It is a simple profiling concept that "behavior makes the man." It is also a long accepted rule that "actions speak louder than words." What a person says is not nearly as important as what he does and yet it seems like a good portion of America is disregarding this truism because Obama gave a pretty speech. I rather hate to admit Hillary is correct when she admonishes us to look at Obama's past record and base our voting decisions on that and not on a bunch of words cleverly put together to make us like him and make us feel good. It seems Barack Obama is snowing us.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a racist and there is no question about that. Why anyone who is of a mixed racial heritage would want to hang around with a man who insults half of his relatives is beyond me. I would be appalled if any of my children (two biracial and one black and it wouldn't matter if they were all white like me) attended a church where the minister denigrated any race or the country in which they live. Discussing political issues is one thing but throwing out inflammatory remarks and engaging in unchristian attacks on any race or our country as a whole is totally unacceptable for any man of the cloth. Yet, Obama has hung around this pastor for twenty years and reveres him. Say what he will, but birds of a feather flock together and if Obama is a member of this man's flock, I don't want Obama as the President of my country.
Many people are quite unaware of Barack Obama's true background. He was raised by a white mother and by white grandparents in Hawaii, a state with a very Asian and local Hawaiian culture. His black African father vanished from his childhood before he had the chance to even know him. He spent part of his youth in the Indonesia in another Asian culture and then his teenage years back in Oahu, Hawaii where he attended Punahou, a school for mostly wealthy whites and Asians (which is why he snorted coke). Barack Obama had about zero exposure to the trials and tribulations of Black America until he went to Chicago and acquainted himself with a subculture of the black Chicagoan community with the help of his mentor, the Reverend Wright. Obama, the culturally white/Asian Hawaiian became a black man.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with identifying with a new community at some point in one's life. I have attended churches that were mostly white and churches that were mostly black (as it is hard to find an evenly mixed race church). I have spent a portion of my life attending Indian temples and hanging in the Indian (the country) community. I am comfortable with that culture. However, this fact does not make me repudiate my past communities nor my race (whatever that really is other than human). So if Barack Obama is comfortable in the black community at this point in his life, this is fine as long as the culture he in is not racist and hateful. It is fine if he does not pretend he grew up in it and therefore experienced what blacks in Chicago have experienced. He no more raised up in the African-American culture than I did.
Barack Obama could indeed be a fine bridge for a multiracial America. He could honestly state he has been a part of white, Asian, and black cultures in his lifetime. He could state he has learned much of the experiences of Americans in each one of these subcultures of our country. He can further add that he knows what it means to be a bit of all of these cultures as a mixed race American. But, for Barack Obama to align himself with a racist that hates and insults many Americans is foolish and concerning. And very sad. There is guilt by association and I want nothing to do with a person who keeps this kind of company.
Criminal Profiler Pat Brown
Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a racist and there is no question about that. Why anyone who is of a mixed racial heritage would want to hang around with a man who insults half of his relatives is beyond me. I would be appalled if any of my children (two biracial and one black and it wouldn't matter if they were all white like me) attended a church where the minister denigrated any race or the country in which they live. Discussing political issues is one thing but throwing out inflammatory remarks and engaging in unchristian attacks on any race or our country as a whole is totally unacceptable for any man of the cloth. Yet, Obama has hung around this pastor for twenty years and reveres him. Say what he will, but birds of a feather flock together and if Obama is a member of this man's flock, I don't want Obama as the President of my country.
Many people are quite unaware of Barack Obama's true background. He was raised by a white mother and by white grandparents in Hawaii, a state with a very Asian and local Hawaiian culture. His black African father vanished from his childhood before he had the chance to even know him. He spent part of his youth in the Indonesia in another Asian culture and then his teenage years back in Oahu, Hawaii where he attended Punahou, a school for mostly wealthy whites and Asians (which is why he snorted coke). Barack Obama had about zero exposure to the trials and tribulations of Black America until he went to Chicago and acquainted himself with a subculture of the black Chicagoan community with the help of his mentor, the Reverend Wright. Obama, the culturally white/Asian Hawaiian became a black man.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with identifying with a new community at some point in one's life. I have attended churches that were mostly white and churches that were mostly black (as it is hard to find an evenly mixed race church). I have spent a portion of my life attending Indian temples and hanging in the Indian (the country) community. I am comfortable with that culture. However, this fact does not make me repudiate my past communities nor my race (whatever that really is other than human). So if Barack Obama is comfortable in the black community at this point in his life, this is fine as long as the culture he in is not racist and hateful. It is fine if he does not pretend he grew up in it and therefore experienced what blacks in Chicago have experienced. He no more raised up in the African-American culture than I did.
Barack Obama could indeed be a fine bridge for a multiracial America. He could honestly state he has been a part of white, Asian, and black cultures in his lifetime. He could state he has learned much of the experiences of Americans in each one of these subcultures of our country. He can further add that he knows what it means to be a bit of all of these cultures as a mixed race American. But, for Barack Obama to align himself with a racist that hates and insults many Americans is foolish and concerning. And very sad. There is guilt by association and I want nothing to do with a person who keeps this kind of company.
Criminal Profiler Pat Brown
I think it's kind of sad that U.S. black culture sees Obama as representing them when he's so far from representing, really, any U.S. culture. Like you, I have noticed that Obama has some questionable people in his circle.
ReplyDeleteOne that stood out to me is former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, whose administration fostered more federal investigations and convictions within his closest circle than I ever remember in Dallas history. The sad thing about it is that often who was being taken advantage of was their very own loyal black community, who stuck by those in the spotlight even when it was proven there were illegal acts going on affecting their community's welfare. It took a former journalist turned councilwoman, Laura Miller, to investigate and break up what I can only call a ring in our city hall, and she was voted in by a high margin as mayor herself for some years. Now Ron Kirk can be seen on CNN acting as a pundit for Obama, and this alone is enough to keep me from voting for him. What truly amazes me and makes me question the real effectiveness of our biggest media outlets is that so far I've seen no news entity look into Kirk's background before they give him primetime to tout his candidate. I think it's fear of being labeled biased or racist, trying to appease the demographics.
Sometimes I think if O.J. had run, it wouldn't matter, he would still get the southern black vote. I look forward to a time when politics are taken more seriously and not treated like a football game where you choose sides based on race or gender.
Wouldn't that be nice? See my next post on this matter.
ReplyDeleteRight on! Notice that the first most of us heard of Obama was at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, when he gave an "eloquent" speech for John Kerry. Kerry was another pretender.
ReplyDeletePat, I appreciate these blog of yours about Barack Obama. I would like to read your thoughts on the other candidates: Hillary Clinton, Mike Gravel (Libertarian), John McCain, Ron Paul (Republican) and Ralph Nader (Green). Oh, and I don't think Alan Keyes (Republican) has dropped out, so him too if that's cool with you.