To all my many fans in blogland, let me caution you to fasten your seatbelts on this one. Expect a few picket-signs and also few demonstrators, circling outside the Room8 headquarters, after this one goes up. But you know me: I call it as I see it, then I duck. So I am putting Gur and Ben on notice here: I am going to need a bullet–proof vest soon.
Before I even start this column let me do some prefacing. By now, most of you must know that I was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago). I have lived in the USA (only New York City) for the past thirty-three and a half years. Eleven years ago I became a naturalized US citizen. One of the first things I did was register to vote; you see, even though I have been politically-active all my life, I had never ever voted in an election before, in either New York or Trinidad. Since then, I have voted in three presidential election cycles, and I haven’t missed an election date bar one; and that was because I had to travel to Trinidad to bury my dad in November of 2005.
Relative to the US presidency, I have voted for Ralph Nader in all three general elections. And before you use this tidbit of information to make assumptions as to where I am on the political spectrum, let me caution you that I don’t give a damn about political labels. I am more concerned about the individual issues, and about where the individual stands on each issue. If I were to describe my position on the political spectrum, I will say that I am a recovering “leftist” who is now a “moderate”. Presently, I am refusing to vote for any Clinton or Bush. I refuse to believe that the Clinton and Bush DNA trees are the only ones bearing US-presidential genes. Neither genetics nor marriage should give you a leg up on the opposition. There are many other people qualified to do that job better than any Bush or Clinton. Are we really looking to go Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-Bush, after all the crap we have had to endure from both families over the past eighteen years? Gimme a break.
Let me confess that I am late getting on the Obama bus. Let me also confess, that I truly believe that Al Gore (if he enters the race) offers the Dems their best hope of a presidential victory. I think that this is Al Gore’s race to lose (yes; pun intended). But even if Gore enters, I still think that Obama should run. Oprah Winfrey’s apparent endorsement and send-off, was the best thing that happened to Obama, since his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Party’s convention.
Barack Obama may not become the next president of the USA; I accept that. However, despite that possibility, Obama is still the embodiment of the true American ideal: “that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights”. Despite the 231-year reality that white men are a lil more equal than all others, Obama epitomizes the real truth behind the American dream: that anyone (regardless of color, creed, race, gender or class) can aspire to, and become, anything they want to, once they are willing to work hard enough at it. That’s just a few of the many things that have come to make his candidacy appealing to people like me, over the last few weeks.
Since he has articulated his intention (to run), Obama has met a lot of nasty lil smears along the way; it’s really an epic of things to come. This could get nasty folks. Believe me when I say that I feel that Hillary and Bill Clinton are not above dragging Obama into the mud. I hope they don’t go there; but if they do, they will be in for a “black” surprise. You see Hilary and Bill are frauds. They have done very little for black people in the USA, and yet they enjoy a level of popularity from many blacks who refuse to delve deeply into political things. They both show up at the black churches on occasion, and they get lots of applauds; but what do we (as blacks) get? We don’t even get their promises. Watch after I publish this column; you will see a host of things that “Billary” has together done for the black community, being listed by her operatives doing their spin. Don’t be fooled. The Clintons will trot out many of those spineless black electeds, and also some of those pimping church pastors, to whip black-folk into line; watch.
Bill Clinton won his presidency because of the black vote. He has never won the white male vote in any presidential election. In fact he has never gotten a majority of the voters, since he never cracked 50%. After he blew his saxophone on Arsenio Hall’s television show, he was tacitly given black-approval. And believe me when I say that he didn’t even have to blow the trumpet or sax, or dance the jig, or tap dance, or sing, tell jokes, or do anything, to get this approval; given our enslavement to the Democratic party-which we refuse to examine. During his presidency he gave blacks the ultimate stab in the back, over the issue of “affirmative–action”. When the white boys were trying to undermine affirmative action programs, Bill Clinton with the straightest face a liar could display (except for when he said: “I had no relations with THAT woman”), said the most unbelievable thing I have ever heard from a president. As brilliant as he is intellectually (and he is/no doubt), he has major character flaws; and Hilary has been his enabler from day one.
Clinton said that the affirmative-action program should be mended not ended, because (and do get this please, you black folks out there) we should be sensitive to the cries, suffering and pain, of white males in the American society. All I could say was: “what the fuck is he talking about”. I’ll say it again- in abbreviation this time so as not to offend the sensibilities of those youngsters reading this: “WTF”. Our black leaders and elected officials gave him the usual pass. Even now I still can’t believe that Clinton touched one of the holy-grails of black-politics (affirmative-action) and never paid a price.
When Bill Clinton said that, he did nothing less than trivialize the fact, that every single US president to date has been a white man- after two hundred and thirty one years of independence. It also trivialized the fact that one hundred and seven, out of one hundred and eleven members of the Supreme Court, have been white males; and that 98% of all CEOs and CFOs in this country are white males. And again, that white men have too much power in this country and in this world; and their reluctance (and in some instances, downright refusal) to share power with women and men from other races, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions, is universally problematic. It is almost like the white man would rather see the world go up in nuclear explosions rather than share power. Most of them seem to possess this mind-set. That was the bigger of Clinton’s two major political blunders; the other one I will leave for another article.
In the year 2000, Hilary Clinton was on her hands and knees begging black New Yorkers for their vote- which she needed to send her to the US senate (in my estimation, a position that she has never deserved as a carpetbagger). When she won, the first thing she said in her victory speech was that she was “going to fix the upstate economy”. Not a word about the near 50% unemployment rate amongst black males in New York City. Not a word about the high incarceration and recidivism rate amongst black males in New York State penitentiaries. Not a word about the 91% black kids who fail to get a Regents high school diploma, in New York City’s public schools. Don’t forget that she won over 90% of the black vote, and she badly needed that vote to defeat Congressman Rick Lazio, since the majority of the white voters had rejected her shuttle flight to New York.
Name me three initiatives that are significant to black voters that Hilary has undertaken to lead? Let me check off just seven for you; police-brutality, racial profiling, racial-discrimination in hosing, employment, economic development and the like, Katrina/ New Orleans, affordable-housing, red-lining, and reparations. Believe me when I say the list is longer, city by city. Hilary and Bill Clinton are flim-flam artists; they know how to schmooze black audiences, but they don’t lead the fight to tackle issues salient to the black community. They leave that to black elected officials, the majority of whom (the Clintons are smart enough to know this), are quite inept as elected representatives. Most of the others are mediocre at best; there are very few who you could term brilliant–Obama may be one. I am not so sure as yet, but I am hopeful. He shows me a lot of potential for greatness.
Look, I say all this, and yet, if Hilary was to win the Dem. nomination, I will probably have to vote for her; since the Republicans appear to be no option after this Bush disaster. So she may get luckier yet; she may end up getting my vote; albeit reluctantly.
So back to Obama: why are so many blacks attacking his so-called “blackness”? This brings me to one of the absurdities of the US society: race. Many of those who are born here (both black and white), retreat to a place I have labeled “stupid-place”, whenever any reasonable discussion on “race matters” are initiated with them. On the white side we have white males in denial that racism exists in a stultifying way; and their white women are just enablers, since enabling has its perquisites. On the black side we have many who have resorted to “reverse-racism” as a counter to the dead–weight of the years of pain, misery and sorrow. Many blacks think that this is both rational and justifiable. By the way, I am not saying that some foreign-born folks aren’t afflicted with the same malady; it’s just that those who were not born here seem to have a more dispassionate view of race matters; a more healthy and wholesome view too. Look, these are just my opinions, that’s all. Don’t lynch me for them. Last time I looked, there was a constitution guaranteeing my right to have an opinion.
In my years in this great country, “race matters” have been known to show itself as the billion-pound gorilla/elephant in the country, which few want to talk about in honest ways. You have blacks who talk all types of “Pan-Africanism” talk, but won’t walk the walk; since they speak disparagingly of blacks who are foreign-born. These blacks arrogantly believe that they have a lock on blackness; and that they are the only one who can speak of the black-experience. And that they know what blackness is, and that we (foreign-born) don’t. This is so absurd it isn’t funny. It’s as if the experiences of blacks in Africa, Europe, South America, the Far East, the Middle-East, the Caribbean and anywhere elsewhere on this earth, doesn’t count; doesn’t rate, and is somehow inferior to the experience of blacks born here. It’s as if the white boys didn’t kick our asses too, while we were out there. It’s as if we didn’t experience colonialism, repression, terror and the like.
This is one of the reasons why I am despised in certain political circles in black-Brooklyn; I am too audacious as a foreign-born black. I am too pugnacious. It’s why many of the USA-born black-electeds in Brooklyn disliked Una Clarke; she was too feisty, bold and daring. When she ran for congress against Major Owens (her mentor), it wasn’t the treachery that pissed them off, it was her audacity. As Bruce Springsteen sang: (you have to be) “born in the USA”.
Racism is racism no matter where in the world it is experienced. And by the way, a subtle but significant form of semi-racism is practiced by blacks against other blacks, all over the world. Notice the light-skinned factor within the black community. Is it any wonder that most of the successful black politicians (especially in these dis-United States) are light-skinned? Many blacks suffer from self-hate. Why do you think that the number one selling beauty product on 125th Street in Harlem, is skin bleach? Why do you think that black women go through so many changes with their hair styles? What do you think all those weaves and straighteners are about?
Look, when the “ego-ideal” and the “self-image” are way apart, you develop self-esteem issues. Blacks all over the world have significant self-esteem issues. This has been caused primarily by media images. Media sets beauty standards for everyone, and when the predominant images of beauty (standards) are white or light–skinned, what do you think most dark-skinned people aspire towards?
So back to Obama: the problem with him (for many blacks), is that he didn’t have what is to them an authentic “black” experience while growing up. He grew up in the Far-East and in Hawaii. Plus, to many, the painful truth is (and this goes for both blacks and whites): he is mixed. He is neither fully black nor fully white. Even in 2007, many people can’t seem to get it through their thick skulls, that love transcends color, creed, race, ethnicity, religion and class. The race problems seem to start somewhere around here: sex. Speaking of which, some of the other problems it causes, are discussed in my column entitled: “They Walk Among Us”.
So Obama’s deceased father was black, and his mother is white; so what? He has probably enjoyed the best of both worlds. What’s wrong with that? He is definitely multicultural (an asset in today’s world), and his educational background seems impeccable. It is said that he attended one of my alma-maters, Columbia University in New York, and that he later graduated from Harvard Law School. It is also said that he studied at a Muslim school in Indonesia or somewhere out there. Good for him. All this shows me a well rounded individual with diverse experiences which could only serve him in good stead later on. Instead of trying to make his Islamic studies an issue, the media should be extolling its virtues and possibilities-given today’s political realities of the larger world.
A run by Barack Hussein Obama could do a lot for race-relations in this country. I think it will expose some dirty linen first, but that it will eventually have the powers to help bring a divided nation closer together. He is smooth like silk. He is both handsome and charming. He has the good-looks, the charisma, the intelligence, the mannerisms, the grace and articulation of someone special. Okay, so politically-speaking he hasn’t said many profound things; he has however said some rather inspirational things that many like to hear.
The fact that he smoked pot and snorted a lil cocaine in college, is irrelevant to the man he is now. Bill Clinton lied (again) when he said that he smoked pot, but never inhaled; and our current president George Bush, has never admitted to what near everyone else seems to know: that he had wilder days in his youth, than even his young (twin?) daughters are having today. There has been talk about his cocaine use and his bouts with alcoholism. Youth is the mirror of our folly and ignorance. Bush knows this too well. If he had spent more time studying as a young man, he would have been better prepared to intellectually handle this presidency. His stubbornness is in actuality, a sign of his limitations.
If Obama lays his skeletons out early enough, and can avoid the many traps and pitfalls that would be set for him along the way to the White House, then- in terms of performance- he can surpass Jesse Jackson’s two presidential runs of the eighties. He would surely do much better than Al Sharpton did two years ago. If he could continue to handle media as well as he has been doing, and if he can build an organization and infrastructure capable of executing a national campaign- whilst raising barrows full of cash- then he will do well.
Can he win the democratic nomination? I think so. His chances are slim, but he does have some chances. Can he win the presidency? Well, let’s put it this way: I am hopeful.
Stay tuned-in folks.