Last night's blog was a decent summation of how I felt about Obama's statements in response to conservative attacks on him. If it hasnt been expressely said (and I know someone like Rush Limbaugh will say it), many folks are uncomfortable with someone who "doesn't look like the guys on the money" running for president. I didn't know how to address further the conservative attacks on his character although the main push by the extreme right is to make people scared of the intelligent, young and charismatic black Senator. We can only fight backby supporting Sen. Obama and not throw up road blocks. Below is a blog I wrote at the beginning of the election cycle last year. I think I said pretty well what needs to be done by us. If we can do these things, the conservatives will have to bite their tongues and suck it up for a change instead of being uninformed hate mongers that they live up to be oh so often.
Barack Obama: What's Black Got To Do With It? (April 7, 2007)
I was recalling in my mind a conversation that a classmate and I were having a few weeks back about Barack Obama. What she said wasn't terribly shocking but it really made me mad because it just shows me how much we as a people need to get over and get on with the business of improving ourselves for the better. She told me that there were some black folks who were saying that Barack was not "black enough" to run for president as a black man. I asked her to repeat herself because I really didnt think that was true what she was saying but she said that she heard it on TV watching C-SPAN. To me, saying something like that seems to be a double standard among my people and my classmate who is from Sudan was a bit baffled by the comment because she, like I was wondering how black is black? Let me try to illustrate what I meant by the double standard: Remember a little over 10 years ago when Tiger Woods burst on the scene and we were in awe of his golf game and all the potential that he had and has since delivered on, we wondered more about his complete ethnicity. So when he was interviewed, he more or less said that he didnt see himself as a black man but as Cablinasian which accounted for his whole ethnicity. Did he or did he not draw the ire of the black community as well as provided fodder for black comedians for his comments? Flip that to Barack who is American (born in Hawaii) to a Kenyan father and White american mother. Barack has said countless times that he is proud of his heritage, takes nothing away from being biracial but recognizes that he is a black man. And for that...he is seen as not being "black enough?" What a double standard, hell I mean we should be really be standing behind him for running for president because damn, I sure as hell couldnt do it! Leave it to us, hell if give the chance we could fuck up INSTANT Jello! Recognize this to all the nay sayers who feel that Brother Barack is not up to the task and you need to see his "brother card." If you think about it, he is more African and definetly American (without question) and we need to continually remind ourselves that as a people, we come in all shades, sizes and shapes, some of us grew up in the hood, in suburbia and all points in between. These things should be what makes us unique and more apt to learn from one another and progress. Instead, we choose to pick at the diversity of our people like a sore and pass judgement on who is truly black and who isn't. Like my ex-girlfriend used to say "you own your blackness" and it is weird to see someone who may not understand your experience but that is what should unite and not divide us. The 2008 presidential election is looking like it could be historic, dont let some petty foolishness drive you towards another candidate or worse, not going to the poll at all. If we have learned nothing from the last 2 elections is that we have got to make our voice heard or it will continued to be silenced because politicians are not interested in the group that makes no effort to be heard. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, black people lets start squeaking alot louder so we can get that oil!
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