print“The solutions offered by conservative commentators to Barack Obama’s existential crisis have been conspicuous in their shallowness. Unlike Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Victor Davis Hanson is no fake scholar; Hanson has intellectual heft. Yet he proposed that ‘all Obama would have to do is apologize, quit the church, and begin talking about the issues.’
How about admitting himself to rehab, or, even better, expiating on Oprah? (I read on the Los Angeles Times’ blog that Oprah, wise woman that she is, had long ago quit Trinity United Church of Christ for reasons that evaded Obama, her protégé.)
No, I give Obama credit. His reaction to the nation-wide reaction to Rev. Wright’s fulminating—everywhere on full display—was anything but shallow. It was, however, profoundly disturbing.”
Read the complete column, “The Ethnic Particularism Of Barack Obama,” on Jewcy.com. Join the debate on Jewcy; post your comments here, or, even better, do both.
Update 1: What fun; I’ve been fending off a few attacks on the Jewcy Comments forum, here. Jump in.
Update 2: Well, I learned my lesson and that is never to mix it up with the masses. This was the first time I went ahead and partook in an open forum exchange. Before long, the malignant “Shshshshaun,” with whom I’ve been very generous on this forum over the years, chimed in, began attributing quotations to me that are not mine, assigning views to me that aren’t mine, and lumping me with company I do not keep.
This is the Zeitgeist folks. People cannot tell assertion from argument; fact from fiction. As to manners and ethics; they do not exist. One cannot retain dignity in debate around fulminating hordes.
The funny thing is this non-entity; this repulsive little unmanly maggot—here is one of his first letters to our forum, which one headless chicken on the Jewcy forum has crowned a fine argument—thinks he can, with his limited cerebral agility and reach, damage me intellectually. Who raises these inflated gas bags—and there are many like maggot man roaming the Internet—to believe they are what they’re not?
Lesson learned: stay far from the madding crowds. And stop allowing scum onto Barely a Blog.
Glad you are mixing it up over there Ilana. So many of your co-religionists are incredibly misguided. Show them the light, will ya?
Did Barak Obama’s speech yesterday stop the bleeding from the racist remarks of Jeremiah Wright? The answer is a resounding NO! Instead, Obama got a very public and visible endorsement from Malik Zulu Shabazz. He is the leader of the “New Black Panther Party”. This man is a very militant dude who shares Jeremiah Wright’s views as well as Louis Farrahkan’s. I am not aware that Obama has “denounced” Shabazz’s endorsement. Likely we won’t see that either. ILana made a good point I think, in when she said the contrast between slavery and the Holocaust is huge. Slaves got to live and essentially live a pretty good life… Jews in the Holocaust were tortured and gased. Yet, We don’t hear this continually oppressive whining about the Holocaust like we do from alot of the black community about slavery. Enough is enough…
Martin Berrow
I wouldn’t give Obama credit for anything. And Jewcy is a Leftist pseudo-Jewish website. The Pope is more Jewish than the people behind that website. But I give you credit for posting on that lousy leftist site.
Obama is stuck in an almost impossible trap of either alienating his base or marginalizing himself. He wriggled out of the trap brilliantly, IMO. Barack knows better than we do “the shocking ignorance” and prejudice of the black community. The next four years will be a disaster, no matter which of the three stooges wins the general election. Why not let the dems take the heat? At least comrade Barack isn’t a neocon.
Ilana,
Thumbs up to your superb article!
As to comments from the other sid(t)e, the “new” leftists of the scholastic-hair-splitting type like to portray themselves as “open-minded” and “complex” thinkers who are willing to allow for additional variables to explain this or that fact; in short, to “debate” the issues be it race, colonialism, inequality, or what not.
However, when it comes down to the crucial task to test their theories and offer solutions to combat poverty, crime, and the widespread sense of despair and hopelessness, all their “complex thinking” boils down to naive hope that the middle-of-the road kind of collective efforts involving affirmative action, welfare payments, universal health care etc. will SOMEHOW effectuate the transformation of the minds and deeply disturbed social culture of the affected group to become responsible parents, to recognize the virtues of non-violent social interaction, of education, independence, individualism, productiveness.
It’s significant that intellectually, that is, in their search for the root cause the “complex” thinkers fail too. The powerful institutional barriers of slavery and Jim Crow era haven’t been operative for many decades now. To keep referring to them as still exerting decisive influence, first, goes against the evidence and, second, diverts the attention from the real root cause. And here the real need for debating is very much in place. We all need to know, particularly the disadvantaged groups, what works and what does not if the goal is peace, freedom, prosperity, happiness.
The “new left” by virtue of its limited intellectual edifice will always represent a disturbing force but it can be overcome because the reality is on our side.
I’m not inclined to join that site. It wasn’t worth the effort, even though it might have been gratifying to get banned. It wouldn’t let me post my name without joining first, so my post went up anonymously.
I wonder if anyone will catch on to the allegory. Attributed variously to Mark Twain and others, the operative phrase is, “Never try to teach a pig to sing — it wastes your time and annoys the pig”.
1. I have NO particular problem if sshaun, Rev. Wright, and Barack Obama remember history, preferably correctly. Presumably, Ilana and I and others have heard a 3000 year long list of grudges against the Egyptians, Amelekites, Assyrians, Babylonians, up through the Inquisition, Pogroms, Holocaust, and Kassam rocket attacks.
2. But while history cannot be erased and might teach us lessons, it does not solve present and future problems. There is not an excuse for (some) blacks to not study in school because some grandfather went to a shabby segregated school. There is not an excuse for (some) blacks to have disfunctional “families” because 300 years ago, an ancestor was chained in the hull of a slave ship.
3. I am not as upset over there being some historical grudges in the South Side of Chicago as I am upset that much of the South Side of Chicago resembles a drug ridden Gaza strip of crime and ignorance in schools that spend $10,000 + / per pupil. Oh, what the hell, my grandfather was tortured by the Nazis so I guess I should hold up a liquor store. { My kid was abandoned by her parents in China so why should I tell her to study? }
I’m surprised that the media even dared to cover Wright’s comments. I didn’t hear anything about 2 of the ‘Jena 6’ being applauded at the BET awards for ganging up on one white kid.
http://www.goodoleboybumperstickers.com
Ilana, you’ve written in the past about the advantages of manners/deference/civility. Anonyomous discussion forums are definitely not the place to find them. Personal insults and deliberate misrepresentation are the norms there, not the exceptions.
I don’t have anything to add to the larger discussion, so I’ll just shut up.