TBD on Ning
Does the extreme right hate Obama because of racism?
Jesse Jackson thinks so and so do I.
The recent outburst by Congressman Joe Wilson made it clear that South Carolina is the state that hates Obama the most.
Did you know that Obama receives 4 times the amount of death threats than any other president in modern times?
Read the article below and let us know what you think about this issue.
Race Matters: No to Obama at schools, Van Jones saga, divisive rhetoric on health care reform
Yesterday, a man on Twitter decided to engage the African-American Books Examiner in a political discussion, specifically a discussion about conservative parents protesting President Barack Obama's upcoming September 8th speech to school children throughout the nation. After telling this Examiner that he was "astute" in politics, he invoked states' rights and expounded on his belief that the federal government should not be so involved in our lives.
When he was told that often the invocation of states' rights has been used to fight Civil Rights, in particular integration and freedom for African-Americans, he said that he was surprised how often race came up in political discussions. Furthermore, he said he didn't know much about race and race relations because he was raised someplace in America where race was not an issue. The African-American Examiner, while not telling him directly her concern, wondered how anyone with no grasp of race relations in America could assert fluency in discourse on domestic politics.
Race matters. How can one be "astute" in American politics but know little about government policies within the context of African-American history in this nation? Like it or not, both the enslavement of African-Americans and their quest for freedom and equality shaped this country.
With Saturday night's resignation of Van Jones, Obama's "green czar," a decision tainted by racial unrest, with the rise of racial propaganda in the health care reform debate, old stand-by allegations of socialism and communism being shouted again at not only President Barack Obama but his associates, the Jermiah Wright flap in 2008 and many incidents with racial angles that America saw during the presidential race, it's clear the rise and election of President Barack Obama has not hurled us into an age of post-racial equanimity. In fact, it may be more important than ever that literate Americans who want to understand politics in this nation also understand the influence of race on public policy.
Here is a short list of books to get anyone started who has a genuine desire to understand race in this country and how it affects not only politics, but also economics, education, and distribution of resources.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, a classic:
One of the most widely read and influential works in African American literature, "The Souls of Black Folk" is W.E.B. Du Bois's classic collection of essays in which he details the state of racism and black culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Often autobiographical, "The Souls of Black Folk" takes the reader on a history lesson of race relations and the state of the African American from the emancipation proclamation to the early part of the 20th century. A founding member of the NAACP, Du Bois, through his writings, laid the foundation for the debate that would become the civil rights movement.
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, another classic:
Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society.
This next book is heavy, a text book: American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom (336 pps; 5th Edition, Paperback, Longman). However, it offers insight into why race comes up so often in America, how the quest for freedom in this nation is tied to the struggle of African-Americans. For instance, many of the freedoms people of all races assume they have today, such as the right not to be discriminated against in housing practices, were crystallized in policy addressing the African-American struggle.
Can We All Get Along?": Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics by Paula D. McClain and Joseph Stewart Jr. (336 pp.; Fifth Edition; Westview Press) is another book used in college courses. The authors wrote it with the riots that erupted after the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King, a black man in California.
By journalist Gwen, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (304 pp; 209; Anchor):
... broadcaster offers a stellar analysis of the black political structure and its future in American politics. President Obama is featured but does not dominate the text; Ifill focuses more intently on such figures as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Newark, N.J., mayor Cory Booker, as well as Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. (Readers) will be rewarded by a well-researched ... take on the implications of President Obama's election on the strongholds of African-American political power. (Publishers Weekly)
With Hurricane Katrina, America began to re-examine its progress in race relations. This book, Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race, and Public Policy Reader, editors Christine Clarke and Manning Marable (336 pp; Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) is a collection of critiques about what some people learned from that disaster.
Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama by Tim Wise (120 pp; Open Media; 2009):
In this timely new book, Tim Wise explores how Barack Obama's emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels. According to Wise, for many whites, Obama's rise signifies the end of racism as a pervasive social force; they point to Obama as a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard, and an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all but vanished. But is this true? And does a reinforced white belief in color-blind meritocracy potentially make it harder to address ongoing institutional racism? (From a synopsis at Tim Wise's Red Room blog)
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (496 pp; Doubleday; 2008) is a shocking, historical exposé documenting tricks used to intimidate and re-enslave African-Americans through crooked laws and greased palms. It's the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for general nonfiction.
And obviously, the sincere student should study black history, what African-Americans have achieved in the face of unrelenting hardships. A book such as African American History For Dummies by Ronda Racha Penrice could come in handy.
Many other authors and well-known public figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, bell hooks, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis, and Barack Obama have contributed to the library of the black experience and how it impacts American politics. This list of books is meant to be only a nudge in one educational direction.
Nordette Adams is not only the African-American Books Examiner, but also a BlogHer.com contributing editor. You may subscribe to her examinations on this page and also see more of her writing via www.Her411.com.
The recent outburst by Congressman Joe Wilson made it clear that South Carolina is the state that hates Obama the most.
Did you know that Obama receives 4 times the amount of death threats than any other president in modern times?
Read the article below and let us know what you think about this issue.
Race Matters: No to Obama at schools, Van Jones saga, divisive rhetoric on health care reform
September 7, 2009 African-American Books Examiner Nordette Adams
Yesterday, a man on Twitter decided to engage the African-American Books Examiner in a political discussion, specifically a discussion about conservative parents protesting President Barack Obama's upcoming September 8th speech to school children throughout the nation. After telling this Examiner that he was "astute" in politics, he invoked states' rights and expounded on his belief that the federal government should not be so involved in our lives.
When he was told that often the invocation of states' rights has been used to fight Civil Rights, in particular integration and freedom for African-Americans, he said that he was surprised how often race came up in political discussions. Furthermore, he said he didn't know much about race and race relations because he was raised someplace in America where race was not an issue. The African-American Examiner, while not telling him directly her concern, wondered how anyone with no grasp of race relations in America could assert fluency in discourse on domestic politics.
Race matters. How can one be "astute" in American politics but know little about government policies within the context of African-American history in this nation? Like it or not, both the enslavement of African-Americans and their quest for freedom and equality shaped this country.
With Saturday night's resignation of Van Jones, Obama's "green czar," a decision tainted by racial unrest, with the rise of racial propaganda in the health care reform debate, old stand-by allegations of socialism and communism being shouted again at not only President Barack Obama but his associates, the Jermiah Wright flap in 2008 and many incidents with racial angles that America saw during the presidential race, it's clear the rise and election of President Barack Obama has not hurled us into an age of post-racial equanimity. In fact, it may be more important than ever that literate Americans who want to understand politics in this nation also understand the influence of race on public policy.
Here is a short list of books to get anyone started who has a genuine desire to understand race in this country and how it affects not only politics, but also economics, education, and distribution of resources.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, a classic:
One of the most widely read and influential works in African American literature, "The Souls of Black Folk" is W.E.B. Du Bois's classic collection of essays in which he details the state of racism and black culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Often autobiographical, "The Souls of Black Folk" takes the reader on a history lesson of race relations and the state of the African American from the emancipation proclamation to the early part of the 20th century. A founding member of the NAACP, Du Bois, through his writings, laid the foundation for the debate that would become the civil rights movement.
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, another classic:
Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society.
This next book is heavy, a text book: American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom (336 pps; 5th Edition, Paperback, Longman). However, it offers insight into why race comes up so often in America, how the quest for freedom in this nation is tied to the struggle of African-Americans. For instance, many of the freedoms people of all races assume they have today, such as the right not to be discriminated against in housing practices, were crystallized in policy addressing the African-American struggle.
Can We All Get Along?": Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics by Paula D. McClain and Joseph Stewart Jr. (336 pp.; Fifth Edition; Westview Press) is another book used in college courses. The authors wrote it with the riots that erupted after the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King, a black man in California.
By journalist Gwen, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (304 pp; 209; Anchor):
... broadcaster offers a stellar analysis of the black political structure and its future in American politics. President Obama is featured but does not dominate the text; Ifill focuses more intently on such figures as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Newark, N.J., mayor Cory Booker, as well as Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. (Readers) will be rewarded by a well-researched ... take on the implications of President Obama's election on the strongholds of African-American political power. (Publishers Weekly)
With Hurricane Katrina, America began to re-examine its progress in race relations. This book, Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race, and Public Policy Reader, editors Christine Clarke and Manning Marable (336 pp; Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) is a collection of critiques about what some people learned from that disaster.
Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama by Tim Wise (120 pp; Open Media; 2009):
In this timely new book, Tim Wise explores how Barack Obama's emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels. According to Wise, for many whites, Obama's rise signifies the end of racism as a pervasive social force; they point to Obama as a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard, and an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all but vanished. But is this true? And does a reinforced white belief in color-blind meritocracy potentially make it harder to address ongoing institutional racism? (From a synopsis at Tim Wise's Red Room blog)
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (496 pp; Doubleday; 2008) is a shocking, historical exposé documenting tricks used to intimidate and re-enslave African-Americans through crooked laws and greased palms. It's the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for general nonfiction.
And obviously, the sincere student should study black history, what African-Americans have achieved in the face of unrelenting hardships. A book such as African American History For Dummies by Ronda Racha Penrice could come in handy.
Many other authors and well-known public figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, bell hooks, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis, and Barack Obama have contributed to the library of the black experience and how it impacts American politics. This list of books is meant to be only a nudge in one educational direction.
Nordette Adams is not only the African-American Books Examiner, but also a BlogHer.com contributing editor. You may subscribe to her examinations on this page and also see more of her writing via www.Her411.com.
Views: 31
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by The time of man on
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Julie you have hit the nail on the head, I can’t help but wonder how anyone could turn a sick person away because they don’t possess the proper paperwork to prove they are here legally. Americans like to brag about how generous they are yet some will use the emotional subject of illegal immigrants to try to kill the health care bill. This obviously is meant to appeal to the racists attitudes of some Americans. The right wingers will do what ever they can to drive a wedge between races and cultures they mean to divide the people any way they can to gain power and are not above letting the innocent exploited workers be they American or foreign suffer or die without health care. Power is their game and that is all they want, using religion, race, cultural differences and fear of change to gain power. Obama scares the hell out of these people because he has tried to unite the people, unity makes us strong while division makes us weak. Just as a predatory animal will cull out the weaker prey form the herd they mean to divide and devour and their appetite is never satisfied.
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Permalink Reply by Grace Linda on
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Julie, I am not arguing your point but this is the second time I have seen Puerto Ricans included with non-citzens. THEY ARE AMERICANS, if other americans don't know this then they should. Please refrain from doing this again.
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Permalink Reply by Julie Hershey on
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Sorry - no offense or racism intended, Grace Linda. I am not disputing anyone's citizenship, I am pointing out a racist perception held by a large segment of our population that Hispanics of any origin are less worthy of inclusion in the "traditional" American political and economic process. Many Mexican Americans are also citizens. The word immigrant here should not be associated with anything negative, simply meaning relatively new to the contiguous United States, regardless of citizenship status. I, too, am a citizen. I am an immigrant as well.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Mentzer on
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All Western nations take care of their immigrants and their citizens (when it comes to health-care). This country used to welcome immigrants. The statue of Liberty reads "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!". What the hell happened to that welcoming attitude. Now racism is involved. These idiots don't realize that immigrants is what made this country and if they've been here for more than a few generations their ancestors were immigrants. No, it's not immigrants they have something against. You're right they just don't like people of color. Hispanics, African Americans and Middle Eastern people don't fit into their definition of people.
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Permalink Reply by alienken on
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No, conservatives, do not hate Obama because of his race or anyother reason. Conservatives disagree with Obama on just about everything why? Because his policies are extream liberal, even socialist. The complet opposite.
Can we disagree with him without hateing him? Of course we can but always seem to get the hate tag. Since he is black- then we must be a racist, if he is gay- then we are a homophobe, if he is a she- then it must be because we hate women,...ect.
Can I be against illegal immigration and still like Mexicans with out being hypocritical?
Yes I can. -
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Then the conservatives need to enter into a real dialog with him instead of acting like a lynch mob. Your side needs to get control of the crazies instead of giggling about their hate mongering.
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Permalink Reply by P.A. on
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Conservatives have no agenda except to bring Obama down and return themselve to power so they can make the country more and more a country by the rich, of the rich and for the rich. The really sad thing about many of their followers is they are not rich and are being used.They do this by introducing meaningless wedge issues into every debate.
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Yeah, and the idiots don't even realize how badly they're being used. A lot of these Southern conservatives are some of the poorest people in this country and the rich are taking them for the biggest ride of their lives.
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Permalink Reply by Nebs Jima on
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What policies the conservatives saw back in Feb ? alienken, which conservative raise the issue of the legitmacies of any democratic or republican presidents? -" being real American" you know what these loaded words mean, The bail out, it has started way before he assmed the office.
Most of the conservative caught by surprises. The didn't expected he would win, they saw only their circles friends attitudes. They didn't know , the majority are not like them. Most americans see only the persons qualifications.The conservatives means of info are limited to Fox Tabloid and hate radio hosts. Now they will do anything to bring him down. Their hero, that big fat hypocrate, said he wants to fail, but later tried to back track, his policy.
I sometimes listen those hate-radio hosts, they way the destort facts to make their herds mad, god help us, no one can tell one these herds do. So, stop the policy crap. -
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Permalink Reply by Naidre ~ Wild Tide on
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Obama is the first President of the USA that has been so shamefully disrespected. The Lefts never liked Bush but when he spoke all the non-cable channels ran his addresses but it was ok that Fox ran their regularly scheduled programs! Never did any one of congress call Bush a liar, even though he was one (and that has been proven) during any of his speeches. Do you realize that these actions are being seen by the world? People of other nations clearly know why Obama is being treated that way and it isn't because of his policies! You can dislike a president's policy and not act like a two year old having a tantrum every time you get the opportunity to. Further, preachers telling their congregations to hate Obama and not to pray for him, is that also just because they don't like his policies??? We are all to be supportive of our president, want our country to be seen as successful in the eyes of the world, the conservative's behavior reeks of hate and racism, no doubt about that.
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Yes, Obama gave us a certain respect in the western world community and these assholes spouting their hatred are going to take that respect away again. Our country is very divided. The conservatives really are acting like babies.
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Alienken, Your words and spelling show a certain ignorance. Race is definitely a factor for their hatred.
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