print“To me, [Barak] Obama has always seemed a reluctant recruit to racial politics; driven more by expediency and fear —fear of his overbearing wife and the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton.” But this is not how “Debra J. Dickerson, apparently a black racial theorist of note,” sees him. She “argues” in a Salon.com article that [Obama] doesn’t look right —he looks East African, when he ought to look West African. And horrors, “the handsome Obama” resembles his white mother. In short, he isn’t black enough.
But fear not, Dickerson’s commentary is never skin deep. Our African Aristotle, beloved of the liberal media, goes on to explain that “‘Black,’ in our political and social reality means those descended from West African slaves. Voluntary immigrants of African descent’ are not to be admitted into the Club. (This, of course, is good news for their Designated Oppressors; the tougher the admission criteria into the Club of the Eternally Oppressed, the better.)”
Read the rest in my new WorldNetDaily column, “Homie Has Some Rings To Kiss“
Blacks in this country should hit their knees every day and thank God that some white man brought their ancestors over here as slaves. If not they would be back in Africa with their cousins starving, dying of aids, being hacked to death by a rival tribe and enjoying all the dubious benefits of living on that accursed continent. It’s not so easy to be responsible for your personal success or lack of it. It’s much simpler to be a perpetual victim and demand hand outs, both social and actual, from the guilt ridden whites. The real white culprits are not those cringing simpletons who actually buy in to the posturing of the eternal black victims but those hypocritical whites who, along with the equally hypocritical black leadership, work to keep the blacks as self percieved second class citizens for the purposes of cultivating a very large voting block in states with large numbers of electoral votes. 200 years ago they were brought over here as slaves. Are whites guiltless in this mess? Of course not. Slavery was morally wrong and indefensible. However, we need to get past the past and go about surviving in a complicated and dangerous world. Whether this attitude is right or wrong is moot. We are in a fight for the survival of western civilization and the last time I looked we weren’t doing so well. Having “white guilt” and “black rage” hung about the neck of the country like a giant albatross is counter productive and smothering to both races.
Wow… Being of East African descent and not a descendant of slaves means you’re not really being “black”? Coulda fooled me! 😉
Ilana
We should all kissing Obama’s feet.
By being “front and center”, he has been the focus of Hillary Clinton’s rage – not well received by Black voters who resent her trashing a Black Man. Not good for her in the primaries.
Now if Ralph Nader could only come along.
I doubt this kind of pseudo emnity from blacker-than-thou blacks is going to hurt Obama. White people still have a lot more votes, for one thing. For another, if it comes down to voting for a kind of black guy, vs whatever hairball the Rs cough up, do you really think any black person is going to continue splitting hairs? I don’t. It’ll be the black-pride event of the century, and justifiably so.
In fact I kind of doubt most blacks would choose any not-Obama even in a Democratic primary.
There’s an analogy here to the more extreme ideological wings of both parties. Real conservatives don’t look they’ll get a candidate this time, for example. But will they vote for Hillary or Obama just because Paul is not on the ballot? Don’t think so. For the Dickersons of the world, race is ideology, so the same thing applies.
A bit OT, but I am fascinated by your description of that youtube video… was it done w/ actors as a joke, or was it supposed to be real people who were presumably so learned-helpless that it didn’t occur to them to walk up? Either way is funny, but the latter is also sad social commentary in its own right.
Ilana, here is Dickerson interviewed on The Colbert Report. Funny and enlightening stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nODHv2gxTTo
YouTube – Barack Obama is -“Not Black???”
Great article. Dickerson and her ilk took “clean and articulate” as an insult to Obama. Their ideal would be someone like Sharpton or Jackson, or “the chocolate man” from New Orleans. Completely agree with James Higgins’ comment above.
Debra Dickerson is a strange lady to say the least. I wonder what she considers her children since they don’t look “west african” with their blue eyes? But then again she looks “east african” herself. Is she “black”?
Blacks in this country should hit their knees every day and thank God that some white man brought their ancestors over here as slaves.
Muhammad Ali seemed to agree, at least at one time. Remember the “Rumble in the Jungle” fought in Zaire? After Ali won he was asked his thoughts regarding Africa. He replied, “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”
His grandfather was a slave.
So now the diversity ahderents are rejecting diversity. One must be a certain kind of black to be accepted! The irony is that Dickerson and those who think like her are actually doing what people have done for all of recorded history. She and her ilk are voluntarily grouping themselves with others that are like them and with whom they desire to associate. And this is quite alright with me. It is just a shame that she and her kind won’t allow others to do the same.
In the February 26 issue of The American Conservative, Richard Spencer writes about the Duke rape case. He examines the manifesto signed by numerous faculty members shortly after the charges were made. One of the professors, Mark Anthony Neal, is a typical race-hustling clown who has accomplished nothing scholarly, but makes his living as a self-styled “thug-nigga-intellectual”, playing on the silly rich white guilt like a con man exploiting an easy mark. Nice work if you can get it. And live with yourself.
I hope for his sake and all the other so-called victims’ sake that they never actually experience the persecution of which they fantasize. Better that they continue to suck their victim pacifier and cry when they need attention. Actually, better that they grow up and contribute something of value to the world. Like that will ever happen.
Man, oppression sure is a gravy train for its adherents. Where can I sign up to be oppressed?
Another great column Ilana. I would only point out that Lenny Kravitz had a white father and black mother (she was an actress best known for appearing on The Jeffersons). His parents divorced, but not until he was a teenager. As an aside, she was Bahamian and thus does not qualify as black either by the person you lambasted in your article.
[Thanks. Corrections being made. Sorry about that.]
Glad you brought up the Eastern-Western African topic, as it shows a simultaneous bias and ignorance of geography in the US. The pan-Africanism popular in the US (spurred by pan-African socialism of the ’60s) is very odd. I’ll never understand why someone whose ancestors were abducted from west Africa would think Swahili would be a language of their ancestry, when it was not. The simplistic affectations of things like Kwanzaa are cute but just exacerbate the confusion. And the mix/match of “ethnic garb” is odd too. You’d never see someone of European ancestry wearing a beret, lederhosen, wooden shoes, and tartan all at once.
I say let all the ridiculous “frontrunners” tear each other up and hypocritically “position” themselves on issues rather than stand on principal.
Then, let a real Patriot sweep in and prevail over all these small and silly candidates–Ron Paul.
Dan writes: “You’d never see someone of European ancestry wearing a beret, lederhosen, wooden shoes, and tartan all at once. ”
I think Dan is onto something here. If the Euro-Americans start wearing outfits consisting of all the above, they can become professional victims, too. Let’s get that gravy train running!
Nicely done again, Ilana.
Substitute the word “Aryan” for “Black”, and Dickerson has quite a few premises in common with Hitler. If mulattoes are to be spurned by ‘pure’ blacks, could whites spurn them on exactly the same grounds? The unchallenged racist premise is that reality is governed by perception and perception is determined by race.
It occurs to me that one of the lessons of history is that if you really want to hold a class of people down, the surest way to do that is to make welfare dependents of them, and provide them with emotional justification for their right to the meager handouts provided by their oppressors. It is an ancient and evil ruse that works — we grow to love our servitude. In time, like prison snitches, the more prehensile members of the class are bestowed with a special reward of an extra morsel or two to enthusiastically nip at offenders to keep them in line and prevent them breaking free. Not unlike training a sled dog team.
Once slavery was abolished, residual racism in society could to little to prevent self-determination by an individual. It was mild compared to the pernicious spread of the victim mentality, itself racist at its core, reinforced from birth by the welfare state and permeating every aspect of their existence. The racist philosophy of the oppressed is serving to keep themselves ‘in their place’ better than any other program designed by their oppressor could ever hope for.
Oh, and the reason why people think all African ancients spoke Swahili? Of course it was because of the ground-breaking role of Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek!
–John Danforth-