Author Topic: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?  (Read 1710 times)

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sirs

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Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« on: January 11, 2008, 04:40:49 PM »
Obama surge means trouble for Jesse and Al

Posted: January 10, 2008

Black South Carolina state Sen. Robert Ford (a Democrat), back in February 2007, warned against a 2008 Democratic ticket headed by Sen. Barack Obama. Ford said, "It's a slim possibility for (Obama) to get the nomination, but then everybody else is doomed. Every Democrat running on that ticket next year would lose because he's black, and he's top of the ticket. We'd lose the House and the Senate and the governors and everything. I'm a gambling man. I love Obama. But I'm not going to kill myself."

Jesse Jackson, too, criticized Obama, during the so-called Jena Six matter. Authorities in Louisiana charged five of six black youths with attempted murder for beating a white teenager unconscious. Jackson felt Barack Obama insufficiently critical, and said Obama "needs to stop acting like he's white."

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson's soul mate, also sounded alarms against Obama, saying, "Just because you're our color doesn't make you our kind." Sharpton also asked, "Why shouldn't the black community ask questions? Are we now being told, 'You all just shut up'?" after a published report that he was jealous of Obama's campaign ? an accusation which, according to Sharpton, came from the Obama camp. Some thought Sharpton jealous of Obama, but Sharpton called such an assertion a ruse, an effort to get an early endorsement from him. "I'm not going to be cajoled or intimidated by any candidate," Sharpton said, "not for my support." A New York Observer editorial said, "The petulant Mr. Sharpton is telling people that Mr. Obama is 'a candidate driven by white leadership.'" Sharpton threw his support to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

For the race-hustling firm of Sharpton & Jackson, Obama creates a dilemma. Why?

In a "60 Minutes" appearance back in February 2007, correspondent Steve Kroft asked Obama whether one could blame race in the event Obama fails to succeed. Obama said, "I think if I don't win this race, it will be because of other factors. It's gonna be because I have not shown to the American people a vision for where the country needs to go that they can embrace." In other words, he's saying if I fail, don't blame race ? a huge rejection of late defense attorney Johnnie Cochran's claim that "race plays a part of everything in America."

Assuming a presidential candidate agrees with you on most issues, a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll asked, which of the following types of candidate would you not vote for? Respondents were given several choices, including: "Woman," "African-American," "Mormon" and "72 years old." The result? Only 4 percent of registered voters ruled out voting for a woman, while 3 percent of voters said they would not vote for an "African-American" candidate. Almost five times as many registered voters ? 14 percent ? said they could not vote for a Mormon or a 72-year-old.

We live in an age where mega-golfer Tiger Woods stands as the world's most recognizable athlete. Hollywood's current box-office leader is black actor Will Smith. Oprah Winfrey, a black woman ? and television's most powerful personality ? earns an estimated $260 million a year, with a $2.5 billion net worth as that medium's most powerful force.

Winfrey, publicly endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time, traveled to Iowa to stump for Obama. There on the stage sat Winfrey, Obama's Harvard Law-educated wife and Obama, himself, who became the first black to head the Harvard Law Review. Surrounded by a sea of mostly white Iowans, Winfrey and Obama spoke to an affectionate crowd that hung on every word.

Did state Sen. Ford reconsider his position after Obama won the Iowa caucus? Ford remains unmoved. "Of course you're going to have white liberals in a Democratic primary vote for Obama," said Ford. "That's why I'm concerned. You've got people in this country who wouldn't even vote for a black for dogcatcher, and now you want to ask them to vote for one for president of the United States?"

After Obama's Iowa victory, a smiling Jesse Jackson appeared on television. This is reminiscent of boxing promoter Don King, who enters the ring with his arm around "his guy." Then "his guy" loses, and Don King exits the ring with his arm around "his guy's" vanquisher. But Jackson came late to the party. Obama reflects a refreshing departure from the politics of black anger/white guilt that Jackson and Sharpton revel in. It's not 1954 anymore ? and most Americans consider this good news. But the firm of Jackson & Sharpton fights battles long since won, committed to viewing the world through race-tinted glasses.

Time for a new pair of specs.


Article

"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Plane

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2008, 05:32:20 PM »
Is refuseing to accept Obama copeing with racism as it is?


Or is the perception of Racisms power exaggerated?


I don't plan to vote for Barak Obama , but if John McCain were black I would vote for him.

Michael Tee

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2008, 06:07:25 PM »
I think there's been some racial progress and the Obama votes seem to be evidence of that, as does Oprah's popularity.   A black athlete like Tiger Woods proves virtually nothing - -  blacks have been winning athletic contests since before I was born - - Joe Louis is a perfect example and he was a hell of a lot "blacker" than Obama.

It's interesting to see the relative degrees of whiteness in the non-threatening blacks - - Obama, Colin Powell, Bryant Gumball, even O.J. (who only became one of the "threatening blacks" after killing two white people) and compare that with the more authentic "blackness" of the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons.

I think it's premature to write off Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton just yet, though.  Racism and its effects are still very much alive in America and all the stats prove it - - percentage of blacks in prison, in the ranks of the employed, in the executive boardrooms, etc.  Sharpton and Jackson are the voices of the all-too-numerous victims of racism, who the crypto-fascists of Amerikkka are anxious to sweep under the carpet.  Obama is like the harbinger of the better future - - votes for Obama haven't yet translated into rolling back the bad stats.  The article is silly in the sense that it mistakes the first robins of spring for the signal to put away the winter gear now.

Plane

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2008, 06:14:35 PM »
Joe Lewis did prove something.

The proveing of which is now redundant , if that is your point.

But Jackie Robinson was proving something that needed proveing , Jim Thorpe also proved it but his proof was rejected unjustly.

http://ak.essortment.com/jimthorpeolymp_refp.htm

Racism used to have tenants , things that got repeated untill they were beleived , and it took a lot of work to kick some of these props out .


That White people are phisicly superior used to be widely beleived and Jack Johnson got arrested mostly for challengeing this established fact.

Michael Tee

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2008, 06:27:15 PM »
<<Joe Lewis did prove something.

<<The proveing of which is now redundant , if that is your point.>>

The only point I was trying to make with Joe Louis was that black athletes have risen to the top a long time before Tiger Woods and a lot blacker than Tiger Woods.  I didn't agree with the article using Tiger Woods as an example of black acceptance, the way Obama was being used.  I think Obama's a legitimate example of a changing public acceptance of blacks, but Tiger Woods is an example of a phenomenon that's been around longer than I've been alive, and Joe Louis is the proof of that.

Plane

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2008, 06:31:09 PM »
<<Joe Lewis did prove something.

<<The proveing of which is now redundant , if that is your point.>>

The only point I was trying to make with Joe Louis was that black athletes have risen to the top a long time before Tiger Woods and a lot blacker than Tiger Woods.  I didn't agree with the article using Tiger Woods as an example of black acceptance, the way Obama was being used.  I think Obama's a legitimate example of a changing public acceptance of blacks, but Tiger Woods is an example of a phenomenon that's been around longer than I've been alive, and Joe Louis is the proof of that.

Are Black Congressmen and Senators also old hat now?

Michael Tee

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2008, 06:48:32 PM »
<<Are Black Congressmen and Senators also old hat now?>>

For Congressmen it would depend on the district they represent, wouldn't it?  Somebody's gotta be sitting in Adam Clayton Powell's seat, that for sure would be old hat.

Senators, same thing.  Where they from, how long's their state had a black Senator?  My impression (and I could be wrong) is that there aren't a helluva lotta black Senators and never has been.

yellow_crane

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2008, 07:05:18 PM »



Obama needs to be very careful going down to South Carolina.

People in the South have a reflex trigger towards "uppity"

He tends to swagger with somewhat the same jig-dancing confidence as, say, Jimmy Swaggert when caught up in the passion of the spirit.

One moment of that particular coalescence and he is toast in Dixie.

Ford in Tennessee comes to mind:  a single inference to his partying with white women and the whole state went cold--at least enough to cost him his prize.


Michael Tee

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2008, 07:10:25 PM »
<<Ford in Tennessee comes to mind:  a single inference to his partying with white women and the whole state went cold--at least enough to cost him his prize.>>

Exactly - - good point.  The "tolerance" is just skin-deep.  And it's strictly reserved for the "non-threatening" black, the white man's black man. 

Don't worry - - Obama's not going to make the same mistake that Harold Ford made.  But if there are photos, expect them to come out in South Carolina.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Trouble looming for Jessie & Al?
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2008, 11:31:23 PM »
Al and Jesse have the attitude that White folks should be assumed to be racists until they prove themselves otherwise.

Obama, who was raised by a White woman and her parents in the least racist state of the Union (Hawaii), projects the attitude that no one is a racist until they prove themselves to be one. He gives Whites the idea that he understands them and does not consider them to be adversaries.

This is the way I see it, at least.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."