Everybody agrees that Don Imus was attempting to make a joke when he referred to Rutgers women basketball players as "nappy haired ho's". Almost everyone agrees that Imus' remark was offensive and not funny, but hardly meant to be racist. Imus, of course, was originally known as a "shock jock", and had a history of making offensive remarks--but not meant seriously, and not usually racially insensitive (with occasional exceptions not rising to the level of "nappy haired ho's". Meanwhile, Imus has raised MILLIONS for charity (including for SIDS--Sudden Infant Death Syndrome--and kids with cancer), as well as maintaining a New Mexico ranch for children with cancer.
Then there is Dog,. the Bounty Hunter. Remember him? He lost his show when a PRIVATE phone conversation he made was released to the media--a phone conversation in which he said a number of racially charged things. Dog, of course, has done a lot of good things--as well as bad--in the course of a tumultuous life.
Did Dog or Imus ever say anything as bad as Jeremiah Wright? Not that I heard. Jeremiah Wright consistently has referred to "white oppressors" and "white greed" (he is quoted to that effect in one of Obama's books). But Wright has gone beyond that. To say that the American Goverenment "inveted" the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color is so far beyond "nappy haired ho's"--meant to be FUNNY--that it is not even close. Accusing the American Government of importing drugs to destroy black people, and get black men put in jail is just despicable hate speech. Thnen there is blaming America for BOTH PEARL HARBOR AND 9/11--not to mention Nagasaki and Hiroshima. "U.S. of KKK A." and "God damn America": Did Imus OR Dog the Bounty Hunter say anything that bad (remember, Dog was not even saying what he said for public consumption, but in the heat of a family argument)?
If Obama had made his speech after the Imus incident, or after the Dog the Bounty Hunter incident, I would call it a great speech. As it is, I call it a terrible, arrogant speech.
Instead, Obama called for Imus to be FIRED. In fact, Obama went on to say how horrible it was for his daughters to be exposed to that sort of thing. Yet, Obama was willing to, and DID, expose his daughters constantly to the hate speech of Jeremiah Wright--the FALSE hate speech!!!! Worse, Obama did absolutely nothing to counter the HATRED for white people that Jermiah Wright has been pounding into his congregation. Yet, Obama reserved his strong condemnation for the pretty minor "sin" of DON IMUS--no talk of "understanding" or getting beyond racial, "gotcha" politics.
That is why I have said on this blog that Obama's speech condemned HIMSELF. Until this Presidential campaign, Obama was an integral part of "racial politics". He did absolutely nothing to help the situation. Now he expects mere speeches about racial unity to substitute for ACTIONS that Obama did NOT take in the past to promote racial unity. Obama COULD have used the Imus case as a call for racial unity and understanding, instead of an excuse to make points calling for the head of Imus. He did not. Similarly, he cannot point to a single instance where he has promoted racial unity by either standing up to a black leader or standing up FOR a white person in trouble for a "gotcha" kind of racial type remark. Don't even ask whether Obama stood up for O'REILLY when Media Matters tried its out of context racial smear against O'Reilly. Neither did Obama's defenders stand up for O'Reilly.
The TEST of "racial unity" is whether you ACTIONS support your words. The actions of Obama do not. Indeed, for Obama the test of "racial unity" seems to be for white people to vote for Obama! That is why I say Obama's speech was arrogant. Obama DEFINES racial progress in this country as electing Obama. Obama has NOT been out there telling black people that they need to stop listening to black leaders like Jeremiah Wright tell then that they swhouch hate white people, and that white people are still oppressing them deliberately--using FALSE examples.
Let us go to Obama's grandmother. Obama seems perfectly willing to USE faminly memebers to make rhetorical points (see the reference to his daughters in his call for Imus to be FIRED). So I can use his family members to show how bad his speech really was (when compared to his ACTIONS). Obama says that his grandmother expressed fear of black people. If true, that fear was probably helped along by other white people saying bad things about black people. Are there BLACK people out there who irrationally FEAR white people? Of course there are. We know that from Reverend Wright (and we knew it anyway). Yet, Obama--for 20 years--belonged to a church that spread the very fear and hate that Obama is saying his grandmother had to get beyond. And his poor grandmother was NOT deliberately spreading irrational fear and hate like Rverend Wright. That did not keep Obama from putting his grandmother in the same category as REverend Wright.
I am perfectly aware that black people suffered slavery and discrimination in this country, and therefore have "reasons" for their fear. However, there are never adequate reasons for irrational fear. Are there not black criminals out there? Are there not black men who rape white women? Sure there are, but that does not mean that white people should irrationally fear the whole blakc race.
This illustrated why I do not regard Obama's speech as a good speech--unless it is correctly construed as presenting a compelling case why Obama should NOT be President of the United States. Obama made clear that he was giving the speech simply to make the case that getting beyond "racial politics" means electing HIM President--throwing in an appeal to "white guilt" in the process by talking about what black people have gone through in this country.
What Obama failed to do is show how HE had helped both black people and white people get beyond "racial politics" in the past. Thus, from his own mouth he merely condemend himself for his failure to seize past opportunities to make this kind of speech when it meant something more than saving Obama's own hide--when it was made with something more than self-interest in mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment