Race and politics (Thomas Sowell)

Jewish World Review ^ | March 18, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

There is something both poignant and galling about the candidacy of Barack Obama.

Any American, regardless of party or race, has to find it heartening that the country has reached the point where a black candidate for President of the United States sweeps so many primaries in states where the overwhelming majority of the population is white.

We have all seen the crowds enthralled by Barack Obama's rhetoric and theatrical style.

Many of his supporters put their money where their mouths were, so that this recently arrived Senator received more millions of dollars in donations than candidates who have been far more visible on the national stage for far more years.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Barack Obama has been leading as much of a double life as Eliot Spitzer.

While talking about bringing us together and deploring "divisive" actions, Senator Obama has for 20 years been a member of a church whose minister, Jeremiah Wright, has said that "G-d Bless America" should be replaced by "G-d damn America" — among many other wild and even obscene denunciations of American society, including blanket racist attacks on whites.

Nor was this an isolated example. Fox News Channel has played tapes of various sermons of Jeremiah Wright, and says that it has tapes with hours of more of the same.

Wright's actions matched his words. He went with Louis Farrakhan to Libya and Farrakhan received an award from his church...

[the invisib1e hand]

The writer, Larry Elder!

wow. that's two.

I know more moderate muslims than that.

[MHGinTN]

There’s always Steele and Rice!

[Snapping Turtle]

Does Oprah belong to that church?

[Rocky]

Another great column by Sowell. Thanks for posting it.

[MHGinTN]

As I understand it, she was an attending member but has withdrawn now ... if it’s too hateful and racist for Oprah, it’s over the edge.

[alecqss]

a black demagogue who has been exposed as a phony deserves exactly the same treatment as a white demagogue who has been exposed as a phony.

Deserves - yes, but that same treatment is still doubtful in the age of "political correctness". It seems that there always be large groups of people who would rather judge person by color of the skin, then by the content of the character.

[AlaskaErik]

There’s always Steele and Rice!

Or Condonesia, as Jeremiah Wright called her.

[MHGinTN]

Which raises an important point: this overt racism and hate-whitey-hustle actually hurt the well educated, intelligent and very capable black people like Condi and Shelby more than it hurts whitey or helps the dupes amening the race pimps like Wright, Freakhan, Jackasson, or Sharptoon.

[Eleutheria5]

“Not just ‘an’, the most formidable mind in the black community.”

Nuts to that. One of the most formidable minds in the entire American community, and in close contention for first place.

[Rembrandt]

I would be very happy if the new Pres/VP were a ticket of Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, one on top one in the second spot, machts nichts.

[MHGinTN]

Would not disagree at all.

[MitchellC]

Another great article, thanks for the ping.

[garyhope]

Yes, it matters. You can stick a fork in Obambi, he’s done.

[Lizavetta]

Equality means that a black demagogue who has been exposed as a phony deserves exactly the same treatment as a white demagogue who has been exposed as a phony.

Precisely.

[Eleutheria5]

“Which raises an important point: this overt racism and hate-whitey-hustle actually hurt the well educated, intelligent and very capable black people like Condi and Shelby more than it hurts whitey or helps the dupes amening the race pimps like Wright, Freakhan, Jackasson, or Sharptoon.”

Actually, it’s hurt a great many more people outside the black community. I worked and lived in New York City for years, and because I have a beard and sidelocks and wear a yarmulke, I was regularly threatened, screamed at, or otherwise humiliated on the subways and the streets by adherents of these “race pimps.” My experience is anything but unique. Then there was the Korean grocery store that was hounded out of existence, and the store in Harlem that was burnt to the ground by a maniac with a gun who was part of the never-ending “protest” outside. They were refusing to renew their sub-lease with a black-owned business, and Rev. Al branded them “interlopers”. Let’s not forget the Crown Heights riots, in which one Jewish scholar was murdered, one holocaust survivor committed suicide, and a few days later one Italian American was murdered in his car, because his beard made him look chassidic.

The harm these people (the Wright/Sharpton/Jackson/Farrakhan/Carson/Daughtry/Whoever demagogues) have done to well-educated, intelligent, very capable black people is a direct factor of the physical and emotional harm that their acolytes have inflicted and continue to inflict on non-black ethnics, be they Jew, Italian, Korean or Anglo Saxon. What they are is fascism in action, folks.

[JasonC]

Americans like the idea of themselves being big enough not to care about race, and like Biden's clean and articulate. But now they realize Obama actually knows other typical modern American black people and worse, actually agrees with some of them in their wild hatreds, conspiracy theories, digust at the great nation on earth, and world historical ingraditude. So the bloom is off the rose.

[gigster]

Right!
“Yeah, sure, I went to those Klan meetings for 20 years, paid all my dues, wore the robe (dashiki), but i never heard them say anything BAD!”
Okay.

[norton]

"...just as his wife's statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology."

Have we heard from Michelle lately?

[jazusamo]

Hah! I haven’t seen or heard anything from Michelle for several days. Someone in the campaign must have finally convinced her to put a sock in it and she listened.

[Ken H]

The fact that such rhetoric is harming successful, hard-working blacks is not a problem for race pimps like Wright. It's the icing on their cake, IMO.