From NewsBusters:
Now, how hard would it have been for Mrs. Obama to say something like, "This race isn't about race. Mrs. Clinton's the front-runner and my husband's the underdog. Everybody knows that. But I believe that as voters start paying more attention to the issues, my husband will be moving up in the polls among all Democrats"?MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The polls are showing your husband is trailing Hillary by 46% to 37% in the African-American community. What's going on here?
MICHELLE OBAMA: First of all, I think that that's not going to hold. I'm completely confident: black America will wake up, and get [it]. But what we're dealing with in the black community is just the natural fear of possibility. You know, when I look at my life, the stuff that we're seeing in these polls has played out my whole life. You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough. You know, there's always that doubt in the back of the minds of people of color. People who've been oppressed and haven't been given real opportunities. That you never really believe. That you believe that somehow, someone is better than you. You know, deep down inside, you doubt whether you can do it, because that's all you've been told, is "no, wait." That's all you hear, and you hear it from people who love you. Not because they don't care about you, but bcause they're afraid. They're afraid that something might happen.
BRZEZINSKI: It's interesting that you say that, excuse me. Because a stewardess yesterday, a 52-year old African-American, and I asked her if she was interested in Barack Obama, if she would vote for him. And she said, like this, she said: "I don't think so, because he probably can't win, because he's black."
OBAMA: That's right. That's the psyschology that's going on in our heads, in our souls, and I understand it. I know where it comes from, and I think that it's one of the horrible legacies of racism and discrimination and oppression.
But, maybe it really is all about race with Mrs. Obama and with Sen. Obama's spiritual adviser for the last two decades, the Rev. Jeremiah T. Wright. And it certainly was all about race with Obama himself when he wrote his autobiography in 1995, which he aptly subtitled A Story of Race and Inheritance because there's nothing in his memoir about anything else.
I hope he started to get over it when he was humiliatingly rejected by black voters in 2000 and did some soul searching for the year afterwards. I hope that he learned just to be himself (the preppie from paradise) rather than constantly obsessing over whether he was black enough as he did throughout his autobiography. But nobody has had the courage to ask him about it.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
"You know, when I look at my life, the stuff that we're seeing in these polls has played out my whole life. You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough."
ReplyDeleteThus the mystery of how Mrs. Obama, a Princeton and Harvard grad, was granted admission to such prestigious educational institutions is solved.
Cough, affirmative, cough, action, cough.
Also, does this mean that her husband, who is half-white, is, in the minds of oppressed black voters, better than said electorate only by a factor of half, rather than by the full factor of "white-betterness-oppression-legacy-syndrome" that Mrs. Clinton presumably wields?
Barack Obama's problems with black voters probably have little to do with fear that he can't win, and much to do with the fact that his background makes it very hard for millions of black Americans to relate to him.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama is a Harvard graduate who was raised largely by white relatives. He had little exposure to stereotypical black culture growing up, and only began TRYING to embrace it as an adult. His efforts are probably sincere, but they're artificial. Hence, inner city American black voters listen to him and think, "Yeah, he's the same color as us... but he sure doesn't sound or FEEL like one of us."
The black vote seems to be leaning heavily toward Hillary Clinton, mainly because of Bill, who may have been white, but who always seemed much more at ease with black culture than Obama does.
My friend said, "nobody will elect a black president," and I retorted that even the fringest moron knows Obama's a media-creature, and fundamentally unthreatening. He'll do nothing for the black community. All he'll be is pacifistic, boring and EXCELLENT for US international propaganda, which is why I support Obama for president in 2008. With the field how it is, could you support a candidate for any other reason?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the black community senses this? Could people, in general, not enjoy a ritual based on their own deception?! Maybe those Aframericans are "closer to the Earth," as they say, and more attuned to such higher faculties of analysis, like not being lied to by fools.
People had a different idea of how society might proceed, back in the assassination 60's. Weirdly, things have cooled down, big-picture wise, and why not? The probability of the biggest picture significantly changing is lower than ever before. You had straight idiots conceiving revolutions in human nature and government, many of the brown ones hobbled by these standard-deviation differentials that float around this blog. If the standard deviations didn't exist, you'd have probably had World War 3 uglier than any of us can imagine. God bless The Bell Curve, God bless our peaceful age, which revels in sexiness and getting wasted and fake killing and such glorious diversions.
To paraphrase some intellectuals, "we are all whores now." Election analysts are like scientists of stupidity...it's one big hilarious show. Let Obama's chick talk race, if it's in her interests...demanding reason is like demanding plot in pornography.
I saw on ABC news with Charles Gibson that Obama graduateds 1st in his class at Harvard- is this true? Anyone? Steve? Google no help.
ReplyDeletePeaceful age Little Timmy? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteI sure don't see a lot of peace in the Islamic World. Pakistan teeters on the brink of control by the Islamists/Pashtuns, driven by religion-tribalism reinforcing each other. It's got nuclear weapons but Bush assures us he's got it covered. And that's not counting Iran, a resurgent Russia, or China.
Obama (and Hillary) wont be President because fundamentally they don't have an answer for what to do about insane tribalism mixed with nuclear weapons.
But African-Americans make choices on patronage issues. They have real pocketbook concerns, and Obama seems less committed to patronage that advantages Blacks than say, Hillary.
Obama is virtually tied with Hillary in the latest poll, so "who can win" is hardly the issue, more like "who gives us the best deal" and that isn't Obama.
Obama's pull is for affluent whites seeking to demonstrate moral-spiritual superiority.
::Peaceful age Little Timmy? Seriously?::
ReplyDeleteLet's see some +2,000 people death-tolls anywhere in the Middle East outside Algeria, where nobody goes because it's demonstrated outside intervention means worse trouble (DUH). Amazingly enough, the NAM countries seemed to have learned their own lessons from the Euro-psychopathic free-for-all of WW2, and do 1000% better, ruling-wise. There's no omelette to break eggs in the interests of: people are people. If any of those freaks nuke Israel, they're dead. It'll never be more than 1/100 of 1% of the human population killed...it's not the end of the world, even with the worst Hollywood/D.C. disaster played out.
Mind your business about Russia, China and Iran. They're not your concern. Only our culture-bombardment can make a dent, and it's pretty dented. Conventional military force is about totally dead. Good riddance. The whole thing was insane and braindead.
"Well, of course, warfare isn't all fun. Right, stop that. It's all very well to laugh at the Military, but when one considers the meaning of life it is a struggle between alternative viewpoints of life itself. And without the ability to defend one's own viewpoint against other perhaps more aggressive ideologies then reasonableness and moderation could quite simply disappear. That is why we'll always need an army and may God strike me down were it to be otherwise."
I always identified with the hand of God.
"I saw on ABC news with Charles Gibson that Obama graduateds 1st in his class at Harvard- is this true? Anyone? Steve? Google no help."
ReplyDeleteMagna cum laude is all I heard, which means he couldn't have graduated first as summa cum laude is the highest. The portion given this honor varies by school. Safe to say he did very well. And that means something because law school exams are blind graded.
"You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough. "
ReplyDeleteIf your scores aren't high enough, maybe it's more that you aren't qualified. This is what frustrates me about AA. Put the unqualified minority in the position of power and they will perform up to par because donning the attire and the title is all that's really required.
There's nothing these lunatic racists can't blame whitey for, is there? Blacks don't vote for a black man---whitey's fault. Michelle Obama gets into TWO Ivy League schools despite her admittedly substandard test scores---whitey's fault. A mouse farts in Morocco---whitey's fault.
ReplyDeleteYes, the white man has really kept the Obamas down, what with their seven-figure bank account, their multiple Ivy League degrees, private schooling for their kids, lucrative careers at a prestigious private university, etc., etc., etc. I feel sooooo guilty. I'm going to reregister as a Democrat so I can self-flagellate by voting for Obama. I'm sure he can punish me for my fathers' sins....
According to evil neoncon, any country wanting to be left alone by America or Israel is a "threat" - that's the neocon foreign policy. The neocon domestic policy says any individual wanting privacy is a "threat."
ReplyDeleteRejection of imperialism and the police state is "insane" and must be smashed forthwith, according to neocon-ism (to coin a term). Ron Paul who talks about individual freedom and minding one's own business is a "nut."
So, neocon-ism is merely yet another species of totalitarianism - this time wrapped ironically in an American flag, directed from Tel Aviv, based apparently on Soviet-style psychiatry, and replete with fear propaganda worthy of Soviet Pravda. (Have those Muslim longboats landed on Italy's shores yet?)
Many more of our people are going to be killed if these bas***ds get their way and start another World War.
Take heart, Michelle Obama.
ReplyDeleteOur next president will almost certainly break new ground for one disparaged, marginalized, and stereotype-threatened group or another.
Hillary Clinton is a woman, a former First Lady, and possibly a, you know . . . , and we've never elected one of those before.
Your husband is an African-American (OK, half Midwestern White, half brainy Kenyan, but you know), and we've never elected one of those before.
Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and wears weird underpants, and we've never elected one of those before.
And Rudy Guiliani is an Italian American cross-dresser with underworld ties, and I don't think we've ever elected one of those before.*
Rejoice and be glad! Somewhere, someone, yearning to break the bonds of "the soft bigotry of low expectations" will soon breathe confident and free.
*He's also a serial adulterer, but we've elected plenty of those before.
I have little inclination to analyze Madame Obama's babble. It is interesting, however, that her husband isn't exactly setting black voters on fire. One has to wonder why not. Here's my shot at it. Black Americans, referred to today as "African-Americans" by the trendy and politically correct, are a distinct ethno-cultural group. Their ancestral roots are in west Africa (the area that is today Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, and Togo) and their cultural traditions are centered in the American South, where the bulk of them have lived for three centuries. Barack Obama's ancestry is half white WASP American and half Kenyan -- a very different type of African than the ancestors of black Americans. Obama's cultural influences include private school in Hawaii and Indonesia and Ivy League law school in Massachusetts. May I venture to suggest black Americans don't identify that strongly with Barack Obama because Obama isn't really one of them. How "conscious" they are of this is irrelevant -- it's a reality that's staring us in the face. Steve, I know that you've covered some of this area before; you should cover it again. It looks like you were on to something.
ReplyDeleteObama's preferred by white liberal Whole Foods and Wild Oats shoppers who prefer feeling morally superior to actually doing any good. His ideology and background mirrors theirs, except for the part about, ya know - being (half) black.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if there isn't a group dynamics going on in the black community that says "Don't tell people we support Obama!"
I remember watching the 2004 Democratic Convention when they interviewed a bunch of black delegates from Mississippi on the convention floor. It was the night that both Obama and Teresa Heinz had spoken. When asked which speaker they liked best, it seemed pretty clear that the black delegates were trying to avoid saying Obama. More of them actually said that Heinz was the better speaker - and her background is nothing like theirs. (Or maybe they were house negroes?)
Given the obsession with race so prominent in black Americans, something tells me that when those blacks step into the polling booth on primary day that before they cast their vote, the devil on their shoulder will say "Vote for Obama - he's still a brother!"
I hope they do. I think Obama was a worse chance of winning than Hillary. His own extremism will catch up with him in a way that Hillary's won't.
I want to learn Michelle Obama's ancestry. Most assume that she is from the later group of West Africans who were imported to this country as slaves. Is it possible that her ancestors were among the very first West Africans who were simply indentured servants like the Europeans? Did her ancestors own slaves as some of West African Descent did either after they worked off their indenture period or after they were given manumission by their owners. Some of these are the very people who brought about the Jim Crow Laws wanting separateness.
ReplyDeleteI recently read that Michelle Obama did her thesis at Princeton about African descended persons who want to be Separationists and do not want to be Intergrationists. She stated in that thesis that she wanted to be a Separationist.