President Barack Obama and his “White” fellow Americans
Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America “fixed” its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: “When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that “Election Spurs Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes” should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in “Bombingham,” Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.”
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we’re back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven what conservatives are always saying — that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.”
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?” How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can – once and for all – get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we starting “living out the true meaning” of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red and yellow, black and white” all are precious in God’s sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here’s my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our damnable color prejudice, “We HAVE overcome.”
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It takes a Village to protect our President!!!
Plaque on campus At Macon State College in Georgia.
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May 25, 2008
Obama empathizes with Clinton over Kennedy comment
Posted by ladydi377 under Important Stuff | Tags: "I have a dream", Assination comment, Barack Obama, election 2008, Hillary Clinton, vote |[7] Comments
Obama “empathizes” with Clinton over
Kennedy comment
By Thomas Ferraro Sat May 24, 9:06 PM ET
Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama empathized with rival Hillary Clinton on Saturday for the firestorm she ignited by referring to the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy.
On Friday, Clinton cited the June 1968 assassination of Kennedy during his Democratic presidential campaign to help explain why she was still in the race for the party’s nomination.
Clinton’s reference to the Kennedy assassination drew a quick rebuke on Friday from Obama’s campaign and she apologized.
Kennedy, brother of slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles just after winning the California Democratic primary.
Obama has a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates to the party’s nominating convention after months of contests that began in January, but Clinton has refused to give up until the last votes are cast and counted. The Democratic nominee will face Republican John McCain in the November election.
With Puerto Rico set to hold its Democratic nominating contest next Sunday, Obama and Clinton both campaigned on the island on Saturday. Fifty-five delegates will be up for grabs in the June 1 vote, with Clinton favored to win the bulk of them. The territory cannot vote in the presidential election.
Clinton made no reference to the Kennedy remark in addressing a rally of several hundred people in the coastal town of Aguadilla after Obama went on a parade-style walk through San Juan.
Instead, she sought to rally the crowd, saying, “If you stand for me, I will fight for you every day in the White House.” They responded with chants of “Hillary, Hillary.”
Obama Empathizes With Clinton…
ABOUT THE TABOO TOPIC:
While Clinton’s remarks drew headlines and became a hot
topic of debate on talk shows, her campaign made it clear it
believed the flap had been overblown and would subside.
“Senator Clinton was very clear yesterday when she explained she was simply
raising historical references,” noting some Democratic primary campaigns had stretched into June, Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said on Saturday.”
There have long been concerns about the safety of Obama,
who would be the first black U.S. president. The Illinois
senator was given Secret Service protection 18 months before
the November election — earlier than any other candidate has
received increased security.
Clinton’s comment brought up the taboo topic of the
possibility of a rival’s assassination, and political analysts
said the remark was a serious gaffe.
The state-by-state nominating contests end on June 3, when
15 delegates will be awarded in South Dakota and 16 in Montana.
Clinton will spend much of the rest of next week campaigning in
those two states.
The Democratic nominee will likely be decided by the nearly
800 superdelegates — members of Congress and other party
insiders — free to vote for whomever they want. Most have
endorsed Obama.
Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States is the
central issue in the island’s politics. Both Clinton and Obama
support allowing Puerto Ricans to decide for themselves whether
they want to try for statehood or keep their current status.
There are 3.9 million residents on the island, which has a
median income half that of the poorest U.S. state, and an
almost equal number of Puerto Ricans live on the mainland.