Something that bugs me about Obama's 'black' credentials...

Ok, before I begin, in the spirit of; "Let he who questions anothers credentials first open his own to question", I reveal my background; I'm neither black, nor am I even American, but I am an ethnic minority.

I question what Barak KNOWS about just what it is to be, 'black American'.

Yes, he has a black father.
Yes, he was born and raised in America.
Yes, he is therefore a Black American.
(and no, I'm not paraphrasing his election campaign slogan!!)

But, I don't think he has FELT what it is to be truly a Black American. Here's why, forgive me if the point is longer than it need be...

It is my opinion that the worst and most horrific injustice committed against the blacks in American wasn't slavery; slavery was an activity, the intentional imprisonment of human beings. From the systematic ripping apart of black families, to the point where most children never learned how to form their own, you also had equally systematic ripping of skin from flesh, torture, mental as well as physical, the inflcition of horrrs, all were activities. Someone doing something, to someone else. X does Y to Z. No, the worst wasn't that.

The worst crime committed was INACTION. The lack of any salve to the 200 years of hurt. No reparation was ever made. Those hurts were never SALVED. Thousands of trauma councillors were never sent south, thousands of rehabilitation clinics never established throughout the ex-Confederacy. Nobody fell to their knees, tears streaming from their face, and sobbed..."please forgive us, for God may not...".

You've heard the phrase, 'Cruel and unusual'. 'Cruel' pretty much speaks for itself, but 'unusual'? Ever wondered what that is about? Unusual refers to what you are unfamiliar with. We trust our family because we are familiar with them. The Africans weren't expecting to get kidnapped and taken to country that to them, having never read about it in books, never having had a tv or the internet to see it on, must have seemed as alien to them as Will Smith opening the enemy aircraft and finding a pilot with a dozen tentacles. The sheer CULTURE shock they must have gone through. The surprise. They had nothing in their history or culture to prepare them for that.

That combination and scale of unhealed hurts, and unhealed trauma, were unlike anything in human history. They have percolated down, generation after generation, father to son, mother to children, all the way to this very day. The resentment, the bitterness is still evident, subtly in some, glaringly in others.


"Jaybee, we know all this. What's your point?" My point is this:

OBAMA WAS BROUGHT UP IN A FAMILY THAT DIDN'T HAVE THOSE SCARS.

His father was an Kenyan language graduate of the University of Honolulu, his mother likewise. As his parents divorced when he was only 3 or so, he barely remembers thinking about race at all during his upbringing, which was capped off with a law degree at Harvard.

I don't feel his background is representative enough for him to ever claim to Black America, with 400 years of hurt, "I feel your pain". He hasn't, and I don't think he can. And if he had, I would question whether he would have been as successful as he clearly is today.

All thoughts and comments warmly received!!

 

I think you're way off base. I'd advise to read one or both of Obama's books to get a better idea of his worldview. Irrespective of his upbringing in a white family, he knows and articulates exactly what it's like to be a black man in America.

 

Something that bugs me about Jaybee's 'black' credentials.

While we're at it, there's some things that bug me about former President Clinton's 'white' credentials.

 

What base?

I'd advise YOU to learn a bit more about the world of publishing.

And would the COWARD who gave me the negative anonymous rep for this post care to man up and tell me who he is?

 

What black credentials might those be that 'bug' you? Secondly, how about, "Something that bugs me about your 'black' credentials" instead? It's so much nicer to have comments about me made TO me.

It's just polite.

 

http://www.answers.com/off base

Why don't you enlighten me?

 

+1

 

Baseball has no more relevance to this thread than the cost of ink cartridges for laser printers.

What incentive would I have to educate you?

 

As the link that I provided indicates, it's simply an idiom meaning that a person is wrong.

Well, you are the one launched this thread with a lengthy attack on Obama's black bona fides and then proceeded to ask for opinions on what you'd written. You also proffered this mysterious bit of info about the inner workings of the publishing industry as a refutation of my assertion that Obama's memoirs suggest that he's had experiences that mirror those of most black people in this country. If you did in fact start this thread with the intention of having an earnest debate, then you should already have plenty of incentive to elucidate the statement in question. If your intention was to go on a rant without being challenged by anyone with an opposing opinion, you should have just said so.

 

I know. Refrain from idioms and simply state what you mean.

Correct, I asked for opinions, you gave my yours on the matter, which consists of nothing more than the fact you disagree with mine. Thank you. No, I do not seek debate, just expression. I expressed my opinion, and then you did.

If you have anything more substantial to add, add.

 

How the hell is someone who obviously isn't black gonna question someone's "black credentials" like they're not black enough?:smt009

 

One way, out of umpteen, would be as I did in the post with which I started this thread.

 

I think Tony was not referring to the physical impossibility of doing the thing, but how hugely inappropriate it is. That, and, yaknow, rude, tacky, etc.

 

Yeah, I agree with this.

I'm not really sure what "black credentials" are for a start but I know as someone who isn't African [and] American I'm in no place to judge them.

Not really sure how someone who is Indian and British can debate whether Barack Obama can relate to African Americans but whatever.

Anyway, since you think Obama isn't entitled to call himself a "black American", what box do you suppose he check when he's filling in his ethnic background?

 

And you wonder why a wet towel would've been thrown at you.:smt042

 

None was ever thrown at me, no more than a steak was ever thrown at you.

(Let's see if you work out the allusion, T...)

 

I was kidding.