The Reverse Obama Effect

Will Obama's success hurt Black Men?

Some say a rising tide raises all ships, but not when some of the ships are stuck in the muddy bottom, have been for years and refuse to rise. The ship that has risen only tends to exacerbate the vast difference between the ships.

Barack Obama's rise to President-Elect of the United States is unquestionably without equal in history.

Blacks all over the world are proud of Barack's win and rightfully so. His intellect, coolness under fire, ability to choose the right people, direct and run a near-perfect campaign is unparallelled in American history.

He's dispelled or at least ameliorated to some degree the image of the angry black man etched into the American psyche by many of America's high profile blacks such as Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and historically speaking Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

The image of the modern black man has been constantly tarnished by the portrayal of the majority of adult black men as rappers, drug dealers, absentee fathers, prison inmates, gang-bangers and bolstered by black-on-black crime statistics and the high percentage of black prison inmates.

The indictment of the likes of ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in Detroit and United States Congressman William Jefferson has not helped their cause either, so Obama's success is a breath of fresh air for those that have been holding their collective breaths waiting for this moment.

The real downside (or upside) to Barack Obama's success is that he has now demonstrated in an unequivocal fashion that a Black man can achieve this nations highest office and the undisputed position of the most powerful man on earth.

So where does this leave all other black men? Will we now cast an even more critical eye on every black man? The bar has been raised for all black men and without real cultural change the lot of the average black man in the United States will remain the same and most likely with diminished returns for any degree of measurable success.

In effect Barack Obama's success will make it more difficult for all Black men to be judged as successful.

No doubt that phrases such as "he's no Barack Obama" will emerge in the American discourse to diminish the success of Black men who strive to succeed by those who desire this result.

The Reverse Obama Effect has arrived. How we as a nation judge Black men from this day on as compared to Barack Obama will be very interesting to observe.

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The Revend Wright 'Smack Down'

It was with pleasure that I watched Barack finally 'smack down' Reverend Wright yesterday. Wright has been Barack's 'achilles heel' for the past 2 months. I do admire Barack for what appears to me as going out of his way to not have to cut ties with an old friend, but for Wright to dismiss Barack's statements as 'political speak' and 'sound bites' showed Wright's arrogance and real lack of understanding of Barack, his values and principles.

We can only hope that Wright goes back to his church, licks his wounds and steers clear of the 'big time' in the future - he's certainly not prepared for it. It seemed to me that Wright had within him the ability to act with some class and engage the listener at an intellectual level, but instead what we saw at the National Press Club was arrogance and disrespect. His behavior bordered on the ridiculous. Shame on the National Press Club for allowing it's image and the hallowed podium to be tarnished by this fool.

I suppose Andy Warhol was right, it's just a shame that Wright distracted the American public from valuable time which should have been spent debating real issues and shame on the press for losing sight of the issues and focusing on this idiot.

ciao!

Jeff

Are boomers racist?

Of course I can only speak from my own experience. I went to a suburban Philadelphia High School where blacks dominated the basketball team and whites dominated the baseball team. In nearby Delaware there was forced busing to achieve integration in the schools and no one liked that. My college experience was similar.

I watched the race riots on TV, watched Blacks march in the south and in Washington, remember the day Martin Luther King was murdered and the afternoon on my Elementary School bus that I learned JFK has been shot. I flew into L.A a few days after the Rodney King riots and saw the smoke plumes rising from the city. I vividly remember George Wallace on TV blocking the entrance to the school and even as a teenager knew his behavior was reprehensible and could not believe an elected official would act in such a pathetic manner.

I am very liberal in many ways and conservative in many too. I defy easy political classification. I think that many Blacks in the public eye have overplayed the 'discriminated against' card hand too long and I really am tired of hearing about it. My ancestors were southern plantation owners, so there's a history of exploiting blacks in my family tree which makes me especially sensitive to the black experience in the U.S. I respect success in the face of adversity. Very few of us have easy lives and very few are born with silver spoons in their mouths. Most of us dislike whiners and are proud of our successes. I have listened carefully to Reverend Jeremiah Wright's words and believe he's the target of a smear campaign to discredit Barack Obama. Let's face it the black experience is completely different than the white experience, just like the Chinese experience is different than the white experience.

Boomers experienced a lot. Vietman, the civil rights movement, assassinations, riots in the streets, the 60's, Presidential resignations, drugs, the oil embargo, the .com boom, the hostage crisis, the cold war, forced busing and the list goes on. We have every right to be pessimists, but most are not. We're a resilient bunch I'd say. Unfortunately we've seen many blacks at their worst and regrettably we've seen many whites at their worst too.

I come in contact with some pretty racist people from time to time and these people like any people are not without their attributes. I do not dislike them, but feel sorry that have not been exposed to the diversity that I have been so lucky to experience. I have been fortunate that I have traveled this country and the world and have come in contact with many races and I do welcome diversity although I feel most comfortable around people who share my interests and cultural background. If I do not want someone with a different cultural background as a neighbor it's not because I don't like them, it's because I feel more comfortable around people like myself. However I do know from experience that forcing people together typically engenders a better understanding or dislike for one another.

Water seeks it's own level as do people.

What has Mike Huckabee been smoking?

Don't get me wrong I really like the guy and might even vote for him, but in New Hampshire he said something to this effect in his speech about what makes America great (where he went on the say it's the people who makes it great) - he said the following prior to talking about the people:

"It's not the intelligent people in Washington making intelligent decisions".

Huh? What has he been smoking? I honestly hope that he has not convinced himself that they're making intelligent decisions. Every time an elected official makes a decision to support the party over the good of his or her constituency they're making a bad decision.

In my humble opinion Washington can be summarized as follows: "Never have so many competent & intelligent people been assembled in one spot that have accomplished so little".

Parity in congress is good - checks and balances are good but when there's a divide that cannot be bridged, nothing is accomplished and so summarizes our state of the union.

thoughts?

Where's the honesty?