ABC News reports that Sen. Obama spoke to a "mostly black audience" last night at the world-famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Hmm. From where I sat in the mezzanine, the makeup of the audience was under whispered debate. 1 in 5? 1 in 4? Maybe. No. The guys behind us debated this. My friend Trey and I debated it. While the place wasn't as white the home town crowd at a Utah Jazz game, I feel I can say with certainty, after walking past the wrapped-around-the-block lines 2x (once at 6:30pm, and again at 7:30pm), that while there was plenty of color in the audience, this was in no way was this a "mostly black audience."
I ask: is there anything wrong with that?
It was clear that Obama pulled a great cross-section of progressives, young and old, every shade of the spectrum to attend this $50 a head event. What could be called "skewing white" I think of as simply support that is more representative of America as a whole. Why Obama pulls this kind of support, Juan Williams explores in today's Times . Regardless of the why, I'm still struck by the image of two young white men two rows down, who literally high-fived and clasped hands when Obama entered the stage. Now, perhaps they'd just won some bet about whether his neck-tie would match the backdrop. All I know is that I witnessed unchecked enthusiasm and affection, and I was moved.
Chris Rock gave the best line of the night, and it's already getting tons of play. After acknowledging that lots of white people came Uptown for the event, he talked to black folks in particular: "You'd be real embarrassed if he won and you wasn't down. 'I had that white lady. What was I thinking?'"
However, to me, the most beautiful and radical ideas were posited by the speaker that introduced Chris Rock, and that was Professor Cornel West. Prof. West came on like fire and brilliance in his black suit, black tie, and hanging loop of gold watch chain. He asked the crowd how it felt to be on "the right side of history." He rhetorically put his arms around Obama's shoulders, saying Obama was "his brother, companion, and comrade...[that] there's a difference between being eloquent and articulate. [Obama's] eloquent. He's a good brother...his character and judgment always trumps the pseudo-rhetoric about his experience."
Prof. West went on to make the case for something rather radical in contemporary American politics: embracing a candidate for who he really is--his authentic self--and not who we wish he could be, or insisting that he should be like those who came before. He spoke of how we don't expect one great musical artist to sound or be like any other great musical artist--and that we shouldn't expect Obama to be a carbon copy of the great civil rights leaders of the past, either: "We accept Obama for who he is."
And who he is is someone rather special. The more people get to know Obama, the more people listen to him speak and not just rely upon other peoples' received insights, I predict that the worries that it's "too soon" or "people just aren't ready" will truly start to melt away. Obama hasn't been thrust out there like some unripe affirmative action candidate. As the Time cover says, this man is a contender.
Having watched one too many politicians cross the River Styx--that process of losing true connection to their authentic, best selves, and with that, connection to their core principals, becoming, as my friend Trey calls "pod people"--how refreshing it is to be exhorted to embrace someone for who he truly is: an amazing universe unto himself, someone who knows deeply how black men have to wear "the mask" in this culture, but also knows that his own face is beautiful and good enough to win people over in this election. And at home and abroad, once he's our president.
We start by resisting this Regime and the enablers of the destruction of our Constitution by demonstrating against their policies and very presence, as the students at Cornell did just yesterday. You won't find it in the corporate MSM, but watch it here, then act!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxTcPM9HxBQ
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-siegel/creative-rebellion-corne_b_74892.html
And maybe not. I signed up for Senator Obama back in April and I've listened to him at a distance of a couple of yards more than once. I believe he's vague (look at the milestone dates on his environmental policy) and that his pre-Senate opposition to the war was followed by a voting record that I could get with Senator Clinton.
I like him for all the obvious reasons, but his campaign millions, his media backing, his over-the-horizon approach to policy -- all of these sent me looking for someone with experience and straight answers. I've been a volunteer for Joe Biden ever since.
He's the only candidate that can rally this country behind what it once believed in prior to 1970: A great, proud country that went about doing good in the world; promoting freedom and human rights and exporting these virtues around the world.
All of those virtues went away with an escalating Vietnam War, a Nixon presidency that saw America more as a place to achieve personal ambition rather than a democracy, the gunning down of our most learned students at Kent State and, most recently, our overseas torture chambers.
Obama resurrects the American dream. He's the son of an immigrant from Kenya as well as a descendent of the once scorned immigrant Irish. He's both African-American and White Midwesterner and sounds more like an Omaha farmer than a Senator.
Put simply, he's ALL of us.
Does he understand the needs and concerns of African-Americans? Yes (far better than any of us realize, which is why he gets the support of Professor and historian Cornel West, Oprah Winfrey, and most African-American professionals).
Does he understand and love White Americans? Yes. His mom was White. Half of his own family is White...and he displays this ease with people (which is why he's beloved in Iowa and Utah and even in the deep South...they are able to see him for what he is because he's real...true...he's being himself).
Can he unite this country across it's political and ethnic divisions? He's the only candidate that can.
And he's the one person that makes us dream... American dream again!
After reading some of the comments here, I think you can say it goes both ways.
I do not support any drug war candidate. PERIOD!
Obama and Clinton prohibition policies are the direct cause of the meth amphetamine proliferation on our streets today.
Obama policies are the cause of Jim Crow mass criminal disenfranchisement in Black and poverty oppressed communities.
Obama's drug war policies proliferate the illegal guns on our streets that are subsidized by the black market drug economy created by his war on drugs policies.
Obama's drug war policies mass disenfranchise millions in poverty oppressed and mostly minority urban communities.
I will support any candidate who opposes the Jim Crow war on drugs.
Mike Gravel.
Ron Paul.
To a lesser extent, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards.
The war on drugs policy spreads crime and disease. The war on drugs policy subsidizes criminal gangs and even terrorist armies. Barack Obama, like Hillary Clinton, supports the war on drugs.
by Kevin Alexander Gray & Marshall Derks
"McClurkin sermonized: ‘God delivered me from homosexuality' - as though one could simply ‘pray the gay away.'"
Obama justifies his embrace of the evangelicals saying he's "reaching out to people he doesn't agree with." Responding to a controversy he should - or did - have anticipated, Obama mentioned the black community's "problem with homophobia." Yet after the tour when asked why the campaign would seemingly reject gay voters for far-right leaning blacks a campaign insider replied, "We got what we needed to get out of it."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0711/S00439.htm
ENOUGH!
Joe Biden is charismatic, humble, experienced, doesn't take himself too serious, has overcome personal tragedy (his first wife and child were killed 35 years ago) he raised two of his sons, both injured inthe accident by himself for 5 years before he married his current wife of 30 years. He has passed more laws in Congress than anyone except for Ted Kennedy. When he votes half of Congress watches and consults with him on how they will vote.
He has made it clear to Bush that if Bush uses military action against Iran, Joe Biden will initiate impeachment and says he will have 75 votes in Congress to succeed. I am relieved to have Joe Biden speaking and acting for the American people.
Find the true candidate for peace, freedom, and ethics in government
Hillary Obama Ron
Paul
Introduced bill to end Iraq War in 2007 No No YES
Iraq exit strategy: “We should just come home.” No No YES
Denounces doctrine of pre-emptive warfare No No YES
Took off the table future pre-emptive strike on Iran No No YES
Took off table future escalation of Afghanistan war No No YES
Calls to bring US military home from all foreign nations No No YES
Calls for foreign policy of military non-interventionism No No YES
Will reduce foreign military expense by $500 billion No No YES
Voted against the Iraq war 2002 No Not in Congress
in 2002 YES
Calls to repeal “Patriot” Act No No YES
Voted against the “Patriot” Act in 2002 No Not in Congress
in 2002 YES
Supports ending all gov’t subsidies to corporations No No YES
Doesn’t receive millions from big corporations No No YES
Wants to end the “inflation” tax which hurts the poor No No YES
Wrote bill to protect Social Security fund No No YES
Would end federal war against medicinal marijuana No No YES
End income tax on tips and gratuities No No YES
Opposes delegation of Congressional authority to President No No YES
Supports ending failed federal war on marijuana users No No YES
Thank you,