But Is He Black Enough?
Posted by: tony on 08/20/2007 08:53 PM
Updated by: tony on 08/20/2007 08:53 PM
|
Expires: 09/20/2007 12:00 AM
|
I was reading Leonard Pitts from the Miami Herald who is syndicated in my local paper. He is talking about the discussion of whether Barak Obama is "black enough".
Leonard states:
Forget `black enough'
For the benefit of Tucker Carlson, the ''black enough'' question proceeds from the lamentable fact that some black people have subconsciously bought into centuries of racist rhetoric that holds black to be synonymous with hardscrabble, poorly educated and scorned by whites.
Obama is upwardly mobile, Harvard educated and beloved by many liberal whites. So he is regarded by some with suspicion. However, as he noted in Las Vegas, he is certainly physically definable as a black man and his legislative history shows an affinity for issues of importance to black people.
So the question of whether he's ''black enough'' reveals more about the people asking than the man being asked. Liberal and black and conservative and white, we have projected our own realities upon this guy, have written like mad upon the blank slate.
This is a legitimate question. Because Barak Hussein Obama is a blank slate. He's handsome, articulate, charismatic, and has really no record to run on. As a matter of fact, the record he has is dismal.
What he does have is brown skin.
Professional boxing has long been dominated by talented black and hispanic men. There has always been talk about the "great white hope" who is the white man who will, against all odds, rise to the top and beat all the black and brown men for the world championship.
Barak Obama is the "great black hope".
Since this is his primary attribute, and whether he likes it or not, he's running on it, it's reasonable to discuss it.
I think the big question of "whether he's black enough" is tied to the question "is institutional racism over in America?" If we can elect a black president (or even vice president) we can say with a certain degree of confidence, that yes, institutional racism is over in America.
When John Kennedy was elected president it marked the fact that institutional anti-Catholicism was over in America. Oh, you have pockets of anti-Catholicism here and there in certain areas, but the election of Kennedy proved that people had gotten over the anti-Catholic bigotry and were able to vote for a Catholic for president.
There are those for which the end of institutional racism would mark the end of their careers. Race Entepreneurs™ like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind. It is in their best interest to perpetuate the myth that institutional racism is alive and well because we didn't really elect a black president, we elected an "uncle tom" or an "oreo" or whatever the latest term of derision is for someone who is believed to be "black on the outside and white on the inside".
I for one would love for Obama to prove his black bona fides. It might even be worth it to vote for him if I thought it would put the likes of Jackson and Sharpton out of business.
|
