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He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?
The Washington Post ^ | November 9, 2008 | Jonetta Rose Barras

Posted on 11/09/2008 11:49:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

African Americans have just entered the no-excuses zone.

We finally have one of our own in the White House. With Barack Obama's ascension to the highest office in the United States, most African Americans feel that we have arrived as fully equal citizens. But we need to recognize that with Obama's victory come challenges -- and that many of those challenges will be put to the black community itself.

Obama isn't like the leaders who have traditionally spoken for black America. As president, he's unlikely to embrace the confrontational identity politics that have defined black activism for so long. He won't tolerate an African American brand of racism or a culture of violence. Nor is he likely to be patient with the long-standing narrative of victimhood that has defined black America to itself and to the mainstream for more than a century.

Obama is already constructing a new black political and cultural narrative -- gathering together the best of the past, including the coalition politics that characterized the early civil rights movement and an image of strong black males that doesn't involve bling-bling or hip-hop misogyny. He has decried the low-hanging pants fashion so popular with young black men, blasted rapper Ludacris for offensive song lyrics and called on fathers to take responsibility for their families.

Are African Americans ready to accept all this and respond positively? Are they ready for a truly post-racial America?

The answer isn't clear. Just a few days after Obama's stunning win, black America is already divided over what his election means, arguing about what it should expect from a "black president" -- and about whether his first obligation is to black America or to all America.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; barackobama; bho2008; blackliberation; blackpresident; blacks; blackvote; democrat; democrats; economy; election; elections; obama; presidentelectobama; racebaiting; racecard; racialdivide
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?

Well, I imagine he's going to make the *feel good*...other than that nothing will change for them. Who's the Uncle Tom now?
21 posted on 11/10/2008 12:24:22 AM PST by Khepri (NEO-STALIN FASCIST DEFEATS NEO-LIBERAL MAOIST!! How's that working for yah?)
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To: ChicagahAl

Yes, but a snobbish idiot.

“And that’s the point. If African Americans want to be taken seriously, they have to get with the program.”


22 posted on 11/10/2008 12:24:33 AM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Def Conservative
And if Barack is planning to have more than 1 term, he won't waste too much political capital buying votes he already owns. He could do nothing for the black community and they will still vote for him again in 4 years.

Of course, with the adoring media coverage, he may just get drunk on his own Kool-Aid and forget he's only got 4 years to learn how to not run this country into the ground.

23 posted on 11/10/2008 12:24:35 AM PST by eggman (Obama's Spread the Wealth will work just as well as Spread the Liabilities (sub-prime mortgages))
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To: rdb3

Amazing AND sad!


24 posted on 11/10/2008 12:28:53 AM PST by Def Conservative (Palin, Jindal, Pence, Sanford, Steele= the new GOP...out with the old)
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To: rdb3

Amazing AND sad!


25 posted on 11/10/2008 12:30:52 AM PST by Def Conservative (Palin, Jindal, Pence, Sanford, Steele= the new GOP...out with the old)
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To: eggman

Its amazing to me what Obama being elected has done thus far to black Americans. Several of my black friends who are conservatives have lost site of their values and their emotions have taken over in full support of Obama. Kinda makes me wonder how these same people would have reacted if Mccain would have beaten the black guy?


26 posted on 11/10/2008 12:31:49 AM PST by Edizzl79
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To: Def Conservative

Careful there, some RINOs out there actualy care about the focus on race and blackness. You see, it helps them project their own racism and “pigment interfered” little lives to the rest of the Christian base. Meanwhile, sadly, black America is taking the bait and let the color inerfere with them even more as a result.

Politicians and the government are corrupt, evil and racist insecure idiots. Even Bush and the Governator are now scared enough to praise the One hypocriticaly in public. I’d like to see them hand over their whole assets in reparations. They’re the ones who should pay.

Many true debts are still in the shadows and unpaid in America, but comes Revelation, PayBack’s gona be a b!tch for all the traitors and their “favored One” who continues to thrive on the backs of poor relatives they abandon in self-hate.


27 posted on 11/10/2008 12:36:14 AM PST by JudgemAll (control freaks, their world & their problem with my gun and my protecting my private party)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Are African Americans ready to accept all this and respond positively?

Not according to the you tube videos showing the tribal behaviors on display in Phili, Chicago, and other Black Theology havens.

28 posted on 11/10/2008 12:48:38 AM PST by WesternPacific (I am tired of voting for the lesser of two evils!)
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To: Def Conservative
You can't possibility be black with that attitude. You are guilty of 'off the plantation' thinking.

/s

The future may be in better hands than we know.


George Bush Republican Center - Tallahassee, FL
29 posted on 11/10/2008 1:33:34 AM PST by Islander7 (This Atlas is shrugging! ~ I am Joe!)
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To: roses of sharon; shibumi

They are too blind to notice that they’ve just elected an extremely ANGRY half white Chicago Marxist lawyer to the highest position in the world.

The guy admits he ‘had problems’ with his ‘white half’ and sought out ‘real blacks’ to feel better about himself.

He is so focused on pandering to “his people”, he just barely stops short of wearing a badge that says “I’m black! Really!”.

There is -serious- neurotic repression working here and I worry that he’s going take his ‘black self-loathing’ out on his oblivious supporters.

When he finally goes “Colonel Kurtz” [and he will] he’s not going to be checking the pigmentation ratio of those he destroys.

The best his black supporters can hope for is that they’ll be eaten last.


30 posted on 11/10/2008 2:02:42 AM PST by Salamander (Welcome to Obamageddon! The best apocalypse foreign money can buy!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Living very near the most racially divided city in the world ,District of Columbia, I urge black folks to stop whining and start build families that are stable, affirm the value of education in your communities and try to find positive cultural influences that don’t have to fit comfortably on BET and lastly teach your children to respect others. There’s a start. Sheesh I forgot to run this by Colby King, must be a racist!


31 posted on 11/10/2008 2:09:34 AM PST by lmc12
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Living very near the most racially divided city in the world ,District of Columbia, I urge black folks to stop whining and start build families that are stable, affirm the value of education in your communities and try to find positive cultural influences that don’t have to fit comfortably on BET and lastly teach your children to respect others. There’s a start. Sheesh I forgot to run this by Colby King, must be a racist!


32 posted on 11/10/2008 2:10:32 AM PST by lmc12
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To: Salamander

Nobody seems to be noticing that he is also the 44th White President and the very first Arab President (who happens to have a Black grandmother on his father’s side.)

As far as the Chicago thing goes, everybody in Chicago is angry these days. Highest taxes in the nation, dontcha know? (Don’t worry, there’s plenty of THAT to spread around too.)


33 posted on 11/10/2008 2:11:05 AM PST by shibumi (...vampire outlaw of the milky way...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All
Not a thing- the whining, excuse-making, acting out-- will continue... "The Man" is still "holdin' 'em back..."
34 posted on 11/10/2008 2:25:20 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Are African Americans ready to accept all this and respond positively? Are they ready for a truly post-racial America?

Nope

35 posted on 11/10/2008 2:31:40 AM PST by USMCWife6869
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To: shibumi

36 posted on 11/10/2008 3:05:34 AM PST by Salamander (Welcome to Obamageddon! The best apocalypse foreign money can buy!)
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To: Def Conservative
And yes, i’m certfied black enough to say this...

Bo?

37 posted on 11/10/2008 3:06:39 AM PST by Theophilus (Abortion: #1 National Security Issue, #1 Economic Issue, #1 Moral Issue)
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To: shibumi
Nobody seems to be noticing that he is also the 44th White President and the very first Arab President (who happens to have a Black grandmother on his father’s side.)

ARAB??????

Let's see.... The "baby daddy, he be from Kenya.... and the "baby momma", she were from Kansas.

Which Arab State be Kansas?

38 posted on 11/10/2008 3:15:35 AM PST by PalmettoMason (OK,we tried it your way. Now don't you EVER ask me to vote for another RINO again!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

http://dcist.com/attachments/dcist_sommer/Barras.JPG

WAMU Fires Jonetta Rose Barras

Public radio station WAMU today fired political analyst Jonetta Rose Barras, co-host of the station’s popular Friday “Politics Hour” with Kojo Nnamdi, in what appears to be a dispute over pay.

Barras, a longtime fixture in local media, says she was sacked for seeking to be paid as a full-time employee for her work on the Friday program. “I refused to be an abused worker and not be paid for my worth,” Barras says. “I feel I’ve been discriminated against both because I’m a woman and because I’m black.”

“People think I am a difficult worker,” she says. “I’m not, but I do require certain professional courtesies. This is the first time when I have left a job that I felt there was no good reason.”

Barras formerly worked at the Washington City Paper and the Washington Times; she has written occasional opinion pieces for The Washington Post and is the author of books on fatherless black women and on Marion Barry, “The Last of the Black Emperors.”

http://tinyurl.com/5635jd

She works on Fridays and wants to be paid as a full time worker. When she is fired she says it’s because she is a woman and black. OKAAAAYYYYYY. That makes sense. /s


39 posted on 11/10/2008 3:22:37 AM PST by kcvl
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...what it should expect from a "black president"

I see that many blacks are thinking along the lines of a Robert Mugabe.

I have been in several locations (near DC) since the election where groups of blacks were seriously talking about how they were going to be able to move into house they saw and liked once Obamamama was sworn in.

Many blacks, some almost look like they once had a brain, actually think they own everything in the country now and are just waiting for the command from their dear leader that it is OK to take what they want.

I have seen this around the DC area every day since the election results.

I just bought more brass bullets, primers, and powder and now that I have a progressive reloader rather than my old RCBS Rockchucker I will be busy on my off time backing up my answer to anyone that may think my home is now their property.

40 posted on 11/10/2008 3:23:50 AM PST by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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