Posted on 10/23/2011 7:28:08 PM PDT by neverdem
When Barack Obama was elected president, millions of Americans believed that the United States finally was entering a postracial period. But we are seeing old divisions return.
When Barack Obama was elected president, millions of Americans believed that the United States finally was entering a postracial period when race no longer mattered in any serious way. But the Obama presidency has, ironically, heightened racial tensions, and we are seeing old divisions return.
One of the most unexpected developments resulting from the Obama presidency has been the resurgence of conflicts and name-calling among blacks themselves. Not since the heyday of the Black Nationalist movement of the 1960s and 1970s has there been such bitterness among blacks about who is "authentically black" and who is not.
The source of this renewed infighting is the dashed hope that Obama, the first black president, would improve life for blacks - "his people." Life has not improved for blacks under Obama. The unemployment rate among blacks is 16.7 percent, nearly double the national average. Forty percent of black children are living in poverty, and the housing crisis has hit blacks harder than other groups.
Many blacks are disappointed and angry, and those who speak out and question Obama's performance are having their loyalties to "the race" and to the first black president challenged. Some are being called, among other insulting names, "Toms," "traitors" and "sellouts."
Media personality Tavis Smiley, Princeton University professor Cornel West, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, and former pizza CEO Herman Cain, a Republican presidential candidate, are four of the most outspoken critics of Obama's performance.
During the summer, Smiley and West conducted a 15-city "Poverty Tour." On their website, they say the tour was "to highlight the plight of poor people of all races, colors and creeds so they will not be forgotten, ignored, or rendered invisible during this difficult and dangerous time of economic deprivation and political cowardice."
Referring to Obama's debt ceiling deal with the GOP, West said the measure was a "war on the poor" and that Obama "has no backbone." Later, he said of Obama: "He can speak to Jewish voters. … He can speak to gay voters. … Why can't he speak to black voters?"
Waters, while critical of the president, has not been as harsh. "The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too," she said. "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. … We want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. But our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is."
But West, Smiley and Waters are being excoriated. During one of his recent syndicated radio segments, comedian Steve Harvey, for example, accused West and Smiley of using personal vendettas to undermine Obama's re-election prospects. He mocked the outspoken duo as being affiliated with UTLO.org, an imaginary website whose initials stand for "Uncle Tom Look Out."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, an Obama loyalist, who has a radio show and a television program, issued a stern warning to the president's black critics. "I'm not telling you to shut up," he said. "I'm telling you: Don't make some of us have to speak up."
And then there is Obama critic Herman Cain who, in addition to claiming that racism in the United States "doesn't hold anybody back in a big way," said that Obama has "never been a part of the black experience in America" and that black voters are "brainwashed" for being loyal to Obama.
On the Joy Behar Show, entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte attacked Cain, along with black Republicans in general.
"The Republican Party, the tea party, all of those forces to the extreme right have consistently tried to come up with representation for what they call black, what they call the real Negroes and try to push these images as the kinds of voices that America should be (looking) to," Belafonte said. "So we've got Condoleezza Rice. We've got Colin Powell. They are heroes for some people, but for a lot of us they are not. And Herman Cain is just the latest incarnation of what is totally false to the needs of our community and the needs of our nation. I think he's a bad apple and people should look at his whole card. He's not what he says he is."
The fear for black leaders is not that the internal squabbles will cause Obama critics to vote Republican. It is that too many will stay home and deny the first black president the votes needed for him to return to the White House.
Herman Cain : Both parents black. His ancestors were slaves in America and he personally lived through desegregation and made something of himselof despite whatever odds. Showing convincgly to this day that he does not need the DNC PLanatation to get ahead.
Barack Hussein Obama : Mother was whte, father was a black kenyan. His father’s ancestors sold his own people into slavery. Obama did not live through desegregation and his grandparents raised him in relative ease. He maintains that the DNC Planatation is necessary and has pushed to increase its influence and power.
Now, you tell me who is the most authentic American black of those two.
They hate Herman Cain precisely because he has shown the way of how any person in America can make good with ingenuity, hard work, faith, and reliance on fundamental moral principle.
I believe he will cut into the DNC and Obama’s hammer lock on the black vote. Maybe not hugely...but even 5-10% more will be decisive.
The biggest assemblage of morons in the history of representative democracy.
I believe Cain can pull 30%+ of the black vote. Remember, GWB got 16% in 2004.
I am confident that we will see that despite all of the divisive rhetoric we are hearing right now amongst left leaning people, once the demonization of the GOP and all non "O" candidates begins and keeping them constantly on the defensive not allowing them to talk about issues, the majority of liberal robots as well as minorities will fall back into line and stay on the proverbial plantation so to speak.
But, there are a lot of Black people who are pissed at Obama. And, I’ve said for months that the Black turn-out for Obama in 2012 will not equal 2008. They will NOT clean out the Crack houses, the Jail houses and the HO houses like they did in ‘08. The new has worn off, the novelty is over. The “stay at home” voters who are angry and/or apathetic could be enough to turn the Election.
. . And there is a ton of money in “race” - that’s why the Sharptons and the Wests and the Gates and the Spike Lee’s won’t get off the talking points.
Kinda like “Homeland Security” - somebody’s making a lot of money in the usual ways . . .
Check out JeffHead.com, Marxism in America, lots of politicians.
That may all be true, but, even with Herman Cain as the nominee, I think the best result for Republicans will be 90% for Obama, 10% against. A lot of people are just not ready to admit they were wrong about him. This includes many stupid liberals who happen to be white. It would take a full-on depression to sway many of these people. Even in that case, many would draw the wrong conclusions and just say that Obama was not liberal enough.
Whatever happens in November 2012, it is going to be close. One, because the Republicans truly are the “stupid party” and two, far too many obamabots are still “clinging to” their “hope and change”.
Many blacks can't like Cain because he's too black.
“Divide???? No divide at all...95% in BHO camp..divide>>??? What a joke.”
I have to agree. There is no divide. When it comes down to it little Barry will get 95% of the Black vote.
Remember this? Tuesday, February 10, 2009: Florida Moocher begs Obama for new car, kitchen, at Ft. Meyers town hall.
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2009/02/florida-moocher-begs-obama-for-new-car.html.
As long as black folks think this way, they will remain on the Gubmint Plantation.
See my tag. 0bama is like a mechanic who promised he'd fix your car claiming he knew his thing. If later he claims the damage was so bad, it simply shows that he actually didn't know a squat about what was going on then. If he knew, even if things were worse than he thought, at least he would have a short-term solution to slow down the damage. Obviously he didn't because things has gotten worse.
Obama has “never been a part of the black experience in America” and that black voters are “brainwashed” for being loyal to Obama.
... and he was EXACTLY right !
0 was raised by white folks in Hawaii !
“He can speak to Jewish voters. … He can speak to gay voters. … Why can’t he speak to black voters?”
Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?
Whites never agree enmasse, why should the blacks? The country is America, not black America or white America. The black libs need to first, toughen up, and secondly,look at, up to, and listen to the Clarence Thomases and Herman Cains of the USA, and possibly their plight might improve. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.
I wish there was a “LIKE” button on here.
I agree 100%
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