"I think you're great, but throwing the bullshit flag on this one. WTF does slavery have to do with a half-white, half-African dude, who grew up in Hawaii, and went to exclusive private schools for his entire life, whatever his melanin? Maybe slavery in Mauritanian has an impact on his story, but this is one cat who never caught a whiff of Jim Crow. Fuck! I'm more black than that guy, and I'm Irish clear."
I think you're great, too but, as rude as it is, let me begin by answering your question with a question:
Why was it so important to this country (and other blacks, especially) that we have a "first black" president?
Because we all understood the history of our home. Hell, I wanted nothing to do with Barack Obama, but even I knew the score. (Rather than the sweep of history unfolding, the Obama cult was going to "make" it in an Easy Bake Oven, and anybody who didn't like it was going to have to eat it.) And all because of a past we're trying hard to ignore.
Even me. I went for years without writing about race as I am now. And I was praised for it by the same people who, later, still pushed me into doing it. Forced to choose. But it's like the conservative take on Obama and Syria - I know it's mostly bullshit, but they're making it real. A self-fulfilling prophecy.
I don't like it, but I've accepted it. Cognitive dissonance, here I come! Conservatives have demanded it. Even Thomas Sowell would do the same thing, I'm sure. Especially in my current situation. You want to be in the streets and have a problem with black history? Good luck.
And what says a half-African dude, raised by a half-crazy white American leftist, is somehow going to miss out on The Black American Experience that, even I say, trails from Africa and the beginning of time to right here-and-now? I mean, tell me if I missed something, but isn't the fact of Obama's bizarre heritage (African/American, white/black, seller/buyer, subject/object) part of the hope he supposedly embodied - that a person, infused with some of the details that produced our troubles, could possibly end them?
I said from the beginning he was the wrong guy, and knew I was right when he started repeatedly flipping the bird to whites on the campaign trail, making it obvious - and making it obvious the media was white and liberal and timid. Even conservatives were cowed. Afraid to show outrage. All because of a past that shall not be named.
Guys, even trying to escape the subject of slavery still means it has a hold on us. People without it, in their past or present, don't have to do that. They're observers, not another weirdly-spotted family member, showing up at the door with something to discuss. Like who's "Dad"?
I personally find it maddening, because it's like we've been cursed. Being a young country (something we don't consider a lot as we bellow) we're close to the past, almost without knowing it. 500 years ago is yesterday in Europe, but it's generally outside of the entirety of America's scope. Unless you include indigenous people as having history. And the blacks I know certainly think of themselves as indigenous. As having history. Somebody just took an eraser to part of it on the blackboard.
The rest of it - as even Martin Luther King explained - is about us kids finding our way. There's just one little problem, and only I take it seriously. There's this little thing called the NewAge, and in it - unless they have a gun to their heads - they no likey leaders so much. "Most of the people who graduated in the 60's, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can't get through to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You can not change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior.
The demoralization process in the United States is basically completed already for the last 25 years,...Most of it is done by Americans to Americans thanks to lack of moral standards,...exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him, even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents and pictures. ...he will refuse to believe it.... That's the tragedy of the situation of demoralization."
And you can bet, Putin - the KGB agent - knows what he's working with,...
