Letters to the Editor
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Colorblind
I think you are a narrow minded idiot.
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Insulting to those of us who identify with Obama
This article is an illustration of the main problem within the black community. “Blackness” means different things for different people. Dickerson perpetuates the slave holder mentality chiding blacks for being too uppity. The author shows how unsupportive she is of progress of the black community. She chooses to cut down conventionally successful blacks as being “sell outs.” I guess she rather that we sell drugs or some other stereotypically acceptable behavior.
This article does not speak for me or any of my friends who have professional parents and are pursing professional degrees. Obama’s reality is a lot more real to me than the reality put forth by rappers. I am not less black than 50 cent and will not be judged because I did not grow up in the ghetto. I am black because no matter how many professional degrees I have and no matter where I live, people will allow look twice at me when I enter a high end department store or move into their building. I guess according to Dickerson, shame on me for not growing up in the ghetto because that is the only way that I can understand the “struggle” and be truly black.
This article is a pure demonstration of the author's self-hate.
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Re: Ken Anderson
I wish that Debra would put a lot more time and thought into defining her terms, and into framing her arguments better. She has worthwhile points but tends to present them in ways that upset people to the point where they can't give her arguments a fair hearing.
She knows what she's doing. Just as a LW noted that Alberto Gonzales isn't a bad lawyer, he's just a lawyer with an agenda- Ms. Dickerson knows what she's doing, but controversy sells, she knows, Salon's editor's know it, and so why temper passion with reason, if it's the passion that sells? Nevermind Ms. Dickerson's capacity for framing her argument, its her motives that shaped this article. Not that there's anything wrong with that- concessions must be made.
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Not Black enough?
All political candidates should be analyzed closely by the electorate to determine exactly where they stand on the "issues." However, I take issue with the author on the angle that since Sen. Obama has "immigrant" Black heritage, he lacks the value of the "slavery experience history." WHAT?? This might have some value were it not for (Black) people like Condi Rice, Clearance Thomas and Ward Connerly who have spent a lot of their time distancing themselves from that very experience. I believe that it is a slippery slope and an exercise in futulity to start evaluating the "purity" of one's race as a litmus test for where they stand. I grew up in the sixties where we were judging each other's Blackness based on whether we knew the latest dap, wore a dishiki or had a large enough afro. Let's avoid such frivilous exercises and focus on the candidate's education, record and demonstrated stand.
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Watch a documentary on global dimming, Debra
Doesn't the kind of particulate pollution caused by burning coal alter the albedo of the Earth to counterract global warming?
Not everything that counteracts global warming could be categorized as "eco-friendly."
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Wow Debra, congratulations.
Your world view is as sophisticated as that of the Bush Administration. Newsflash: the stars, the moon and the sun do NOT revolve around the United States. You ignore the import of Obama's heritage with respect to foreign policy. You think that foreign diplomats give a f*ck about the NAACP? Seriously.
Perhaps you don't think that foreign policy is important. But last time I checked, there was a foreign policy crisis taking place in the middle east. Make no mistake: Obama is black, and the world will respect his color as such, with or without the blessing of Jesse Jackson.
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Race, Culture and Identity
First and foremost, wonderful, well-written article. Your patience and deep thought gets to the heart of the significant issues that lay underneath the surface of Obama-mania. You open the door to the debate of race, culture and identity, and these three terms are key to progress in America.
Race: People have an obession with saying they are "unbias",to say "I'm not a racist, the way someone looks has no impact on my judgement" Yet the truth is that bias is unavoidable, and unconsciously we makes first impressions on what we see, that's human nature. Barack Obama brings forward this amazing paradox: Running for president makes race an issue, but unpacking why he may win shows that race is not an issue. It's like looking in a mirror to see our bias as human beings.
Culture: The reason I love Barack Obama, is that after realzing his race is unimportant, it makes people reevaluate culture, the fabric of our society. The mere fact that Obama is being considered for president, signals that our culture has changed for the better. However, we have a long way to go, as noted by the author. What electing Mr. Obama as president would do, is send a signal to the rest of the world that American Culture has changed, and perhaps then we can begin to undo the horrible damage that President Bush and his cronies has done to the our reputation in the world.
Identity: Barack Obama's identity is the quentessential dillema in our struggle with identity. His history challenges race, and his global background muddles the questions even more. Most important, Barack Obama's identity has many people questioning their own identity...
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Doubly Wrong
The myriad ways in which this article infuriates me can really be boiled down to two. What on earth happened in the Massachusetts governor's race, if Deval Patrick from the Chicago projects was able to win all over the state--even in South Boston--with his real black ass? Secondly, having travelled, as a real black woman, on every continent on the planet except Australia and Antarctica, I think your description of blackness as deriving solely from American descendants of slaves of West Africa is not only technically wrong but morally wrong as well. Technically, a black person is a person with African ancestral origins, who self identifies, or is identified, as Black, African or Afro-Caribbean and often politically signifies all non-white minority populations. You define blacks as those having suffered under the systematic oppression American slavery and Jim Crow; I define blacks as those people who've overcome that suffering and those conditions. And I don't say this because I happen to have two close friends, Polly and Anna; I say it because, for all of the pain of our history, it is essentially and irrefutably true.
My real black ass thinks your real, ill-informed black ass is looking for a way to explain why white Americans find him enthralling. You deduce from their ardor his lack of blackness, instead of taking him on his own terms, which, I think, are manifest. You overlook the power of oratory in American political history and his considerable skill in this regard. You don't want you heart broken, so you refuse to believe.