Jack & Jill Politics

This is an interesting statement by Mr. Weisman. The unspoken assumption is that either there's no overlap between the two cultures (however you want to define 'em) or, if there is, whites get "first dibs" on what's white and blacks get whatever's left.


Not sure which is the weirder assumption.

When I think I've heard everything, someone is always there to show me the ignorance of the people we call the Media. Seriously!!!


No Weisman, Obama was already immersed in the black culture for the sole reason that he was BLACK regardless of how or where he was raised.

nita said:


TruthSeeker said...



"Are these awards solely for our amusement, or is something sent to the recipient? Maybe make up an official looking diploma and send it off via email. Really, you ought to share the love."



Tue Jun 24, 11:36:00 AM 2008







"I agree. These fools are not going to get it unless it's in their faces. That was very offensive. And no, dws, he won't be a 'tragic mulatto' when he does something they don't like --"



"he'll just be coal BLACK."



-Nita:



You're nicer than I am (refering to your comment).



"he won't be a 'tragic mulatto' when he does something they don't like"



He'll be a "damn nigger"

Here's the Nadar/other racists strategy: Try to force Mr. Obama into the "Black Box" [literally], then we can demonize him as being the candidate for Blacks ONLY! Then we can siphon off his "other voters" - voila' - he loses!!
We have to keep putting these characters "on blast"! Let them know that we know their game!!! Voila' - He[Mr. Obama] wins!!!!

Leila, co-sign on everything you just wrote. Except your brother and the state trooper at night LOL I think I get what he's saying though.

I once asked my Arab-American brother, half-WASP like me, if he thought he was white. "At 2 oclock in the morning when I'm stopped by a North Carolina State Trooper, I'm as white as I can be. The rest of the time, not especially."


I think that on a traffic stop at 2 a.m. no racist white state trooper is going to care who raised Barack Obama. White folk who talk about being beyond race haven't tried to catch a cab with a person of color in New York at night. (and they haven't walked through airport security with any Arabs lately, either - or dark-skinned Jews with beards, or Pakistanis, or , or)



another story - a colleague twenty+ years ago was having a secret affair with the scion of a prominent NY African American family; nobody who was mentioned around here lately so it ain't Paterson. Anyway.



She was Italian from a very racist Queens family. He was Ivy League all the way, and her biggest cultural issue was the class difference - his was so much higher than hers. She had never been around people who owned big yachts, limos, and had tailgate parties at the college game.



One time she was in an elevator with the Scion and three of his other Ivy League, AA, gorgeous, conservatively dressed, rich friends, all of them ex-basketball players from Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Whatever. The doors opened to show a white woman waiting for the elevator. She took one look at the four guys, stepped back and said - uh, no, I'm waiting for somebody. My friend said she looked terrified. It was a pivotal moment for my friend - she was outraged. How could that woman think that her Scion and his buddies were bad guys? Of course the guys laughed it off.



Meanwhile my friend never could bring the guy home to meet her parents - didn't matter how rich he was or how important his family - he was the Black guy (you know they said worse) and that was that. Believe me his heart was not broken - he was just playing around.



Most white folk in America don't get a chance to see this sort of event play out so they are utterly clueless.



Very interesting to read the comments here. It's waking up my awareness... so easy for me to blend in as a light-skinned half-Arab. "Oh, you aren't really an Arab, you don't wear a veil, you don't sound like an Arab, and you aren't ANGRY like they are. And of course you're a feminist from a feminist family, who ever heard of Arab feminists?" - heard it most of my life.



This is what people of color talk about when they (we?) say that white people are trying to erase us, erase our identities. If we play by the rules of the dominant culture then we get told we aren't really Black or Arab or Chinese at all, we're just honorary white people.

Craig,
I wish you would explain your point. I hate to be clueless. I respect your thoughts, so do share.



Rikyrah,

Remember now there was that memo that it changed to 1/8 or 1/4 meant you were black. So if you have a grandparent that is black, then so are you.

That is if it is a black white mix, because the African features over power the white. Does not count for Asian & Black or Native American & Black. There are rules to this thing.

Of course, it was all about property and rights. The meter on 1/8 or 1/4 never moved. It is still on the books, if you search for it.

But I feel silly even talking about this "issue".

This is just Appropriation. Reason why Jesus is blonde/European, African and Asian
That is HOW I see it.



Maybe you can compare it with how some people feels about Jimi Hendrix.

The wrong is with these people, tho.

Craig- You and I both know that in that senario, he would still be considered a black child adopted by a white family until the day he died.


::



That wasn't the point I was arguing against.



I may not have made myself clear and I probably can't so I'll just move on from this.

"Although, maybe if Obama was brought up "black" his wife would be light skinned or white. So if he's "white", he's got great taste in pursuing and marrying Michelle."




Ain't that the truth.

kenya,


I'd like the memo too...when did America give up the ' one drop' rule?



I keep on bringing this up..if you saw Obama on the street, all you'd say is that he's a light-skinned Brother.



If you stood him, side by side, with Dark Sith Ford, and asked Black folks to tell you which one they thought was the bi-racial one, come on now...how many folks would choose Obama?

nita,


preach it.



When Rev. Wright came around...he was BLACK.



When 'bitter' came around...he was an UPPITY BLACK.



Yep, we know the rules.

TruthSeeker said...


Are these awards solely for our amusement, or is something sent to the recipient? Maybe make up an official looking diploma and send it off via email. Really, you ought to share the love.



Tue Jun 24, 11:36:00 AM 2008







I agree. These fools are not going to get it unless it's in their faces. That was very offensive. And no, dws, he won't be a 'tragic mulatto' when he does something they don't like --



he'll just be coal BLACK.

To many great comments to choose just one. Bravo JJP family.
AC- brilliant!!!



Craig- You and I both know that in that senario, he would still be considered a black child adopted by a white family until the day he died.



But, what kills me most is that most of these strange comments are coming from people who grew up in a time where half black and white meant you were, umm... black and you were treated as such. Then should have sent out a memo when that changed.

Obama has always struck me as simply American. I don't get why people are so vested in stereotypical behaviors. Nothing turns my stomach more than the thought that if someone is acting morally depraved or criminally, then it's "black behavior." (Imus trying to back away from his latest comments.)


That's why T. Morrison calling B. Clinton "black" made me sick. Why does someone have to be a degenerate pig to get called that? I have to shrug it off, especially when some of us embrace it so enthusiastically.



Although, maybe if Obama was brought up "black" his wife would be light skinned or white. So if he's "white", he's got great taste in pursuing and marrying Michelle.

"So if Barack Obama was a murderous gangbanger in Chicago raised by a white mother he would be still be considered 'more white than black, beyond skin color'?"


-Nope.

He'd be considered a thug.

symphony..


BWA HA H HA HA HA HA HA HA

And now, without cause, Mr. Obama has turned his "change" to divisiveness by declaring that "they" - the Republicans - will play the race card. If that is not the epitome of division, conflict, cynicism and distraction, what is? The insinuation is nothing more than a set up that plays on every fear and insecurity among people of color. It demands automatic outrage. This is the same kind of "fear-mongering" Democrats have used since 1968. If this is Mr. Obama´s idea of outreach, it is a sad commentary."




It's like folks are Boo Boo, Da Fool. Um, the GOP has been playing the ' Race Card' since 1968. Learn some HISTORY, Tara. It's called ' The Southern Strategy'. And, because Obama is doing a preemptive strike on them, reminding folks of what it is, HE's the bad guy?



GTFOH.

If Barack had been adopted by poor white people in Maine when he was a baby and never got out much and didn't develop any relationships with any black people, lived in a trailer in a rural town, as many poor white people do in Maine, then he would be more white than black, beyond skin color, that is.


Race in America is complex. We all know it. It's a social construct that goes, in fact, beyond skin color. And it's often conflated with class. But we all also know that colorism is also real, even among black people.



I don't have to type the cultural figures of speech that equate whiteness and lightness with betterness, do I?



I didn't think so.



Weisman is quoted without any context and that's too bad.



Like I conceded, Weisman could be Pat Buchanan for all I know.



But this comment in its full context doesn't make him so.

I knew the answer and it matters regardless of presidential politics.

Symphony


Of course not, but then he wouldn't be a candidate for the presidency and it really wouldn't matter!

So if Barack Obama was a murderous gangbanger in Chicago raised by a white mother he would be still be considered 'more white than black, beyond skin color'?

I agree with Craig on this one. While I am also not familiar with the writer, he is merely pointing out what I have said many times.


I don't know though what being raised by whites means and whether or not it is significant to Obama's run for the whitehouse other than it makes him more desirable to some who couldn't fathom a black man as their head of state so there are then able to rationalize their attraction to his message and intellect by insisting he is white. I'm sure this is why his race and upbringing have been made a central theme my pundints and journalists.

Well of course he's more white than black. He's so clean and articulate, too.
People, people, we've transcended race - didn't you get the memo? Naturally having transcended race the default setting will be white, ergo Sen. Obama is more white than black.

**snark**

Craig,




I agree with you about the Weisman comment. I wasn't aware that Barack was raised by anyone on his father's side of the family.







Against Race Politics

I'm enjoying watching whites, Jews and other non-blacks trying to wrap their minds around this Obama fellow in this post-Civil Rights beyond race epoch of American life. It is fascinating.


Can you imagine how Weisman and others might respond if someone wrote that Joseph Lieberman was more white than Jewish? Like how exactly is that measured?



This is going to be fun.

heh heh ;D

truthseeker,


You had me in stitches with the Mammy comment.

...what the fuck is that supposed too mean?


Well, I guess I know. Whenever we black folk do something deemed "right" by society it makes us white, whereas anything opposite damns us to being "simply black."

Are these awards solely for our amusement, or is something sent to the recipient? Maybe make up an official looking diploma and send it off via email. Really, you ought to share the love.

Tara, the home of Scarlett, as in "Gone with the Wind" - as in the place where Mammy grew anxious for the loss of her Mistresses honour. The irony of it! This thing called life is divine comedy!


Why does Tara protest so much for the loss of Republican honour. Why is Tara...I mean Mammy busy sewing the mother of all dresses to make Scarlett something she is not?

It's the Freaking Media!


Imus, Buchannan, Dobbs, Savage, Hannity, Drudge, Faux News, All of them!



According to Rev. Al Sharpton the first guest on Imus's radio show when he returned to the air was Senator John McCain. Rev. Al reminded everyone of how the media held Obama responsible for what Rev. Wright and Father Pfledger said from the pulpit but they aren't asking McCain about Imus'comments. Remember how the media made Obama renouce reject and resign from his church of 20 years because of Wright and Pfledger? Rev. Al says the media doesn't even want to talk about Imus but they played Wright over and over again.



Is the media fueling the racism?

I'm going to take a beating, I'm sure, but...


To me, what Weisman said was inartful, but the context of his remark explains his inartfulness.



Barack wasn't raised by Black people. That, to me, is all Weisman was saying. But that last sentence is screwed up. And I see why there's criticism, but in my opinion this doesn't deserve the Pat Buchanan award.



I've never read a word of his so if he's truly a Pat Buchanan persona, then, okay, I concede the point.



Whatever the case, I think Tara Wall should get that award for today for this bit of nonsense:



"And now, without cause, Mr. Obama has turned his "change" to divisiveness by declaring that "they" - the Republicans - will play the race card. If that is not the epitome of division, conflict, cynicism and distraction, what is? The insinuation is nothing more than a set up that plays on every fear and insecurity among people of color. It demands automatic outrage. This is the same kind of "fear-mongering" Democrats have used since 1968. If this is Mr. Obama´s idea of outreach, it is a sad commentary."



I had to write a email to her for this.

Just flat out ridiculous.

So once SBO does something the MSM does not like are they going to call him a "tragic mulatto?"


Good grief, how do some people get these jobs and keep them?

Jonathon Weisman like comments are so frustrating. I've heard them all my life, when I do something "socially acceptable" I'm not black when I get mad and go off "I'm showing my blackness." Nevermind I am the same person in both situations. The nations general feeling that black/brown is bad, white is good is so tired, but as this article points out it is far from being a thing of the past. I am not, nor is anyone I know striving to be "white". Success is not measured by how aligned you are with "whiteness" but is measured by things such as getting the best education, doing well in your chosen profession, taking care of your family, living a good, clean, happy life. These aren't "white" traits, these are American, hell, human traits.


And it makes me even more annoyed to read articles like this because my nieces are bi-racial and love and know about each side equally. I hate to think that they will be taught that one side is better then the other.

symphony,


you just cracked me up, and made me flashback to that Dave Chappelle skit.



And, I bet, he wouldn't even understand why he won the award for what he wrote.



And neither would the editor who let it go to print.

Right before Halle Berry won her Oscar a woman said the same thing during a call-in segment on CNN.


I was walking on my college campus and heard a white male say to an Asian female that there is all the talk about Tiger but he's "more Asian than anything."



If race were a draft, Whites would get Derek Jeter and Asians would get Tiger. All the "good" mixed race people. I'd think we'd be able to steal Jason Kidd.

"and he speaks so well"
Dumb-ass.