Letters to the Editor
banyantree
Published Letters: 184 Editor's Choice: 3
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He looks like America-
[Read the article: Multiracial man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]at least the America I know. Too many writers are making a bigger deal of Obama's melanin content than is necessary or appropriate.It tells yopu so much about how doggone hard it is to be Black in America.
Black America itself is a multi-ethnic melange. As Skip Gates has pointed repeatedly, and as we all know just by looking in the mirror, very few African Americans are NOT of mixed race ancestry.
To us, Obama is a Black man. Easy. That is the skin he is in.
This new classification of "bi-racial" is a bit curious and a little too "special" to some of us who are a bit older, and who have a combined gene pool. We just live with it, and we explain to our children the origins of their mixed race heritage. And, no, we don't use complicated terms like Tiger Woods. we like his golf game, but his identity issues are a bit complicated.
What is perhaps most interesting about this whole discussion is that it is as if the media just figured this stuff out. I mean, why are you guys always so far behind the curve on these issues?
Obama is smart, he's ready, he's good, and, oh yeah, he's Black. Go figure.
And there are a whole lot more just like him. Hire him- and them.
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Jabari
[Read the article: Multiracial man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Excellent,thoughtful and enlightening posts.
Thank you.
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anonymous at 6:55 am
[Read the article: Multiracial man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Qualified" as in President Bush? Got it.
I really prefer not to go down that worm hole today.
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SAD
[Read the article: What I really wanted to say to Chris Matthews]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am fascinated and horrifed by the screaming sense of entitlement and deep anger displayed in the posts of many (not all, but certainly many)white women who support Hilary, toward the following categories of Americans:
Obama, black folks, men, black men.
Black women appear not to exist at all, let alone women of other races unless their votes are lined up behing Hilary.
Why the hatred?
Even the font appears angry after reading a few entries.
No,race,as in Obama's is not mentioned, but it is clearly, along with gender, the issue against which all is measured.
How sad.
My son, who happens to be black, and whom I have tried to raise with a fair degree of eqanimity will have to live with your angry daughters.
And, what about your sons?
Do you have sons? You never mention them. Do they count?
Are they also angry?
Do you love them less?
Surely they must be angry, given your screeching...how could they not be?
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Shirley Chisolm and millions
[Read the article: "No, You Can't"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]of American women of African descent have had to bear the burden of two forms of bias, race and gender.
As one of those women of a certain age, I have never doubted that race has been the heavier burden to carry.
This is not meant to diminish the very real issues of sexism that exist in our society.
However, the statistics about race, and gender, and what I have seen and felt every day of my fifty-two years say it all.
It is specious at best to use the words of Shirley Chisolm, now long deceased, to buttress your argument- words that if memory serves me correctly, were uttered in a very different era and within a different context.
I daresay that were Ms. Chisolm alive today, she would likely provide the appropriate context for her statement. Let us examine a few examples, and speak of contemporary women of color who know that women, white women, today comprise more than fifty percent of the incoming college population. This was not the case in Ms. Chisolm's era.
What is perhaps most compelling is that while over the past twenty years white females have gained advancements in the higher education arena, black women and men have seen a commensurate decline in college entry rates.
This one example tells you something about the state of America.
Finally, these posts about who has endured the greatest suffering are both distracting and deceptive.
The point is, let's be very careful about comparing scars. Someone might actually have a larger scar- or two- than you.
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Chisholm, in 1982
[Read the article: "No, You Can't"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I appreciate both the reference and the indication that an "h" was missing from my original message.
Allow me to suggest that Ms. Chisholm's comment remains insightful, even in this era.
Men are, indeed, men. However, as we have both agreed, this comment must be placed in context.
we are a much different country today than we were in 1982. In this regard, I stand by my comment that the general progress of Caucasian women, which was and remains absolutely necessary, appears to have significantly outstripped any relative progress achieved by African American women or men, as measured by educational attainment and salaries over the same period.
Certainly, if we accept this premise, what we make of it is subject to debate.
Thanks for your openness.
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Anonymous @4:20 PM
[Read the article: Quote of the day: Obama on Clinton ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nice try at bootstrapping.
As, however, I have stated many times on Salon forums, "your pain ain't like mine."
You are a white female; I am a black female.
To equate our relative status within the USA is ...absurd.
Yes, you can fight for what you believe, but please, do not attempt to make it my struggle too.
Do not pull me into your fiction that in pushing for the superdelegate votes I, a black woman, and other black folks and ordinary folks benefit from the generosity of your struggle.
I am voting for Barack Obama because he actually SEES all people, because he is a thinker, because he does not prevaricate, because he has not supported America's ill-fated foray into Iraq, and because he found the time to vote no on FISA.
I have watched Hillary Clinton very closely. I have observed.
Barack Obama is the better candidate for all Americans. And, that includes you.
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Little Lord Baltimore
[Read the article: Quote of the day: Obama on Clinton ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Plenty of hypocrites on this forum.