My Cynical Unsolicited Advice to Barack Obama

* Keep remaining positive.

* Bring out your white grandmother, instead of letting cousin Said do most of the speaking half a world away.

I saw a freeper remark that 'that's not going to play in Peoria', regarding your family in Kenya because the kids were barefoot and there were chickens running around on a dirt floor in his father's home village.

I think those are good things to see, because family is family and America is the world. It makes you exotic, worldly, experienced. The world isn't an abstract for you, it lives and breathes with you. You have a deeper understanding than most Americans for being part of the world instead of just vacationing in the world.

America, however, in spite of being the world, is also a mighty racist and insular place.

Remind (white) America that you are not a 'foreigner' by reminding them that a white woman bore you for 9 months, and took care of you until she died of cancer; and then another white woman raised you into the man you are today after the death of your mother. Don't make an issue of it by words, though, but by a small action:

Bring your grandmother out so she can gush over her grandson, like any grandmother would do.

Remind these people that you are not foreign, but you are just like them (if more intelligent and accomplished); and a woman who looks just like them loves you and is proud of you and is rooting for you.

Sure, she may not want to be bothered since she's probably as old as my own grandparents, 80ish....but I think that actually seeing the love this woman has for you would go a long way to nipping the 'black men are beasts preying upon defenseless white women' motif that's rumbling under what happened in New Hampshire.

You are not to be feared, because this woman does not fear you. She loves you. She is proud of you. She is proud to stand beside you, your wife, and your beautiful little girls. You are part of her family, and she is part of yours.

You see, for me, there is no way that a comment like 'you're likeable enough' should be greeted with as much heat as it was, as if it were the greatest insult in the world that a black man would simultaneous a) seem to sexually evaluate a white woman and then b) evaluate her as only likeable enough instead of kryptonite.

There are layers to the madness, and the anger. The pedestal -- and the hypocrisy it upholds -- shook.

To have that overshadow the King remark -- but nevermind.

Let your mother's mother speak. Hillary wanted her softening, 'humanizing' moment?

Your white (and yes, it's important her race in spite of you not wanting this to be about race) grandmother may have to be yours.


Ok, I'm gonna take a shower with a scouring pad.

I...wow.

:popcorn:

NYT: Women’s Support for Clinton Rises in Wake of Perceived Sexism (I really, really hate not being able to name authors, it feels like a sin of omission to me, but rules are rules; and I understand that folks may not want their names attached to things which they have no control over and may not mean their pieces to be used for)....

There is a response there, which struck me. You can read the full response here, and who made it:



but I agreed with it. It struck a cord with me. And as I began thinking about what the author said, other comments made by folks this weekend about Obama and his family and who was missing and who is speaking up for him....... and the shrillness of the hatred towards Barack Obama (and to a lesser extent, John Edwards) which was later backed up by the exit polls.... something needs to be done.

It all came together for me. And that's why I wrote the above.

Barack can show he's all-American just by being himself and being with his family, a family who loves and supports him and has always loved and supported him, especially in a time period in America when they would have been looked down upon and called... some pretty nasty, hateful names.

Obama is American, as well as of the world.

Some parts of America need to be jolted out of their complacency that he's a foreigner and outside of themselves and not like themselves. This may be a way to do it.


But there may also be better answers to this. Do you have any?

That stinks. I'm glad he had his grandmother, but it's not the same.

As for his being raised by his grandparents, that was my understanding, that his grandparents had raised him for most of his life. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/1836.html">The Washingtonian states

Maybe I'm way off, or live in a completely different culture, but it's pretty cut and dry in white America. You're a racist, or you're not. Racists aren't going to care if he surrounds himself with the KKK, it's not going to change one single vote. Everybody else is more interested in the values he was raised with than the color of his family's skin. That's what always strikes me when I hear Michelle, who always talks about both their families and how they were raised.

Maybe this would make a difference in other parts of the country, but it doesn't make a hill of beans difference where I live. Then again, nobody I know bought into any of the attacks or crying nonsense either. In fact, we'd kind of like her to knock it off and just run her campaign.

What I'm proposing is a solution to soft racism. Perceptions can matter, and I'm disturbed by those who claim that he's foreign, or that he looks foreign.

I'm also disturbed, again, by the shrillness by which so many women insie of and outside of New Hampshire have implied that Barack Obama and John Edwards insulted all womanhood on Saturday night. I am very disturbed by it.

I'm disturbed that Hillary Clinton manipulated that.

I'm disturbed that, apparently, there was something to manipulate in the first place.

So this proposal against soft racism would also be a proposal against female chauvinism and against female fear of men, and white female fear of black men. You know, to prove that Barack Obama is not a demon Muslim Man who has offended the flower of white womanhood by judging it and finding it wanting.

The exit polls showed that the over 40 crowd was owned by Hillary. Maybe that crowd needs to see one of their own (not meaning Michelle) intimately embracing Obama. Giving him 'street cred', except I don't know what the term would be older white females.

Since this is an offensive suggestion, however, and those who have already made up their minds to irrationally hate Obama cannot have their minds made up, what would you suggest instead, to create a 'he's one of us' vibe with folks? (or at least, take away the 'he's a foreigner' excuse.)

I just don't think it's quite the problem you think it is, or that there's any solution at all for the racists that do exist. I don't think there really is a soft racism anymore. I think the best way to get that "he's one of us" vibe is to send out Michelle. When she talks about neighborhood public schools and a dad who was a city worker, and grandma babysitting, she's making that connection and she does it brilliantly.

Those people who use the Muslim foreign garbage are ignorant jerks who are most likely going to vote Republican no matter what. I tell them to take their KKK meeting the hell away from me.

was promoting the LIE that Obama is <gasp!> "a muslim." :crazy:

I was pleasantly surprised when the moderator "Steve" corrected her and asserted, "Obama is Christian." :eyes:

And it's useless to design any campaign strategy around them. Take their KKK shit the hell away from me, like I said. I don't know how else to deal with them.

I live in a supposedly "enlightened neighborhood" in NoVA but my immediate neighbor felt free to share with me their *shock* that their teen who spent the summer at her Grand-ma ma's in Orlando was dating an <shriek> African American.

Gee, how ironic, because my best friend (second to my husband of 25 years) on this earth has blonde hair, blue eyes, translucent white skin tone ... and you can't make this stuff up ... my best friend is married to an African American.

Truth is, those of us "white" skin toned Americans (use the Jim Crowe "brown paper bag" as the standard) are often tempted, if not automatically begin to STEREOTYPE "groups of people" just like our "darker" skin toned Americans. We do this on a myriad of issues and categories.

No, NH and other "northern" states harbor, IMO, ALSO harbor their fair share of racists. You are not "above it all" even if your SAT scores are higher. :eyes:

I clearly said there are racists, and not racists. I didn't say they were overt about it. I just said that's the way racism plays out these days. Racists don't pretend they're going to vote for black people, they don't think they have to. All they have to do is pretend they're evaluating people on their character, not their skin color. When they think they're "safe", however, the racism comes out. There's nothing soft about it. It's blatant and clear and they'll never pretend they're going to vote for a minority and then switch in a voting booth. They don't need to anymore, they can just say they're color blind and like the white guy better.

The racists - are not going to change. It's foolish to build a campaign around them. Forget them.

Whether those stereotypic thoughts and feelings can be construed as "racist" "sexist" or perhaps, "anti-bikers." (I have to admit that there are times when, like Denis Leary's skit, I am genuinely tempted to HATE "biker assholes.")

Perhaps you may consider "searching within" because EVERYONE has prejudices and EVERYONE stereotypes? :shrug:

We all have those "dark places" and WE ALL have times when we entertain prejudicial thoughts about those of other ethnic races. It's what you do to resolve and "rise above" those basal impulses is what matters, i.e., do you act on it through covert discrimination?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pGSjkWf87Q

and dismiss their prejudices - or they don't. That's exactly what I mean. I don't think there is soft racism anymore. People are just too aware and have been confronted with so many of the subtleties that they've either chosen to deal with it by now - or they never will. To build a campaign around those who won't deal with their prejudices or racism seems to be a useless strategy to me.

each morning and say to themselves, "I'm going to fuck over some minority today."

Quite the opposite: No one likes to be labeled, but those who you proclaim to be racist are the very people who will go to the ends of the earth to convince YOU (and perhaps themselves) that they are NOT Racist.

"Stereotyping" is automatic and a natural tendency for humans to make sense of our world. Sometimes untoward feelings of "Prejudice" soon follow. The forgoing states are not static.

Nurturing your marriage or valued friendships, EVERY HUMAN must constantly reassess the temptation to "give into" feeling of prejudice that may harm others inappropriately.

No, NONE of US are immune from feelings of prejudice, but only when you *understand* the true basis for those feeling that we can REMAIN non-racist.

Like "racists" don't acknowledge their behaviors as discriminatory, the rest of us can not, in turn, *flip a switch* and proclaim to be ABOVE all forms of stereotyping and prejudice. It's exactly that "I'm above it" attitude that manifests itself in the most insipid and distasteful examples of covert racism.

My neighbor who was aghast that her daughter was dating an African American would strongly deny that she's racist. I was shocked and hurt to discover this side of her ... but it is "very real."

Anything that humanizes a candidate is helpful.

The rabid racists are not going to vote for ANY Democrat, black or white.

There is, however, a lot of residual racism even among liberals and moderates. Humanizing the canididate by bring out grandma would help. And give people some more reasons to like Obama.

I need a shower after reading this piece of shit.

Just sayin'.

And I specifically chose the option to have my profile shown, when I set up my journal. If I screwed up the profile option, I'll recheck it. Now, there's not very much in my profile, mostly because there isn't much to say about myself; and I usually let me posts speak for me about who I am and where I come from.

I didn't even want to check the 'sex' box, and usually don't.

If you want to know something, you can private message me or email me.

**** I just checked. In my journal options, my profile is 'on'; however I don't have a 'profile' option next 'journal', 'private message', 'buddy list', and 'ignore'. The profile section of 'Options' doesn't give me an option to turn profiles on or off.

I don't know whether people aren't allowed to view their own profiles from their responses, or if this is a matter to contact the webmaster for technical assistance.

i'm tired of seeing this shit.

But I don't believe ignoring them/pretending they don't exist is the way to fix them.

Do you, really?

That's why I suggest it.

Don't let this particular irrational argument grow, through ignoring it.

Now the Clintons' b.s., much of that I'd suggest ignoring the racial angle and just focus on policies and neutrals.

So your advice for him to convince America that he's not THAT black?

Stupid.

The covert Muslim, the arrogant black man....

Even now, there are people who are trying to say that Obama is some kind of black power militant who will 'get back' at whites and has an army of black people behind him.

They don't see that the vast majority of his support has come from whites and they don't want to see it. They don't see the schizophrenia within the black community regarding Obama, and they don't want to see it.

The Clintons are working that 'Obama is black' vibe like a spider luring flies to her web. Obama is a man who happens to self-identify as black. He is not a black candidate, he is a candidate who happens to be black.

His tightrope walk is a lot tighter and deadlier than Hillary's, because Hillary can actually RUN as a woman who will get back at centuries of male abuse, and get away with it. There were women in New Hampshire and around the country who rallied around her precisely because of that -- they called themselves feminists, but they don't want equality, they want to overpower. They want vengeance.

I'm not down for what Hillary is representing.

Hillary has no idea how easy she has it, because she can campaign as 'The Woman Candidate'.... but Obama cannot campaign as 'The Black Candidate'; she has no idea, and she doesn't care, because this entire campaign is about what she feels is due to her. It's b.s. But she tries to turn this around on Obama, who isn't playing this game at all.... and it works, because too many people are less comfortable with what inclusive Obama represents over what exclusive Hillary represents.

What does it mean, for a country to be more afraid of a black (man), than of a (white) woman?

Racism trumps sexism. Hillary and Bill are using that covert racism attack angle, instead of policy. Obama has shown that he can deftly handle them when it comes to policy.

The Clintons are out for blood; the 'kid' (boy) doesn't know his place.

It's frustrating to me.

So I say, nip some of that web strumming in the bud; show people that Obama really is about being a bridge, and love. He doesn't care for the old racial politics, and is refusing to fight using those tactics -- but the Clintons *are* hanging onto the old gender politics, the Clintons are willing to use the old gender and racial politics to their advantage.

There is no reason -- none -- for women to talk about a Hillary presidency as being payback against men; and yet women talk like that with pride. There is no reason -- none -- for women to dismiss their daughters and granddaughters as being lesser feminists and non-feminists because those daughters and granddaughters don't see themselves locked in mortal combat with men, winner take all instead of both lifting each other up. And yet, women have been talking like that even here at DU all week.

It's mind boggling.

There really does need to be a changing of the guard.

The Clintons appeal to people who haven't given up those old gender politics, the old ways of thinking, the old ways of accounting a 'win'.

That's why Obama clicks with a younger generation. They don't want the battles of their parents and grandparents. They want to move forward.

The Clintons want to cling to the past.

It sucks to realize one has grown old, Lions in Winter. I'm there. But the way the Clintons have handled this is unacceptable.

WASHINGTON -- After White House hopeful Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, he turned over "pertinent" files from his state Senate office to his successor and did not keep other office records.

Senior strategist David Axelrod said Sunday night, "Files pertinent to ongoing casework were passed to Kwame Raoul, his successor."

Regarding papers from his eight years as a state senator, Obama said in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," "We did not keep those records.":wtf:



The question about Obama's state Senate records was raised in the last week because Obama has been pressing chief rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to speed up the release of her records from her days as first lady and making government transparency a major campaign theme.:evilgrin:

Last Friday, during a press availability in Des Moines, I asked Obama if his records existed, and Obama said he did not know. "You know, I'm not certain, Lynn," Obama said. "As I said, I didn't have the resources to ensure that all this stuff was archived in some way . . . it could have been thrown out."

The day before, Obama told the Chicago Tribune, "Whatever remaining documents that I have are inevitably incomplete, and then the question is going to be where's this, where's that. Once I start heading down that road, then it puts me in a position that could end up being misleading.":wow:

"Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert, following up, asked Obama, "Where are your records?

"Tim, we did not keep those records," Obama replied.:wow:

Obama said that every "single piece of information, every document related to state government was kept by the state of Illinois and has been disclosed and is available and has been gone through with a fine-toothed comb by news outlets in Illinois."

There is no central repository of records between state lawmakers and state agencies, and Freedom of Information Act requests must be filed to obtain documents, a process that has been taking months.
edit spelling...

Many woman are not assertive nor an unabashed "pushy broad" such as myself but please rest assured, we're far from alone. The M$M spews vomit that consistently falls-out to serve "the status quo."

It has been my sincere pleasure to enjoy your company (reading your witty posts on a number of threads) and I hope you have a wonderful day. :hi: :hi:

BTW I'm using "a brillo pad" in da shower. ;)

And I see you have no problem with that vile crap. Enough said.

Those who truly believe that a third DLC staffed Executive Branch will even begin to institute "change" and/or bridge the partisan divide is what some here would term as demonstrating a "freeper mentality." :(

I used to think that I was the only one who wasn't afraid of bipartisanship and reaching across aisles and seeking compromise instead of scorched earth vengeance tactics which ultimately lead nowhere.

There really are people who think that being a Democrat means destroying the Republican party and removing their voice and their concerns. There really are people who see the Republicans as nonhuman demons instead of people who have made a different choice from one's self and probably just need an alternative to make a third choice closer to where one stands.

And there are Republicans who feel the same way about Democrats.

That type of thinking doesn't help anyone, except the politicians willing to exploit such nasty impulses for political gain... and no intention of following through (see also, the disappointed Republicans who thought George Bush was going to be their 'Crush and Destroy the Democrats' savior).

We need to do better. The Clintons don't represent that better. Obama may. Hell, Edwards may. But the Clintons absolutely do not. They are business as usual --

and business as usual is going to hurt us.

:evilgrin:

Maybe the volume needs to be turned up.

Whoa! You rise above it and that's that!

Black and White?!?

After all I'm messing up your HRC "perpetual victim hood" pity party which, IMO, has mostly to do with DLC dirty politicking with a dumb a** press corps that is willing to spin every-which way. :thumbsdown:

Hint: Neither "racism" and "sexism" are that simple and I'm far from immune to feelings of prejudice.

I'm profoundly prejudice against HRC on the basis that I despised the wives of senior officers who would use their husbands' rank to run US "subordinate wives" ragged. Yes, that is a true prejudice but it is based on experience. I know that I must temper this but not to the point that I would ever vote for such a personality. Now that's prejudice, but it sure as hell is NOT what could be construed as "sexist."

Just perhaps people do not TRUST The Clintons due to their demonstrated bouts of duplicity and triangulation? Perhaps some people despise those traits in democratic politicians? Perhaps the DLC's constant belittling of "the base" does even less to endear us to HRC?

Just perhaps ... ?

Find one post where I support HRC or DLC. I dare you.

Just perhaps you're barking up the wrong tree...?

are talking about his book. He wrote something like the only place he felt at home was Kenya.
I think it might be best for him to 'be America'. I don't think he has to showcase his white grandmother. But highlighting that he feels more Kenyan than American might not be the best thing.

I don't know.

I see your point. But it really hurts me to see some folks insist that Obama is not American because his skin is dark.

Is that the only thing those red state friends focus on? or did they focus on the why he would feel that way as well? were they offended, or self-righteous? or relieved? or contemplative?

That's why I suggested his grandmother, his mother's mother. This woman helped raised him, and loves him. Her presence can stand for something -- Obama is not a foreigner, and those who seek to categorize him as that will have to deal with the reality of his mother's mother. He was not adopted, he was born.


I didn't know how else to put this. But apparently, some feel I have made a racist suggestion by even bringing this subject up. I appreciate those who say that perhaps it isn't the best way, bringing his mother's mother into the picture to shut up those who insist he's some 'fairy tale' or 'foreigner'.

But it was the only thing I could come up with to nip two birds with one stone.

Thank you for your response.