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Your Black News: Rev. Jeremiah Wright Speaks Out Following Obama Victory
MILFORD — As protesters outside held a giant American flag and yelled words like “traitor” and “racist,” the Rev. Jeremiah Wright discussed his views on race and Christianity before an audience of hundreds Thursday night in Kingdom Life Christian Church.
Wright, President-elect Barack Obama’s former pastor, whose racially and politically charged remarks in sermons propelled him to notoriety in March, was invited to a forum on the Bible, race and American history by the Rev. John C. Rankin, an evangelical scholar and head of the Hartford-based Theological Education Institute.
A soft-spoken Wright, retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, told the diverse crowd his controversial remarks were taken out of context as media sound bites.
“They could care less what I preach,” he said in response to a question. “Their intention was to use me as a weapon of mass destruction to destroy that man’s candidacy. “¦ Perceptions of me are based on 10 seconds.”
The spotlight fell Wright when ABC News reported a review of dozens of his sermons found repeated denunciations of the U.S. and lists of its injustices to blacks and other minorities [...]
Your Black Life: Wall Street Journal Says Racism Is A “Myth”
The voting booths hadn’t even cooled down from last night’s historic election, before the Wall Street Journal exploited the moment by not only suggesting that “racism as a barrier to achievement” will no longer exist now that a black man has been elected, but by actually declaring that these barriers were a “myth” in the first place. I guess it took a stubborn stronghold of white, male, corporate privilege, where black achievement is the exception, not the rule, to make such a claim.
Obama’s achievements are indeed an American achievement and all those who were able to vote their dreams and not their fears reveal the very best instincts of this country’s citizenry. But let’s not forget the popular “real America” theme that Sarah Palin drilled home to her party faithful, a creepy, divisive, and yes, racist, maneuver that tried to paint Barack as a bogey man that threatened “American” values [...]
Your Black Scholar: President Elect Obama – America’s Struggle in Context
President Elect Obama – America’s Struggle in Context
By: Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
With the election of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, Americans have taken a giant leap forward. It has taken this country 219 years to elect its first African-American president (George Washington was elected in 1789). It is imperative that this historic moment always be viewed within its proper historic context.
[...]
As I think about President-elect Obama’s defeat of Senator John McCain and bask in the comfort of this historic event, I must also fear its backlash. History tells us that white supremacy dies hard in America and its proponents will not take America’s victory lying down.
I think back to 1908 and Jack Johnson’s defeat of Tommy Burns to become the first African-American boxing heavyweight champion of the world. This led to the search for the “Great White Hope,” James Jackson Jefferies. Before Johnson fought Jefferies on July 4, 1910, the crowd chanted, “Kill the nigger.” Johnson’s defeat of Jefferies ignited numerous incidents of white violence against African-Americans. It set off some of the worst racial violence in American history [...]
Full Article At Your Black Scholar
Your Black Scholar: The Illusion of Post-Racial America
The Illusion of Post-Racial America
By: Aman Gill
An Obama Victory Would be a Milestone, but Could Stall Struggles Against Racism
It’s increasingly popular to argue that the fuel for unrest has disappeared because the problem of racism has receded into America’s past. This idea has long held sway on the right, but, paradoxically, it’s taken Barack Obama’s candidacy to elevate this persistent right-wing myth into conventional wisdom.
CIVIL RIGHTS UNFULFILLED
“The history he [Obama] needs to know is the history he rejects,” says Lenore Daniels, editorial board member of the Black Commentator, a weekly online magazine. “He rejects the whole Black Power movement: ‘Just the civil rights were fine, we’ll leave it at that, there was progress.’ [But] the Black Power movement is still relevant. That was a movement talking about economic equality, where King left off.”
[...]
Obama’s view of a united, post-racial America is in the tradition of how the political establishment – Democrat and Republican – responded to heightened militancy [...]
Full Article At Your Black Scholar
Your Black News: White Journalists Blow Race Coverage: A Review
White Journalists Blow Race Coverage: A Review
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
The stage theatrics performed by the corporate press in analyzing the dynamics of Race vis-à-vis Sen. Obama, has been abysmal, at best. To put it bluntly, they suck. When Barack “Hussein” Obama, a Black man, initially announced his bid for the presidency, it was clear that the predominantly White media was unprepared, to say the least, in tackling the indomitable beast of RACE. The first revelation of this reality came, early 2007, when White pundits began asking the question: “Is Barack Obama Black enough?” It took an unprecedented level of effrontery for the grossly unenlightened conglomerate of White journalists to pose such a question, but, to paraphrase Sinatra, they did it their way.
Before long, the same group of overfed self-congratulators would declare, with such temerity, the dawn of a “post-racial” era. Considering the ground-work of “post-racialism,” it came as no surprise when the White, New York Times columnist, Matt Bai, declared Obama’s candidacy to be “the end of Black politics.” Upon Bai’s preposterous assertion, numerous Black bloggers/Writers asked a simple question: What the heck is going on? Unfortunately, their reluctance to curtail mass media’s long-tradition of re-defining race-discourse had begun to bear fruit [...]
Full Article At Your Black News
Your Black Politics: Many Blacks Remain Sceptical Of Obama On Race
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Despite Barack Obama’s message of change and hope, fears persist in the black community about what his election as president could mean for the legacy of racism in America.
Namely, that it might mean nothing at all.
“America is still one of the most segregated countries by race and by class in the industrialized world,” said Dedrick Muhammad, research associate at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, a think tank for social justice.
Muhammad pointed to research showing that black Americans remain far behind the rest of the country economically, with median wealth one-tenth of that in white America, and one in three black children born into poverty.
Like most black Americans, Muhammad supports Obama’s historic bid to become America’s first black president.
However, he said the Illinois senator’s campaign tactic of largely avoiding discussion of race in his campaign has “driven me crazy.”
“What saddens me today is that we don’t talk about black-white inequality,” he said. “I see in Obama a winning strategy, but it is sad to me.”
For the 47-year-old son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father to gain the lead he currently holds over his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has had to tip-toe around any potential racial controversy, analysts say [...]
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Your Black News: Ashley Todd: A Counter-Argument to “Post-Racialism”
Ashley Todd: A Counter-Argument to “Post-Racialism”
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the 2008 Presidential race is the constant assertion of the notion of a “post-racial” period, while juxtaposed with an endless torrent of refuting occurrences. Last week, Ashley Todd, a Pittsburgh McCain worker, reported a compelling story of being “robbed at an ATM at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street in the Bloomfield area around 9 p.m. Wednesday after leaving a Republican phone bank.” To avoid misleading the local police station, Todd was quick to comment that her purported attacker was a “dark-skinned African-American man about 6’4″,” who “stole $60 from her and became enraged after seeing a bumper sticker supporting Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain on her car.”
The bizarre story took an unusual twist when Ashley Todd told Pittsburgh police that her “dark-skinned” bandit made sure to carve “a ‘B’ in her cheek,” when he noticed the McCain sticker on her car. From the onset, this mystery was suspicious at best. Nevertheless, John McCain and Sarah Palin swiftly conducted personal phone calls with the victim: Ashley Todd. Even Sen. Obama’s camp would not risk being charged with condoning this reported act of bestiality. In a released statement, the campaign stated: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.” Damn. Tawana Brawley must be feeling pretty disgusted at this point [...]
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Your Black Power: CNN’s New Hughley Show Reinforces Black Stereotypes
CNN’s new Hughley show reinforces black stereotypes
By: Christopher J. Metzler
In just eight days, America may well elect its first black president. Throughout the long campaign, race has been an omnipresent issue with many asking whether whites and some blacks would reject Senator Obama because of his race.
Most news outlets and commentators have discussed race in a vacuous way for fear of being called racists. In fact, if this election taught us anything about the media and race, it is that most journalists — including white liberals — simply lack the vocabulary to discuss and analyze race, choosing instead to engage in a cacophonous politically correct gab fest.
As the election draws to a close, one major cable news network decided to discuss race in a mephitic way, reminiscent of Amos and Andy, a situation comedy based on reinforcing stereotypes about blacks and widely popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s.
The show’s anchor warned that the election of a President Obama would lead to a health plan with grills for all. Grills are shining metal caps worn on the teeth of blacks while they drink malt liquor from a paper bag. His guest, “Freddie Mack,” attired in the traditional pimp attire complete with hat and bling, described Obama’s fund raising prowess as “Big pimping.” In fact, Freddie Mack went on to say, “Politicians are pimps and the electorate are their hoes.” Thus, he reasoned, “bitch better have my money.” In a response dripping with racism and misogyny, he reminded Americans that the financial crisis was about his sister Fannie May or Fannie may not again, utilizing the hoe moniker for black women [...]
Full Article At Your Black Power
Your Black Politics: When Your Eloquence Is Called Into Question, You Must Be Black
When Your Eloquence Is Called Into Question, You Must Be Black
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
They say they want you successful, but then they make it stressful
You start keepin pace, they start changin up the tempo
- Hip Hop Artist, Mos Def
If one was to pay close adherence to the words of Sen. McCain in Wednesday night’s presidential debate, such an individual would be led into believing that eloquence is not a gift, but rather a tactic of political expediency. Eloquence defined as, “the practice or art of using language with fluency and aptness,” took a new meaning in last night’s debate. In the debate, John McCain numerously chided his opponent, Sen. Obama, for Obama’s “eloquence,” which he suggested was nothing other than a tool for confusion, deception and manipulation. Arguing against the Democratic nominee’s stance on off-shore drilling, McCain retorted: “Well, you know, I admire so much Sen. Obama’s eloquence. And you really have to pay attention to words. He said, ‘We will look at offshore drilling.’ Did you get that? ‘Look at.’” Whether Sen. Obama is a skillful politician whose word-play misleads supporters is one thing; but for a nation with an obsession for castigating Ebonics-speaking Blacks, Sen. McCain’s remonstration against Obama’s ability to fluently articulate his proposals is a disturbing development [...]
Your Black Scholar: Dr. Christopher J. Metzler Interview On Diversity, Obama & “Post-Racial” America
Interview with Georgetown University dean and author, Dr. Christopher J. Metzler, by Tolu Olorunda.
Dr. Chris Metzler is associate dean at Georgetown University and the author of The Construction and Rearticulation of Race in a Post-Racial America. In his new book, Dr. Metzler makes the case that Sen. Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to political stardom is an inclination of racial progress, however, not an indictment on racism in the U.S. and beyond. Dr. Metzler is also a political analyst and a full time advocate for diversity at higher institutions and global organizations. I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Metzler on issues including diversity, the role of a disproportionately white media in the 2008 presidential election, Sen. Obama, and the concept of “post-racialism.” Dr. Metzler was poignant in dissecting the politics of “racial-exceptionalism,” which has aided Sen. Obama immensely in his historic bid for the White House:
Thanks for joining us, Dr. Metzler. Can you describe what your educational background entails of?
Well, I have a Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University, and a PhD in Law from University of Aberdeen. I am also a member of Oxford University and Kellogg College.
What preceded your deanship at Georgetown?
I was on the faculty at Cornell University for 8 years, and at Cornell, I headed the equal opportunity and diversity program. There, I did a fair amount of reach into issues of Human Rights, diversity and equal employment opportunity. At Cornell, I created the nation’s first certification program for diversity management professionals. In addition to academic, I also do a fair amount of work in the private sector.
Based upon your lengthy work in the field of diversity, do you sense a substantive improvement in diversity vis-à-vis College, Universities and the academic world at large?
There is an improvement, but I wouldn’t call it substantive. There is an improvement with regard to the number of students of color being recruited into Ivy League Universities. However, in some respects, a number of faculties still don’t know how to work effectively with students of color…
Your Black Life: Race Matters MORE in the ‘Age of Obama’
Race Matters MORE in the ‘Age of Obama’
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be misled. Race still matters, even in the age of a bi-racial president. In fact, I submit that Race matters more at this transitional period in our multi-cultural society. The presidential campaign of President-Elect Obama sought to vehemently sweep Race-consciousness under the rug, but little did they know, that this stubborn, inextricable faction of our existence would not surrender without a fight. [...]
Without Obama’s permission, Race resurrected itself early on in the 2008 presidential campaign. It began when White journalists first took it upon themselves to question Obama’s blackness. [...] Shortly after, the “gotcha media” would find some legitimate dirt that could reduce Obama to a sheer spectacle. Unbeknownst to 60% of Black folks, they had, all their lives, committed a crime worthy of the death penalty: attended a Black church which advocated self-love, self-control, self-respect, and self-help [...]
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