Love to eat them mousies, mousies what I love to eat, bite they little heads off, nibble on they tiny feet.
Could an Obama presidency hurt black Americans?
Submitted by 123Idaho on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 3:58pm.
This is a thought that I have been having for a while.
The slogan on a popular T-shirt links Sen. Barack Obama's presidential run to the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality. It's one of several T-shirts -- including "Barack is my homeboy"-- that reflect African-Americans' euphoria over Obama's White House bid, according to a story from CNN.
Reporter John Blake writes that there are others who warn that an Obama presidency could hurt African-Americans. They say an Obama victory could cause white Americans to ignore entrenched racial divisions while claiming that America has reached the racial Promised Land.
Paul Street, author of the forthcoming book "Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics," says Obama risks becoming an Oval Office version of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. She and former Secretary of State Colin Powell are African-American figures whose popularity allows some white Americans to congratulate themselves for not being racist, he says
"They're cited as proof that racism is no longer a significant barrier to black advancement and interracial equality," Street said.
"This isn't new. Go to the 19th century, and Southern aristocrats would point to a certain African-American landowner who was doing well to prove that whites are not racist."
Nick Shapiro, an Obama spokesman, says Obama believes that America has made tremendous progress in the past 50 years. iReport.com: Biggest challenges for black America
"However, the suggestion that somehow Senator Obama's campaign represents an easy shortcut is not realistic," Shapiro said in a statement. "Senator Obama believes that we still have a lot of work to do, and that's not just true for the issues facing blacks or Latinos, but for women and other communities struggling to secure the basic necessities in life like jobs, housing, health care and quality education."
See: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/22/obama.hurt.blacks/?iref=hpmostpop
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Nope
Too bad we still have people like Ron Paul followers and the Minutemen to hold up as examples of racism. Noose sightings are higher than ever and racial disparity in income is also growing again.
Obama can make these more visible.
Julie in Boise
123, I spend my days working for a nonpartisan outfit called Everyday Democracy, where we help communities work on racial issues and where we've been covering this issue like a blanket on our blog. One of the best recent posts was this one by Harold McDougall, a Howard U law prof:
The Obama opportunity
The more visible and recognized we can make racism in all its forms, the better off we all are. An Obama presidency won't end racism, but it will definitely give it a higher profile and encourage us all to finally work through it to get to the other side.