Letters to the Editor
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Raw Nerve Indeed
Ms Dickerson is really making life difficult. I was feeling so good about Obama... Finally getting a chance to support a Black for president. How dare that nasty Dickerson pull the rug out from under me. His Authentic Blackness was MINE. I earned it! I've been Non-Racist for a very long time now. Look, Ms Dickerson, I need an Authentic Black that I can support now so that I can alleviate enough guilt to be able to turn to the Safe Democrat at the last minute on voting day. Hey, it isn't MY fault Red State America can't accept somebody with the name Hussein!
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More Debra Doo Doo on Salon, yawn...
To Karen’s comment about O’Reilly et al:
I understand your concern about the juicy morsels this woman’s views offer to the world of “fair and balanced” viewership. Thanks to Salon, I’m afraid that toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube. It seems that none other than Rush (“I’ll no longer carry water…..”) Limbaugh has already glommed on to Ms. Dickerson’s passport validation litmus test for “blackness”:
http://www.nowpublic.com/rush_limbaugh_hearts_debra_dickerson
After just declining Salon Premium’s offer to renew, primarily due to their seemingly compelling need to waste column space occupied by this woman’s insulting and stupid drivel, I offer one last piece of advice to Salon visitors. This is a rule I offered in response to something else she had published here:
Read something by Debra Dickerson = Waste of remaining inventory of potentially productive time
Is anyone surprised that Dickerson’s hit job on Obama is not even original? Just another recycle of stuff Alan (have campaign bullshit, will travel) Keyes had in his quiver while attempting to carry out the contract the GOP assigned him when Obama ran for the Senate (Thanks for the reminder, Capitalist Prig).
DIVIDE AND RULE!!!!!! It’s worked for so long……
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Dickerson sounded like an idiot.
I know its not politically correct for lots of reasons but, I was amazed to hear what was clearly a very bright person sounding like a complete idiot. I don't know who Dickerson is but I saw and heard her on Colbert's show and couldn't believe my ears. Colbert only made her sound more idiotic than she made herself sound.
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This is nothing new.
Alan Keyes said exactly the same thing about Senator Obama when they were running against each other for the Senate.
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Crazy like a fox
Every time I come to Salon I look for Debra. Isn't that a damn shame? She's bold and wrong most of the time, and she went to Harvard, you know. I never get my news from only one source and I don't expect to get any news from her. But she's a mildly entertaining kind of shit talker, and what other mainstream topic is a black person credible to be instigator of other than blackness? Old white guys compare this administration to Johnson's, Stanley Crouch talks about jazz and what white guys are black, and here's Debra ever mindfull of that. They taught her that at Harvard, you know.
But aside from giggling, here is something serious. If race shouldn't matter in Barack's case, why the hell would we vote for him? You dig dirt for most candidates and I'm digging history for him. And my smart simple self again learns that lay peoples' politics are more popularity contest than anything else. With that being said, screw it. Go ahead and let's vote for him.
Happy Valentines!
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Black like her
This is all so dumb. I haven't the slightest doubt that Obama has experienced American racism. Not to mention his wife and children are (I assume) more traditionally African American by Dickerson's standards, or doesn't she think that matters?
Now I would NEVER say that Debra Dickerson isn't "really black". I wish she wouldn't start excluding people who the rest of the world and they themselves view as African-American, because it's downright invasive for her to say that her own opinion of who/what someone is is all that really matters. As races get more mixed, we're going to have to stop with the 1/32nd test or whatever test DD thinks is worthwhile and let people self-identify.
By her standards, I guess Colin Powell isn't black, or anyone who came to the US from anywhere other than West Africa pre-Civil War?
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Debra Dickerson: Don't quit your day job
Congratulations on your coup of getting on Colbert's show. Hell, I'd write and speak all sorts of nonsense to get on his show. The guy probably sheds "cool dust" and some might rub off on you for a while. He's a genius and a history-maker....being on his show makes you a part of his genius history. Awesome.
That said... Whoa. Your need a new shtick. This whole "I'm the arbiter of what constitutes true blackness" bit is utterly retrograde. We live in an era of multi-meltingpot-hybridism. There are black Latinos, Asian blacks, Asian Latinos, Jewish Mexicans, Arab Eskimos.... There are so many categories a person can be.
Your arguments do not contribute anything of quality to the political or cultural landscape, Dickerson. They're snags to get caught on, not enhancements of understanding. Imagine an Asian-American claiming another Asian-American isn't TRULY Asian because his ancestors didn't work on railroad lines in the 1800s. What would you say, "Oh, well, he's an ASIAN ASIAN-AMERICAN"?
Imagine a Mexican immigrant who comes over on a work visa being criticized by other Mexicans because his parents did not enter the country by rat-infested tunnels ala "El Norte."
I think blacks who are descended from slaves do themselves a disservice by placing so much emphasis on this part of their identity. Yes, it is a horrible cultural history to have, but that's all the more reason to rise above it and do everything possible to render it irrelevant to how you think about yourself. Just because slavery is in your history doesn't mean you have to remain a slave to that history.
Dickerson reminds me of everything that was wrong with my cultural-studies professors in college. They bent all interpretations to fit their pre-ordained conclusion. The white man was always automatically bad, and average white people were always inherently racist, even if they didn't know it. Their very ignorance of their social advantage made them racists. The definition of the word "racist" applied to everybody who did not have the appropriate amount of tears and shame over the mistreatment of minorities over the years. It trivialized the word and undermined the legitimate gripes against more serious and overt racism (as well as feminism, classism, ageism, etc.).
I would love to see Dickerson tell Obama to his face that he's "not black." I know a recent Nigerian immigrant who works in my office whom I'm sure Dickerson would not have the guts to call "not black."
Ultimately I think Dickerson just wants to preserve the "black club" she has carved out with her fellow writers. Better keep the club exclusive so that there's less competition when trying to get those black speaking fees.