“And, when he likened it to the concentration camps, and not to anything he was personally associated with, how come nobody mentioned that?”

Two words – hoodwinked and bamboozled. I’v got a draft sittin’ about that shit as well. To be continued…

” …but, for a black man, who so obviously demonstrated his affiliation with other black Americans is rather superficial, to get away with preaching down to them a few days later, just as Jesse Jackson accused him of doing, without comment or dissent from those preached to, is appalling.”

First, make that an African-American man. And second, four words – Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder. While they’re all clapping and preaching about “The Promised Land” and how far we’ve come – materially – many of us are still psychologically on the plantation, Cin.

Alright, I’ve just started to calm down about that damn pool thing. Don’t get me started again!!

Deb, have I told you lately that I love you?
You’re a lifesaver, but, unlike Michael Steele, you didn’t offer me no damned chicken. What’s up with that? I thought we were friends.

Anyway, you know what else gets me about Obama? Why was he “emotional” at the slave fortress in Ghana? His family/ancestors didn’t embark from that “depot” on no ship, they flew. And, when he likened it to the concentration camps, and not to anything he was personally associated with, how come nobody mentioned that? Agreed that the tragedy of man’s inhumanity to man affects us all, but, for a black man, who so obviously demonstrated his affiliation with other black Americans is rather superficial, to get away with preaching down to them a few days later, just as Jesse Jackson accused him of doing, without comment or dissent from those preached to, is appalling.

And, I would have commented over at your place on the kids getting kicked out of the pool, but, I got stuck after WTF? Sunnuvabitch!

WTF!!! First of all, tell me why he left all this shit out in his highly touted by the MS – “Historic Race Speech” in Philadelphia after Rev. Wright outed his just-a-politician-ass?? Oh, I forgot, like Black folk keep telling me, “You know he can’t say that shit to white people and expect to get elected!” Well, he got elected – and he still can’t say that shit to white people – or will not.

This “performance” definitely gives the lie to that post-racial nation bullshit he and white America want to continue spinning, peppering it thoroughly – like he did in my home state of SC during the primary (hoodwinked, bamboozled) – with buzzwords to which he knew, the Black community would certainly be noddin’ their heads in recognition: “Good to be among friends” and “Dream deferred.”

But as you said Cinie, he’s more than comfortable feeding that shit – like the overseer he is – to those adoring sufferers of PTSD (Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder) whose ancestors ACTUALLY LIVED those experiences about which he has no clue; to people who are today, in 2009!!! – still so starved for equality, humanity, recognition, respect and true freedom, that they’ll latch onto the likes of him as a realization of Martin’s dream, even though what he really is, is an abusive boyfriend who’ll appear to love you up as a means of control, then beat your ass in a dominance-inspired frenzy, then love you up some more and beat your ass again.

Like so many whites I’ve encountered who’ve “studied” our history and then proceeded to tell me what the hell I’m about, he comes off as well-versed in the Black American experience. But I don’t care how much he tries to channel Martin, it is not his own experience – though he’s convinced white America that it is. I read a decent piece on new Surgeon General Regina Benjamin over at Salon, but when I got to the end, like you Cinie, I lost it! Had to respond: http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/15/regina_benjamin/permalink/5fbb2e94e9c73f81d2c538cb9a5f3925.html).

This man has serious Mommy, Daddy AND identity issues that continue to play out on the WORLD stage. Oddly though, it seems to be more keenly recognized by those around the world of a darker hue who have watched race and racism play out in America from the outside in (remember Zawahiri’s “house negro” comment?) and dealt with their own systems of caste, racism, colonialism, etc.

Race and racism in America, IMHO, is a decidedly European, inherited social construct (remember the riots in France in 2005, 2007? http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/paris_riots/ – is it a wonder Sarkozy has crawled up his ass? He can use him to say, “Regardez cet Africain comme vous – Oui, Vous Pouvez!!” – translation: Look at this African like you – Yes you can!! All the while having foot-firmly-planted-on-neck!). When they came to the New World, they brought all that shit with them. And because the Changeling has been raised and rooted in it(as has many “Mayflower families” and their descendants), he will forever and a day continue, as Cinie points out, to insist “upon promoting the “dysfunctional” black family as the root cause of the majority of black people’s ills.

I know I’m losing it too Cinie, because for a moment there, I could’ve sworn I saw a JayZ, “brush-yourself-off” taunting in the “Yes we can, ha-ha-ha” chuckle! But as I listened, I realized it was he, not me, who is losing his damn mind! A few examples:

-if we, “fail to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children??” WTF does he think Black parents are saying to their kids? “Well Pookie, go ahead and be a f*uck-up, m-kay??

-”Government programs alone won’t get our children to The Promised Land??” All I can say is, White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy in full effect here (And what is the “Promised Land,” a McMansion you cannot afford, 5 cars parked in the driveway when you can only drive one at a time, furniture/appliances that Magic Johnson keeps telling you to go to Rent-A-Center to get ’cause you deserve it, pay-day loans (also another Magic Johnson proffer) so that you can go out and buy more shit you can’t afford?? Lawd have mercy!).

-”We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes, because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way we’ve internalized a sense of limitation??” When that’s all you, your parents and grandparents have faced, it’s not a sense of limitation, but a dose of f*cking reality. And telling our children that, “Yes, if you’re African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are high. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb might not have to face” is not internalized limitation AND government abdication as Cinie so eloquently points out(wonder what he would say to Robbie Tolan, tucked away in a rich, Dallas neighborhood but nevertheless shot in his own damn driveway while unarmed by cops who just saw a Black man?? http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/08/baseballer.shot/)??

What has been, and is being, internalized, is still the foot-on-neck, you-are-not-as-equal unless you walk, talk, think and act like us, Black experience in America – something about which ole Barry doesn’t have a clue. Internalized limitation??? Please! Tell that to the parents of these kids why don’t you?? – http://lets-be-clear.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-are-post-racial-nationthats-what.html

-”…back in the time where if somebody else saw your child doin’ something, they’d whip you anyway.” Now, he’s bitin’ on Michelle’s background because, I promise you, he ain’t never had that shit happen to him.
-And WTF is this “…by accident of birth they didn’t receive a fair chance in life shit!?” ACCIDENT?? *shaking my damn head*

And for good measure, just to make sure he could reel ‘em on in with his quasi-Blackness, words from THE BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM FOR A CLOSE?? How Favreau of him!!!

Cinie, you called – I responded(sorry for the extra-long rant – but it sure felt good!).

You have me a bit worried now!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/fascism

Guess it’s sorta “I don’t respect you or your little dinner enough to have to dress up.

Yes you can.