Ohh no you didn’T???!! (snap and swish) He didn’t grow up in your neighborhood, but he chose to spend several years there doing community organizing. I think just cause he didn’t have a life like yours doesn’t mean he has no insight into the black experience IMHO.
Bodo[/quote]
Oh yes I did, girlfriend(snap and swish) please don’t even try to go there with me. What do you know about my neighborhood? Nothing, so and he spent THREE years in Altgeld Gardens (Da projects, I did not grow up in the projects, :no-no: ) And like many people who teach English in taiwan and come to face the reality of making a difference, Obama did the same, he got the F$%$k out and went to law school. Hell Mayor Daley has more insight into the black experience than he does.[/quote]
Don’t you think his wife, Michelle (and other black advisor), can educate him/has educated him on the black experience in Chicago as well as inform his policy on those issues?
[quote=“Bodo”]
Don’t you think his wife, Michelle (and other black advisor), can educate him/has educated him on the black experience in Chicago as well as inform his policy on those issues?[/quote]
Not laughing at you, but the idea of Michelle and Obama sitting around the fireplace at the White House, and Michelle explaining to him the intricacies of urban slang. One, I think O is very clear on what it’s like to be black in America. He touched on it enough in his “Dreams of my father” book. Two, now it’s not about the “black experience” in Chicago since he didn’t run for mayor. This “experience” isn’t limited just to Chicago or other larger urban areas, but to the US.
This is what I am speaking to when I talk about the “black experience”. It’s a nasty legacy that has been handed down thru the generations, and IMO is somewhat a reason as to why there hasn’t been a black president before. Yet, the irony is that these ideals aren’t just limited to blacks, white Americans harbor them also. It’s just more pervasive in the black community.
I recall being baffled, Nama, when I said that his acceptance speech at the end of the Democratic Convention was one of the most powerful speeches I’d ever heard and your reply was along the lines of “you’ve got to be kidding.”
I was baffled because I, as a white, conservative Christian male from a rural background and a lifelong Republican to boot, should have been among the last to “get” the content of Obama’s character and you among the first.
What’s really changed between then and now? I’m curious.[/quote]
My attitude maybe? I didn’t like his DNC speech and still don’t like it. Why should I be the first to “get” the content of his character? Cause he’s black? Obama and I have very little in common.One, Obama doesn’t get the “black experience” nor does he care to. I have more in common with his wife.[/quote]
I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about Michelle. I voted for Obama not because he’s black, but because of his message. I didn’t think much about his wife until after the election. I must admit that I am smitten by the idea of a black first lady. Oh, the things she will accomplish! When I think about the conversations she’ll have with world leaders in her pleasant and disarming voice I get chills.
[quote=“Mother Theresa”] America IS different. First, few countries have such a long history as a melting pot of people from so many different races, countries, and backgrounds. Second, it’s my understanding that the U.S. has a uniquely long and powerful history of rebellion and dissent and people speaking out for equal treatment, including through the revolutionary war, the civil war, labor movements, and in the past half century the civil rights movement, women’s liberation movement and anti-Vietnam war protest movement, which had immense impacts, shaking up the psyche of the people, leading to serious debate and passing of major laws requiring equal treatment, and changing of the consciousness of the nation, so that most of us recognize that Americans are all different but we’re all Americans, and it is not surprising that this momentous event happened in America, rather than in some other nation that lacks all that history.
[/quote]
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]As far as I know, no other country on earth that is predominately caucasian has ever elected someone of african ancestry to serve as head of state. Accept it dude.
When it happens somewhere else, then you can argue it’s not such a big deal.[/quote]
ding ding ding, we have a winner!
MT, I was talking to some European friends just before the election. All of them were insistent that Obama couldn’t win, and their reasoning was that it couldn’t happen in their countries, and they were sure that America was more racist than their countries.
I won’t claim that America is the least racist predominantly white country, but there is no doubt in my mind that it is a LOT less racist than non-Americans claim it to be.
and he spent THREE years in Altgeld Gardens (Da projects, I did not grow up in the projects, :no-no: ) And like many people who teach English in taiwan and come to face the reality of making a difference, Obama did the same, he got the F$%$k out and went to law school. Hell Mayor Daley has more insight into the black experience than he does.[/quote]
Not laughing at you, but the idea of Michelle and Obama sitting around the fireplace at the White House, and Michelle explaining to him the intricacies of urban slang. 