Umm, I need you to do me a favor. Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask you for money or anything like that. What I am asking is real simple. I'd like you to read the following post. Its a post from a person in my blogroll in the blogosphere outside of this social network. I'd like you to read it and leave me a comment telling me how you feel about what he said. This is a blog written by another Black man who in my opinion (inspite of what I think of this blog entry) is pretty sharp.
In the last 6mths, I've come to know some pretty intelligent bloggers with different views. Some of them I can identify with, and some of them miss the mark from time to time. Lets be honest, we'll never always agree, and we're not supposed to. In my book, if we all agreed as bloggers we'd never learn anything from each other. Its just sad that some bloggers are sensitive, and take offense to the posting of opposing opinions on what they write. But as you know, I love a good debate. So having said that, read this following blog post and tell me what you think. All sections that are bold were done by me, and not the author. These are the just some of the things I take issue with....
AIN'T BLACK LIKE ME!
By: FreeMan Press
I waited and I told you I would wait before I commented on Barack Obama. I knew if I came out right after the election you wouldn’t be so open minded you would probably think I was shitting on him. So since we are about a month into the president elects pre-presidency maybe just maybe you can look at things differently. I still know some of you are celebrating another BLACK FIRST and as you get ready to go to the Inauguration so you can cry with your folk and say I was there, let me pull your ear to this…….
Barack ain’t Black Like Me! Barack is the son of a African Father and White Mother. He doesn’t share slavery with me, he doesn’t share civil rights with me, he doesn’t share his family migrating from the south with me, he doesn’t share the family structure like me, he doesn’t share the history of anger and frustration with me, he doesn’t even have the same blood from my ancestors in his veins. Just because he happens to have my color I guess I’m supposed to jump in the air like the masses have finally accepted my race. I know I’m pissing some of you off but keep reading! How many Blacks do you know who grew up in Kansas? How many blacks do you know who have been raised only by whites?
I look at Obama from my own experiences of people who are mixed race and don’t know where they fit in. Like usual Black Folks accept our own without conditions and in this case I believe Barack noticed that and felt comfortable. If you see Barack during his younger days you notice he had a Afro, played Bball and from reading his book seemed to feel he was of two worlds. I’m confident until he met other Black people everyone wondered what the hell his name meant, but most Blacks we know someone with a Arabic name or a African name so we probably let it go. He has white parents so I’m sure he cannot go as far as most Blacks go with the white people issue and really nor should he that’s really not his fight.
Barack is the son of a immigrant African and a White Woman from Kansas. He is truly African-American and not to be confused with the way our people like to confuse themselves with these dumb ass titles. We have to understand that just because someone has the same color as us doesn’t mean he truly understands us. If you ever look at most Fiji, Panamanian, and even Ghanian people they are within our Black color hue range. Now our brain lets us know these people might not share in our history but when this fact is brought up about Barack it’s seen as not worth talking about.
The only redeeming value I see in Barack is that his color didn’t let him blend in. I think his wanting to belong led him to the Black Church with Jeremiah Wright. First I’m sure he felt accepted and second I’m sure through his interactions he got the history that was never told to him his whole life. Then since he married Michelle he had to truly take on and understand her families point of view on the world. Also, since he has kids and those kids are considered to be African American. Finally, I believe Barack Obama chose to be associated with Blacks as this is the area he chose to work and we are the race he chose to marry into. I know you have met other people who don’t see themselves as Black and have done a lot to keep themseleves separate.
Solution: I bring all this up to say we as Blacks shouldn’t expect Barack to see the world the way we see, experience and live. Most of your life is shaped between the ages of 5-18 and if you look at Barack it has no similarity to mine or most African Americans who were brought here by slavery. He is pretty much adopted African-American and the most I believe we can hope for is that he has been on the bad side of racism but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t really get it because he doesn’t share our history. So on January 20th when all of you start crying and boo hooing and making a holiday out of the swearing in of someone who happens to look like me remember he ain’t Black Like Me!
Now before you guys start making a issue out of him being bi-racial that’s not what I am saying here at all. Most if not all Blacks from Slavery are mixed race too as it is in my family. So please don’t tell me Tiger Woods is the same because he is not his father was a Black Vietnam War Vet and you can tell Tiger has a true understanding from first hand knowledge. Also, just because you are raised by white parents doesn’t make you lesser of a Black person as I know people first hand whose white parents really tried to make sure their black kid knew they were black. This is really about someone who doesn’t even share not one blood of our history being idolized as if he is one of us.
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Now, I think those of you who know me, can pretty much run it back to me what I think of this post. Am I right? Yup, you guys know that I do not agree with what this guy had to say on this. And you people probably already know that I have, and plan to continue holding Obama accountable as a politician. Because him and I share the same skin color, I do not plan on giving him a pass. I'm sure that if you've been reading my blogs you know that by now.
I'm also sure that you're aware of my passion for racial issues, topics or discussions. Having said that: am I wrong to challenge this man's opinion? Am I wrong (based on what he presented) to say that this guy is full of shit? If you click the link provided or embeded in the title of his blog, you can see my response. Matter of fact, you can see the intellectual asswhoopin I put on his ass. Damn I love me. But seriously, I wanted to post this to see what you guys think.
Personally, I'm not into the defending of Barack Obama business, but somehow I can't help but to check people on the ignorant shit they say about him, or the stuff they say on the discussion of race, and race relations. And just because you're Black doesn't make you an authority on the reality of race, racism, or race relations. Trust me, I've read some of the most ignorant stuff about race from Blacks as I have Whites. And me being me, I spare no moment or opportunity to attempt to set shit straight.
The author of this blog and myself have been going back and forth on this for a few days now. The funny thing about our exchange, is that he responded to me thinking I was a White man! He felt that by him being Black and me being White, that I was wrong or was unable to understand racism or the Black experience. I thought that was interesting. Maybe I'm wrong, but unlike him, and many other Blacks I've encountered, I do believe Whites understand racism. They may not experience it as a minority would, but they damn sure understand it or else they wouldn't dish it out. Am I wrong? For my own sanity, I'd like to know what you think. Matter of fact, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you click the provided link and leave a comment or share your thoughts over there as you would here. Is Barack Obama a different type of Black person? How does an African American not share the same bloodline of anyone directly from the African continent?
link: AIN'T BLACK LIKE ME!
15 comments:
Great post and this statement alone says it all "In my book, if we all agreed as bloggers we'd never learn anything from each other" I love the exchange and I do believe you are correct.
@jjbrock: I firmly believe that. I can understand someone maybe getting emotional by another blogger expressing a difference of opinion. But not being able to hold emotions in check and communicate properly is part of the problem. This is why communication is of the utmost importance in my book.
Aww damn, so by his summation, I must be the darkest, collard green eating, basketball playing, kinky haired having, brownest Irish person ever..awww damn...let me go change my site's name to Funky Irish Chick...LMAO!!
@(fŭng'kē) [blak] [chik]: Nah that wouldn't work. You'd have to take away "funky" and replace it with "bougie"...LOL!
You know,for myself, what keeps me from identifying a lot is the income gap. I was reared in poverty and continue to have a modest income as an adult. It's hard for me to relate to people who have never known need or even want.
O M G! You called me bougie! LOL!
I refute that statement!
LMAOOOOOOO
Yo look for my call later tonight.
@blackberry: Now that I can understand. The economics of racial disparity is a little bit different. Whats funny is that even with a White mother Obama wasn't that much different economically than some current Black families.
Most white people are not rich either.
I see more Jewish people driving German cars than I would have imagined, given their recent run in with the Nazi's.
Slavery has a certain amount of significance, just as the civil rights ear holds a certain amount of significance, but investing everything I am in a person in the past while I am alive and living in the right now is, as that congressman said last week, "assbackwards".
"Whiteness" in America is a construct - I have an entire series on this that I might spotlight again, but there is no way that the Italians, Irish, Germans, French, English, Dutch, Norwegians, Spaniards, Poles and Czechs could have melded into one racial identity in America without leaving most of their cultural heritage at home when they went out to interface with the world everyday.
"Whiteness" has appropriated all of the middle of the road characteristics from these groups, which is why if you go to Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, England, Holland, Norway, Spain, Poland or Czechoslovakia, you will see much more of the ethnic flair that these people who comprise the bulk of white folks in America than you see here.
@ Brown Man - Great points.
@ Marley - This is the internet, not the Bloods vs the Crips.
@ Rippa - I wasn't born in Hawaii but I went to college there. Hey, I'm mixed too. Maybe Obama is Black Like Me.
Nah man, you both did fine stating your POVs at that site. I disagree with him on this point but on the whole he seems pretty sharp.
As far as the financial gap, that's just a limited definition of Blackness. It's the whole divide and conquer mentality that tends to hold us back.
Barak is just as Black as one's mixed cousin Poochie who hangs out on the corner.
As quiet as it's kept, not all black people in this country are alike.
Our history of slavery comes in different flavors. Many African countries were oppressed and held bondage by Europeans. Many African-Americans were descendants of blacks who came to the US as indentured servants and were freed when they paid off their their debt. Not all of us lived in slave states.
Some of us came up in poverty, but were given advantages of education even in that poverty.
I could go on and on. To the whole "Not Black Like Me" argument, I have to respond, "so what!" Nobody is "Black Like Me" either. My life experiences give me a different perspective of race than what you have, and that can be said of everybody if you delve deeply enough.
I voted for Obama because he is a brilliant man, knows the constitution, shares many of the same ideals that I do, knows how to bring together the best minds, and will do better for this country than any other candidate.
I celebrate him as a black man, regardless of who raised him, the world sees him as a black man, the racists who came out of the woodwork during the campaign, see him as a black man. Obama was a child during the Civil Rights Era...so what. That does not lessen his ability to understand on a personal level what racism is.
@Brown Man: That slavery living in the past thing you said was deep, and very profound.
@Marley: I read your comment over there and it was well said. I shake my head at the people who confuse NATIONALITY for race. He kept refering to Trinidadians, Jamaicans etc. as not really being Black like African Americans. I thought that was really ignorant.
@uglyblackjohn: Oh man its like I said here and even in response over there: I'm a fan of his blog, and yes he is sharp. However, on this one I just don't agree, and I'm disappointed that he had to take his responses to me where he did by thinking that I was white. Even if I was, what he was saying was in no way supportive of our race per se through Obama.
@saraphen: Excellent sharing of wisdom. We as a people are not all the same and to assume that we are isn't a good thing. Its putting us all in the same box. As you pointed out, we are all shaped differently by our experiences, and even so, it doesn't change or lessen our melanin affliction...LOL!
@ Marley - It's the internet. It's where we exchange ideas and concepts. No need to ask.
@ saraphen - Salient points.
@ Rippa - Ignorant, well maybe on this topic. But this is where these exchanges become important. Who wants to read their own opinions written by different people over and over. We all learn from each other.
I've said since the beginning that Obama is just a man. He is a black man. But he isn't God. I think people are rooting for him not just because he is black, but because him being elected means progression. I know many of us never thought we'd see a day when there would be a black man in office.
I totally disagree that he does not share the same bloodline. He's half african damnit! Africans were black last time I checked. But. . . I could be wrong ( smh )
I see where dude was trying to go with his argument but I disagree. I don't think because Obama has a white mom makes him any less black. I think it's ignorant to assess that to be factual. It's an opinion and one that I can't dig!
I say people need to hold Obama accountable as the next man who will be leading the country and not give him a pass because he is BLACK LIKE YOU.
amen!
superb column!
i have never been blacked out by the blackish obama/gwb 2.0
he is not my brother or my god!
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