Wednesday, November 5, 2008

YES HE CAN


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Children who will not think it strange to have a black man or someday woman as President....
... Yes we will

Markie

Papa Giorgio said...

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I just wonder if many have chosen black over racism? Because Obama went to a church that had a "Bizarro World" Mein Kampf in its books store. Could you imagine a Republican going to a church for twenty years that touted on national television (Hannity & Colmes) and sold sold in its "hallowed halls" Mein Kampf?

I think its great on my end... I never want to hear from this site or its guests about racism... that card is gone forever.

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Anonymous said...

Ah, but there's still the gender card!

Meanwhile, for a bit of post-election fun which I'm guessing those of you on the right might particularly enjoy: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive?utm_source=embedded_video

Kim said...

Does his victory mean that America is now officially beyond racism? Does it finally complete the work of the civil rights movement so that racism is at last dismissible as an explanation of black difficulty? Will the Obama victory dispel the twin stigmas that have tormented black and white Americans for so long -- that blacks are inherently inferior and whites inherently racist? Doesn't a black in the Oval Office put the lie to both black inferiority and white racism?

Answering no to such questions is like saying no to any idealism; it seems callow. How could a decent person not hope for all these possibilities, or not give America credit for electing its first black president?

Obama's special charisma -- since his famous 2004 convention speech -- always came much more from the racial idealism he embodied than from his political ideas. In fact, this was his only true political originality.

This worked politically for Obama because it tapped into a deep longing in American life -- the longing on the part of whites to escape the stigma of racism. In running for the presidency -- and presenting himself to a majority white nation -- Obama knew intuitively that he was dealing with a stigmatized people. He knew whites were stigmatized as being prejudiced, and that they hated this situation and literally longed for ways to disprove the stigma.

Is racism dead in America? Definately not.

Like most Americans, I would love to see an Obama presidency nudge things in this direction. But the larger reality is the profound disparity between black and white Americans that will persist even under the glow of an Obama presidency. The black illegitimacy rate remains at 70%. Blacks did worse on the SAT in 2000 than in 1990. Fifty-five percent of all federal prisoners are black, though we are only 13% of the population. The academic achievement gap between blacks and whites persists even for the black middle class.

All this disparity will continue to accuse blacks of inferiority and whites of racism -- thus refueling our racial politics -- despite the level of pigment in the president's skin.

And, if racism has at least been dealt a blow, if not a death blow, there is always our nations strange fear of homosexuals. Our odd "look down our nose" at the freaks condemnation for their sinful, albeit least harmful of all out of mainstream proclivities.

Witness proposition 8, which passed, and thus made same sex marriage illegal again, and thus throwing hundreds of legal marraiges into the judicial quaqmire.

Although admittedly not comparing apples to oranges, one must draw some sort of comparison between the majority voters hatred for marraige partners being of the same sex, to marraige between partners of a different race.

Bigotry is bigotry. And trying to merge the constitution and the Bible is expressly not the wishes of the framers at all.

This is what consumes my voting thoughts and decisions; knowing what the Bible states as sinful, to our rights to demand that all American citizens conform to religious standards they do not subscribe to.

There must be a separation between the pulpits, and judicial benches.

Greetings from the far, tolerant left. Kimba

Anonymous said...

It is certainly possible that the race issue in this country will not only continue, but perhaps even intensify, at least for a while. I've already heard a few people say, "Okay, Obama won, but if he had darker skin and didn't come from a partially white family, things would have been different," and these people may very well be correct. To complicate matters, I don't remember where I heard this quote, but I recently heard someone say something along the lines of, "When people hate you, it's easy to know who you are - you're the one everyone hates. When they no longer hate you, you have to figure out for yourself who you are, and that's the challenge." I'm not saying the hatred is over - far from it, but now that Obama has achieved something so remarkable, there may very well be something of a new identity crisis, not only within the African American community, but, as you point out, among stigmatized whites as well. Fortunately, we now have the best and most charismatic role model since Dr. King to help work it all out - hopefully. Mr. Obama literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders right now, he has so much to live up to, and he will surely be scrutinized and judged more intently than any of his predecessors. It's going to be an interesting four years.

Anonymous said...

Interesting thread of comments, thanks Kimba

Papa Giorgio said...

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I think when you hire a racist for President, it is a net minus for the black community verses someone who looks at race in a more healthy-well-balanced means, like a MIchael Steele for instance... that would have been a net benefit for the black community:

The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. (Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf)

The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien gods. (Book from Obama’s Church’s bookstore) A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone, p.62

White religionists are not capable of perceiving the blackness of God, because their satanic whiteness is a denial of the very essence of divinity. That is why whites are finding and will continue to find the black experience a disturbing reality. (Book from Obama’s Church’s bookstore) A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone, p.64

I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord. (Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf)

There is no place in black theology for a colorless God in a society where human beings suffer precisely because of their color. The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. (Book from Obama’s Church’s bookstore) A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone, p.63

Christianity is not alien to Black Power, Christianity is Black Power. (Book from Obama’s Church’s bookstore) Black Theology & Black Power, James Cone, p.38

In contrast to this racist view of God, black theology proclaims God's blackness. Those who want to know who God is and what God is doing must know who black persons are and what they are doing. (Book from Obama’s Church’s bookstore) A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone, p.65

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Kim said...

Great, Papa. Adolf Hitler and James Cone. (By the way, Obama barely knows either of them, they just live "in the neighborhood")

You have certainly started to ramp up the Obama the racist rhetoric, and I am curious exactly how you think this hatred will rear its ugly head?

I did appreciate how Obama has softened up his time line, and admitted it may take longer than his first term to acheive success. Typical, now that the candidate has the job, we finally start to see brief glimmers of the real man.

As for Jennifer's comments are concerned, I absolutely agree (she usually is the smartest one in the room). He has,if not the full weight of the world, at least the weight of the black community to prove to the world he is up for the task.

Same would go for Hillary if she were sworn in. If she faltered, the world might see this as the inability for any woman to fulfill the role.

Papa Giorgio said...

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I hope you don't miss the point Kimba. If a Republican had gone to a church for twenty years and had within feet of where he "worshiped" Mein Kampf... I think you would be singing as different tune. I would most likely be backing you as well. I have been stabbed fighting Nazi skinheads and abhor any form of racism... especially the kind protected by the Liberal media. I know it doesn't matter to the electorate (though, they have not watched my video), and I know you find it hard to see where the racist tendencies will pop up. It all goes to a distorted worldview where it is us against them (black vs. white), which will run its course on the structure of government (which Cones has a lot to sat about).

Cones himself expresses Marxism in a literal way in his Black Liberation writings. Communism and capitalism do not mix, throw in a man-size helping of theological racism and a view of God as colored and radical... and you have a volatile mix of tyranny down the road.

Who would have thought the ideology and socialism of Hitler in the 1920's would ever be capable of rearing its ugly head. But with people of like mind that are more prone to violence (the only people I see needing body guards and are shouted down like the socialists of pre-war Germany did are conservatives when they speak on campus).

I am even soon to take off my "Google Reverend Wright" sticker and put the "I didn't vote for him but he is my President" sticker on in contradistinction to the wacky Left's "He isn't my President, I didn't vote for him" sticker. My critique is not of Obama any longer but of the electorate (on this issue). How could you put a 1924 "Hitler" into office when even in his own writings (not to mention those he has admitted to reading) are very anti-capitalism and anti-white. Just as Green is the new Red, so to is White the new Jew. At least according to your guy.

A rant from the ex-S.H.A.R.P./current fundamentalist right,

PapaG

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Anonymous said...

It's interesting to hear Obama compared to Hitler, because here in Miami, he is being likened to Castro. I'd venture to say that many in the Cuban-American community (even those who are Democrats) did not vote for Obama because his "change and new hope" rhetoric sounded just a little too oddly familiar (shades of 1959). Fascist, communist, or somewhere in between - we'll soon be seeing, as Kimba puts it, more and more "glimmers of the true man." Until then, considering the diversity of opinions (and fears) about our President-Elect, giving him the benefit of the doubt is probably the best way to go for now. My Cuban husband did, when he voted for Obama in spite of the deja vu.