Freedom Rider: White America is Crazy for Obama
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
"Obama supporters want him to be their man, even when he
tells them that he isn't."
Barack Obama drives white people crazy, some because of love
and some because of hate. Pundits and politicians have lost their collective
minds because a black man has a chance to be president. Psychotic episodes and
outbreaks of foot in mouth disease are spreading faster than bird flu, all
because of Barack Obama.
Racism, like a familiar refrain, is the cause of much of the
madness. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the
latest Clinton supporter to experience political Tourette's Syndrome in regard
to Barack Obama. "You can't shuck
and jive at a press conference. . .," Cuomo said with a straight face. He tried
to backpedal by saying he meant "bob and weave." Such is the effect that a
black face has on the lizard brain that still prevails among much of white
America.
Hillary Clinton's white feminist supporters experience their
own Obama-related mental breakdowns. In a New York Times op-ed Gloria
Steinem tried to defend her support for Clinton by saying that Obama is not
as well qualified but instead gets a pass because he is a man. She claims that
women have it harder than men of any race, and by way of explanation pointed
out that women did not have the right to vote in America until 1920, fifty
years after constitutional amendments gave black men the franchise.
"The otherwise intelligent Steinem developed selective
amnesia about lynching, poll taxes, and all the terrors inflicted by
segregation."
The fact that black men in most of the country were
effectively barred from voting
until the passage of the Voting Rights Act went
unmentioned in Ms. Steinem's column. The otherwise intelligent Steinem
developed selective amnesia about lynching, poll taxes, and all the terrors
inflicted by segregation when defending her candidate.
In 2006 Steinem had this to say about Clinton:
"I disagree with her very much on the war. I feel otherwise she's good on
issues. But the war is huge." Not huge enough. Steinem has fallen prey to the
siren song of upholding identity politics even when her candidate doesn't
identify with her.
The third category of Obama-related neuroses comes from
creepy white people who profess undying love. Chris
Matthews of MSNBC gets teary eyed at the sound of Obama's voice. "Obama's
speech made me cry," said the biggest hack on television. Matthews is well
known for developing man
crushes on conservative white men, from President Bush ("Americans love
having a guy as president"), former Senator Fred Thompson ("Can you smell the
English leather on this guy"), or Mitt Romney ("He has the perfect chin, the
perfect hair, he looks right"). Matthews' public profession of love for Obama
is telling and it doesn't tell us anything good about the object of his
affection.
"O'Donnell believes we
should let check-bundling fund raisers choose presidents for the rest of us."
Television pundit Lawrence
O'Donnell is so besotted with the black candidate that he is ready to throw
a white one under a bus. "If John
Edwards stays in the race, he might, in the end, become nothing other than the
Southern white man who stood in the way of the black man. And for that, he
would deserve a lifetime of liberal condemnation." O'Donnell believes we should
dispense with democracy and let Iowa, New Hampshire and check-bundling fund
raisers choose presidents for the rest of us. Obama's candidacy is indeed historic.
The corporatist pundit class prefers a black man if he is running against a
white man who speaks out against corporate corruption.
Sadly, too many black people with a lifelong history of
supporting a progressive agenda suddenly become tongue tied or verbal but
nonsensical when they attempt to justify their Obama love. Obama tells outright
lies such as, ". . . what ails
working- and middle-class blacks and Latinos is not fundamentally different
from what ails their white counterparts," yet the love fest goes on without question. Obama
supporters want him to be their man, so they continue in denial and conclude
that he is, even when he tells them that he isn't.
"Voting for
someone who acts in opposition to our interests makes us dupes, chumps to be
quickly disposed of after the inaugural ball."
It is tempting to sign on with
Obama because of smears from Clinton supporters like Cuomo, or because of
Gloria Steinem's convenient ignorance about black history or her bizarre
allegiance to someone who dismisses her. Some attacks on Obama will be racist,
some attacks on Clinton will be sexist. Supporting either one of them for those
reasons is nothing but capitulation to the madness and a recipe for political
disappointment.
Citizens should identify with
politicians who believe as they do. Acting otherwise is to be in a constant
state of bamboozlement. Neither the nonsense spread by hack pundits nor the
grotesque smears of politicians should play a role in our decision making.
Simply put, voting for someone who acts in opposition to our interests makes us
dupes, chumps to be quickly disposed of after the inaugural ball. They are
already prepared to send us to the political garbage dump. We shouldn't make it
easier for them.
Margaret Kimberley's
Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York
City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an
edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com.
More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
Assata Shakur wrote the introduction and this poem for the 1990 book Hauling Up the Morning: writings & art by political prisoners and prisoners of war in the U.S.
Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez Mina is strengthening diplomatic relations with African countries and their connections with Colombia's African descended communities.
They called Assata Shakur a fugitive; we claim her as a compass. Her work and her words will continue to chart the path toward our liberation.
The empire has a new plan for Haiti, a return to military occupation dressed up as humanitarianism. Like past occupations, it will only increase the suffering of Haiti's people.
While Gaza burns, a collaborationist class is being handed the keys to a prison and calling it a state, all in service to western imperialism.
