Aren't you really, really sick of pundits, journalists and politicians asking Barack Obama if he's "black enough", with the phony concern of an assassin slipping in a quiet knife? He even had to face the question from the National Association of Black Journalists yesterday afternoon.
Well, perhaps this answer is what they were waiting for.
Well, hallelujah. Hard questions about race in America need to be asked, and honestly, who better to jump-start the conversation than a high-profile African-American politician like Senator Obama?
I'm not a huge fan of the Senator, but I like to give credit where it's due. And in my opinion, Obama won a big one.
Well, perhaps this answer is what they were waiting for.
Instead – for the first time in more detail that I’ve ever seen – Obama took the opportunity to get at what he considers the heart of the matter, actually demanding that black journalists themselves are to blame for missing the point. Skin color, his record in public service, the issues – none of this suggests he’s not ‘black enough’ and yet questions over his blackness persist, he put to the crowd of black journalists.
It’s “puzzling,” he said. Why is this?
But the question was rhetorical. Professor Obama then stepped onto the stage, answering his own question, and suggesting that perhaps the real issue is a basic mistrust in black America of a black candidate.
“What it really does is really lay bare, I think, that we’re still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong,” he said, adding it’s the same sort of suspicion many blacks face when they attend a predominately white Ivy League institution.
And that’s when he issued this provocative challenge: Instead of asking Obama if he’s black enough, black journalists should dig deeper, and ask why there exists this mistrust in black America of a black man like Obama running for office?
Well, hallelujah. Hard questions about race in America need to be asked, and honestly, who better to jump-start the conversation than a high-profile African-American politician like Senator Obama?
I'm not a huge fan of the Senator, but I like to give credit where it's due. And in my opinion, Obama won a big one.
3 comments:
The fact that black journalists ask questions of Obama about his blackness over Hillary and her deception is foolish, almost ignorant.
Of all the questions that have a need to be asked, why there is the question of blackness to Barack Obama and not the rest of the Dems?
Is it maybe the token blacks who got over on status quo, happened to get the pedigree just don't care about the so many who are living at or below the poverty line, dealing with racism, as well dying from the killing of each other?
Mm Obama is winning all of the time, except the MSM, NABJ are not tuned in. BarackObama.com, Youtube, Facebook, Yahoo, Internet are all places where he is winning in a landslide. He is the best choice and if no one sees it then they want Hillary, by which the remnants of Bush will remain.
Thanks for your thoughts, deborah! I really like the way Senator Obama turned the question back on the NABJ. Our candidates need to start questioning the media loudly and often.
The mainstream media is constantly framing issues in ways that make sense to them and their corporate masters, but do not make sense to average Americans because they do not reflect reality. What does "black enough" mean? Is it economically based? Is it his skin color? I doubt even those asking the question know.
Similarly, what does "progress" mean in Iraq? Who is gauging it? What, for that matter, does "winning" mean in Iraq? The MSM mentions these words all the time as if they meant something, when in fact, they are just empty slogans hung on an even emptier policy organism.
I disagree with you about Hillary, but I sure wouldn't mind if Barack Obama became our next President. Wouldn't mind at all. :-)
Obama gets slagged for everything. He's not black enough! He's a Muslim! No, he's Christian but his church is a radical black church! blah blah blah...
With white men, it's only 'are they manly enough?' but for women and minorities there are multiple other characteristics that people play against each other.
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