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Obama and the ghosts of racism
Boston Globe ^ | Jan. 07, 2008 | By James Carroll

Posted on 01/06/2008 10:14:55 PM PST by jdm

"THEY SAID this day would never come," Barack Obama declared in Iowa last week, and the ghosts of this nation nodded. With an African-American competing seriously for the presidency of the United States, the last act of a centuries-old drama begins. Obama's blood tie to the story of American slavery, ironically, comes through his white mother's ancestry, which apparently includes both slave owners and those who fought for the Union to end slavery. That Obama's father was a Kenyan links him more directly than anyone could have imagined both to Africa's past as an exploited continent, and to its present, where the bloody legacy of colonialism plays itself out. (Obama's father was a member of the Luo tribe, like Raila Odinga, the leader of the Kenyan opposition, whose people are protesting the recent election.) more stories like this

In the American memory, slavery and then the war to abolish it are taken to be the two poles of the story, but it isn't that simple. If racial injustice continued to be a hallmark of life in the United States, it was thought to be an inevitable, but essentially unchosen consequence of the "250 years of unrequited toil," in Abraham Lincoln's phrase, that were imposed on kidnapped Africans and their descendants. Nearly a million Americans died in the war to end slavery, and - still in the American memory - the nation has felt badly ever since that slavery's hangover includes discrimination against black people to this day.

The conventional wisdom, given powerful articulation a generation ago by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is that the plight of African-Americans - from broad family dysfunction, to almost unshakeable poverty, to disproportionate incarceration rates of black males - is a tragic consequence of the social evil that America nobly renounced in the mid-19th century.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ghosts; obama; racism
...the American belief in the righteousness of mass killing for the sake of abstract values like "freedom"

BARF!

1 posted on 01/06/2008 10:14:56 PM PST by jdm
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To: jdm

I thought mr clean had ‘scrubbing bubbles’?


2 posted on 01/06/2008 10:16:45 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: jdm

What a filthy, disgusting, commie writer this guy is. Barack Hussein Obama is the racist in the race. He hates whites, and hates Jews. Do these people think I don’t recognize a supporter of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for the racist he really is?


3 posted on 01/06/2008 10:23:00 PM PST by Yaakov The Orator (www.jtf.org)
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To: jdm

It isn’t until now that the media admits REVEREND Al Sharpton’s run in 2004 was not genuine (and yet they let him at the debates and shut out Lyndon LaRouche, who’s the bigger scam artist?).


4 posted on 01/06/2008 10:23:20 PM PST by weegee (End the Bush-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton-Clinton/Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton Oligarchy in 2008.)
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To: jdm

Yuck. What a ridiculous piece of prose.


5 posted on 01/06/2008 10:23:32 PM PST by dadgum (Jesus, The Christ, will return soon. Are you ready?)
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To: jdm

It’s started already. Wow.


6 posted on 01/06/2008 10:27:07 PM PST by EternalVigilance (It's later than you think...)
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To: jdm
    SHARPTON IMPRESSIONIST PAUL SHANKLIN:

    Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
    The L.A. Times, they called him that
    ‘Cause he’s not authentic like me.

    Yeah, the guy from the L.A. paper
    Said he makes guilty whites feel good
    They’ll vote for him, and not for me
    ‘Cause he’s not from the hood.
     
    See, real black men, like Snoop Dog,
    Or me, or Farrakhan
    Have talked the talk, and walked the walk.
    Not come in late and won!
    
    Refrain:
    Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
    The L.A. Times, they called him that
    ‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
    
    (repeat Refrain)
    
    Some say Barack’s "articulate"
    And bright and new and "clean"
    The media sure loves this guy,
    A white interloper’s dream!
    
    But, when you vote for president,
    Watch out, and don’t be fooled!
    Don’t vote the Magic Negro in
    ‘Cause... (music stops, Sharpton rants, music returns)
    
    (background vocalists repeat refrain & finish song)
 

7 posted on 01/06/2008 10:28:00 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: jdm
By James Carroll

One of those writers who, once you see the subject and his name, there's no need to read the actual column.

I'll condense for you: America is racist, always has been, Obama is a ray of light that will test this racist country's racism, we're all racists, America has always been racist, oh, and the Pope is evil.

I didn't read the article, but I bet I'm close!

8 posted on 01/06/2008 10:29:14 PM PST by Darkwolf377 (Pro-Life atheist who will vote Fred in the primary, Republican in November)
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To: jdm

I guess Obama really is the one who should lead America because he has one black parent and one white parent. But if that is the criteria these days, why isn’t Slash of Guns & Roses running?


9 posted on 01/06/2008 10:29:32 PM PST by weegee (End the Bush-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton-Clinton/Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton Oligarchy in 2008.)
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To: jdm
Civil War, where a spirit of total killing was justified by a professed commitment to racial equality

I thought the prime cause was, in effect, agriculture vs industrialization - an Industrial Revolution that was indeed a war (vs in UK for example where it was largely peaceful). States' rights mixed into this as well; the emancipation of the slaves came well after the war started, IIRC, and it was not in fact the prime impetus for it.

Just going from memory ....

10 posted on 01/06/2008 10:30:27 PM PST by 1066AD
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To: jdm
Barack Hussein Obama is no more connected to slavery than I am. He and his father, and father's father and father's father's father was was born out of slavery. Those that participated in slavery died a long time ago.

"...the plight of African-Americans - from broad family dysfunction, family dysfunction is the fault of those in the family, African-American or not), to almost unshakeable poverty, (So being African-American makes one poor? What a load) to disproportionate incarceration rates of black males (so this has nothing to do with a subculture that tolerates more crime, its a a racial quota for prisons?) - is a tragic consequence of the social evil (oooohhh it society's fault, not individual's actions to blame) ..."

You was right when you said BARF!

11 posted on 01/06/2008 10:31:40 PM PST by GregoTX (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: jdm

Carroll is a “Better Red than Dead” type who still believes Blacks can’t watch out for themselves. He loves to doubletalk and people lap it up.

Kinda funny he blames racism for keeping Blacks down but extolls the virtues of his savior Hussein and why we should revere and elect him.

Obviously irony is not his forte.


12 posted on 01/06/2008 11:08:29 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Jay Grodner stands accused of keying a Marine's car. He's also a lawyer.)
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To: Yaakov The Orator
Barack Hussein Obama is the racist in the race. He hates whites, and hates Jews.

Obama hates whites and Jews so much that his top political advisor, David Axelrod, is a white Jew?

13 posted on 01/06/2008 11:42:06 PM PST by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: 1066AD
Your either WAY old skool, parochial school or home-schooled.
14 posted on 01/06/2008 11:48:18 PM PST by endthematrix (He was shouting 'Allah!' but I didn't hear that. It just sounded like a lot of crap to me.)
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To: Yaakov The Orator
Barack Hussein Obama is the racist in the race. He hates whites, and hates Jews.

Um, his mother was white.

15 posted on 01/06/2008 11:55:26 PM PST by saquin
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To: Alter Kaker

As insane as it sounds, yes. Self-hating Jews and Self-hating Whites hate themselves just as much as their enemies do.


16 posted on 01/07/2008 12:12:04 AM PST by Yaakov The Orator (www.jtf.org)
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To: saquin
Um, his mother was white.

So was his ex-fiance. Read what he says about why she is ex, and his wife is black.

I'd suggest getting his books at the public library, since your money was already spent upon them, and it won't benefit him finacially to use what is already "yours".

17 posted on 01/07/2008 12:34:53 AM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: jdm

Obama says the most basic things and the MSM considers him brilliant.


18 posted on 01/07/2008 12:35:42 AM PST by Rosemont
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To: weegee

Slash has parents?


19 posted on 01/07/2008 1:44:25 AM PST by steve8714 (Build the fence, ship 'em out, legalize teen workers.)
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To: jdm
Rush made fun of the Magic Negro bit, but that's what liberals believe. Liberals have tried their nostrums to fix the "black" problem with welfare, head start, food stamps, school busing, integration of K-12, segregation of 13-16, affirmative action and nobody knows how many government programs. Arguably the situation for the 1/3 of blacks in the inner cities is as bad as it's ever been. Liberals see the "root cause" as white racism, so Liberals are desperate to prove to blacks that whites don't hate them (at least liberal whites) and somehow that will put blacks on the right path.

After Gulf War I, the liberal media promoted the heck out of Colin Powell and prayed to Gaia that General Powell would run for President. The media hype was so powerful, that Dubya saw it necessary to name Powell has Secretary of State. Proof of this hype is why was Powell promoted, who was a Washington-based 'political' general, while the fighting general and architect of victory, Norman Schwarzkopf, was never hyped for President.

Liberals do want a magic negro to expatiate their guilt. They imagine all whites have this guilt. Most whites know that just as America is not to blame for the rest of the world's problems, white Americans are not to blame for the problems of black Americans.

It's a magic negro, because it's based upon magical thinking. Here's a thought experiment: You're a 10th grade black ghetto kid, you've barely learned to read, do math at a 5th grade level, disrupt your classes, when you show up, are bigger than your single mother, who never married. How is the election of Obama going to change your life and your behaviour?

I suggest it takes magical thinking to believe that that event changes a thing for our hypothetical kid. But that's what liberals believe. And anyone who disagrees with the liberals is a racist bigot out to keep the black man down.

20 posted on 01/07/2008 4:36:23 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (Just laugh at them!)
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To: jdm
That Obama's father was a Kenyan links him more directly than anyone could have imagined both to Africa's past as an exploited continent to the slave trade.

There is a high probability his African and Muslim ancestors were involved in slave trading. It was his white Christian side of the family that ELIMINATED slavery
21 posted on 01/07/2008 4:42:59 AM PST by Kid Shelleen (Aztlan My Azz: La Raza is Spanish for Tan Klan)
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To: jdm
the plight of African-Americans - from broad family dysfunction, to almost unshakeable poverty, to disproportionate incarceration rates of black males - is a tragic consequence of the social evil that America nobly renounced in the mid-19th century.

And not a crippling 40-year dependence on government handouts, stripping a generation of its hope and belief in itself?

22 posted on 01/07/2008 4:49:50 AM PST by Trailerpark Badass (Don't taze me, bro!!)
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To: Jabba the Nutt

“But that’s what liberals believe.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

At least they claim to. I wonder sometimes if they actually believe anything or just spout whatever brand of prattle is currently in vogue, most seem to be incapable of actual thought.
I speak as a very politically incorrect white male born and raised in South Carolina, baptized as a Southern Baptist in a mill pond at age 13. I have picked cotton alongside black people who lived in REAL poverty. I have black friends (yes, they are welcome to sit down and break bread in my house) and I can tell you that the only blacks who are not doing okay in this state now are those who embrace the gang mentality, the self-branded losers who look to the government to save them. Those who work hard and take advantage of the opportunities available are doing just fine. Here in the cradle of the Confederacy you can see people working together, going to church together, feasting together as if there were only one race. The last thing we need is people like Obama to keep reopening old wounds and telling people to look to Washington to solve all their problems.


23 posted on 01/07/2008 5:00:23 AM PST by RipSawyer (Does anyone still believe this is a free country?)
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To: Alter Kaker
Obama hates whites and Jews so much that his top political advisor, David Axelrod, is a white Jew?

Don't use the term "Jew" so loosly. Ever hear of the term "JINO" or "self-hating Jew"? You need to understand that most prominent liberal "Jews" in America are totally non-observant. Their religion is Socialism, their scripture is Secular Humanism. They despise religious Jews and promote propaganda about the "persecuted" Palestinians. To someone like this, it is more important to promote racial identity than be concerned that a candidate is anti-Israel.

24 posted on 01/07/2008 5:02:13 AM PST by montag813
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To: jdm
That Obama's father was a Kenyan links him more directly than anyone could have imagined both to Africa's past as an exploited continent

Obama's father was a Harvard graduate and former cabinet member of an illegitimate Kenyan government which took power in a coup three decades ago.

25 posted on 01/07/2008 5:04:15 AM PST by montag813
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To: RipSawyer
I say it is magical thinking that actual thinking.

I believe that the day that people DON'T vote based on their 'tribal' or 'ethnic' affiliations. Dukakis got huge early monetary support and probably 90% per cent of the the Greek American vote, even though Greek Americans didn't support Dukakis' form of liberal technocrat politics. It was the Greek bit.

Now, if Obama receives 100% of the black vote, due to the fact that he's (half) black, that's not progress. McCain and Hillary both have brought out their mothers to campaign for them. Will we see Obama's mother? I don't even know, if she's alive. Would Obama's white mother turn off his black supporters?

26 posted on 01/07/2008 5:16:15 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (Just laugh at them!)
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To: jdm
From the "Today's Toons" thread.


27 posted on 01/07/2008 5:58:25 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (I've been too busy for FR this weekend, because I did the things I refuse to let the invaders do.)
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To: jdm
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu95JMYJHHIQAQedXNyoA?p=James+Carroll+boston+globe&fr=yfp-t-309&ei=UTF-8

Check out the YouTube link.

28 posted on 01/07/2008 6:17:46 AM PST by SkyPilot
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To: Jabba the Nutt

Would Obama’s white mother turn off his black supporters?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, let me put it this way, she would not be an asset to his campaign. If race were not a factor he would not be going along with the “first African-American” bit. Look at Tiger Woods, when people called him the “first black golf hero” or whatever his reply was to say that he is not black or white. He calls himself “Cabralasian”, part black, part white, part Asian, part American Indian. If he were like Obama he would be wrapping himself in the black identity but he doesn’t want to trade on that. It would make just as much sense for Obama to identify himself as white since he is at least fifty percent caucasian.


29 posted on 01/07/2008 8:48:20 AM PST by RipSawyer (Does anyone still believe this is a free country?)
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To: RipSawyer

Oops, I clustied it (clusty.com) and it turns out that Obama’s mother died from ovarian cancer back in ‘95. Too bad, she didn’t make it to see her son’s success. It would’ve been very interesting to see her campaign for him. Alas, it’s not to be.


30 posted on 01/07/2008 8:26:16 PM PST by Jabba the Nutt (Just laugh at them!)
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