Obama Speech Reactions

Reactions that I wanted to share...
From The Nation:

Blues For Obama
The Nation 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

The Nation -- Win or lose, whatever happens next, Barack Obama is now established as one of those rare, courageous teachers who leads the country onto new ground. He has given us a way to talk about race and our other differences with the clarity and honesty that politics does not normally tolerate. Whether this hurts or helps his presidential prospects is not yet clear, but he has done this for us and it will change the country, whatever the costs to him.

His words should discourage the media frenzy of fear-driven gotcha. His speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday may also make the Clintons re-think their unsubtle exploitation of racial tension. But nobody knows the depth or strength of the commonplace fears streaming through the underground of public feelings. No one can be sure of what people will hear in Obama's confident embrace, beckoning Americans in all their differences, leaving out no one, to a better understanding of themselves.
Read on...

From Blogging While Feminist / Plain(s)feminist:

The speech.

I do not remember, in my lifetime, anyone saying anything like this, in this way, to a national audience. Even though he is not saying anything new, because he is saying it publicly, because America is listening to him, I feel like it's the first time in my life that any of it is being said outside of communities of color. And because of that, I want to focus on what I think is the importance of what he said to White people.

Read on..

This is sad but true stuff..
From La Chola:

obama picks up the race discussion

Obama gave his speech on race.

It was a good speech, a stirring speech. But I can’t help it. I’m disgusted. Not at Obama, but at the world. I honestly think that Obama’s candidacy hangs on a thread at the moment. I am not sure if he’s going to be able to pull himself out of the mess he is in. Many people aren’t as doom and gloom as I am, but I also work and live in Midwest U.S.A. and I’ve not heard good things so far from *any* white person. Not one. Obama is suspect to them. His patriotism, his loyalty–they are all suspect, and they are all suspect because Obama KNOWS somebody who believes in racial justice. Obama has never ONCE been an overtly “demand accountability from white folks” sort of dude in his political career.

Read on..

And one comment on the Washington Post site said it well:

Obama's speech was so remarkable that I no longer care whether he wins the nomination or not. He won. Period. This country may not be ready but the fault is not his, it's ours.

Peace, Love and all that Hippie Shit!
-Stuff Daddy

The Speech We Will Remember Hearing.....

Its almost 38 minutes, but its worth it.

In my opinion, without exaggeration, this is the most important, detailed, honest and accessible speech on the topic of race, given by a mainstream personality or politician in my lifetime.

You may want to watch it, I have a feeling our children will be studying it.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGBbTW

Borack and "The Black Best Friend (BBF) Zone"

Leave it to Plain(s)feminist to get me writing again.
Her post "On Rev. Jeremiah Wright."
Got me typing..

I've been thinking a lot about the fragile area of esteem that was first occupied by the great Joe Louis when he became the first modern, widely respected and openly admired Black American celebrity. Over the years the heavy weight was put upon the sturdy, humble backs of folks like Jackie Robinson, Nat King Cole, Sidney Poitier and Colin Powell.

In this very narrow area, even the most racist of folks will embrace a black pop star, actor or four star general as good enough to be given respect and admiration. This "Black Best Friend (BBF) Zone" has adapted over time, but it has a social trigger capable of snapping back at those who dare attempts to inhabit it.

In the 50's Nat King Cole was a thought of as a "gentlemen," good enough to be on TV, but only until his friendly embrace of a guest's hand, one that happened to be a white woman, stirred up the ever present fears of black sexuality and deeply offended the American public.

Despite Oprah's unquestionable success, she still exists within this zone. While cultivating an almost cult-like following among white women, she still caused a great rift with her supporters when she choose to support Borack Obama over Hillary Clinton. Perhaps her audience connected with her as a woman, but did not allow her to also inhabit a black identity.

In Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" John Turturro's character Pino explains both his love of black superstars and his acceptance based on the diminishment of their blackness:
"It's different. Magic, Eddie, Prince are not n*ggers, I mean, are not Black. I mean, they're Black, but not really Black. They're more than Black. It's different."

Now Borack Obama, has fallen into an almost inescapable whirlpool, stirred by the words of his long time adviser and church leader the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Whether or not his words have any truth to them, they are angry, loud and black and they are openly definable by white ears as more of that "black racism" that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanity and the rest of angry white America defines whenever they start a sentence with the phrase: "the only problem I have with black people is.."

This is that same embrace of a white woman's arm, the same uproar when when Mohamed Ali had the gall to exhibit an ego, the same shock felt when Malcolm X stated that that yes, if attacked by an armed man, he would not hesitate to defend himself with arms. Had these actions or words been expressed by a white person, would they even be noticed much less trigger disfavor?

Those who embrace this reaction do so without recognition that they are judging differently based on racial preference using on a different scale, exercising a severe double standard. These voters are now seeing the dream of the "black, gentlemen candidate" as horribly tainted. Somewhere deep inside, they feel betrayed, "I thought he was a nice black man, is he just another one of those people?"

While the "crazy" and "angry" statements of Rev. Wright are played over and over again, cementing themselves in the voting publics' mind, many will never compare them to the similarly violent and angry daily rantings of conservative talk radio stars and religious leaders who hold similar posts of prominence and advisement to many current politicians who don't have to wear and weather rhetoric that doesn't come from their own mouths.

I think once the fragile area of esteem is tainted in the white publics eyes, it will take a miracle for Obama to survive these words that he did not say. I don't think Geraldine Ferraro understood that Black Americans only get one chance to fit the mold, to live up to impossible standards. It's really very easy to stir up a "fear of a black planet" in the mind of a white voter. For Obama, its going to be a very hard road from here on out.

So What if Obama and Clinton were both white guys..

I agree that it's a given that being black or a woman adds a historic significance to to both candidates. However, just being "Black" sure didn't get Obama and his extremely effective campaign where it is now. Ferraro, basically cuts him down to color, says that he is there only because he's black, not because he's a great communicator, or extremely smart or someone who has a lot of experience connecting to the public on the activist level. She takes away from him all his accomplishments and says "All you are is a lucky, black man!"

The way I perceive it, Ferraro sees Clinton as the most qualified canidate and sees Obama as a man who is sliding past her because of sexism in the press and in the populace. So she sees it as acceptable to call him a lucky black man, who somehow just waltzed into the front runner position. The disdain that the Clinton campaign seems to have for Obama supporters also seems to run along these lines. Its all about demeaning and belittling him, "he's giving false hope," "he's only here because he's black," "he'd be a wonderful VP," can you imagine anyone having the nerve to say the seriously about a front runner, especially when they are also calling them unqualified?

I think the Clinton campaign has made a vital error in this approach, I don't think it's been calculated, perhaps it's reactionary, coming from an "old guard's" entitled sense of superiority. I fear for the Democratic party, because it's so close to splitting in two over the venom thrown around.

Taking the premise that Obama and Clinton are both white men, I think Obama would win hands down on his communication skills, broad reach and rallying power alone. Clinton is smart, but a very poor politician, with many legal and ethical skeletons.

Sadly, those who focus so much on the gender gap for Clinton may not realize that Obama has a much larger possibility of loss if you believe inherent racism runs much deeper and more violently in the white and Latino community then the inherent gender bias. I think people forget that the "acceptable black man myth" is a bit more of a fragile standard then the "acceptable, executive white woman." If you're Joe Louis, Nat King Cole or Sidney Poitier, whites will support you, but if Clinton's people can just taint that image a little, like others did last year against Harold Ford jr. in a commercial showing a topless white "Playmate" mouthing "Harold call me," or when Nat King Cole's groundbreaking TV show was taken off the air because he touched a white female guests arm, then Obama's campaign can and may be destroyed by playing on fears like spreading photos of Obama in African garments or belittling an intelligent, accomplished opponent as the result of tokenism.