Barack Obama is a black man. Deal with it.

[mudesi]

I am disgusted by the way many DUers are using Mr. Obama's race as a political football.

How dare he mention, even in a subtle way, that he would indeed make history if elected as the first black president! Why is he "bringing race up"? Why can't we all just pretend to be color blind? It's not fair! ;(

Enough already!

"But his skin color shouldn't be an issue!", you say. WRONG. If elected, he would be the first black president. In a country with a history of slavery, segregation, and racism, his presidency would be an historic event, period.

The idea that Mr. Obama should just ignore such a fact is nothing short of passive racism. If you have a problem with the fact that he is a black man, that is your problem. Deal with it.

And, despite what many (racists) would say, (and do not say that there are no racists here on DU, because that is utterly false and we all damn well know it), a black president is possible, America is ready, and it would be something to be proud of, not something to shy away from or to ignore.

I have never been an Obama supporter. I don't like that he thinks he can "work with the Republicans" in a bipartisan way. I don't like his health care plan. I think he is a corporatist in the same way as Clinton.

But damn if I'm not excited to finally see a black man have a real chance at winning the highest office in the land. It would be a remarkable statement to the rest of the world and it would vindicate the majority of the American people from the completely false yet widely held belief that Americans are a bunch of racists.

It is an issue.

[ursi]

1. And Hillary has ovaries in menopause and John Edwards has sexy lips.

why do we have such stupid election topics in America?

[aquart]

7. "Ovaries in menopause"?

Nothing surprises me anymore.

[goldcanyonaz]

12. Par for the course around here. Bad mouth Obama=racist | Bad mouth Clinton=woohoo!

[Richardson08]

14. Everyone who questions Obama's ideas,resume and experience is a cross burner

This act is wearing very fine

[aquart]

15. Looking forward to four years of it?

Can't wait. Another uniter, not a divider.

[goldcanyonaz]

16. He's definitely treated with kid gloves, because one wrong word and they yell RACISM!

[rodeodance]

34. yes, I have lost count of the times posters have hit me the race card--then run away without

offering even an explanation.

[Clintonite]

19. Too bad we have to tip-toe around Obama because he is black!

If we attack him like the Clintons we are drawing race into it. Just tipical. Thats why alot of the media are so scared to say anything bad about him!

[rodeodance]

36. Yes, I think that is why the media is scared.

[robbedvoter]

42. Yup. Being sexist - is cool around here. Has different effects at the voting polls though.

[FreakinDJ]

2. It is re-writing our society

Which I like - alot

but he is not my candidate

[MADem]

It's the third rail of politics in America, for some reason. Al Gore was a racist, too--according

to overheated campaign rhetoric in 1988, anyway.

I posted this elsewhere, to demonstrate that rifts can be healed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_presidential_campaign,_1988

During the 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign, when "Rainbow Coalition" candidate Jesse Jackson was the leader in delegates (Jackson had won 55% of the vote in the Michigan caucuses and appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazines in April 1988), some officials in the Jackson campaign accused Senator Gore of focusing on the South as part of a concerted stop-Jackson effort by the Democratic Party leadership to diminish Rev. Jackson's showing there. Rev. Jackson himself accused Gore operatives of employing a subtly racist strategy in the South, and a blatantly racist strategy in New York, where Gore's most prominent backer, New York City Mayor Ed Koch, said that Jews would be "crazy" to vote for Jackson. Additionally, in 2000, Gore was accused of initiating the infamous "Willie Horton" talking point, later used against Michael Dukakis in the general election, while stumping in New York, although Gore denied the charge. Roger Wilkins was among those who denounced what they saw as the racially polarizing tactics of Gore's campaign. Despite this ill will on the 1988 campaign trail, Al Gore was eventually able to mend fences with Jesse Jackson, who supported the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992 and 1996, and who also campaigned for the Gore-Lieberman ticket in 2000.

[Fredda Weinberg]

5. I remember Barbara Jordan. I respected her. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. I think Obama will build the bridges that we have lost to other countries

the damage that Bush and Cheney have done globally will be repaired and possibly reversed with Obama. I'm not sure with HRC? I think they had a lot of respect for Bill Clinton. Bill is a different animal.

[aquart]

9. Now Bill Clinton is an "animal"?

Hillary Clinton walked into a hostile Senate and made allies.

Unfortunately, she decided she had the right to run for the presidency. No woman in America has that right.

[rodeodance]

38. i trust HRC an repair lots of broken bridges we have as a result of Bush/cheney policies.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

43. hopefully she will

[UALRBSofL]

4. OK

OK, and what is the point? We Hillary supporters also want to see a Historical Event to see a woman in office as well. :)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. I don't think that's entirely correct. I do think he got the black vote to get up and vote, which

is vital to the democracy of this country. Is that bad, that he got our black Americans out there voting? NO! So why hide it? Is there something wrong with his being black? NO! Besides, HE IS AS WHITE as he is black and I'm sure he's proud of being white and black. He gets everybody out there, white and black. I'm not defending him because I'm a Hillary Clinton person either. I'm an Edwards person to the end of this primary. I just think (as the very proud aunt of her 5 beautiful black nephews and nieces who were adopted by her sis), that it rocks that he's campaigning as a black man, and it rocks that he got the blacks totally involved in the process of voting, and for that, I'll always be grateful to him. ROCK THE VOTE for godssakes!! So if he's moving the black vote, more power to him! In 2004 the black vote was missing. We Dems needed them out there, but American blacks (as a grouping) saw only a hopeless situation with this evil freak in the White House and all the religious whites voting for him.

And on that note, let me get back to donating to Edwards, whom I'm with to the end of this because of unbelievable, earthshaking to me, vital message.

[kelligesq]

18. He has made his skin color part of the race, & won 78% of SC black people, which brings up this:

Does anybody remember Watts and 1965?

Obama himself played the race card and is causing division of the races, especially after 78% of all black people voted for him in South Carolina

Now what happens if he isn't the democratic nominee?

What happens if he is the nominee and doesnt win the general election?

Most of Obama's supporters, as can be seen here on DU, are pretty overheated
pugitive types -

Are we going to see another Watts occurr ?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

30. I speak Spanish. If I were running for office, do you REALLY THINK I should get out there and TRY

to pretend I don't speak Spanish? Would I perhaps make an extra special effort to AVOID getting the votes of Spanish-speaking people lest someone accuse me of playing the language or ethnic card? Are you for real?

I UNDERSTAND that it's aggravating not having your candidate win. Look at me. I'm for Edwards and I'm really F pissed off that my candidate is not winning. I think people are incredibly stupid to be voting for either Obama or H. Clinton instead of Edwards. However, I neither think Obama is evil because he tries to get black people to vote for him, nor do I think H. Clinton is evil for getting women to vote for her. What's WRONG with appealing to people with what you ARE? I mean, for chrissakes, if you're talking about appealing to the KU KLUX KLAN or another evil organization, okay, I see your point. But what's evil about women or black people?

Doesn't make any sense to me at all. Really. And I'm still 100% for Edwards.

[IsItJustMe]

27. I love your post. With all of the turmoil around here, I like to seize upon moments of clarity and

enlightenment. Don't get to much around here, but you have made some very good points that need to be taken into consideration.

Thanks

[Sarah Ibarruri]

31. Thank you. nt

[bellasgrams]

8. I don't want a President that is more worried about his own

place in history, touting his race. This country is in piss poor shape and the last thing that needs to be prioritized is race. If he really wants to be pres. he needs to know how to bring the country together, not separate us. He needs to do some deep digging and learn as much about what has happened in the past and how to handle and how to avoid pitfalls. He has convinced me of nothing besides being a black man with a good education and a beautiful family. His speeches mean nothing when it comes to protecting our country from further problems and how he is going to fix it. How about port security, wiretaps, all the rights Bush has stripped from the citizens, what's he going to do about the Mexican truckers coming in the country, taking our jobs. I could go on but I think you can get what I'm saying. I don't give a rats .... about his 'race', the color of his skin should not be a factor, he would represent all colors.

[HughMoran]

10. I am disgusted by the way many DUers are using Mr. Obama's race as a political football.

I agree - too bad you can't have a discussion about it without potentially being accused of fomenting the situation.

I just avoid it and hide all threads on the topic. It should not be part of the consideration.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. yeah and HRC is a woman. deal with that too. the 'gender card' is just as minimizing

of sexism as the 'race card' is minimizing of racism.

[cali]

13. k&r

well said.

[Clintonite]

17. Obams is fucking BI-RACIAL!!!!

Raised by his white mother!!! He is as much white as black! Its funny how he runs away from his white heritage.

[EffieBlack]

24. He's not running away from anything - he's being true to what WHITE AMERICA has always said he is

White folks made the rules. According to these longstanding rules, Obama is a black man. He is not bi-racial, he is not white. He is black.

It's precious that now that a man - brown of skin, wavy of hair - has emerged from Black America who can actually win the presidency (not that he's anything new - our community has for centuries produced brilliant princes like Obama, they just never had a chance before), white folks are NOW trying to claim him as theirs?

Kind of like how Egyptions aren't really African, heh?

(Can you imagine the reaction if Obama walked around, looking like he does, saying, "I am white?" LOL!)

[MADem]

25. Egyptians are African. They're also Arab and they have a strong Pharonic culture to go with their

Arab and Christian one as well.

Morrocans are Africans, too as are Algerians, Libyans, even those pink and sunburnt South Africans, and everyone physically located on that continent.

[EffieBlack]

26. True - but that's hard to to tell from the history books

Until very recently, most school children were taught that there was Africa and then there's "Egypt" as if Egypt wasn't REALLY part of Africa. This was part of the long-term effort to eradicate African culture and history in order to make it easier to enslave and then subjugate blacks. It's an interesting phenomenon, one that has been documented by some of the country's most-respected scholars.

[MADem]

29. That's certainly news to Egyptian children, who have a better grasp of geography

than most Americans, who, quite sadly, cannot find their own nation or states on a map, many of them, and who mistake South America for Africa and vice versa because "they're fat at the top and skinny at the bottom."

Even in college, way too many can't find China or Russia, to say nothing of Iraq or Iran.

[IsItJustMe]

28. I may be naive, but the first time I saw Obama, I didn't give it much thought, one way or the other

He wasn't white, in the anglo sense, but then again, he didn't have strong African American traits either. Hell, he could of been Puerto Rican for all I knew. Honestly.

For some people this may be important in-and-of-itself. All I can do is speak for myself, it's important, but not in its own right.

[rodeodance]

40. yes, but basically it is an acedemic point I think.

[SPKrazy]

20. My problem with Obama has nothing to do with race

I see he and for that matter, Hillary, as corporatists who will further sell us all down the river further.

I had some hope that Gore would run.

My dream of a Kucinich or Kucinich type is gone

Edwards isn't looking so good

I guess I just don't know what to think anymore

what happened to the democratic wing of the democratic party?

:shrug:

[Jawja]

21. Isn't Obama half white?

He is a black man AND a white man. He unites the racial divide symbolically, if not literally.

If Obama were to win the Democratic nomination and IF he were to be elected President, the American People would have "grown up" in one way and made a transforming decision about how they look at themselves.

[kelligesq]

22. Its no that he's 50% black. It's that he's 75% or more

republican

[EffieBlack]

23. How is Obama's race being cited as a positive any different than John Edwards Southern roots

being seen as an advantage?

[TheDonkey]

32. Hillary has mentioned many times about being the 1st woman president.

Those trying desperately to take Obama down are just embarassing themselves.

[Evergreen Emerald]

33. And I would be so proud if a woman became president

But damn if I'm not excited to finally see a woman have a real chance at winning the highest office in the land. It would be a remarkable statement to the rest of the world and it would vindicate the majority of the American people from the completely false yet widely held belief that Americans are a bunch of sexists.

[ErnestoG]

35. Me too. Just not THIS woman.

n/m

[Evergreen Emerald]

37. This powerful, intelligent, experienced Senator is just right for the job.

[rodeodance]

41. yes, she is.

[robbedvoter]

39. I do. It's Obama who cries bloody murder when "people are reminded he is black"

I know he is black. It's fine by me.
It's other stuff that's less attractive - having to do with what he says and does, not his skin color.