Posted on 07/22/2008 10:08:46 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
(CNN) -- "We had a dream. Now it's a reality."
That's the slogan on a popular T-shirt linking Sen. Barack Obama's presidential run to the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality. It's one of several T-shirts -- including "Barack is my homeboy"-- that reflect African-American's euphoria over Obama's White House bid.
But there are others who warn that an Obama presidency could hurt African-Americans. They say that an Obama victory could cause white Americans to ignore entrenched racial divisions while claiming that America has reached the racial Promised Land.
Paul Street, author of the forthcoming book, "Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics," says Obama risks becoming an Oval Office version of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. She and former Secretary of State Colin Powell are African-American figures whose popularity allows some white Americans to congratulate themselves for not being racist, he says
"They're cited as proof that racism is no longer a significant barrier to black advancement and interracial equality," says Street.
"This isn't new. Go to the 19th century and Southern aristocrats would point to a certain African-American landowner who was doing well to prove that whites are not racist."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Don’t worry about “black America”. Do your job. Raise your family. Serve your God. The rest will take care of itself if you do that.
Just his nomination has done that, set back race relations 50 years.
It would hurt all Americans.
Does anyone so not have a life as to waste that life watching a CNN? Come on!
“Whatever you do, please don’t take away our race card.”
Because I am pretty certain Uhhbama is going to lose this election, his candidacy will prove to have hurt black America greatly and will have assured the election of a black candidate is delayed by at least a generation.
It’s not enough.
To the NAACP and their ilk, it will never BE enough.
}:-)4
hurt black America? Try an Obama presidency hurts America period!
What will it do to “Black America” if he loses?
It will prove that running an election by turning groups of people against each other actually works.
If anything, race based politics will increase and spread.
“Whatever you do, please don’t take away our race card.”
Yep.
It is a most comfortable and convenient crutch, and a built-in excuse for any shortcomings and ...ahem....misbehavior.
I was concerned about this myself.
Some blacks will look to Opossum and say, “He will take care of us, now.” while some whites will say, “Let Oppossum tackle the black plight.”
A lose/lose position for everyone, really.
Racial equality? Are blacks forcibly segregated? Do they not have the right to vote? Do they not share the same rights as non-black Americans in every last respect?
It hasn't been about "equality" for a long time now; it's about $$$ -- the perpetual victimhood industry.
Only in liberal CNN land can a black man’s success be bad for blacks.
They’ll wait for the next black candidate to come along. The first Irish Catholic to run for President didn’t win, either.
Some folks will not be happy until they have a green light to go and “loot the Food King”.
You can never, ever win with jerks like Street.
I know that a terrible Presidency by Barack Obama will also hurt the credibility (by leftist supporters) of both Jesse Jackson, Sr. and Al Sharpton among all other leftist political activists who are black.
Not just black Americans. Every American. Illegals I don’t know about yet.
“Hurt black Americans?”
It’s going to kill all of us. Hussein Obammy is the end of Western civilization and the world.
The biggest phony ever (besides Jon Carry, Al Bore, Reid, Murtha, Boxer, Pelosi, Schummer, etc., etc., etc.).
What happens if after 4 years little or nothing changes? Is unemployment going to end? Will poverty and despair be things of the past? How about all the violence in the black community we are always hearing about? I have to wonder, if conditions are essentially unchanged in 2012, who gets blamed then?
Race relations... do you mean, perhaps, the way that people of lesser melanin content now view the culture of those with greater melanin content?
Because I believe those with lesser melanin have been bending over backwards and forwards to accomodate this culture, while they hold onto THEIR hatred and division.
All Obama’s candidacy has done is bring that hatred and derision to the surface where we can see it.
If Obama loses, it will be because America is racist - guaranteed talking point, and a guarantee of the perpetual victim culture holding onto their perpetual grievances.
However, a “black” candidate may be elected before your prediction, if he’s a conservative.
Bingo! Obama will be the new poster child for the KKK. The people he will hurt the most are blacks. He just can’t live up to the high hopes they have. Slowly they will realize that he isn’t really black.
Typical white people clinging bitterly to their guns and religion.
Right now I’m thinking about the backlash we will face from infatuated black Americans if Obama loses in the fall.
Obama supporters, for the most part, are basing their voting decision on thebasis of skin color alone. They know nothing of his history, his policies, his beliefs, his background, etc., etc.
As more of his “swing” supporters begin to discover the facts about him and change their position on supporting him, he loses more and more. The more his negatives rise and are exposed, the greater the chance that he WON’T be our next president.
This fall will be a truly historic election.
They wont have a choice but to wait. I just wonder what their attitude will be the morning after if he loses?
When African-American candidate Alan Keyes ran for President nobody paid any attention to him. Of course he wasn’t the most liberal senator ever!! So what does that say about the black community? To me it says they will go and live and think as they do now,nothing will CHANGE. 14 million black children dead because of abortion out of 55 million dead children. Martin Luther’s niece is at least trying to take the fight against abortion to political leaders to STOP federal funding. She tells the story of her own abortion and the effect on her life and faith. If Obama is elected in this country it surely will be a slap in Gods face.
I voted for Keyes in the Texas GOP primary this year. The Left won’t be able to say I am a racist just because I’m voting against Obama’s presidency.
I think the election of an extreme liberal black man, like Mr. Obama, will ultimately hurt the overall cause of black integration in America. Mr. Obama’s liberal world view will cause him untold grief as President and, most likely, result in a one term presidency and an attitude by white America that we’ve “been there, done that” with negative results making it that much more difficult for a black man, irregardless of philosophy, to be elected in America. If Obama were more moderate he’d be more acceptable for most people. But, beholding as he is to the left wing of his party, he’ll have to make moves to placate them if he wants to continue in office.
Especially his ardent support of abortion anytime, anyplace for any reason. And guess which ethnic group loses 40% of their babies to abortion? I guess he figures that no harm is done to a constituent if you don't let the constituent be born alive (or kill him if he is born alive).
“Right now I’m thinking about the backlash we will face from infatuated black Americans if Obama loses in the fall.”
Well, that’s what guns are for.
It will sure hurt Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. See Shelby Steel’s article today on WSJ editorial page.
That's happening anyway. The umpteenth CNN "Black in America" special doesn't pack as much umph as the first one may have.
But I guess there's some logic to the notion. If Obama loses, it will be blamed on White America and racism. If he wins, race is going to be as much of a bore as its already become for most Americans.
But lately it seems to have devolved into a scheme.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.