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 Boothby171 on
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Mark,
Am I allowed to say this? I STILL don't feel too comfortable about the whole Jermiah Wright "flap" of 2008.
I'm no great fan of religion to begin with, even less so when the pastor peppers his diatribes with hateful speech. I've no idea how *I* might have responded if the pastor/preist giving a sermon that I happened to be attending (once every year or so, I drag my formerly Catholic wife to church for Christmas mass) went spouting off like that. I would HOPE that I'd either shout out "YOU LIE!" or, perhaps, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU ASSHOLE." But for some strange reason I've never been present for such a hateful sermon as the ones that Jermiah Wright is known to provide.
As Liberals, are we supposed to accept this? It's never really been properly worked out in my head. Maybe this makes me a Libertarian... -
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Permalink Reply by Vernon Windsor on
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Boothby, I guess I'd have to ask if you have ever heard a complete sermon by Jeremiah Wright? Do you know anything about black liberation theology? Do you understand the cultural difference between black folks talking to white folks and black folks talking to black folks? There is a difference. Judging a culture different from your own through the lens of your mother culture is fraught with possibilities for misinterpretation. Sound bites, however provocative, do not a sermon make. Not that I'm about defending Wright or anyone else, but context and first-hand experience is everything.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Mentzer on
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Being a white man dating a black woman I can state that this is sooooo true Vernon. I'm learning so much about African American culture from being with her.
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Permalink Reply by Tina on
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Of course it is the roo of it all, covered up with a nice retoric of icing to make it all sound a little better. Race is always an issue in this country. However just like the poor, those without health care and hate in general it is swept under the rug, covered by and with better sounding reasons and words. But when you boil it all down, it still boils down to this President is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't because he is a man of color and young.
Never mind his high intelligence, his demeanor or his ability to create change for our country that might give us hope of being a strong and decent country again. The man is young and he has color, oh yes he is also the "wrong religion"....It's absolute craziness and Yes Mark, I do 100% believe that bottom line is about race!
Of course this is my belief, not necessarily how it really is, It just looks, sounds, tastes and smells like it, but not necessarily the way it is! You get that right? -
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Of course things like this can't be proven but to hear Jesse Jackson talk about it today it's so obvious that the hatred towards Obama is racial. You also bring up a good point about age.
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Permalink Reply by Grace Linda on
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Yes, and hopefully it is becoming apparent to whose who thought there was no such thing anymore.
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How right you are Grace Linda, how right you are.
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Yeah, he's a rockstar now. Sheeit!!!!!
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Very well said jacquin! Thank you.
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It is interesting to me how quickly whites are able to condemn black anger and frustration but excuse white anger as being simply ignorance.
I hate to say it but the us and them thing is a large part of Christian doctrine. -
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Permalink Reply by brujo on
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Many of the most prominent figures of the civil rights movement drew their motivation to fight for freedom and equality from their religious faith. Powered by the belief that all men and women are children of God, they set forth to assure that justice, fair treatment, and equal opportunity were awarded to people of all races, cultural backgrounds, and religious faiths. As historian and Martin Luther King biographer Taylor Branch has said, the civil rights movement fused the political promise of equal votes with the spiritual doctrine of equal souls. While it is easy to see how religion would serve as a tremendous motivator for such a cause, some question whether direct influence and discussion of religion in the civil rights movement somehow threatens a secular society and the separation of church and state.
In this lesson, students explore the ways religious faith inspired and influenced social change and the civil rights movement. They will review religious lessons that encourage the fair and equal treatment of all people, and those that encourage us to treat others only as we would like to be treated. Students will investigate whether the influence of religious faith on the civil rights and other social movements somehow violates the separation of church and state, and they will consider whether extreme religious beliefs might actually harm or hinder the efforts of the civil rights movement.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/lesson-plans/religion-and... -
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Permalink Reply by Julie Hershey on
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Evidence of racism exists in almost every social, economic and educational institution in this country: minorities account for a far fewer percentage of upper management and research professions than they do of the population at large; defacto segregation still exists in housing, particularly in urban areas, and I recall Affirmative Action in college admissions once again the subject of legal dispute only a couple of years ago (in which AA was upheld). It's after 2 a.m. so I won't dig up the statistics now, but it's all verifiable.
I think Joe Wilson's highly emotional outburst (if it wasn't theatrics) points not only to contempt for Obama, but tremendous spite toward Hispanics as well. Is there really such a thing as an illegal human? Isn't everyone entitled to adequate medical care regardless of citizenship? Think the undocumented immigrant doesn't use the Medicaid system now? The health care issue itself is another topic, but Wilson's behavior reflects a widely-held anxiety about sharing anything with Mexican or Puerto Rican immigrants, legal or not.
The expense factor is not a satisfactory explanation for all the concern, in my opinion, since we have a history of being the sole providers of federal funds for all sorts of efforts that benefit the international community. In the mid 70s I worked in such a program - education and job training for Laotian immigrants - all undocumented. No one was fussing about it then. Science research is another of those areas in which our wealth is shared.
I wonder if the most vocal opponents of liberal immigration policies would be crying foul if those illegal immigrants were pale faces from Scandinavia. -
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