Back to the top

Barack Obama

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 3


Imani Perry raises some good points in a recent Afro-Netizen article:

I don’t believe the authenticity problem lies with African Americans. The authenticity problem lies with white Americans. The real question is: Why have White pundits, journalists and newscasters been so eager to comment on Obama’s being biracial and the son of an immigrant, rather than his history of civil rights activism or his long time involvement in African American social and political communities? Does it reveal a desire, among whites, that he not be authentically black (whatever that means), but somehow “different?”

The fixation on Obama as “different” appears to be an effort to exceptionalize him. He is seen as acceptable, in part, because he is considered to be unlike other African Americans, and in particular, African American men, who have been so widely commented upon as a “social problem” in the most prestigious news media in recent months. Joe Biden got in trouble for saying what many Americans are thinking, and that is a much bigger problem than a foot in the mouth.

While there is no particular tradition of African Americans being suspicious of immigrant political activists and leaders, there is a long tradition of African Americans being suspicious of Black leaders who seem to be eagerly touted by Whites as the “next best thing.” Why, we wonder, do people who seem to hold animosity for us as a group, make an exception for this individual?

Good question… Why is Obama being treated as if he is the second coming?

I’m still not drinking the Kool-Aid…

Click HERE to read all of Imani’s post

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 3


Imani Perry raises some good points in a recent Afro-Netizen article:

I don’t believe the authenticity problem lies with African Americans. The authenticity problem lies with white Americans. The real question is: Why have White pundits, journalists and newscasters been so eager to comment on Obama’s being biracial and the son of an immigrant, rather than his history of civil rights activism or his long time involvement in African American social and political communities? Does it reveal a desire, among whites, that he not be authentically black (whatever that means), but somehow “different?”

The fixation on Obama as “different” appears to be an effort to exceptionalize him. He is seen as acceptable, in part, because he is considered to be unlike other African Americans, and in particular, African American men, who have been so widely commented upon as a “social problem” in the most prestigious news media in recent months. Joe Biden got in trouble for saying what many Americans are thinking, and that is a much bigger problem than a foot in the mouth.

While there is no particular tradition of African Americans being suspicious of immigrant political activists and leaders, there is a long tradition of African Americans being suspicious of Black leaders who seem to be eagerly touted by Whites as the “next best thing.” Why, we wonder, do people who seem to hold animosity for us as a group, make an exception for this individual?

Good question… Why is Obama being treated as if he is the second coming?

I’m still not drinking the Kool-Aid…

Click HERE to read all of Imani’s post

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 2

The cards are on the table.

Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential candidacy is going to be about race. I’m sure he doesn’t want it that way, but that is how it’s going to play out.

Already his ethnicity is being attacked from all sides. I’ve blogged previously about Black folks like Debra Dickerson of Salon.com who say Obama isn’t Black.

Now the darling of race-baiting conservatives, Rush Limbaugh, encourages the biracial Obama to renounce his Blackness and declare that he is white. Continue reading

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 1

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

Let me start by saying that I am not sipping the Barack Obama Kool-Aid. I agree with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report who calls the junior Senator from Illinois “…an imperialist at heart who offers George Bush at least another year or two to wage war in Iraq, while warning Iraqis that they can expect no more American ‘coddling’”.

But when people like Debra Dickerson say “Obama isn’t Black”, it just confuses the issue.

According to Dickerson’s Jan. 22 article on Salon.com:

“Black,” in our political and social reality, means those descended from West African slaves. Voluntary immigrants of African descent (even those descended from West Indian slaves) are just that, voluntary immigrants of African descent with markedly different outlooks on the role of race in their lives and in politics. At a minimum, it can’t be assumed that a Nigerian cabdriver and a third-generation Harlemite have more in common than the fact a cop won’t bother to make the distinction. They’re both “black” as a matter of skin color and DNA, but only the Harlemite, for better or worse, is politically and culturally Black, as we use the term.

Hogwash. Continue reading

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 2

The cards are on the table.

Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential candidacy is going to be about race. I’m sure he doesn’t want it that way, but that is how it’s going to play out.

Already his ethnicity is being attacked from all sides. I’ve blogged previously about Black folks like Debra Dickerson of Salon.com who say Obama isn’t Black.

Now the darling of race-baiting conservatives, Rush Limbaugh, encourages the biracial Obama to renounce his Blackness and declare that he is white. Continue reading

Obama Isn’t Black?? Part 1

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

Let me start by saying that I am not sipping the Barack Obama Kool-Aid. I agree with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report who calls the junior Senator from Illinois “…an imperialist at heart who offers George Bush at least another year or two to wage war in Iraq, while warning Iraqis that they can expect no more American ‘coddling’”.

But when people like Debra Dickerson say “Obama isn’t Black”, it just confuses the issue.

According to Dickerson’s Jan. 22 article on Salon.com:

“Black,” in our political and social reality, means those descended from West African slaves. Voluntary immigrants of African descent (even those descended from West Indian slaves) are just that, voluntary immigrants of African descent with markedly different outlooks on the role of race in their lives and in politics. At a minimum, it can’t be assumed that a Nigerian cabdriver and a third-generation Harlemite have more in common than the fact a cop won’t bother to make the distinction. They’re both “black” as a matter of skin color and DNA, but only the Harlemite, for better or worse, is politically and culturally Black, as we use the term.

Hogwash. Continue reading

Our Nation Has Six Senators, The Military Industrial Media Complex Has 93

My edit of David Swanson’s post at AfterDowningStreet.org (linked here and above):

On our side: Feingold, Harkin, Boxer, Kennedy, Kerry, and Byrd.

On their side: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow and the other 89.

“Congress plunged into divisive election-year debate on the Iraq war Thursday as the U.S. military death toll reached 2,500. The Senate soundly rejected a call to withdraw combat troops by year’s end, and House Republicans laid the groundwork for their own vote. In a move Democrats criticized as gamesmanship, Senate Republicans brought up the withdrawal measure and quickly dispatched it – for now – on a 93-6 vote.” Continue reading

Our Nation Has Six Senators, The Military Industrial Media Complex Has 93

My edit of David Swanson’s post at AfterDowningStreet.org (linked here and above):

On our side: Feingold, Harkin, Boxer, Kennedy, Kerry, and Byrd.

On their side: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow and the other 89.

“Congress plunged into divisive election-year debate on the Iraq war Thursday as the U.S. military death toll reached 2,500. The Senate soundly rejected a call to withdraw combat troops by year’s end, and House Republicans laid the groundwork for their own vote. In a move Democrats criticized as gamesmanship, Senate Republicans brought up the withdrawal measure and quickly dispatched it – for now – on a 93-6 vote.” Continue reading

© Nadir Omowale