There is no doubt that the nomination of Barack Obama for President is a great story about how far this country has come in terms of dealing with its racist past. Whether you like Obama or not, it's a wonderful sign that he's in position to become the president of this country considering it's sordid past.
But not everyone is probably happy about, namely Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Consider how Jesse and Al are always playing the race card when talking about how poorly black people are faring in our country today. Of course they're premise that all that is wrong with the black community (in their eyes) is due to the white man and the obstacles he as put in place, but still, having a black person one big step away from being President of this country has to hurt their cause. And this, is a good thing.
Think about this:
For the last eight years we've had black Secretaries of State.
We have a Supreme Court Justice who is black, and we've had a black man be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Home ownership among blacks is up.
We have plenty of CEO's of huge companies who are black men.
So it makes you wonder where Jesse and Al now stand? I guess they could harp on how the court systems are unfair to blacks and that there are more blacks in jail than whites. But the fact that most people manage to stay out of jail because they have high-priced attorneys is the key here, not the color of your skin (it worked for O.J., and last time I looked, he was black).
What's sad is that Jesse and Al avoid the main problem that affects the black community, the fact that many fathers abandon their families when their children are young. That is the bigger problem here, since that affects the guidance a child receives growing up (and leads to gang activity) and it also affects the financial situation (preventing children from attending college).
But there's nobody to blame but yourself in those cases, and that doesn't make Jesse and Al much money, so it's not good for their business to bring that up. Good thing Bill Cosby is around to do that.
I don't know about all of you, but I'm having a hard time figuring out who I'm going to vote for in November, as none of the candidates really excite me. None represent the majority of ideas I have, and all have seriously flawed policies on a myriad of things.
But after listening to what Barack Obama said Tuesday in regards to the inflammatory remarks made by his pastor, Jeremiah White, I can safely eliminate him as a choice.
It's not that I think he's naive when it comes to his Iraq policy, or that he has no interest in addressing the immigration issue, or that most of what he "stands" for is change for the sake of change. But what he didn't say Tuesday is bothersome.
Here is a passage from a sermon given by White regarding how blacks in America have been treated:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a
three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no,
no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people,"
he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens
as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she
is God and she is supreme."
Here is one excerpt of what Jeremiah Wright has stated about 9/11:
“White America got their wake-up call after 9-11. White America and the
Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away, faded
in the woodwork, or just disappeared as the Great White West kept on
its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
Obama chose not to disavow or denounce Wright, his pastor and mentor for over 20 years. He will not distance himself from a man who feels that US deserved to get hit by terrorists on 9/11. And Obama didn't really put a lot of distance between himself and Louis Farrakahn, a racist, anti-Jewish person who does nothing but harm tot his country when Farrakhan endorsed him.
I didn't like how Obama made excuses for White, saying that his words are often out of frustration and a feeling of disenfranchisement shared by many American blacks. Honestly, I don't understand how an educated black person in this country can still play the "victim" card anymore. Don't you think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would be thrilled to know how close we are to electing a black president? Don't you think he would be happy to know that a black man is a Supreme Court Justice, and that a black woman is the Secretary of State? And if you think about all of the blacks who own their own homes and businesses forty years after he was assassinated, I think King would appreciate the strides that have been taken in this country.
So when Barack is talking about victims of what he implied was white majority who has kept everyone down, I think he has missed the point. The problem with blacks today isn't about being kept down by "the man" as Obama, and many other Democrats would like you to believe, it's about the lack of father figures in many black families. It's about children born out of wedlock. You can't blame whitey for that.
I'm not telling you to not vote for Obama based on what he said, nor should anyone vote for him simply because he's black. And you shouldn't vote for John McCain simply because he's not a Democrat or for Hillary because she's a woman. But I think Obama, but not saying what he should have, hurt his chances to garner the votes of white people Tuesday.
At least he did with this white person. I'm very nervous voting for a guy who won't distance himself from anti-Semitic, American-hating people who only spread ugliness through their words.
There's plenty of discussion on this site about who you want to vote for. But is there anyone whom you would not, under any circumstances, vote for?
Weigh in here.
