Oh, That's How He Talks!

When I was in grad school, a professor told me never to tell a Black person "I know how you feel." We know nothing about what it feels like to be Black. It is a race so beleaguered that the perjorative used to describe them is so inflammatory has been reduced to a letter. This racism is brought to you by the letter N.

That makes Ralph Nader's remarks about Senator Obama so amazing. Ralph said that Obama has to 'talk white' in order to win. Does that mean with a stereotypical patois? Does that mean sans ghetto? Does it mean that Obama has to speak like his African born father? Nader noted the difference between a Jesse Jackson candidacy and a Barack Obama candidacy. I'm guessing that means Jackson pays more attention to Black issues, like housing and education and national security and crime. Yeah, white folks are never concerned about those issues, huh?

Among the massive number of things Nader doesn't grasp is that the nation is turning brown. Black people design Cadillacs. Black people own sports franchises. Black people win golf tournaments. Black people run for president without sounding like they come from the South or preach from a AME Baptist pulpit.

It is a testimony to Nader's early success that he is not relegated to the Ann Coulter bin of useless enmity. Had he not saved lives, he would have the same political oomph as Pat Paulsen did forty years ago, except Paulsen knew his words were a joke.

Sam Greenfield is a morning talk show host at 1160 WVNJ in Teaneck, N.J.

Comments

[joanndarc]

"When I was in grad school, a professor told me never to tell a Black person "I know how you feel." "
What is the value of your education if your professors operated by dogmas???
I am not black and have no clue how white people feel, moreover I can only know how I feel.
Somebody who calls himself/herself white or black is trying to use colour as an excuse as if it has any relevance to their personality.
PS: Nader did not talk about colour, but rather the lack of real change.

[woodsywizz]

When and where did Nader ever save a life?

His book, "Unsafe at Any Speed", about the Chevy Corvair, was a result of clever Ford propaganda. Ford filmed a "side-by-side" test of the Ford Mustang (then very new) and the Chevy Corvair. Frame-by-frame analysis of the film shows the FORD test driver twitching the Corvair steering wheel in the turns to make the tail-end spin out.

In fact the Corvair's driving charactistics equal a Porsche. Like the Volkswagen Beetle, driven safely by millions of people for generations.

The "danger" of the Corvair was false. Nader got conned, and still rode the episode to power and applause.

He's still pestiferous. Not even a con man...he long ago became the 'mark'.

[brendanm]

"Unsafe at Any Speed" was the result of meticulous research.

Ralph Nader was instrumental to the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The number of lives the legislation and regulatory agencies saved is uncountable but doubtless it is very large.

All of that being true, what he said about Obama was extremely stupid. A progressive critique is called for, but an intelligent one would be appropriate.