know, the guy who could actually be America’s first black president.
First, Hillary made it clear that civil rights would be nothing without a benevolent white president. She says MLK was great and all but it was Lyndon B. Johnson who made the real difference. From there a shrieking Bill wagged his finger at us and told us not to fall for the slick talking Obama campaign. It would seem we should just trust him on this matter – Barack means us no good for Mr. Clinton certainly provided no logical reasons for why we should not elect him. It would seem his word should be enough?
Then they rolled out one of the wealthiest black Americans, Bob Johnson, to speak that “colored talk” to South Carolina voters. He was also, presumably, charged with painting the Illinois Senator with the crack dealing brush that made his company, BET, one of the financially successful coon shows ever created. Again, black Americans were expected not to ask questions, not to demand substantive proof of any of these claims. We are only to look to the great white hopes and their shiny lawn jockey for direction. “Rest your simple little minds” they seem to be saying to us.
“Screw you buddy” is my eloquent response.
Bob Johnson no more speaks for me than Michael Jordan speaks for the child laborers who make the shoes bearing his name. Even if our community was a monolith Bob Johnson would not be one of us. He left our community long ago, deciding to exploit our images for his own personal gain. Now, that is his right and privilege as an American. As an economics student I can appreciate his hustle. But as a black American I reserve the right to revoke his “black spokesperson” card. When BET Uncut hit the airwaves Bob Johnson ceased to be relevant, if he ever was.
Then there is Bill. While our community is not a block of nameless, faceless sameness we do have some similarities. One of which is the drunk uncle. You know him – Rufus, Leroy, Little Man. He used to be a star running back in high school. Maybe he joined the military and has some benefits thanks to the shrapnel still lodged in his skull. He use to be good looking, had a lot of potential. The ladies loved him, money followed him. He was stylish, the life of the party.
But time has not been kind to your drunk uncle. His mojo don’t pull like it use to. The liquor has left hanging jowls and bitter tirades in its wake. He’s still welcome at the cook-out but people pull the kids closer and hide their purses. He is almost always the last one to leave, reluctant to relinquish this, his last shot at an audience.
Mr. Clinton you are the drunk uncle and while we entertain you no one is much listening to what you have to say. We see you for what you are – an aging statesman who has, perhaps, found Viagra not to be the wonder drug it claims? You are overstaying your welcome and destroying the legacy you had a shot at building. You sound shrill and desperate and condescending. Black America needs your tirade on fairytales about as much as you need to believe in another one. Your chance at Camelot ended with a thick-thighed girl and a stained dress. The only decent thing to do would be to leave before we pack up the potato salad.
And then there is Hillary Clinton. You may be qualified for president. Indeed, I think you are. In another time you may have cake-walked your way into history. But your plans met up with destiny. While you may still win, you are going to have to earn it. You will also have to earn the “black vote”, if there is indeed such a thing. The way to do that does not include telling us how to think. Neither should it include refusing to respect Barack Obama as the worthy candidate he is.
You meet equals with bigger guns. You outwork them. You outhustle them. You out politic them. You disparage those you find beneath you.
It would seem you don’t think the senator worthy of your best fought campaign. That is unfortunate. Because one of those other things that seems to run through black communities is our capacity for forgiveness, our ability to see beyond the very race thinking we are so often accused of to see a person as an individual. You had that chance until you refused to extend to us the same courtesy.
We are not a monolith.
We are not children.
We are not bargaining tools.
We are not sheep to be shepharded at the whims of a benevolent leader.
We are Americans.
We are voters.
And I dare to speak for this “black community” of which so many are fond of imagining when I say we look forward to divesting you of all these misconceptions in the voting booth.
That is not to say that black Americans do not share a great many social and cultural markers. We do. However, in the world of politics it would be a mistake to think we all share the same left-leaning principalities. We run the gamut from small business owners deathly afraid of mandatory minimum wage increases to green citizens who wants our government to tackle the issues of global warming.
We are not a monolith.
Neither are we children.
In light of the Clinton’s latest guerilla political attacks I find it necessary to assert both of these simple truths.
The 90s were great for America in general and for black Americans in particular. President Bill Clinton became for many of the face of that relative prosperity. Then there is his obvious love of a round ass and soul food. Add all of that up and you get a community happy to, for once, have a president with whom they can identify. We even crowned him, with a wink and smile, our first “black” President.
It would seem Bill didn’t get the wink. Neither did he or Hillary get the notice about black Americans not being foolish children in need of chastising. That is the latest ploy of the Clinton camp as they run against a dynamic, talented, qualified challenger in Barack Obama, you know, the guy who could actually be America’s first black president.
First, Hillary made it clear that civil rights would be nothing without a benevolent white president. She says MLK was great and all but it was Lyndon B. Johnson who made the real difference. From there a shrieking Bill wagged his finger at us and told us not to fall for the slick talking Obama campaign. It would seem we should just trust him on this matter – Barack means us no good for Mr. Clinton certainly provided no logical reasons for why we should not elect him. It would seem his word should be enough?
Then they rolled out one of the wealthiest black Americans, Bob Johnson, to speak that “colored talk” to South Carolina voters. He was also, presumably, charged with painting the Illinois Senator with the crack dealing brush that made his company, BET, one of the financially successful coon shows ever created. Again, black Americans were expected not to ask questions, not to demand substantive proof of any of these claims. We are only to look to the great white hopes and their shiny lawn jockey for direction. “Rest your simple little minds” they seem to be saying to us.
“Screw you buddy” is my eloquent response.
Bob Johnson no more speaks for me than Michael Jordan speaks for the child laborers who make the shoes bearing his name. Even if our community was a monolith Bob Johnson would not be one of us. He left our community long ago, deciding to exploit our images for his own personal gain. Now, that is his right and privilege as an American. As an economics student I can appreciate his hustle. But as a black American I reserve the right to revoke his “black spokesperson” card. When BET Uncut hit the airwaves Bob Johnson ceased to be relevant, if he ever was.
Then there is Bill. While our community is not a block of nameless, faceless sameness we do have some similarities. One of which is the drunk uncle. You know him – Rufus, Leroy, Little Man. He used to be a star running back in high school. Maybe he joined the military and has some benefits thanks to the shrapnel still lodged in his skull. He use to be good looking, had a lot of potential. The ladies loved him, money followed him. He was stylish, the life of the party.
But time has not been kind to your drunk uncle. His mojo don’t pull like it use to. The liquor has left hanging jowls and bitter tirades in its wake. He’s still welcome at the cook-out but people pull the kids closer and hide their purses. He is almost always the last one to leave, reluctant to relinquish this, his last shot at an audience.
Mr. Clinton you are the drunk uncle and while we entertain you no one is much listening to what you have to say. We see you for what you are – an aging statesman who has, perhaps, found Viagra not to be the wonder drug it claims? You are overstaying your welcome and destroying the legacy you had a shot at building. You sound shrill and desperate and condescending. Black America needs your tirade on fairytales about as much as you need to believe in another one. Your chance at Camelot ended with a thick-thighed girl and a stained dress. The only decent thing to do would be to leave before we pack up the potato salad.
And then there is Hillary Clinton. You may be qualified for president. Indeed, I think you are. In another time you may have cake-walked your way into history. But your plans met up with destiny. While you may still win, you are going to have to earn it. You will also have to earn the “black vote”, if there is indeed such a thing. The way to do that does not include telling us how to think. Neither should it include refusing to respect Barack Obama as the worthy candidate he is.
You meet equals with bigger guns. You outwork them. You outhustle them. You out politic them. You disparage those you find beneath you.
It would seem you don’t think the senator worthy of your best fought campaign. That is unfortunate. Because one of those other things that seems to run through black communities is our capacity for forgiveness, our ability to see beyond the very race thinking we are so often accused of to see a person as an individual. You had that chance until you refused to extend to us the same courtesy.
We are not a monolith.
We are not children.
We are not bargaining tools.
We are not sheep to be shepharded at the whims of a benevolent leader.
We are Americans.
We are voters.
And I dare to speak for this “black community” of which so many are fond of imagining when I say we look forward to divesting you of all these misconceptions in the voting booth.
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