A tale of two men, Obama and Kilpatrick a tale of America..

One was born with almost every advantage and was destined to succeed.

Family:  A powerful well connected upper class political family.

School: Attended one of the top historically black colleges in the nation and earned his law degree from Michigan State University.

Political Life:Guaranteed. A bit of money. The right family. The right connections. A successful early entry into US political life by becoming mayor of one America’s largest cities at the age of 31.

What he did: He is the first sitting mayor in the history of Detroit to face felony charges.

What do the people say?: Easy come, easy go.

Born with EVERYTHING. HE lost EVERTHING

The other man had the wrong name, the wrong background and to many the wrong views.

Family: Raised by an educated single woman and middle class grandparents with few political connections.

Schools: Attended a two year liberal arts college before attending two of the top schools in the nation. Graduated with a law degree from Harvard.

Political Life: Toss up. Not wealthy. No family. No connections. He won his first race by signatures. His second race his major opponent dropped out.

What he did: He became the first black man to hold the presidential nomination for a major political party.

What do people say? By the sweat of your own brow, shall you eat bread…

Born with NOTHING. He earned EVERYTHING.

Why such divergent paths for these two politically talented men? One didn’t have anything to prove, the other had everything to prove. One got everything handed to him the other had to work for it all. One had a HUGE sense of entitlement. The other felt and knew he was entitled to nothing.

Yes, their stories are complex and I have indeed simplified them here but I think their stories are more reflective of our society than many of us would care to admit.

August 28th 2008, Obama’s acceptance speech……

And just in case you were wondering. why I didn’t blog after Obama’s historic speech.

An explanation, I figure (it might just be me that thinks this..lol)  is indeed necessary.

You see, although, I had seen this day coming for months now, when it finally happened I was and if I’m honest with myself and with you I continue to be overcome with emotion. If I sit and think about what happened that night my brain is flooded with images.

And I’m not talking solely about the image of him on that stage, or the thousands of flashing lights that greeted him as he walked onto the stage to the deafening cheers of thousands (millions if you count the ones watching on tv)  in fact the most pronounced images of that night, for me, were created by strangers I had met only a few minutes before Obama’s speech.

You see, I watched Obama’s acceptance speech holding the hand of my husband, in the living room of the home a young, jewish family surrounded with strangers of every race, of every persuasion and of every age group.

Young, old. Black, White and Asian. Jewish, Christian and Muslim. We all sat together in hushed silence listening to a man we have come to admire and to trust. A man that we want to lead us and this nation to better days.

And as I looked at these people cheering and clapping loudly in support of this black man, who happens to share the same skin tone of my mother, I was instantly transported to a moment I once shared with my historian father (a man of the 60s and 70s but a realist of the 80s..lol) one afternoon while driving, we were discussing the state of black America and how far we’ve come when he said that he would know that things had really changed in the world when America elected a black man as its president.

I remained silent as I had often done when he made this observation. Unusual for me, but what is there to say when you do know that this one change would indeed speak volumes about the state of the world in which we live?

I should add that my father didn’t think that day would happen in his lifetime and he went to his grave believing that it may never come at all.

Over the years, I came to believe that in my lifetime I WOULD see a black president but I thought, to be honest, that day would come when I was in my later years.

But to watch Obama that night and to watch his supporters of every race, of every background in that living room, holding the hand of my husband was such an intensely personal moment to me..that to be honest I didn’t know if I wanted to or even more honestly if I could accurately articulate my feelings about what I witnessed that night.

To understand and to come to a realization, that you are helping to shape a future that will be infinitely better than the one your parents gave you while recognizing their sacrifice and the role that they have played, including my pessimistic father, in helping to create that moment I witnessed on August 28th..at times fills my heart with such pride, my throat with a lump and my eyes with tears because it took so long but at the same time, thoughts of that moment,  of that day leaves me breathless…because I KNOW for a fact that the world has finally changed and it will never, ever be the same again  and I could finally say these words to my father. “Dad, the world has finally changed.”

The next time I visit his grave I will.

Hillary wins Nevada, Huckabee wins South Carolina and it continues..

My predictions for the Nevada caucuses..

For the Democrats..

Hillary will win Nevada, Obama will run a close second and John Edwards will get demolished (and hopefully he’ll go away but I KNOW that wouldn’t happen..lol)

The reason behind Hillary winning is not going to be Obama’s lack of organization or his ‘supporters’ not understanding caucus rules or being able to caucus at the casinos the reason is a lot simpler than that-Hispanics are not going to support a black guy for President.

Hispanics will/would prefer to support a white women with close ties to the Hispanic community than a BLACK guy who resembles one of their neighbors on the block or a fellow co-worker.

Hispanics and Blacks have often fought for the same crumbs that fell from the table and this has led to a power struggle between the two groups.

And according to sociologists who conducted extensive surveys in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia they have generally found that ‘Latinos display more prejudice toward African Americans than African Americans do toward Latinos or than whites display toward African Americans.’

In addition a Duke University sociologist Paula McClain, working with nine other sociologists, found similar attitudes among Latinos living in Durham, North Carolina. According to McClain et al., “Latino immigrants hold negative stereotypical views of blacks and feel that they have more in common with whites than with blacks.” For instance, 58.9 percent of Latino immigrants, but only 9.3 percent of whites, reported feeling that “few or almost no blacks are hard-working.”

This bares repeating,“ Latino immigrants hold negative stereotypical views of blacks and FEEL THAT THEY HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH WHITES THAN BLACKS.”

This is the numero uno reason Obama loses Nevada.

Although a number of Hispanics voting in the caucuses will not be foreign born a number of them will have parents who were and stereotypes are conveyed from generation to generation but they also at the same time can be shed and broken.

You see, Hispanics and Blacks have often fought for the same crumbs that fell from the table and this has led to a power struggle between the two groups and if you feel you have more in common with the white politician than you do your neighbor than this will definitely count against Barack Obama and I don’t see him overcoming this in just a few days of campaigning.

Black/Brown issues have always been closely intertwined i.e fighting racism and economic empowerment African Americans have often viewed Hispanics as late comers to the civil rights movement and have often viewed their accomplishments in this society as being built on their backs and this is one of the many sources of tension between the two groups.

Hispanics and Blacks are often competing in the same neighborhoods, with high levels of poverty, for the same social services and the same jobs leading to the greatest sources of friction between the two groups and with such high levels of poverty it often leads to increased criminal activities including gang formation and gang wars thus leading to numerous deaths on both sides.

In Nevada, Hispanics will have the chance to prove that ‘we’re all in this together’ and that we have to combine resources and organizations in order to get things done and issues resolved for the betterment of both our communities. I hope that many Latinos can put aside their negative stereotypes and views and vote for the best person for the job, Barack Obama, I really hope they do and that they prove my observations wrong once again.

I think, therfore I am..

I don’t even know how to begin this blog.

Words continually escape me.

How can I express the hurt and outrage I feel at the comments made by Nobel scientist James Watson about the supposed ‘inferior intelligence’ of my race, of my people.

However, forgive me if I am not surprised.

People across the world are stunned because how could such a smart man believe such a stupid and prejudice thing? But you know smart people and very smart people often believe such things and are sometimes just as prejudice and racist as the ignorant among us. But because he is one of the most accomplished human beings to ever live his comments have hurt and brought tears to my eyes not because he is the first to have said such hateful and stupid things about my people but his comments have forced me to relive horrible experiences that I have had over the years.

As a black person I have seen so many looks of surprise on the faces of numerous individuals young, old, white, asian when they realise that not only am I capable of completing a sentence in English but also that I am smart, and in some cases if not most, smarter and better educated than they are. I have seen the look of pure horror on the face of a white roommate from a European country when she realised not only had I beat her on a Math exam that I had failed to study for (and she knew this because she was always begging me to study with her, I however would always choose to watch reruns of Golden Girls)  but I had also received one of the best grades in the entire class. She was in such shock that she continuously tried to assert that the reason I had done better was not because I was smarter but because the teacher was easier..I don’t know if an easier professor can miraculously transform equations and facts on my exam into answers but I know this was her only way to rationalize the fact that I, a black woman woman, could ever beat her at anything.

And this was not only the only experience I have had with members of the white community expressing incredulity with my intelligence because of my race. However it was one of the most memorable and hurtful and the fact that I attended a predominantly white university in a predominantly white city these interactions and comments happened with some frequency.

Can a white person or asian person ever know what it’s like to be continuously questioned about your abilities, theories, or comments because you’re black?  Black? Race, something that you obviously have no control over and something that even if you did have control over you would not change at least I wouldn’t. Many people of other races believe I wasn’t supposed to have been born with the brain or the looks that I have I presume it would have been more fitting if it had come in the body of a white male or female or an asian female or male but not in the body of female as dark as velvet.

My white professional and personal colleagues often can and are willing to, even if they fail to acknowledge, cloak themselves in the supposed certainty of the global hierarchy and intellectual superiority of their races. Read this great article on the hierarchy by Martin Jacques .

But I have no such cloak I don’t even have a damn shawl. Because as painful as Dr.Watson’s comments are they are held by numerous intelligent and brilliant people across the world.

Everyday when I wake up and go out into the world I have to fight a battle. 

I fight to achieve true equality for my race, for my people in all things in all areas of this great and wonderful life. From science to perceptions of beauty we are just capable, just as competent and in some cases can even outperform any race when we do it should not be viewed as a fluke or some ‘mistake’ in nature but should be viewed as the individual or individuals who have bettered us all. 

My battles have been tough I’ve been fighting this battle for years. I score some victories but since their are millions of others like Dr.Watson I still don’t know if I’ll ever win the war.

  

Dissing blacks and hispanics

So the four Republican front runners didn’t show up at a debate held at a black college and moderated by a black commentator, quelle surprise!  Of course they aren’t going to show up why would they?  The Republicans have concluded that black people always vote democratic regardless of the issues, we can’t or don’t think ourselves (even though Bill O’Reilly tried to tell them differently) we will  just do what we’ve always done and vote democratic and that we cannot be convinced otherwise so even showing up at an event sponsored by black organizations isn’t worth it.

It seems that Republican political strategy dictates for them to disavow most ethnic and racial segments of the American population with a few small exceptions in particular the Cuban communities in Florida because this will show their base that they are with them (white males) thus garnering votes and campain contributions. Shame.

Because the truth is that although black people in this society skew democratic they were cracks that could’ve  been exploited and that were quite significant pre Katrina and Hispanics across the board tend to be conservative and lean towards Republicans. However, if  Republicans continue to ’diss’ black people and hispanics (the immigration debate is seen as anti-immigration and anti-hispanic in the hispanic communities) in the future when blacks and hispanics and other ethnic minorities today constitue the majority of the American population (if current demographic trends continue) Republicans will no longer be able to at least even have the oppotunity of becoming the majority party in congress let alone winning the presidency.

The Republican party needs to be revamped. Karl Rove, to his credit (and there’s not much I like about him) tried to do it he saw what I’m seeing that the Republican party cannot survive on white men alone. It must reach out to other ethnicities if they really do have a big tent then the door to that big tent must become wider and more open.

Republicans stress federalism, fiscal responsibility and less government interference these are issues which most people can be convinced of supporting, and listen this is coming from a black liberal, but if only white males will be allowed to lead and to hold significant positions within the party then hispanics and blacks will avoid supporting and becoming registered Republicans.

Embrace and survive or diss us at your own peril.