Oh, For God’s Sake, We Know He’s Black, Get Over It

If the most significant thing about Barack Obama being elected president is simply the fact that he’s black, we, as a nation, have absolutely nothing to be excited about, or proud of.  I am sick to death of people pimping my blackness just so they can break their arms patting themselves on the back for being better than the nation’s history might suggest they have a right to claim to be.  The nation’s present day reality still suggests that.

Obama is black, he’s president, and that’s never been done before.  We get it.  But, what kind of president will he be?  Is he qualified?  What happens to the nation, to the image of black Americans, if he sucks?  How many “brothers and sisters” will lose their jobs, and/or their homes, in an Obama administration?   Will the ratio of black to whites in that situation still be as disproportionate as it has always been?  Will college admissions for “minorities” go up?  Will less black men be arrested, will those who are receive competent legal representation, will the drug-flow into our “inner cities” dry up, will their trials be fair?  Will schools be equally funded so that they may become less prison-like and actually begin to teach?  Will African Americans suddenly get access to quality health care, maybe even in their own communities?  Will merchants invest in our neighborhoods so that elderly people won’t have to take a cab to buy a tomato as was depicted in CNN’s special, “Black In America?”  Or, is it enough to know that the problems faced by African Americans contribute to the disproportionate number of single-parent families, then, focus on the problems that result from that; the ones that Bill Cosby and Barack Obama get so much mileage out of telling white people they don’t like?

Barack Obama’s election does not invalidate the Civil Rights Movement, in any way, as the media seems so hellbent upon proving, nor does it automatically make it obsolete.  Bullshit statements like this one, printed in a Politico article, are just infuriating:

Like the entertainers and athletes who preceded them as crossover pioneers, Obama and a new generation of smart, well-educated black professionals have unlocked the secret to political success by offering a broad-based, non-threatening agenda to whites while retaining their racial integrity with black voters.

Has the need for the “white power structure” to feel a little threatened really been eliminated when the success of a black politician is still being depicted as a result of the ability of black men and women to sing and dance and dribble a ball?  How much of one’s identity does one have to sacrifice to prevail in “white” society?  And, if all that’s left that relates to other people in one’s ethnic group when one does so is a commonality of skin color, can the resulting racial identification really be classified as “integrity?”  Is “symbolism” or the appearance of progress enough?

We had a word for people who engaged in such behavior when I was coming up during the height of the “Movement.”

We called them “sellouts.”

My question is, was Barack Obama elected to be President of the United States, or was he cast to market what is acceptably “black?”

Clinton Smart And Powerful

Hillary Clinton, designated Lightning Rod Du Obacracy, was supposed to provide cover for all the other Obacrats having confirmation hearings this week by deflecting the wrath of the Mean Ol’ Republicans and any random remaining Democratic contrarians who might be looking for a way to tarnish the Obamessiah by seriously questioning their credentials.  By all reports, Clinton held up her end of the bargain admirably, though her fellow Senate members, by and large, showed her the love she’s due.  Sure, there were some “tough” questions about the Clinton Foundation for show, but no really tense moments; nothing she couldn’t handle.  But, the dogs did find a scent to sniff, coming from a guy whose confirmation hearings are two days away.  According to Politico, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary-designate, has some issues about his personal taxes to ’splain:

Senators gathered Tuesday in an emergency meeting discussing the fate of Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner, who is under fire after a report that he neglected to pay payroll taxes for himself and employed a housekeeper whose immigration status had expired

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) raised questions today about the immigration status of the housekeeper, and is also questioning why Geithner did not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund, The Wall Street Journal first reported this afternoon.

The Senate Finance Committee has known about Geithner’s tax problems since Dec. 5, but the details are just being made public now, Senate aides said. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says Geithner made a “serious mistake” but adds that the allegations are not enough to “disqualify” Geithner from consideration.

Since the Finance Committee has known about these problems for over a month, the obvious question is, why was the information withheld until now?  The equally obvious answer, of course, is that with the controversy surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and the brewing scandal swirling around New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s own “pay-to-play” allegations, it just never seemed like a good time.  Then again, to be fair, it’s not like a Treasury Secretary who doesn’t pay his own taxes is any more of a big deal than, oh, say, a Secretary of State who likes to fight, or an Education Secretary whose kids couldn’t read, or a homeless Housing and Urban Development guy would be, right?   Besides, it’s not like getting out in front of a controversy is ever really a smart thing to do, is it?  After all, little problems with domestic help have never bothered anybody before.  A candidate for Attorney General who has legal issues might have a lot more ’splainin’ to do.

Obacrats Choking On Crow

Senator Roland Burris.

Ha, ha, ha.

Obacrats are going to be choking on that one every time they have to utter the word, “Senator” in front of the name “Roland Burris,”  which is going to be a lot, since he is the junior senator from Illinois.  Now that the last petulantly and arbitrarily enforced roadblock has been inevitably removed, the always done deal is all but…done.  Since anybody whose brainwave shows more activity on an EEG than a flat line could figure out that it was the Obacrats in Illinois who figured that removing the non-Obacrat governor, Rod Blagojevich, from office so that an Obacrat could be installed, who would then appoint one of their number in the head Obacrat’s (the Obamessiah, himself) seat on their way to 60, would be a good idea, I say, no better for them.  Knowing that the beleaguered governor was perpetually under investigation by the Feds, dangling the “juicy plum” of Obama’s Senate seat in font of his face had to seem like a nifty way to get him on tape doing something stupid enough to get him arrested and maneuvered out of office under threat of impeachment, hopefully before the inauguration.  Otherwise, why resign the seat as soon as Obama did, earlier than anybody in history?  Too bad they didn’t think it through.

Chicago Tribune columnist, Eric Zorn, sees a parallel between Burris and soon-to-be-confirmed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton:

From day one, the effort to prevent Burris from being seated looked like a sore-loser attempt to re-write the rules after the fact–kind of like Hillary Clinton’s campaign last spring to have the Florida and Michigan primaries count.

Not quite, Eric.  The Obacrats, in this instance, underestimated Blagojevich’s testicular fortitude, and overestimated their own.  Believing that they could once again manipulate public opinion enough to nullify an opponent and the law was a big gamble that this time, didn’t pay off.  Even the backing of the Big Brotherhood in Washington wasn’t enough for them to prevail, as it had been in May with the similar media/rule manipulation of the Florida and Michigan situation.  Then, “da roolz” could be enforced to Obama’s advantage, subject to only the cherry picked interpretation of the Obacratic Party, now, “da roolz” were superseded by the laws of the land.  Besides, Clinton, with her hands tied as they were, what with her desiring a future in what remains of the Democratic wing of the Obacratic party, didn’t have the luxury of being able to engage in the kind of bare knuckle, knockdown-drag out political street fighting that the desperate, back-to-the-wall on-his-way-out-the-door Blagojevich was similarly cornered into.

In the end, both Clinton and Blagojevich ultimately got far more out of the “go for bad” baby gangster Obacrats than the “pretender-playa,” tough guy “Chicago Way” wannabees were prepared to give.  Makes you wonder what the future holds for conflict resolution in the coming Obama administration, doesn’t it?