Letters to the Editor
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This article by Kamiya...
... should basically replace the tone-deaf, insultingly simplistic "is he going to ADMIT that he's both black and white" James Hannaham piece, "Multiracial man," which is the first thing linked to under "more reading." They shouldn't even be linked on the same page, since they're day and night when it comes to "getting it." Smart move to actually have someone biracial write about someone else's experience being biracial, Salon. As a reader who's also biracial, I have to say this one resonated 1000% more.
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This is the difference -
Obama has earned it the hard way. Having read his book is a difference maker to me. What is the point of thinking groupwise - gender v. race - after you read it? I'm really pissed at Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong for arguing that a privileged white person from a well to do Chicago suburb who is obviously disadvantaged by her sex, had anywhere near the same disadvantage as this guy (or this guy's mother). Yet he emerged from all that as a stronger, more unique, fearless individual than her.
P.S. Erica Jong's slander of Obama as a "token" today in the Washington Post baffles me.
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He does NOT have crossover appeal nor appeal with independents.
There is no proof at all that Obama can "reconcile" anything or win Republican voters.
In fact given his late endorsements and campaigning with leftwing liberal dinosaurs, his attacks on HRC as a war hawk (or something), anti-war posturing and abortion rights endorsements it's reasonable and wise to assume he'll do far worse with Republicans and Independents than she would.
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Books and Speeches are NOT a reason to vote for someone
The last thing on earth this nation needs now is some liberal academic and "visionary".
We need someone who can hit the ground running and SWEEP UP before we MELT DOWN.
Hillary is the only sane choice.
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Thanks Gary. Thanks, Obama.
Thanks for sharing a little about yourself, Gary. It was a really great article, and felt honest.
Thanks to Obama for his own selflessness and honesty.
We don't have to be mean-spirited and petty. We can become better people.
We can become a great nation again.
Lets all hope and pray for a good day tomorrow.
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don't elect someone who gives speeches and who knows how to lead?
What if someone had said that to the people who elected Winston Churchill?
I think this country has been so bereft of leaders, we've forgotten what one looks like (or sounds like).
Obama 08!
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Salon Loves Obama
More fawning articles over the phony messiah.
When was the last time Salon led with a flattering article on Clinton?
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eh
He seems like a great guy and will make a great president one day. I'd love to know how his policies would differ in any meaningful way from HRC's. It's pretty embarrassing to think that now that Democrats have an opportunity to show what a knowledgeable, informed electorate we could form in this country were it not for all the NASCARites, we end up having something worse than a popularity contest.
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His book is an important reason to vote for him
We understand the man better. Also, by having written it himself, and by not resorting to cliches and pre-fabricated narratives, we recognize that Obama is not going through the motions here. He's not writing the obligatory campaign book because "that's what you do." He could have delegated this to a ghostwriter. He could have offered a trite, easy story. He didn't.
We need someone who won't pander, who won't speak down to the American people, and frankly, we need someone who can right. We need the level of self-reflection that his book demonstrates.
Here's hoping tomorrow. Fortune favors the bold, and the audacious.
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A great article. Foolish posts.
Thank you Mr. Kamiya, it was a beautiful piece.
Meanwhile, the anonymous posts by paid Clinton bloggers (I’d wager it is the same person, given the similarity of their prose and punctuation and the idiocy of their arguments) only reinforce what precisely it is Mr. Obama promises to transcend.
It is also further proof that anonymous posting should not be allowed on Salon.
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Hey anonymous:
Here's what I understand about the Clinton criticism of Obama's vulnerability to Swiftboating in the general election (due to his inexperience in fighting the Republican smear machine):
"Obama is riskier in the general than Hillary, because he is not proven to be a candidate who can respond to Swiftboating - which means he is vulnerable to attacks that will raise his negatives, suppress interest among independents, and energize the opposition."
This means he is the riskier general election candidate because if that comes true, he will be exactly where Hillary is today. How is that a greater risk?
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This is the stuff Salon should be mining and promoting
This is the kind of analysis few people can provide and yet its value to society is great. Gary Kamiya should be commended for taking this on.
In philosophical terms Obama's (and Kamiya's) search is for truth, a personal truth. In the sociological realm it's what C. Wright Mills wrote about finding "the intersection of the historic and the biographical", who you are and what formed you.
It's a search every individual should take on, regardless of race but more so because of race, despite pain and hardship, because the "answer" will empower you beyond catch phrases and give you the ability to move beyond race in a truly meaningful way.
In this case, Barack Obama has something unique to offer America. I'd venture to say it's a big part of what gives him his power. If a person truly understands himself or herself and is comfortable with it, there's very little you can take away from that person. All the truly great ones had it and often had to fight the hardest to understand it.
Sun Tzu wrote about this with war but it applies to life in general -- know yourself. It's the ultimate position of strength regardless of the endeavor.
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Brilliant piece
Wow, Mr. Kamiya; this was a really impressive piece -- thoughtful, reflective, introspective, and even poetic. I like where Obama's book has taken you, and how much you've clearly taken away from it. Your columns are always good reading, and this is one of your best. I hope the Clintonites get past their hatred and take your words to heart, think about them, maybe even read Obama's book. It's too much to hope for them to vote for him, but at least there's a chance that they could respect him.
With multi-racial people, there's almost a quantum kind of situation for them, racially -- being at once one race, another race, both races, and neither (transcendence?) I don't know how one finds their way in that situation, except through the journey Obama took, and it's another character-revealing bit of information that he thought so much about just who he was, and came to terms with it. It makes him even cooler of a candidate.