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

Yep, and I'm so very sorry to see this- I had expected a little better...

-"Zimbabwe on the Potomac" --

41 posted on 11/10/2008 3:49:15 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: PalmettoMason

The Usurper has a mixed geneology, with a preponderance of African Arab on his father’s side - hence his Arabic surname. (Obama is NOT Swahili. It is an Arabic name which, when written in Farsi (O-Ba-Ma) means “He who is to come” alluding to the “Promised Warrior” precursor of the 12th Imam of the Shia Hadith.

That is, of course if he is the son of who he claims as his father, and not the love child of Malcolm X. (In which case his real name would be Barry Little, as well as his chances of being elected to anything.)


42 posted on 11/10/2008 3:49:52 AM PST by shibumi (...vampire outlaw of the milky way...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The msm will continue to be enraptured with their black president.

Reality is not something they care to discuss.

As each of our industries is nationalized the msm will proudly call it change for the better.

Like a frog in boiling water, we’ll realize when it’s too late.


43 posted on 11/10/2008 3:52:51 AM PST by Carley (Vote McCain/Palin.....Change babies can live with.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Given the past as a record, too many of those in the black community will view his achievement as a reason for them to rest on their laurels and expect to be given something as a result of his achievement.

When they don't get what they want/expect, the race-baiters (Jackson, Sharpton) will step in and condemn America even more viciously. “You see, even though we elect a black man as president, the US is soooo racist these poor folk can’t____” (fill in the blank. It doesn't matter with what, whatever they're demanding that day.)

44 posted on 11/10/2008 4:06:39 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Liberals are useful idiots. They are the pawns of Leftists.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

4 more years of this type of navel-gazing column.


45 posted on 11/10/2008 4:08:31 AM PST by relictele
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To: exhaustedmomma
I object to the premise that blacks needed a black president as some sort of ticket to aspire.

There are plenty of black executives, business owners, independent-minded people and good family-men who serve as even better role models. Far more people can aspire toward one of these noble roles than can be president.

The idea that this country needed a black president to eliminate barriers is built on the premise that no one can move upwardly in this country because of systemic racism and other barriers, mainly borne of the free-market.

What they are really saying is that the country needed to elect a socialist or other leftist authoritarian to “fundamentally change” America to remove those barriers.

Anyone who thinks that an authoritarian is going to remove barriers to growth, I have a bridge to sell...

46 posted on 11/10/2008 4:13:02 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Liberals are useful idiots. They are the pawns of Leftists.)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe
He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?

He hasn't landed yet.
47 posted on 11/10/2008 4:14:00 AM PST by aruanan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Racist pig.

Substitute the word “”white”” for black and it reads like a KKK speech.


48 posted on 11/10/2008 4:20:18 AM PST by sergeantdave (We are now in the Age of the Idiot)
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To: Tzimisce

Don’t forget the fact that he intends to seize all their 401k plans and replace them with grossly inferior substitutes.


49 posted on 11/10/2008 4:31:21 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?

"White Men Can't Jump"

50 posted on 11/10/2008 5:34:32 AM PST by varon (Allegiance to the constitution, always. Allegiance to a political party, never.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?”

I think it means Charles Manson was right.


51 posted on 11/10/2008 5:41:42 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz ("Control the information, you control the people.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
As president, he's unlikely to embrace the confrontational identity politics that have defined black activism for so long.

That's a fancy way of saying "aggressive racism" ...

52 posted on 11/10/2008 5:47:06 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Seriously, as far as I’m concerned — that was a pander and nothing else.

What do we really think — that car jacking’s are going to miraculously stop, rap music will become unpopular, drug use, abuse, and drug related violence is going to disappear over night because the black people finally have a black leader.

The black people literally have hundreds of years of attitudes that must be changed, ideas, thoughts, and motives all have to be re-programmed.

Bill Cosby was on Meet the Press a while back with Tim Russert and they were discussing changing the black culture — I was in total agreement with everything they were saying.

Cosby mentioned that blacks studying were accused of being white by other blacks — “what, come again.” Studying means you are being white — how absurd. Who is to blame for that? It sure as hell isn’t me.


53 posted on 11/10/2008 3:19:56 PM PST by areukiddingme1 (areukiddingme1 is a synonym for a Retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer and tired of liberal BS.)
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