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Why White People Like Barack Obama
The New Republic ^ | January 30, 2007 | Peter Beinart

Posted on 01/30/2007 11:08:14 AM PST by presidio9

In 1994, two sociologists went to Red Hook, Brooklyn, to solve a mystery. Red Hook abutted the East River, and along the waterfront sat shipping companies and warehouses — all in need of low-skilled labor. Next door sat a housing project teeming with exactly that. But the locals — primarily African Americans — didn't get hired. Instead, the jobs went to workers from outside the neighborhood, often Caribbean immigrants. Employers, wrote The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell in summarizing the sociologists' findings, "had developed an elaborate mechanism for distinguishing between those who they felt were 'good' blacks and those they felt were 'bad' blacks." Were the employers racist? Yes and no. They clearly held anti-black stereotypes. And they discriminated against those who conformed to them, even by association. But they discriminated in favor of blacks who defied those stereotypes. A man named Bruce Llewellyn described the phenomenon this way: "White people love to believe they're fair."

As it happens, Llewellyn wasn't talking about Red Hook. He was talking about his cousin, Colin Powell — whose prospective presidential bid enjoyed mass white support roughly a decade ago. Like the employers in Red Hook, whites discriminated in Powell's

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barak; barakhussein; barakhusseinobama; barakhusseinosama; election2008; electionpresident; hussein; obama; obamaosama; obamaramadingdong; obamasama; osamabama; osamaobama; polygamistsbastard; racism; rats
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1 posted on 01/30/2007 11:08:19 AM PST by presidio9
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To: presidio9

Because he makes Bryant Gumble look like Malcolm X?

No, that's why white people like Wayne Brady, sorry.


2 posted on 01/30/2007 11:09:35 AM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: presidio9

Ah another Obama isn't black article.


3 posted on 01/30/2007 11:10:20 AM PST by NeoCaveman (out, out, damn rats)
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To: presidio9
"Why White People Like Barack Obama"

Speak for yourself nimrod.

4 posted on 01/30/2007 11:10:58 AM PST by Enterprise (Drop pork bombs on the Islamofascist wankers. Praise the Lord and pass the hammunition.)
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To: presidio9

guilt.


5 posted on 01/30/2007 11:11:14 AM PST by PDR
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To: presidio9

What is about the Albino population that finds Obama so intriuging?


6 posted on 01/30/2007 11:11:47 AM PST by Young Werther
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To: presidio9
I forgot to check with the rest of the white conspiracy I guess. I think he's unqualified, opportunistic, and has far too many formative years spent under islamic guidance to be put in charge of a gas station much less my country.
7 posted on 01/30/2007 11:12:53 AM PST by kinoxi
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To: presidio9

I'm white, and I don't like Obama...


8 posted on 01/30/2007 11:14:47 AM PST by deathrace2000 (...time for you to leave, Grasshopper.)
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To: presidio9
"Why White People like Barack Obama"

Because this particular group of white people only consider race in everything.. and not a person's qualifications...

9 posted on 01/30/2007 11:16:24 AM PST by erikm88
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To: presidio9
I haven't finished reading the article, but I have friends from Trinidad, whose sons were the most popular boys in the high school, when they first arrived here with their Caribbean accents.

The difference is that the foreign Blacks don't have the inner city attitude and they don't speak Ebonics. Their accent is smooth and pleasant to the ear. People perceive them to be nonthreatening and a little bit exotic.
10 posted on 01/30/2007 11:17:12 AM PST by Eva
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To: presidio9

Guilty white libs are scared by black guys like Jesse, but cocoa colored mixed race still lets them pull for the "minority". Kinda like the hollywood crowd swooning over Halle Berry's oscar.


11 posted on 01/30/2007 11:19:00 AM PST by pissant
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To: presidio9

Hillary doesn't like Obama and she's white...


12 posted on 01/30/2007 11:20:07 AM PST by deathrace2000 (...time for you to leave, Grasshopper.)
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To: presidio9

"Why White People Like Barack Obama"

Because he doesn't wear a ball cap backwards and refer to women as 'ho's'?

I have a theory that black sitcoms on TV do well because white liberals are so guilt ridden that they're attracted to any image of black people that doesn't scare them. It's what happens when all of your perceptions are centered on stereotypes.


13 posted on 01/30/2007 11:20:23 AM PST by Spok
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To: PDR

"guilt"

BINGO !


14 posted on 01/30/2007 11:23:16 AM PST by Veeram (why the does the left HATE America ?)
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: presidio9

Don "No Soul" Simmons
16 posted on 01/30/2007 11:26:47 AM PST by Alex Murphy
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To: Enterprise

I'll second and third that.


17 posted on 01/30/2007 11:29:31 AM PST by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: kinoxi
I think he's unqualified, opportunistic, and has far too many formative years spent under islamic guidance to be put in charge of a gas station much less my country.

LOL! Well said. Let me add that the white media knows next to nothing about 'real' blacks in this country. They go to Sharpton and Jackson and call them leaders when they lead only a very small percentage of nonproducers.

Your regular working black person, whether a conservative like myself or a dim, do not consider Obama to be one of them. He may have some pull with Illinois blacks, but I do not think it will transfer nationwide.

18 posted on 01/30/2007 11:29:53 AM PST by radiohead (They call me DOCTOR radiohead.)
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To: deathrace2000

you're just jealous you can't dance like him.


19 posted on 01/30/2007 11:31:59 AM PST by Rakkasan1 ((Illegal immigrants are just undocumented friends you haven't met yet!))
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To: presidio9

Obama's biggest fans are white people who go to Spike Lee movies.


20 posted on 01/30/2007 11:33:10 AM PST by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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