Posted on 07/06/2004 12:27:37 PM PDT by mrustow
Please don't say that -- I'm stuck here. :-(
LOL, he's Half-rican-American.
LOL.
That's very interesting. Do you have any links, or any more focused recollections? You're the first person I've heard say that. From what I've read, his "spiritual" yearnings always hgave a political payoff. Chicago ... Islam ... NOI ... black racist vote?
This is new. I never heard this rule for 'african-american' before.
It doesn't sound like a rule for African American to me; it sounds like a rule of biology, honesty, and decency. My son is biracial, and if you referred to him as if he weren't half white (i.e., as if I weren't his father), I'd knock you on your a$$.
You may be correct on that. Too many Democrats live in big cities. Republicans are a minority now. They live out in the rural areas.
This is one of the most widely distributed untruths about Obama. Say what you will about his politics, but the man is a Christian, heavily involved in his church. I'm not going to vote for him, but I'm not going to spread false rumors about him either.
He is a devout supporter of unlimited abortion rights. He denies the existence of hell. He emphasizes a notion of "separation of church and state" hostile to fundamentalists, while violating that very distinction in politicking in black churchess. His spiritual beliefs are indistinguishable from those of the left wing of the Democrat Party.
Now, I'm no Christian, but I actually studied Christianity some, and spent years hanging out with religious Christians, and there's no connection between the Christianity I learned about from them, and Obama's Christianity. But like I said, I'm no Christian, and so maybe Christianity really does teach the sanctity of Roe v. Wade and the denial of Hell...
not!
Suppose a college were to set up a program which reduced admissions and graduation requirements for blue-eyed-blond women, and these reduced requirements were well-publicized. What do you think the response would be?
Outrage. The media offensive to end all media offensives. Demonstrations. Riots.
Peter Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, the RINO party absolutely despises him. Given a choice between Fizgerald and Obama, the RINO machine would back Obama.
I'm afraid you're right. Although he would likely lose, if Fitzgerald were to run, it would be a nice thumb in the eye to the state party leadership that so loathes him. He would be running against both the Party and Obama. The dramatic implications would be incredible.
Outrage. The media offensive to end all media offensives. Demonstrations. Riots.
What would be the complaint? That it's unfair to Blacks to offer such treatment to anyone else, or what? Certainly I don't think they'd want to express outrage in any manner that might hint that the program would perpetuate "dumb blond" perceptions.
But I don't think 'half white' and 'african-american' are mutually exclusive.
mrustow: Outrage. The media offensive to end all media offensives. Demonstrations. Riots.
supercat: What would be the complaint? That it's unfair to Blacks to offer such treatment to anyone else, or what? Certainly I don't think they'd want to express outrage in any manner that might hint that the program would perpetuate "dumb blond" perceptions.
mrustow: Your mistake is in assuming that blacks would approach the matter the way whites do. When whites protest anything to do with race or ethnicity, they worry themselves to death about whether they might be perceived to be spreading bigoted perceptions, and then protest in such a muffled, defensive, apologetic, self-castrating manner, as to abort their own opposition.
Blacks, on the other hand, take the offensive, and do not for one moment worry about whether they could be perceived as spreading bigoted perceptions. They know that as blacks, by definition, they cannot be guilty of racism. If white folks see things otherwise, that's just their "perception." But if blacks see racism, that's their PERCEPTION. (In case you think I'm making this up or exaggerating, I had a black female boss in the late 1980s, who used the same word -- "perception" to mean opposite things, depending on the race of the user. And the "cannot by definition be racist" stuff has been written to death since the 1980s.)
I've never met a black who saw any contradiction in the notion that the 14th Amendment justified preferential treatment for blacks.
All the blacks I've known in New York saw them as mutually exclusive.
That's something my father would say, and he'd actually do it too. Anyway, Barack Obama knows where the money is and right now it's in race hustling (no one can beat Jesse Jackson for that though). Aside from that, his platform on issues is disgusting but because of the mess that is the republican party he'll be elected.
I'll concede your point about the Islam connection for the time being (I think it was the NOI) - as I've lost the link to the article mentioning it. As for the idea of such a person being a "committed Christian" - such a definition applies only if you consider one who advocates the violation of every significant moral teaching of Christianity for two millenia to be a committed Christian. Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy are all likewise "committed Christians" by such a standard.
He can call himself whatever he wants, but Obama's real religion if the same as that of Lenin and Stalin. He's just not as honest about it as they were.
LOL.
Anyway, Barack Obama knows where the money is and right now it's in race hustling (no one can beat Jesse Jackson for that though). Aside from that, his platform on issues is disgusting but because of the mess that is the republican party he'll be elected.
I hear phrases like "the combine" bandied about, in terms of a graft machine, but I don't know how much graft they can steal, if no Republicans get elected to office.
I'm afraid you're absolutely right about this. I had a debate today with a woman who claimed to be a black conservative. She cited has one of the reasons for the multitude of ills in today's black community was the fact that the collective pain and anguish of the black community over slavery had not been acknowledged by suitable therapeutic solutions. One of the most important solutions, according to her, is the establishment of racial preferences in affirmative action. She was absolutely un self-conscious as she advocated unconstitutional and illegal discrimination against whites and Asians.
I am a black man and counter this attitude over and over and over and over again amongst black people that I speak to about this subject. The sort of racial identity politics that the race industry merchants and multicultural white liberals have nurtured has borne bitter fruit almost much of today's middle-class black population. We have a lot of work to do to bring much of the black community back to a principled understanding of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
There is another pernicious aspect to this situation that has just occurred to me. Almost every press description of Obama endlessly reminds us of his credentials. They are those of a Harvard law graduate, editor of the law review there, constitutional scholar, Illinois State senator, ad nauseam, along with the fact that he is attractive, articulate, and charismatic. Even I am forced to admit that he is qualified, particularly if you're looking for a senator for the Politburo.
Deference to the ambitions of minorities is almost a de riguer nostrum to counter the past evils of discrimination and exclusion, particularly when the person in question is "qualified". I fear that a desire to compensate for the wrongs of the past will blind many voters in Illinois to Obama's advocacy of positions that they would find unacceptable if advanced by a white candidate. I think that we are being conditioned by the politically correct press to vote for this man as a panacea for past elective biases. We might want to point out to those so inclined that that is also a form of racism.
Another interesting fact is that Obama is the product of an interracial marriage between a black Kenyan and a white American woman. Obama Sr. left the family early on and he was raised by his white mother. I realize the perculiarly insidious nature of the racial construct and the racial politics of this country would cause most to identify Obama as black, but one would think that since at least half of the genetic material that makes him what he is comes from a Caucasian woman, that he would counter this to some extent by paying homage to the mother that apparently did such a successful job of raising him and stress the bi-racial nature of his personal history when others posit him as an "African-American". But then that might not make him as eligible for the exalted mantle of the first black elected male senator of the Democratic Party, increase the danger of alienating some segments of the black vote, and the enable him as the beneficiary of politically correct bonus points.
I am a black man and counter this attitude over and over and over and over again amongst black people that I speak to about this subject. The sort of racial identity politics that the race industry merchants and multicultural white liberals have nurtured has borne bitter fruit almost much of today's middle-class black population. We have a lot of work to do to bring much of the black community back to a principled understanding of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
Thanks. I figured, this man must have some thick skin. Then I looked up your profile, and got the proof. Thanks for your service, both here and in country.
People must say all kinds of sweet nothings to you, since even white socialists who are usually scared to death of offending blacks, have been "granted permission" at least since the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, to insult black conservatives. (I can remember the specific act, when NAACP chief Ben Hooks publicly gave whites permission to viciously insult Thomas.)
I wish I could say that that "black conservative" woman didn't exist, but I know that her type does. Based on its positions on affirmative action and immigration, I despise the GOP as much as I do the Socialists, I mean, Dems. Cowards, utter cowards. Instead of standing on principle, and eliminating the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Department of Education, the EEO, etc. (like they said they would, when they were out of power), they brag, 'And now we have our blacks in there, instead of their blacks.'
An incredible dichotomy obtains between older and younger black conservatives. For my money, Thomas Sowell is the greatest living social scientist in the English language (world?). And I used to consider Walter Williams the most brilliant columnist. (I still think he's brilliant, but these days I consider Mark Steyn God's gift to the English language). (Clarence Thomas is in-between, age-wise, but his position as justice inhibits him from writing the sort of books I believe he has in him.)
Then you look at the younger generation, and what do you see? Glenn Loury was supposedly a conservative, but he got lonely, and jumped at the chance to join the popular kids' clique. I was briefly impressed by Deroy Murdock, who is very intelligent about economics, but then I read something he wrote that was essentially PR for Rudy Giuliani's crime-fighting strategy (which was less a crime-fighting than itself a PR strategy). Larry Elder is a very bright man (though I guess he's not so young anymore), and there are other bright writers, like LaShawn Barber, but to paraphrase Samuel Clemens, the difference betweeen them and the likes of Sowell and Williams is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Perhaps the most telling example regarding the dearth of young black conservatives is the case of the young linguist, John McWhorter, who is touted by some -- most notably the Manhattan Institute, as a conservative. McWhorter is brilliant, but I don't he's a conservative (as opposed to a moderate Democrat), and as far as I know, he hasn't even claimed to be a conservative. But bright young black conservatives are so rare, that conservative organizations will sponsor moderate black thinkers, and I suspect, try to gently nudge them to the right. And considering the violent shoves any black intellectual who consorts with conservatives will get from pc blacks and the left, showing any receptivity to conservative groups could result in a black intellectual landing "right."
Every now and then, I'll read or re-read something by my journalistic hero, George S. Schuyler, and wonder what happened to America, that there can be thousands of black mediacrities, but no one who comes close to Schuyler.
Larry Elder is a very bright man (though I guess he's not so young anymore),
*** WABC used to broadcast his show but cancelled it. He wrote a good book called Ten Things You Can't Say in America.
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