I said early in the primary season that one of the great things that having an African-American president will do is to get black folk off the "first one." syndrome. I wrote that all one has to do is look at countries in Africa and the Caribbean where the first set of leaders after independence were practically worshiped as gods. They could do nothing wrong and anything negative said about them was a sign of being a tool of the colonialist. How quickly the African realized that simply having "skin folk" in the 'Big house' meant little. It meant the "Big man" could fly around the world and skin and grin for the "adoring" white leaders who had nothing but effusive praise for the next new African leader.
The African, being so used to being excluded was happy just to be in the mix. This is what we are seeing right now among most African-Americans. But what this also reveals in plain sight for everyone to see is who was on the black wagon because it was a tool for advancement and who was on the black wagon because they believed in the destination. Heck if they even KNEW the destination.
Check some of the choice pieces from the article:
Johnson is one of a growing number of black academics, commentators and authors determined to press Obama on issues such as the elimination of racial profiling and the double-digit unemployment rate among blacks.
But doing so has put them at odds with others in the black community. Love for the Obamas is thick among African Americans -- 91 percent of whom view the president favorably, compared with 59 percent of the total population, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted last month -- and as a result, the African American punditry finds itself navigating new ground.
Well first off black academics are not and ought not simply be concerned about domestic issues. We ought to have, consistent with figures such as Garvey, Delany, King and Shabazz, an international agenda to push. We should find it offensive when we are put in the "domestic corner" of police brutality, unemployment and housing discrimination.
Secondly one can have a favorable opinion of Obama and still hold him accountable to our permanent interests. The two have nothing to do with each other. I have a high opinion of Obama as a person and how he played the electoral game. That doesn't mean I set down and roll over.
They are learning to negotiate what talk show host and author Tavis Smiley calls an "unfamiliar dance." If you push too forcefully, he says he has learned, you risk your credibility in the community.
Unfamiliar to who? Again the history is there in our faces. And who's credibility is at risk. Is it not credible to site inconsistencies and contradictions in ANYONE'S behaviour? Or is it inconsistent to be critical of Bush and whomever else simply because they are White and Republican? Methinks the latter shows a lack of credibility.
What he is up against are people like Leutisha Stills, a regular blogger on the African American opinion site Jack and Jill Politics. She dismisses anything Smiley has to say about Obama because he is "always going negative."
Would this be the same Leutisha Stills of Congressional Black Caucus Report Card fame? That's a damn shame. Another confused negro exposed. I won't even get into Jack And Jill whom the basics of Mendelian genetics seems to have passed them by in high school.
Wilson-Smith, who started the volunteer group Black Women for Obama just after he announced his candidacy, says it is way too soon for people to ask Obama to fix long-held racial disparities. "The fact that he is a black man doesn't mean he's going to get in office and wave a magic wand and solve all the black community's problems," she says. "To jump all over him at this point because they haven't seen anything specific toward the black condition, when he has two wars to deal with and an economy failing, is a little silly."
Another confused negro exposed. Wilson Smith thinks we the critics suffer from some kind of delusion about how things work. Wilson-Smith either knows nothing of Douglass or forgot his famous quote about demands of power. You get because you make demands. Ask anyone on Wall Street about how that works. When we make a critique it is because Obama or his team is on the wrong side of an issue. Whether that issue be his silly ass statement about "the rules." his grovelling to AIPAC et.al., His AG's position on state secrets vis-a-vis the holding of "enemy combatants" or the NSA wiretapping. Or perhaps the gifting to Taxpayer monies to Wall Street while shutting down auto manufacturers. Or any other number of things that are way out of line both domestically and internationally. Obama gets no break because he's black. I don't operate like that. Wilson needs to keep that Affirmative Action "we'll hls him to a lesser standard" bull to herself.
So I'm glad that the Washington Post has exposed the confused Negroes. I'm glad they exposed themselves for the politically naive, historically limited people they are. Now I know who to avoid.
[Update] Many confused Negroes posting comments at Huffington [/update]
