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You sound like you have a great deal of personal animus that you're bringing to this discussion. Perhaps you missed the wild scenes of celebration throughout the world when Obama won while you had your head up your butt feeling estranged, but I hardly think the vast majority of the world sees Obama as an "Uncle Tom". Perhaps Nader, Al-Qaida, and you, but not most people.
If we're going to deem every Black person who's ever dated/married someone white as not legitimate spokespeople, we're gonna run out of spokespeople really quickly. That's a rather useless criterion, my view. I am not unsympathetic to the negative reinforcement that sisters receive in this world, but that doesnt make anyone who marries/dates outside the race "not Black". Besides, if you have that attitude about Belafonte and Poitier, you should, at the very least, revel in the fact that someone like Michelle Obama will soon be our First Lady.
As far as Mandela's freedom goes, no, I dont think every positive event that occurs for our people has to have a direct impact upon incarceration rates, reduction of violent crime, etc. I'm not that naive. I do believe that there are events of great symbolic significance which can lead to the development of the positive sense of self that will lead to behavior that will contribute to all of those factors.
