From Great Hope To Tragic Mulatto In One News Cycle

Now that the the dust is beginning to settle and the din from every media portal has quelled, I find myself asking how did Barack Obama's candidacy go from white hot to tepid. The once great White/Black hope has been reduced by the chattering opines to a tragic Fannie Hurst character. The poor half-black and half-white boy in search of an identity falls prey to an unctuous Minister, who looks more like him than the only family he ever knew. The two form a kinship and spar like father and son. The son grows into great prominence, surpassing the local celebrity of the father. The father feels slighted by the son's dismissive and uppity demeanor. He begins to tell anyone who will listen, "He aint shit! When I met him he weren't nobody. Just some dumb kid with all those crazy ideas. He don't know the world like I do. He be up there with those white folks, turnin' his head!! Wait, you just wait, they gonna turn on him, you'll see! I tried to tell him, but he wont listen. Dem white folks got him thinkin' he more white den niggah now! He aint Shit!!!"

The story is so familiar. It would've made a great race movie in the 30s with Claudette Colbert and Ralph Cooper as the leads. Unfortunately, what occurred these past few weeks is not fiction, because it's not strange enough to be. Once I finally sat down and began to digest the bitter drama starring Rev. Wright, Barack Obama, with numerous cameos by anyone with a TV, radio, blog, tom-tom, Dixie cup and string, I thought back on the last time Alex Haley saw Malcom X.

Alex Haley recounts in "The Autobiography of MalcomX" that about two or three days before Malcolm was assassinated, he met him in a mid-town New York City hotel. Malcolm was tired, paranoid and looked a shadow of himself. He sat in a chair reacting, whenever he heard the slightest noise or if the phone rang, for who would know his whereabouts, his troubled mind queried. At this point in his life, Malcolm had broken off from his longtime "spiritual mentor," Elijah Mohammad, after learning he was not the moral prophet he believed him to be.

The separation of the two men was not an easy process. It was fraught with angst and frustration. For this was the man who lifted him from darkness when he sat in a cold, solitary cell in a Massachusetts prison. "The honorable Elijah Mohammad" was the man who introduced him to Islam and helped him find meaning in his once meaningless life. He left jail, no longer a petty thief and hustler but a revolutionary ready to do battle. His calling under the guidance of Elijah Mohammad was to free his people, Black people, from their self-hatred, ignorance of their history and the tribalism that survived the middle passage.

As we all know, Malcolm grew into a powerful voice for a generation. While Malcolm's stature grew, "the honorable Elijah Mohammad's" envy and bitterness festered. His brother warned him of the false prophet, his wife pleaded with him to leave this "pimp," but their pleas feel on obstinate ears. "No," he would not turn away from the man who didn't turn away from him, when he had no one in his life.

Finally, he confronted his mentor about rumors of infidelity and immoral behavior with young girls. Malcolm was crushed and worse he felt like a chump. How could an ex-hustler, a slickster get out-hustled by a soft spoken, fey looking old man, sporting a beanie, he posed to himself?

The break came with risks. His life and his family's life was in danger. "They" succeeded at bombing his home and his car, and he knew one day his luck would run out. It was a shame, for Malcolm grew into a curious and sagacious thinker. He rejected the hate filled rants of his past. He realized that all whites were not evil "blue eyed devils," as he use to caution the passerbys on Harlem street corners. He was a student of real Islam and found it was a religion embraced by many people of various hues. The darkness of the jail and the bitter sect he left was illuminated by truth and travel.

His awakening had come too late, for their he sat in that mid-town hotel, looking and feeling dejected and defeated, not by the "white man," but the Black men he once called brothers. It was at this point, that he gazed out at the room wistfully, and said in a low voice, "You know, we had the best organization known to the Black man (pause) and niggahs killed it."

Perhaps some of you see the parallels as I do. I know from reading Senator Obama's book that he read Malcolm's biography. Judging his reaction to the recent events, I surmise that passage didn't make as much an impression on him as it did on me; nonetheless, it would behoove him to, as Malcolm would say, let Malcolm "pull his coat tail" about the good Rev Wright.

Today I'm heading to North Carolina. I'll be in Charlotte this evening. I wanted to be on the ground because, before the minstrel Wright, I had a sense something was going to happen, and it has. Prior to my making arrangements, my editor put me in contact with another OffTheBus blogger covering the race. I wanted to know the logistics of getting around and get some hotel recommendations. She was quite helpful and offered, "before 'Bittergate' you could have stayed with some Obama volunteers." She also stated that since "Obama's favored to win here, North Carolina will be a non-story. I think I'll go to Indiana."

I still believe win, lose or draw, May 6th is going to be quite a story, in North Carolina. I hope the story doesn't end predictably. I believe between now and Tuesday, Obama has an opportunity to demonstrate that he won't allow the Clintons, Rev. Wright, or any other "niggahs" kill what so many people have invested in. He also has an opportunity to do something he didn't do in his speech on Tuesday, and that is, express his appreciation to those old ladies who sent him five dollars and scripture, and every other supporter who phone banked and knocked on doors, in spite of all his drama.

Obama neglected to recognize that more than 1.25 million people have a stake in his campaign and when he denounces Rev. Wright because "he doesn't care about me," he sounds like a wounded boy, instead of an appreciative leader, and engenders little sympathy from those working class people who work from dusk to dawn and rarely get any respect, let alone the kind of unconditional support he has received.

Tomorrow, I will attend an event in Charlotte, and I'm going to observe to see if Obama is X or still Why. If he says, "I want you to know I appreciate your support and I'm sorry I never sent you an email, just to say how much you're valued, without a tag for a donation," then I'll know he's learned from the past few weeks; and the story will no longer be about how his campaign was killed by "niggahs," but how a grateful and humble man, didn't allow it to be.

Comments

[lawchic]

I think this was a great article but you lost me in three places. First, at the beginning. Disagree with Rev. Wright all you want, but it is undisputed that he is an extremely intelligent man and to use that type of dialogue to portray him is offensive. Second, when you describe Obama as a "wounded little boy." Why don't you have some perspective? This man was his pastor, and there probably has been an irreversible break in their relationship. That is a lot for someone to handle privately, and Obama has to handle it publicly and keep talking about it every five minutes. A little empathy wouldn't hurt. And third. Your dig about not receiving a thank you. I have heard Obama express numerous times his appreciation for the people who support his campaign. Although, it may not be as specific as you like, or maybe it doesn't come with an email without a donate tag, to imply that he is not grateful for everyone's support is clearly not who he is, and I think you know that otherwise you wouldn't be volunteering your time.

[LandPro]

There is an old addage that you would do well to digest: it is best to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and let the world know that you are in fact a fool. You are so off base with your comments that it is ridiculous. How dare you caricature the English language to mimick black people! To add insult to injury, you have the audacity to compare Rev. Wright with Elijah Mohammad when the work and life of Rev. Wright in no way, shape, form or fashion resemble the pedophille we have come to know as Elijah Mohammad. Perhaps you should take the time to learn of Rev. Wright. There is nothing about his speech that resembles what you have written. You should be ashamed of yourself. After you educate yourself, you should also take the time to extend an apology to the good reverend.

[katefranklin]

Obama didn't sound like a "wounded boy" to me, at NC press conference. He sounded like a guy who'd worked his whole life to build up an amazing movement of change, only to have his ex-pastor drive over it with a Mac truck, throw it in reverse, and drive back over it. He expressed warranted anger and frustration, and showed more strength than pain.