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Black's Dilemma With Obama
Townhall.com ^ | August 22, 2011 | Star Parker

Posted on 08/22/2011 4:15:28 AM PDT by Kaslin

Election of our nation's first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does -- their actions -- is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It seems ridiculous to point out that this was supposedly the point of the civil rights movement. Purge racism from America.

But blacks themselves have been the ones having the hardest time letting it go.

It is not hard to understand why black Americans were happy that a black man was elected president of the United States. It was kind of a final and most grand announcement that racism has finally been purged from America.

But for the highly politicized parts of black America this was certainly not the only message. Because for the highly politicized parts of black America, the point has always been to keep race in American politics.

For black political culture that dominated after the civil rights movement, the point was not just equal treatment under the law, but special treatment under the law. Plus the assumption that more black political power -- defined by more blacks holding office -- would mean that blacks would be better off.

In other words, post-civil rights movement black political culture embraced an agenda exactly the opposite of what the civil rights movement was about. Its agenda was to get laws and policies that were not neutral but racially slanted and to put individuals in power based on their race and not on their character and capability.

So, according to the script of this political culture, election of a black man as president meant more than an end to racism. The conclusion had to be that if the man holding the highest political office in the nation was black, it must follow that blacks would be better off.

Now blacks have a dilemma. We have a black president and blacks are worse off. Not just a little, but a lot worse off.

In the words of longtime Congressional Black Caucus member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., "Our people are hurtin'.."

Blacks now grapple with two possible conclusions.

One, our black president is a traitor to his race. Our struggles put him in power and now he's not taking care of his folks. He's become, in the words of left wing professor and activist Cornel West, a "mascot" of Wall Street.

Or, two, that the man's performance reflects his views and his capability, not his race. He's not delivering for anyone. Blacks are hurting more because they were already in worse shape when Obama got elected. Bad policies hurt the weakest the most.

And it happens that the bad policies that have always failed are the big government liberalism that has defined modern black politics.

With further thought, blacks might realize it's this same flawed idea -- that growing government and electing black politicians would make blacks better off -- that explains why blacks have remained disproportionately "hurtin".

Take the Congressional Black Caucus itself. The average poverty rate in Black Caucus districts is almost 50 percent higher than the national average. Yet, these black politicians have 100 percent re-election rates.

Maybe a real bonus that will have come from electing a black president is that blacks will take seriously Dr. King's dream that we judge men by their character and not their color.

The Civil Rights Movement took blacks to the edge of the Promised Land. But political activism can only remove barriers to freedom.

It's up to the individual to embrace freedom and take on the personal responsibilities that go with it.

Maybe blacks will realize that they should blame Barack Obama. Not because he is black, but because he is a liberal. And because he has grown government to the point where the oxygen necessary for freedom and prosperity is being squeezed out of our nation.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bhofascism; cbc; democratplantation; democrats; elections; liberalism; liberalracism; liberals; nobama; nobama2012; obama; progressives
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To: Kaslin

“Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does — their actions — is what matters, not the color of their skin.”


Bullcrap.


61 posted on 08/22/2011 8:30:44 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: folkquest

“If only they would have listened to MLK when he said to judge a man by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.”


Unfortunately, MLK is nothing but a prop to many liberal blacks and whites who don`t believe in anything he said or fought for.


62 posted on 08/22/2011 8:41:50 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: T-Bird45
Please note I did not say they should try to say they are white, either. I totally understand very few “blacks” are fully so throughout their ancestry. The construct of “race” is as much cultural as it is anything remotely related to sciences like genetics or anthropology.

Maybe not, but you did say he(and his supporters) shouldn't call him black because he was half white. That amounts to the same thing. What do you want him to call himself? A half breed? He calls himself black for two reasons: One, he looks black. Two, he gets more sympathy that way. A third reason is because there is simply nothing else he can call himself and not be ridiculed for it.

63 posted on 08/22/2011 8:46:35 AM PDT by calex59
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To: Kaslin

The problem blacks have with racial equality is that when it actually arrived it scared the crap out of them when they realized they might have to be responsible for themselves.


64 posted on 08/22/2011 8:46:46 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: Prov3456; ilovesarah2012

It’s comforting to see individuals with such in depth perspectives who find the most pressing issues in life are punctuation and spelling.


65 posted on 08/22/2011 8:53:31 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: Kaslin

Racism can only end when race no longer matters. Instead, government has institutionalized racism with affirmative action, EEOC, minority-based congressional districts, etc.

Liberals are obsessed with race and they spread that disease to the rest of us. Jim Crane, who is trying to buy the Houston Astros, and CEO of a large international shipping firm, got in hot water for allegedly saying “Once you hire black people. it’s impossible to fire them”.

What is he really saying? He’s saying that there is far more cost and damage to firing an incompetent black than firing an incompetent white, so why hire the black person to begin with? Blacks see that as proof of discrimination. I see it as proof that he’s a businessman who has learned from his mistakes (although he didn’t learn not to openly discuss it).

To any black Democrats, I’d simply note Obama had big majorities in both houses to pass practically anything he wanted for his first two years in office. Then I’d ask “How has Barack Obama improved your life?” If their answer it that their lives aren’t any better, then I’d tell them either they mistakenly believed that government exists to improve your life and perhaps they should reconsider that belief or that they were simply lied to an swindled by a political party that cares about their own power, not the welfare of their people.


66 posted on 08/22/2011 8:54:25 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Obama: The Dr. Kevorkian of the American economy.)
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To: CynicalBear
Spelling and punctuation are important. We don't want to look like DU.
67 posted on 08/22/2011 8:56:21 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: uncbob

“White Liberals are the worst —Especially the Know it All arrogant college educated types”


If I got a nickel everytime I have seen a white liberal, upon meeting a black person, tell that person that they watched Roots, I would have lots of nickels. Sheesh.


68 posted on 08/22/2011 8:56:51 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: uncbob
White Liberals are the worst --Especially the Know it All arrogant college educated types

I must admit, I got a kick out of the scene in "Malcolm X", where the lily-white liberal college coed walks up to Malcolm and asks him if there's anything she could do to help his cause, and Malcolm just looks at her and says, "No."

69 posted on 08/22/2011 9:00:19 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Kaslin
This entire article needs widespread circulation. So truthful and well-written. Thanks for posting this. I've sent the link to everyone on my e-mail list.
70 posted on 08/22/2011 9:08:22 AM PDT by liberalh8ter
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To: CynicalBear

Not really. Someone asked a question, and I answered it. That’s all.


71 posted on 08/22/2011 9:09:50 AM PDT by Prov3456
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To: Kaslin
It's up to the individual to embrace freedom and take on the personal responsibilities that go with it.
Maybe blacks will realize that they should blame Barack Obama. Not because he is black, but because he is a liberal. And because he has grown government to the point where the oxygen necessary for freedom and prosperity is being squeezed out of our nation.

Rejoice Republican! While our gal Star channels Booker T. Washington, her thoughtful, well-meaning articles should have the effect of lowering Barack Obama, Jr.'s support in the African-American community to a low, low 97.8%! In fact, I bet at least 12 "persons of color" will be affected by reading this article and switching at least one of their registrations to "Republican!"

Hold the presses! Was that a pig that just flew by my window?

72 posted on 08/22/2011 10:18:20 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (America. Too late to fix. Too early to start the shooting.)
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To: chessplayer

I agree wholeheartedly. I was never fond of the man, but they made him something that he never was. The Pres-ent wants to think that he is following in his path. They have twisted that path so much, that there is no way of finding direction on it.


73 posted on 08/22/2011 10:36:10 AM PDT by folkquest
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To: calex59

I don’t really care what he calls himself — he can be a purple-polka dotted hippopotamus if he wishes. My point was about the author, Star Parker, so easily accepting Obama’s self-applied label that ignores the fact of his white heritage. It shows the continuing success of the repeated lie technique behind the “one-drop” baloney of Jim Crow. As a matter of principle, I think conservatives ought to try to own precise language as a logical tool of discussion. This is merely an example.

Have a good day, my FRiend!!


74 posted on 08/22/2011 10:41:15 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: Lazamataz
Best. Article. Ever.

It is indeed up there.


Where there's a shell, there's a way.

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.

Do it!

75 posted on 08/22/2011 12:15:48 PM PDT by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart.)
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To: T-Bird45

Excuse me but what you said in your original comment was that Maxine Waters shouldn’t call him black because he is half white. I said that black is the only thing he could be called because that is what the blacks in this country do, regardless of their blood mixture. Therefore you did care what others, including himself, called him. Let it lie there and good day.


76 posted on 08/22/2011 9:57:15 PM PDT by calex59
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To: tarotsailor
The last time in my area that a black woman put a sign for a Republican candidate on her lawn, her car was torched and her house vandalized...and the constabulary seemed unusually reticient to pursue.

Oh, man.

77 posted on 08/22/2011 10:19:31 PM PDT by thecodont
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