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In a popular South Side church, Obama (D-Ill.) decried the shortage of police on the streets and money for schools, as well as a proliferation of guns in the wrong hands.

But America needs more than jobs and opportunity in its communities, the presidential candidate told the hometown congregation.

“We also need families to raise our children,” he said. “We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. It’s the courage to raise one.”

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Barack Obama photos: The early years Photos Obama sounded a theme familiar from previous Father’s Day speeches in which he called on fathers to rise to their duties.

But the story of fatherhood–never a simple one for Obama, abandoned by his own father when he was very young–was especially poignant on Sunday.

It came in the aftermath of a painful separation from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., a father figure who, as Obama’s longtime pastor, played a crucial role in his spiritual maturation as a young man. A few weeks ago, Obama publicly broke relations with Wright after controversy about the minister’s strident sermons turned into a personal disagreement over their divergent views.

As the first stop in Obama’s quest for a new religious home, Chicago’s the Apostolic Church of God offered a symbolic new beginning.

Obama, who often speaks of a “Joshua generation” standing ready to take over the mantle of leadership from its civil rights forebears, stood in a pulpit that Bishop Arthur Brazier, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., recently handed over to his son, Byron.

A month ago, as the Wright controversy unfolded painfully for Obama, the elder Brazier organized a gathering of black pastors in a show of support for him. Obama chose the Braziers’ church as the place to revisit a key message of his campaign on Sunday.

“Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important,” Obama said. “And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation.”

But, “if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that too many fathers also are missing, missing from too many lives and too many homes.

“They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men,” he said. “And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

The theme of fatherly responsibility is important for Obama, especially now that he is the presumed Democratic nominee for the White House. While his dogma is decidedly liberal, his talk about personal responsibility crafts an appeal to religious conservatives and political centrists.

And while he clearly aims the message at Americans of all races, he has chosen more than once to broadcast that message from black churches.

In his recent speech on race relations, Obama spoke of a historic lack of economic opportunity for black men and the “shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family,” which he said contributed to the erosion of black families.

Welfare policies didn’t help, he said at the time.

As he has in the past, Obama on Sunday preached about the individual’s responsibility to leave that legacy behind.

Two weeks ago, Bishop Brazier, 86, who led the influential Pentecostal congregation for 48 years, handed his church to his only son, Rev. Byron Brazier, 58, a business executive who left the corporate world to follow in his father’s footsteps.

As pastor, Bishop Brazier refused to speak politics at the pulpit. Nevertheless, his influence and clout became well-known in Chicago’s political circles, and the church is now an obligatory campaign stop.

Similarly, although the bishop never spoke of Obama at the pulpit, it is widely known that he supports his candidacy.

In choosing to speak at Apostolic, Obama chose a somewhat more conservative church than Trinity United Church of Christ, where the senator from Illinois was a member until recently.

Both churches are on Chicago’s South Side and are predominantly African-American congregations.

Trinity is part of the United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination that, for example, ordains gay ministers.

For decades, Apostolic Church of God had been part of the conservative Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Though Bishop Brazier broke away from the PAW last year, his church is still solidly conservative when compared to Trinity.

Tribune religion reporter Margaret Ramirez contributed to this report.

It seems there is even more to the speech story.

If you would bother to read, you’d know that leading up to 2008, Hillary was leading in the Black vote – not Obama.

Hillary.

Why?

Because Black folk had done the ‘voting for symbolism’s sake’ in Presidential Politics in 1984 and 1988 with Jesse Jackson.

If it was a ‘Black thing’, then..
1. Why didn’t Black folk support
Alan Keyes
Al Sharpton
Carol Moseley Braun
in droves?
2.Why wasn’t Obama getting 90% of the Black vote February 11, 2007 (the day after he announced).

WHY?

Because Black folk are like everyone else…they wanted to go with a ‘winner’.

When Iowa and New Hampshire (a Caucus and Primary) went the way that they did, Black folk went,

“Hey! He might actually HAVE A CHANCE!”

Now, with a VIABLE and Black candidate, the Black community was on board.

But, still, that only got Obama to the 70% mark.

The move from 70-90% is thanks to the racebaiting of Camp Billary.

Know your facts.

And, Obama said in that 60 Minutes interview, that if he doesn’t make it, it won’t be because he’s Black (now, ‘I’ have issue with that), but the man said it and has said it on numerous occasions.

10 – You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 – You feel insulted and “dehumanized” when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 – You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 – Your face turns purple when you hear of the “atrocities” attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in “Exodus” and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in “Joshua” including women, children, and trees!

6 – You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 – You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 – You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs — though excluding those in all rival sects – will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most “tolerant” and “loving.”
3 – While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in “tongues” may be all the evidence you need to “prove” Christianity.

2 – You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 – You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history – but still call yourself a Christian.

Secondly, Senator Obama said he would always speak honestly, even when you don’t want to hear it. That Father’s Day speech was an example. To ALL the fathers out there taking care of your kids, congrats. You don’t need the lecture. But to the large number of black men that DON’T raise their kids, that think paying child support here and there is some freakin gift to humanity, take his speech to heart and start raising your kids.

I was raised by a father that has loved me and supported me from the second I was concieved. He saw that speech and found nothing wrong with it. His day wasn’t ruined by the speech. Like I said, if it’s not you why do you have a problem with it? He’s not calling ALL black men irresponsible. It’s for those that need the message. When is he supposed to talk about this? Cinco de Mayo?

ssuuurrRRRRRrre you don’t, Obama.

I understand it COMPLETELY.

I just see it differently. And I see more to Barack’s address than just some political pandering and harvesting votes off the backs of Black people, which I don’t see at all.

I, however, am not going to judge those with a different opinion as mine as somehow myopic or in denial about the kind of politician Barack is.

We can disagree about that speech until doomsday.

I say let’s just agree to disagree and move on unless or until Barack gives another one just like it.

What I am against is the overshadowing of the millions of amazing black fathers. The face of black fatherhood is absentee fathers and baby daddies…that is not right nor fair. This conversation is had all of the time. Why cant we celebrate real black fatherhood like all of the men in my family rather than giving attention to the negative. This gives the impression that black men cannot be fathers and that is not true.

I don’t care about statistics because we are people not statistics. The statistics say on average that is about split 50/50 in regards to single family households. My cousin Stephen has a child with his ex-girlfriend. His son Cory lives with her. She is considered to be a single parent household however my cousin is in the picture. He is an amazing father who picks up his son every weekend, calls him several times a day, takes him out, takes him on vacations, provides for him and works two jobs in order to send him to a private school. He is 27.

The same thing goes for my roommate who even told me that she was considered to be a single family household but her father was there for her.

I know of the fact that too many drop the ball and neglect their children and responsibility as fathers. I will tell you that this goes on in other communities especially with out country’s divorce rates. Children are falling through the cracks each day.

One of my close friend’s parents got into a nasty divorce when she was young. She got caught in between her parents bitterness, hatred for each other and fighting. Her grandparents had to raise her. This has caused many long term emotional issues. She is white.

Blacks have a disportionate number in regards to single parent households in relation to theit numbers however. There are nearly five times as many single parent white households.

I would like someone to address this to all Americans not just blacks as if we are pathological and the poster children for everything dysfunctional.

I’m with Rachael Maddow: that’s either brilliant politicking or flatout foolishness.

Gov. Charlie Crist has flip-flopped with McCain.

Brilliant. Foolish. Not both.

May 12, 2008
Laina Dawes
Special to the Star

As a Canadian fixated on Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, I have occasionally had twinges of guilt over my fascination with the political happenings across the border.

Recently a fit of rage led me to try to reach through my television set to choke a legendary CNN host during one of his usual thinly veiled racist tirades. After I regained my composure, I questioned my allegiance to Canada because of my anger over something happening in another country.

In my defence, the negative dynamics of race and gender that have emerged during the Democratic nomination battle are not only of interest to me as a social justice activist, but also because part of my livelihood is based on studying the issues. As a freelance journalist and editor for the “Race, Ethnicity & Culture” section for Blogher.com, I watch and read various reports daily and provide commentary.

Since the race for the nomination began last summer, there have been a number of racially tinged attacks by the Clinton campaign, media and political pundits. Despite Obama’s achievements, they attempt to use racial stereotypes and sweeping generalizations to discredit his campaign. It’s a disturbing reminder of how some will play the race card, despite boasting of their allegiance and history of support to the same racial demographic.

Some of the generalizations, such as the stereotype of the angry black militant being used against Obama, have been commonly employed to discredit other blacks.

Witnessing an all-too-familiar, below-the-belt racial punch angers me, but I wanted to find out if it affected other people geographically distant from the fight. I decided to ask black Torontonians their opinions on what social changes might occur for black Canadians if Obama goes on to become president.

Are we, as has been suggested by the media, a monolithic group, blindly supporting anyone because they are black? How does residing in a different country change our perspective, if at all?

More people than I expected are watching the primaries, following the debates and forming strong opinions. Public relations executive Gillian Moody feels Obama’s race as a factor in his Canadian popularity is overblown.

“I think that black Canadians are secretly proud and fascinated, but they are not going to bring up race and talk about race in the way that American blacks and non-blacks bring it up. … In general, I think that Canadians are more skeptical than Americans.”

Aluba Kalu, a business development co-ordinator, is hopeful that a black president might help dissolve racial stereotypes, partly because of the popularity of American culture amongst black Canadian youth.

“Black Canadians do not really have that one defining moment in their history,” she says. “Whatever we experience here is just the by-product of the African-American experience.”

When I asked whether a black president might inspire more black youth to enter politics to Moody and Selwyn Pieters, a lawyer with his own firm in the financial district, they indicated I might be pushing it.

Moody believes Canada already has black Canadians in respected political positions and does not see why they would look to another country for inspiration. Pieters believes an Obama presidency might help in easing racial barriers to climbing the Bay Street corporate ladder. “There are a lot of Canadian businesses that do transnational and international transactions,” he says. “If they do not start reflecting diversity, they will not create new business opportunities stateside.”

“Barack represents many things, and one of the greatest is change,” says Jane Musoke-Nteyafas, a writer, poet and cultural critic. “I believe that racism may improve in Canada, as he has already shattered several cultural and racial biases simply by showing that an African-American man of East African descent can run and be successful.”

I fear that stupid prejudices could rob Americans of a president who could improve their lives.

Though it is too early for black Canadians to forecast how Obama’s campaign will shape our future, all we can do is hope for the best.

Laina Dawes is a Toronto-based music journalist and editor for the Race, Ethnicity & Culture section for Blogher.com.

Michelle the things you mentioned have more to do with each other than you realize.

It is his real perspective which he spoke about during that speech which I and many share that have garnered him many white votes.

In the light of day, I will draw back from calling the speech pandering, IMO it was his reinforcing his positions to stave off the attempts to paint him too black an sympathetic to black (which in the America’s opinion is bad – black is bad) in light of the recent attempts to paint Michelle angry an black.

So while it may not have been pandering, he did offer up what America sees as bad “black” behavior and denounce it to reassure white voters that he is neither that kind of black nor does he agree with that behavior. It’s just too bad he approached it that way and left the rest of us out of it.

::

Is this snark?

Father as head of househould is about patriarchy. Patriarchy is conservative.

I’m not a patriarch, but I understand the importance of fathers.

That doesn’t mean that I also believe a two-parent household must include a man.

But I’m not “liberal” enough to think that a positive male role model in a child’s life isn’t important.

It takes a village to raise a child. That village must be full of positive male role models. Certainly the father of that child, if available, needs to be close. That father, unless he’s dead or unknown, needs to be close.

Obama may be conservative in programs proposed, but he is not conservative in solutions desired; universal health care, living wages, meaningful work, peace, quality education, and equal opportunity. There is nothing conservative about these goals. Obama’s moderation is in his willingness to use the tools loved by liberals or conservatives to reach progressive ends.

The ideological among us get stuck on the means; school vouchers, merit pay, subsidy, single payer, free enterprise, military power, and diplomacy, and do not reach the goals.

The USA is large, complicated, and with structure and precedents (history). We can not go to the best solution. We must go to the best solution available. This is the radical in Obama. He recognizes and articulates a future of health, prosperity, and peace and tells us we can get there without loosing our ideology.

The Marxist and Capitalist can both still be right, just not all the time and in every situation.

http://www.blogher.com/what-do-black-canadians-think-about-obama

First, why in hell does a Canadian care? Something that I have thought to myself as I feel the heat rising from my chest to my face as I watch FOX news or Lou Dobbs on CNN. It’s not about simply disagreeing with them; it is how some political pundits and TV journalists (and some bloggers) intentionally fan the racist and sexist flames to incite fear into socially and culturally ignorant voters by perpetrating falsities that if they had a even basic IQ level, they would realize that their claims don’t make any sense. Examples: a) Barak Obama is not a Muslim – if that really even matters if he was, but the insinuation infers to the 9/11 terrorists whom yes, were Muslim but a radical sect of terrorists who just happened to be Muslim. Get it?

Or b) Reverend Wright – What’s the big deal? Because some people really think that all black folks are secretly angry and planning to start a race war. See, we all think alike, and we all vote alike, some police officers think we all look alike and apparently, are not allowed to have an opinion that differs from what others feel we should feel and think.

Sigh. From Chandra at Is Greater Than:

Canada prides itself on an expression of multiculturalism that Americans only dream of. This is the legacy of the late great Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Yet, having spent seven years in academia in the USA, I have never seen academics behave as abominably when it comes to the topic of race as I have seen in Waterloo, the world’s Top Intelligent Community in 2007 and 70 miles southwest of Toronto, the second most diverse city in the world. From comments about “whining aboriginals who get away with too much” to “you Black people,” I continue to be shocked and even surprised. It has been pointed out to me repeatedly that all but one of the aggressors in my stories of racism in Canada have been European by birth, not just descent. This supposedly implies that this is not a Canadian problem but perhaps a European problem.

Despite having a rich African-Canadian history, it is my opinion that Black Canadians have always borrowed heavily from African-American culture. We carefully watch what is happening in terms of music, trends and yes, even political and social activism. Canada, despite what many people rather naively think is not the bastion of peacefulness. We have our problems, but here – and I think I can say this as I travel to the States quite frequently – our racism and sexism is covert in comparison to our neighbors – which in some ways, makes it even worse. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be so polite.

Even though we are live in another country, I found while talking to a number of people for the article, we are watching and we have formed an opinion on who we want to win. Despite the title of this post and despite the responses, not everyone was initially an Obamamaniac. Some were vying for John Edwards and some, like myself, really liked Dennis Kucinich . I wondered, what if any social, political or cultural changes Black Canadians might see if Obama does win the Presidency. Here are some outtakes:

(But) wasn’t Obama thinking about (the potential for an increase in overt racism and how his candidacy would be affected) before? Doesn’t / should he be thinking about the future?

You always have to weigh the pros and the cons. But you always have to look at what is good to you. We have never had a black man who has had a credible challenge before. It seems that he has a good shot in terms of delegates and fund raising. He is doing everything right. You have to ask yourself – what is the nature of citizenship? You are entitled to….How does it translate? A lot more Canadian blacks could run for political office. We might be seeing a huge change among the younger generation, as he has reached out to youth like nobody else has. He’s younger and looks young. And he will not be the youngest person but he is inspiring to the younger generation.

Do you think Black Canadians would volunteer to go down to the States and work on Obama’s campaign – if they (legally) could?

I don’t think that a lot of Canadian black would go down to help with Obama’s campaign. I think it’s cute I think it’s funny and I think it’s silly. I think that Obama represents all of us. He is an immigrant – but he is not an immigrant, he has roots in Africa, he has other cultures in him he is American but on the other hand, he isn’t. I think that he represents all blacks but he also represents non-blacks, too.

Is it fair to think that an Obama presidency will be a positive influence among black youth? What about Canadians? (Okay I rephrased this a bit better during the interview)

“It will give (black youth) the self-respect and boost the image of the black community in the eyes of the country and in the world. At least I hope it will let people see that we can be more than gang-bangers and ‘ho’s!” Admitting that she is concerned more with American politics and Canadian politics because “I think what happens over there has a bigger impact on the world than what happens here,” she does not think that it will help in unifying the cultural differences that presently lie within the Black Canadian community. “There is not common experience. Black Canadians do not really have that one defining moment in their history. Whatever we experience here is just the byproduct of the African – American experience. Our clothing, the way we talk, the videos we watch – all these are based on the black American culture. Heck, you can’t even name a single leader in the community!”

What I believe, is Black Canadians have a vested interest in the outcome of this election because we realize this about racism: What happens to one person can ultimately happen to anyone who shares the same ethnicity. We also know that because of the ‘monolitic’ thought that even trumps sexism – more people think that blacks share the same mannerisms more than they think all women share the same emotional and intellectual attributes. We have experienced it, we have to acknowledge it, and more importantly, we know that what happens south of the border will eventually make it’s way here.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/the-violent-crazies-are-gearing-up-for-obama/

Barack is more conservative than many people realize. That’s not necessarily why I support him, though I can admit that in some of the ways he’s conservative, so am I.

Authenticity.

Sure, Barack is cocky. He accepts that about himself and carries himself accordingly.

But he is also humble. Most evident in his capability of admitting he fucks up. A lot.

In essence, he is human.

Politicians don’t come across as human. We simply don’t allow them to. But somehow, in some way, Barack has succeeded, so far, in encouraging us to embrace a human politician.

That is what makes him so inspiring. Really.

Which is why even his supporters can debate his humanity with such passion.

I tried to stop participating in the Father’s Day debate, but I couldn’t because we weren’t just debating politics, we were debating human foibles in a way we don’t usually debate human foibles when it comes to politicians.

I’m blabbering and probably not making much sense, but that is what your comment conjured.