I so wanted to like Obama. Disagree with his political views, but like the guy. Could happened.
Possible bad language ahead.
Give me a fuckin' break.
So his "pastor" remembers Jim Crow laws. Whatever. My family didn't pass those laws. My family didn't own slaves. When all those while devil slavemasters were subjugatin' the black man, mine were farmers. Or coal miners. Or still in Ireland and Scotland.
More recent times? During Jim Crow, my grandpa had black friends. Twenty years before MLK, Jr. became famous. Not long after the "I have a dream" speech, my parents put me in a car WITH A BLACK MAN to travel 600 miles WITH A BLACK MAN to visit family who, by the way, were friends WITH A BLACK MAN. Me, a little kid, traveling 600 miles WITH A BLACK MAN.
Now, I will grant you that this wasn't in the Old South. But Herr Obama does seem to like to tar (baby) all white folk with the guilt of the Old South, whether they were there or not. Or whether their families owned slaves. Or whether their ancestors may have died freeing the slaves. While many of his ancestors were not even here yet.
And Jeremiah Wright? Go fuck yourself. Just continue getting rich like that self-made millionaire black man, Reverend Ike.
Posted by Ken S at March 18, 2008 06:26 PM | TrackBack (0) |Racial issues aside, I would probably trust him more if he totally denounced his muslim heritage. But I don't see him doing that, do you?
Posted by: Julie at March 18, 2008 07:42 PMYou know, the Muslim heritage doesn't really bother me. That whole middle-name-Hussein is meaningless (coming from right or left).
But being affiliated with an apparently "white folk hating" Christian church does bother me. I'd prefer a non-hating Muslim to a racist dickhead any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 18, 2008 08:05 PMRead up on black liberation theology and see if your opinion of Obama and Wright is still as high as it is now. Pay close attention to the takedown on Wright's ideological influence James Cone. There's an echo of nation of Islam's "the white man is a devil" in it.
Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at March 18, 2008 10:23 PMNot sure my heart can take it.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 19, 2008 05:18 AMIf there weren't any bad language ahead, I'd think the blog was broken again. =P
I'm glancing at my fishwrap this morning and the front-page analysis by professional doofus John Farmer is talking about how this speech is second only to "I Have a Dream" for its civil rights value, and I'm thinking, if the media are that far in the tank for Obamarama, then I may as well cast my vote for Robert Mugabe and get to where we're already going. Folks on the right have been pointing out this sort of thing for 25 years at least and the screeching in reply is truly pathetic. Obama says it, much more flowery and much less substantially - and applies typical guilty socialism as a solution - and suddenly there are hosannahs? What a load.
Obama did not say the one thing that really would have made a difference to our communities, if diligently practiced: marry the mother of your children. Better still, marry her before she is, in fact, the mother of your children, but let's at least get the marrying part out of the way. Half the battle is just having a father in the house. It is the major correlative factor in poverty and crime rates.
Man, is it hard to type while banging your head on a wall. Lemme get an aspirin.
Posted by: nightfly at March 19, 2008 06:47 AMIn one "on the street" interview here after The Speech, the person said how great the speech was: "I thought he looked very... presidential. Yeah, presidential!"
I thought he looked the same as always: like a teenager who got lost on the way to the prom.
That's a pretty apt description!
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 19, 2008 01:02 PM