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The Price of a Black President
New York Times ^ | October 27, 2012 | By FREDRICK C. HARRIS

Posted on 10/28/2012 6:13:25 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

WHEN African-Americans go to the polls next week, they are likely to support Barack Obama at a level approaching the 95 percent share of the black vote he received in 2008. As well they should, given the symbolic exceptionalism of his presidency and the modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net.

But for those who had seen in President Obama’s election the culmination of four centuries of black hopes and aspirations and the realization of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “beloved community,” the last four years must be reckoned a disappointment. Whether it ends in 2013 or 2017, the Obama presidency has already marked the decline, rather than the pinnacle, of a political vision centered on challenging racial inequality. The tragedy is that black elites — from intellectuals and civil rights leaders to politicians and clergy members — have acquiesced to this decline, seeing it as the necessary price for the pride and satisfaction of having a black family in the White House.

To place policy above rhetoric is not to ask what the first black president is doing for blacks; rather, it is to ask what a Democratic president is doing for the most loyal Democratic constituency — who happen to be African-Americans, and who happen to be in dire need of help. Sadly, when it comes to the Obama presidency and black America, symbols and substance have too often been assumed to be one and the same.

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: black; blackpresident; election2012; racecard; racism; racists
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To: gunnyg

He’s not black. Not even half black - his father was something like half Arab, I think.


21 posted on 10/28/2012 6:53:24 AM PDT by Glenmore
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
As long as blacks rise in numbers to slander and denigrate one of their own for expressing a conservative point of view it can be forcibly argued that they have made no progress at all.
22 posted on 10/28/2012 6:57:49 AM PDT by Baynative
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To: fieldmarshaldj

The author is grossly mistaken. These are all republican values:

“economic justice” — you are free to work and keep what you earn. Taking money from someone who earned it isn’t “justice”, it is theft.

“civil rights” — equality before the law for all, not special rights or privileges for some (like sodomites, race hustlers, union thugs...)

“social safety net” — the family and fighting against destructive policies which would undermine the solid foundation of our culture; churches which can more responsibly dispense help not govt bureaucrats and carpetbaggers.

But to the liberal race hustler these are code words for govt authorized sin.


23 posted on 10/28/2012 6:59:34 AM PDT by nonsporting
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To: ebshumidors
The author wouldn’t even have his job if it wasn’t for aa.

And what a job it is...Professor of political science and the director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies.

It's the one thing I always depend on in my life, like having electricity, clean water, good roads, a solid roof over my head, gasoline in the car, and a fridge full of food. It's great the professor produces such valuable products. In the evening, I always settle in to read research on AA Studies -- just to keep my mind sharp. It's the most useful product in my daily doings.

24 posted on 10/28/2012 6:59:47 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I have a good friend who is Black and Evangelical. In 2008 she voted for McCain (neither of us liked him but voted for him anyway). Many of her Black, Evangelical friends were voting for Obama. I told her to tell her friends they were voting color over ideology. I even clued them in to his voting against BAIPA. They voted for him anyway. So, for many Blacks, color trumps EVERYTHING.
25 posted on 10/28/2012 7:00:33 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
As well they should, given the symbolic exceptionalism of his presidency

So it's OK for this guy to say black voters are voting on race, but Sununu is not allowed to state the patently obvious that Colin Powell is voting on race?

26 posted on 10/28/2012 7:05:27 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The president has never lived the true experience of the American black. He has also never had the true American experience, culturally. He cannot comprehend the black reality and what they have lived through and their struggles.

The blacks voting strictly by color or race have been totally misled as to whom or what they are voting for.


27 posted on 10/28/2012 7:06:36 AM PDT by Dudoight
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The summation of comments by this “professor’ says it all as to why our kids and grandkids are not getting a useful education.

Despite all the unconstitutional things Obama has done, killing 4 Americans by ‘standing down’ himself, all the debt, all the bad choices about ‘green energy’, this man still glorifies Obama.

Since he is so stuck on voting for color instead of character and competancy, I don’t think he can gripe when millions of Americans also vote on color—white—Character & competancy—Mitt Romney.

What goes around certainly does come around, professor.

For those who helped balance race relations in this country for the past 50 years, my condolences.

Obama has destroyed everything you did & put you all back about 150 years.


28 posted on 10/28/2012 7:11:11 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The best way to really rub “color politics” into the wound is to promulgate the meme that “Obama *was* reparations”.

Meaning, of course, that once Obama is no longer in office, reparations are over, and white people no longer owe black people anything. No more “white people” guilt. Those who work not shall not eat. Objective tests determine who is best for a job. And if somebody screws up or slacks off, what happens to them is their own fault.


29 posted on 10/28/2012 7:16:45 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (DIY Bumper Sticker: "THREE TIMES,/ DEMOCRATS/ REJECTED GOD")
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To: nonsporting

Thank you for the very important clarification. Black folks have been sold a bill of goods for a long time now. They’ve been sucked into an Orwellian nightmare where Emanuel Goldstein is the GOP, their imagined enemy that they must forever rail against. The real enemy is Big Brother, the leftist politics of the Democrat party and these con-artist hustlers that serve the plantation as slave overseers. Booker T. Washington had these hucksters number as far back as the late 1800s. A good dose of his profound wisdom today could set them free again.


30 posted on 10/28/2012 7:18:33 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Racism against whites is coming out of the closet. The Democratic Party, except for a time of transition from FDR to JFK, has always been the party of racism. It has simply shifted around its racism. The Republican Party was formed as a post-racial party and has always been a post-racial party.

On the issue of affirmative action, we don’t mind affirmative action for people based on the objective circumstances, such as being born into a poor family, so that all people can, in fact, have equal opportunity. But, increasingly, skin color is not well enough correlated with being poor, to be useful for identifying the poor among us. There are black people who are rich, and there are white people who are poor. And it is racist and unfair to give rich black people affirmative action and deny opportunity to poor white people.

The Democrats wonder why so many poor white people vote Republican. They think, why don’t those poor white people vote their pocketbook, you know, to get more free stuff from the government. The fact is a greater percentage of poor white people remain self-respecting than do poor black people. Most poor black people have accommodated themselves to the life-style of dependency, promiscuity and violence. Whereas most poor white people continue to aspire to self-responsibility.

It’s not just the economy. We have to shore up the cultural values that undergird success. And, this is with all people, not just this group or that.

First, we have to restore a vibrant economy, so there actually are jobs out there for all who choose to work.

Second, we have to restore real incentives to working for the poor, so they actually have more because they work.

Third, we have to give all people, and the poor especially, alternatives to the failed public school system.

Fourth, we have to honor reserving sex for marriage, love of children, and how being a real man or a real woman means taking responsibility for yourself, your spouse, and your children.

Fifth, we have to be tough on crime and smart about crime. Going after violent criminals, and distinguishing non-violent offenders from the violent.

You can’t separate the economic agenda from the social agenda.


31 posted on 10/28/2012 7:24:59 AM PDT by Redmen4ever
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Black”???

Recall that he who controls the meaning of words controls the outcome of the discussion.

In the context of Critical Race Theory, just what, exactly, is meant by “race” and thus “racism”, “racist” and even “black”? We have a prominent case of “race” in that BHO told us in his own autobiography that in his youth he struggled with his racial identity and finally chose to be ‘black”. However, he also tells us that his mother was Caucasian and his father was from Kenya but listed as part Arab. In 1988, none other than Bill Clinton was called our “first black president” by Nobel poet Tony Morrison.

If a Caucasian man can be “black”, and a person with a Caucasian mother can decide to be black despite the fact his biological father may be more Arab than black or something else, then what, exactly is meant by “black”?

When Bill Maher, during a panel discussion on HBO complains that Obama’s policies are “half-assed” “because he’s only half black.” and that “if he was fully black, I’m telling you, he would be a better president.”, and that “there’s a white man in him holding him back”, than what is “black”?

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien writes of a private meeting in 2007 with Jesse Jackson in her book, “The Next Big Story.” During the meeting, Jackson complained to O’Brien, whose mother is a black woman from Cuba, that there weren’t any black anchors on CNN. She wrote, “He looks me in the eye and reaches his fingers over to tap a spot of skin on my right hand. He shakes his head. “You don’t count,” he says.” She closed the section with “[t]he arbiter of blackness had weighed in. I had been measured and found wanting.”

Finally, Dr. Cornel West, whose official web site describes him as “a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual”, was the subject of an article in the May 18, 2011 Washington Post. Reporter Krissah Thompson opened with, “Scholar Cornel West’s scathing critique of President Obama’s liberal bona fides in a series of recent interviews has ignited a furious debate among African American bloggers and commentators.”

These are all facts that anyone can verify on Google in 0.8 seconds.

References to race, racism and especially to “black”, in all these contexts, is clearly not about “race”. It is about ideology, socialist ideology. The problem is not how black all these people may be, but how RED. With that in mind, to a person who equates “black” with socialist, then “racism” and “racist” is only about people who reject socialism and socialists.


32 posted on 10/28/2012 7:27:37 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Glenmore
his father was something like half Arab, I think.

I see this bandied about here on FR as if it were the truth, but I have yet to find a source. BO's dad sure looks pure African to me, so I dont know.....

33 posted on 10/28/2012 7:38:10 AM PDT by Paradox (I want Obama defeated. Period.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net.

This is hogwash. UTTER disregard? That is absolutely false. Republicans are Democrats lite, they support all those three things. They might disagree on how to achieve or how to define the above, but I have not heard any Republican say they want to gut any of those programs/ideas. What a crock, from a professor? Wow...

34 posted on 10/28/2012 7:41:18 AM PDT by Paradox (I want Obama defeated. Period.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Shocking stupidity. Blacks hurt the most by Obozo policies should go vote for him because he’s half black?

Symbolism? How about jobs!


35 posted on 10/28/2012 7:50:35 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

re: “. . . the modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net.”

The “utter” disregard?? Yes, economic justice, civil rights, and the social safety net, as defined by Marxists and Socialists, should be disregarded. But, that’s the real issue isn’t it?

If, by economic justice, you mean that the government decides what jobs are valuable, where you work, and what salary everyone makes so that it is “fair” to everyone - then, heck, yeah, I disregard it.

If, by civil rights, you mean that all American citizens should have equal standing before the rule of law, then “yes”, I’m with you, but if you mean that in order to “fix” discrimination of the past, or perceived discrimination of the present, the government can grant preferences on jobs, scholarships, business contracts by discriminating in favor of a group based on the color of their skin or their sexual orientation - then NO, NO, NO!

If, by social safety net, you mean that the government should encourage religious groups or other private groups who have a desire to help the poor, the sick, the elderly who have, through no fault of their own, need of financial assistance - then, “yes”, I’m for that. If, by the social safety net, you mean the government should have policies which encourage business (small and big) to flourish, then “yes”, I’m for it. If you mean that the government should have tax policies which encourage people setting up for their own retirement and medical funds, the “yes” I’m for that, too. But, if by safety net you mean that the government should replace family, the church, and the individual for responsibility in taking care of themselves, then NO, NO, NO!

But, again, that’s the issue isn’t it?


36 posted on 10/28/2012 7:50:47 AM PDT by rusty schucklefurd
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To: Paradox

A lot of Muslims claim Arab descent when they are not.

Rush Limbaugh has even claimed that BO Sr. was Arab. But BO Sr.’s Kenyan Luo tribe is in an area where there are/were almost no Arabs.

You’re right. It’s a myth with no reliable source. BO Sr.’s father was black African, a Christian who converted to Islam, not born Muslim.


37 posted on 10/28/2012 7:56:10 AM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: wny

It sounds like racism because it is. I was born during WWII, a mile off the nearest blacktop road and about ten miles from the site of the first secession meeting. I have LITERALLY crawled the rows of a cotton field with a sack strapped over my shoulder, sometimes with a black person on either side of me. Schools were segregated by order of WHITE racists, there actually were water fountains in public areas marked WHITE and COLORED but black people walked freely on the dirt road that ran through the middle of our little farm, they WERE NOT afraid to do so.
My point? I have grown up with black people, served in the Navy with black people, worked with black people and yes I have had black people visit in my home and sit at my table. My wife and I have even gone on vacation with a black couple. The racism that I see exhibited so blatantly and openly now is not the anti-black racism of white people, it is the anti-white racism exhibited so openly by some black people and Barack Obama openly encourages this black racism. I sincerely hope that black Americans do not fall further into this trap. Think about it, is it right that a white comedian must walk on eggshells but Chris Rock and others can refer to whites as crackers, whiteys, redneck MFers or whatever racist term they prefer yet it is the blacks who are supposedly being mistreated? Is it right that gangs of blacks can roam around looking for a white person to lynch? It is time for white people who have done nothing worse than apologize for being white to start demanding equal rights! Millions of white people voted to put Barack Obama in the white house while almost no black people will vote for a white person if there is a darker skinned alternative yet it is the WHITE VOTERS who are racist? Come on people, wake up!


38 posted on 10/28/2012 7:56:19 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Free healthcare is worth FAR LESS than it costs.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Any voting bloc that sends such clear, unmistakable signals that it can be taken for granted has effectively consigned itself to a well-deserved future of mediocrity and misery.

This, my friends, is the African-American story in America right now.

39 posted on 10/28/2012 8:07:39 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The Dems have sacrificed civil political discourse on the altar of racial pandering. They completely ignore actual ideological differences and concentrate solely on skin color.

This little gem from DU is the perfect illustration of their total abandonment of reality replaced by the single obsession of skin color...

Insane.

40 posted on 10/28/2012 8:14:04 AM PDT by Tex-Con-Man (Muppet season now open - no bag limit)
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