The Obama campaign will one day be an example of how a candidate can get Willie Hortoned in the new millennium.

It’s no secret that minorities are used to sink presidential candidates. To sheer up their base and drive them to the polls in droves, conservatives have been using the scare tactics for years now.  In 2004 it was the fear of homosexual hordes running through the streets clutching marriage licenses with cell phones in their hands putting their new spouses on the medical plans.  Oh the horror, the horror!  It was enough to help sink swift boated Kerry’s campaign.

So how do you get rid of Obama, someone who claims he’s not going to run the regular gambit and then has the audacity to give uplifting speeches?  Trump out a gay closeted lover?  They tried that and it didn’t work.  Point out to everyone that although he claims to have transcended race he is still indeed a black man?  Yep, tried that too and he was buoyed higher.

It’s obvious they decided to stick witht he black motif because being black is definitely a lot scarier than being gay in the minds of middle white America.  And if they can’t make calm and cool Obama show his angry black side then they have to show he’s angry by association.

Trump out the friends.

First it was Farrakhan.  Now, unlike other Americans it’s apparent that Farrakhan is not allowed to have his own ideas of who he should want in the White House.  It’s probably better that he came out for McCain than give a shout out endorsement to Obama, who has been whispered about being Muslim anyway.  Although Farrakhan belongs to the black American sect of muslims which is a lot different than the Sunnis, Shias and Shiites but just as angry at white Americans. 

Then there was 1960’s radical William Ayerswho was a member of the Weather Underground which is renowned for issuing a state of war against the American government and a botched bombing.  Although Ayers is now a professor and Obama was just a child living on a different landmass when the Weathermen were at their peak, his association with him was brought up to taint Obama’s character.

And now there is Reverend Wright, who just won’t go away.  Although Obama said that he wasn’t in the audience when Wright damned America it doesn’t matter.  He’s his pastor, right?  What probably angered Obama the most is when Wright said that Obama was saying what he needed to say as a politician just as he was saying what he needed to say as a minister, which kind of insinuated that Obama was just saying whatever he needed to say for political expediency.

And that caused Obama to go negative.  On Wright.

It’s sad that throughout his campaign Obama has distanced himself from seeming overtly black.  For MLK’s 40thmemorial of his death he didn’t make it to Memphis.  He also didn’t make it to Tavis Smiley’s”State of the Black Union”; he sent his wife but it still didn’t sit well with Tavis.  And now Obama has to put a marathoner’s distance between him and his former pastor.  Why?  Because he can’t seem to black.  Because white America has 24-second amnesia and we must all pretend that what has gone on in the past is so far behind us that it doesn’t matter one iota now.

I’m not saying that all that what Rev. Wright charged the American government withis true (putting AIDS and drugs in the black community to destroy us and only us) but looking at the past government’s dealing with African Americans like the Tuskegee experiment, then it’s hard to say that Wright’s fears are actually farfetched.  The black community has long been wary of the American government and I don’t know if Wright is actually speaking in the African American religious tradition but he is giving voice to different things and conspiracy theories that I have heard in the black community.

So, aside from Wright being the nutty Uncle that one must bear that Obama once characterized him as, I wonder if, in the long view, Obama will also turn on the rest of the black community, because I have heard those who are educated as well as uneducated voice those views.  He isn’t running to be the president of black America but of all America and he will be held accountable by those of many colors.  So, if he knows this then why is he pandering to the white working class vote?  Is it because he feels they are more likely to come to the polls than the average black American?  Or is it because he knows that the average black American will really vote for the democratic nominee, no matter what egregious thing they’ve done or said.  That is what the Clinton’s believe and African Americans proved it when they voted for Bill Clinton after his Sister Soulja moment.

Now all the talk around the media is how Obama is taking the initiative by putting Wright in check.  It’s sad he had to wail on his former political adviser to get these props.  Although in extending his 15 minutes Wright did bring it on himself so Obama had to check him.

So perhaps this is a sign for Clinton, who has been wanting Obama to play the game her way.  But then black on black negativity is something I’m used to seeing, so I doubt it.

After declaring hip hop as deadin 2006, Nas came back in 2007 with a PSA for cooning rappers. 

So what can Nas do to be more controversial?  Release a new album in the summer of ‘08 called Nigger and before it comes out drop a song that slurs nearly everyone; that will get tongues wagging.

At first I was set to hate it, but then I thought perhaps I should listen to it in relationship of the rest of the cd.  I’m willing to give Nas the benefit of the doubt since, unlike a lot of other rappers out there, he actually gives thought to what he says (and actually says something).

So, Nas, don’t let me down.

So, I haven’t found much time to write this weekend but I have found time to think.  Mostly I have been thinking about this article because it has recently come to my attention how big of a hold ghetto lit is in the black community. 

The other day a black mother came to me with a stack of books and I asked her if she also picked up Hotlanta.  She confided in me that she had been giving her 14 year old daughter ghetto lit to read because that’s what she has been reading and she has come to realize that all the sexual themes may be bad for her daughter’s psyche.  I gave her a couple of other black books that I absolutely adore and began to wonder how many other black kids preteens and young teens have turned to ghetto lit because they think that is the only thing that is written by black people.

She is not the first black mother I’ve encountered who think that way.  I respect mothers who want to find stories that reflect a black pov but I wonder if this is really the way to do it.  A few years ago I sent a friend of mine an article about how books by Donald Goines and Iceberg Slimhas been making a resurgence.  My friend likes to read herself (not necessarily street lit) and after reading the article thought of picking up one of the pimp lit novels for her straight laced 13 year old son who didn’t like to read.

“Which one do you think I should get him?  Which one do you think he’d like, what do you think?” she queried.

“I think he’ll wonder what type of message you’re giving him.” I typed back.  To circumvent her selections I suggested “We Beat the Streets” and “Think Big” instead.

What is the message young black readers are getting when they walk into bookstores and the African American book section is bursting with urban lit titles and crowding out books that doesn’t have heated scenes or provocative covers?  Although I’m worried about our literature legacy I can’t in good faith call for a book burning of titles I think are demeaning.  All I can do is hope and recommend more age appropriate books to mothers who come in for advice in hopes that one day young readers will grow to be just as prone to pick up Pearl Cleage as they are a Vickie Stringer book.

It can happen.

Baracky

I found this link over at Afronetizen.  Big ups to them.

I found this over on the Huffington Post in an article where H. Clinton wanted to chuck Reagan Democrats.  In 1995 she said to her then in office husband , “Screw ‘em.  You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”

To which B. Clinton replied, “I know how you feel. I understand Hillary’s sense of outrage. It makes me mad too. Sure, we lost our base in the South; our boys voted for Gingrich. But let me tell you something. I know these boys. I grew up with them. Hardworking, poor, white boys, who feel left out, feel that our reforms always come at their expense. Think about it, every progressive advance our country has made since the Civil War has been on their backs. They’re the ones asked to pay the price of progress. Now, we are the party of progress, but let me tell you, until we find a way to include these boys in our programs, until we stop making them pay the whole price of liberty for others, we are never going to unite our party, never really going to have change that sticks.”

That sounds so familiar… like something I just heard recently… but the speaker used another word in reference to whites with guns… religion… you know the one. 

Was it acrid?  Acerbic?  Sour?

I can’t remember but it will come to me.

I respect Bill Cosby and over the past few years I have even mostly agreed with him.

But this?  He is a bit off the mark.

In response to the profane and degrading lyrics, Cosby has commissioned his friend Bill “Spaceman” Patterson to create a rap CD of newcomers who rap about  the “…value of an education. The value of respecting one’s self and . . giving [listeners] a chance to raise their self-esteem and confidence.”

Which, of course, I can’t be mad at.  But there are a lot of rappers who are out there spitting who do exactly that.  Jean Grae, K-Os, Blackalicious, Aceyalone, Handsome Boy Modeling School, The Coup… heck just go browse the artist roster of Okayplayer.  The thing is these groups don’t get airplay.  Why?  Because they are positive and a lot of the record companies aren’t throwing money and strong arming the radio stations to play them.  So instead we get what we have on the radios now.

Years ago, in my halcyon rap-filled youth and before rap music went mainstream rap was more creative.  Rap was creative and people were willing to try different sounds and different styles to help get their point across.  We had the educated rappers and the comedian rappers.  The storyteller rappers and the bohemian rappers.  When the West Coast began hitting with gangsta rap that is when rap really began to take off and get more airplay.  Although Run DMC hit the top of the charts in the late 80s it took Dr. Dre, Eazy E and Ice Cube to bring it to a higher level.  Alicia Keys misconstrued statement on the genre weren’t too far off the mark.  By the mid 90’s gangsta rap became synonymous with rap music and all those who tried to diverge with more creative and thought provoking music became abnormal.  The same people who sought out rap before because it was a creative musical form still did so but those who made the music weren’t getting the accolades or attention as some of their “hardcore” peers were.

But then, the record companies aren’t fully to blame for it.  They only sale what moves units and the people wanted dross.  And because the people asked for it record companies put more of it out.  When you have mass marketed music then you will get easy, simplistic rhymes and beats, today’s rap is Wal-mart in musical form.

So people are asking if rap is dead and I will tell you know, no it isn’t.  Good rap is where it’s always has been, underground waiting for someone to find it.

If Cosby wants to help newcomers come out and throw out some hot lines with weight I can’t knock it.  I do wish that more people would throw money behind those who are out there trudging along saying what they have to say and no one is hardly listening .  Or buying.  But they rap it anyway.  I might even pick it up when it comes out, too.

But not before I pick up The Roots latest cd.  We have to support good black music.  If we don’t, then who will?

Can you really believe what she says?  You know those Chi-town South Siders with their hoity-toity ways.   They are all so rich and siditty and each one is born with a silver spoon.

(hiss) South Siders

Pic from TMZ.com

This is the thing that I don’t get, how is the federal government is going after  Snipes for $41mill.  Have they not seen the Blade series?  I’m surprised he isn’t bankrupt after that because I watched it on free tv and wanted to get my money back.

Point of the post: cute blasian kids (of course). 

I saw this interesting article in the Atlanta Constitution about a Korean American woman who is investing in the black community.

Suna Om is a Korean immigrant and entrepreneur who is investing in the Pittsburgh community of Atlanta.  She also lives there.

“We want to be part of the West End and live together in harmony,” said Om to the Atlantic Constitution. 

Many in the community see Om as being a trailblazer as well as a good business woman.   Her next project is to build a Marriott in her neighborhood with a rooftop garden.  She sees the hotel as a great place to stay for parents of students at Clark, Morehouse and Spelman.

To read more of this article go to this link.

It’s hard for H. Clinton’s supporters to get across the point that people are more sexist than racist when everytime they send someone out to bring it home their remarks inevitably come out sounding more racist than gender neutralizing.  B. Clinton did it and alienated black voters February.  When Ferraro did it people realized what really brings her to white sales.

So how can you get across the notion that it’s hard out here for a white chick when Three 6 Mafia isn’t offering to make you a theme song? 

How you ask?  Get a black guy to do it.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson on New American Media argues that H. Clinton’s biggest drawback is her gender.  In pointing out that Americans are more likely to laugh at a joke about women as opposed to one about minorities he concludes that the country is more sexist than racist.

The worst part of this is that if anyone dared make a racial crack about Barack Obama they’d be pounded into the sand. Yet, blatant sexist and anti-woman remarks are routinely spewed out, often unchallenged, and even cackled at. In the CBS News poll, though more said they have heard more racist cracks in the past few months than sexist cracks, they were less likely to be offended by the sexist ones than the racist ones.

I guess Hutchinson didn’t see the new CBS poll that they released last week on Apr 7 where they asked voters if the race of candidate mattered.  Although whites who said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who was white were outnumbered 6 to 1 by those who said race didn’t matter, those who used race as their guide ”were three times likelier to say they would only be satisfied with Clinton as the nominee than if Obama were chosen”. 

Although most white pollster’s said that gender was not a factor, for those that did consider gender H. Clinton got the slight edge.

For African Americans only one in three said race was significant in their decision.

BET founder Bob Johnson believes that Obama’s garners black votes only because he’s black.  Picking up where Geraldine Ferraro left off last month, Johnson backs Ferraro’s statements and claims that the Obama “campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything”.

“What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called ‘Jerry Smith’ and he says I’m going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?” Johnson said. “And the answer is, probably not.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s statements on disenchanted poor whites who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations” has been called by both Clinton and McCain as elitist (which is funny since the Clintons have earned a tenth of a billion in the near decade since leaving the White House and McCain is one of the richest men in congress because of his wife’s money).  But really, it’s exactly to those anti-immigrant, gun-slinging people that the Clintons have been coquettishly been pandering to for the last few months by playing into their fear of a black President.

Wasn’t she something of the bitter one a few weeks ago because she couldn’t be femme enough for others to be misogynistic?  Well now Obama is looking blacker than ever, just ask the two black guys who keep pointing it out.

Well, Debra, is Obama black enough for you now?