Barack Obama’s performance as Pretendident In Name Only has not disappointed me in the least. I never expected him to do jackshit in the first place. I never expected the American people to put up with his obvious bullshit and lack of “eptitude” for this long just because they’re scared of of all things black, especially people, though, either.
I can hear the chorus of mental denials, now. “We are not a-scared of no black people! Pish tosh!” you think loudly. “Big bags o’ bullshit,” I think, and write, back. Every black American is familiar with that unacknowledged 
fear. We wear it every day like a second skin as our second nature public mask. From the wide-eyed, furtive glances meant to be discrete from car-to-car in everyday traffic, to the stiffened backs of people in stores, banks, gas stations, lines of any sort for any reason, to the proximity within which kids are kept whenever the big, scary black person approaches to say, “hi!” we black people have become just as comfortable with keeping our distance without thinking about it, as non-black people are un-comfortable in our presence. We are used to being, perpetually, the Ultimate Stranger. “Hurry, give them what they want, maybe they’ll leave!”
Some white people, tired of the discomfort of constant fear, but too cowardly to admit it and confront it head-on, lash out at the problem as the cause. To them, the problem is racism against them, by exploitative shifty, clever black bullies. The theory goes, “you know you scare me witless, so you take advantage of me by calling me a racist and asking me to stop!” shouted most often from behind the metaphorical couch with bug-eyed terror by people trying to sound tough with their hair standing on end.
It was this kind of terror/anger/fear/fatigue cycle of mindset that got Obama elected Spokesmodel-In-Chief In Charge Of Photo-Ops and Phone Calls, in the first place, despite his blindingly, glaringly, truth-is-so-bright-I-gotta-wear-shades-ingly obvious potential for ineptitude. While brave Americans have no problem recognizing the “do nothing to thunderous applause” Chauncey Gardner-isticism of Obamania, and calling it out from the rooftops whenever it shows itself most egregiously, a sizable majority of the population continues to allow itself to be manipulated by those intimately familiar with their terrified fatigue, and eager to milk it for all it’s worth.
The dirty little secret is that the “keeping up with the Joneses” set, regardless of ethnicity, is even more terrified of appearing uncool. Questioning their cool quotient by accusing them of racial intolerance sends these folks into an ordinarily amusing tizzy of vehement denial. “What, me racist?!” they loudly proclaim, “certainly not, you rapscallious knave!” followed by a veritable fart-joke-as-slapstick-worthy deluge of verbal diarrhea offered as justifiable proof of their good intentions. What now makes their protestations so decidedly unfunny is the fact that the Forces of Axelrove have been so spectacularly successful at exploiting their poorly disguised discomfort into undeserved approval and protection of their equally undeserving Historic Black Feminist Pretendident with the Nobel Prize a-pocket.
Which leaves us all knee-deep in bullshit at the bottom of Alice’s sewer hole without a ladder or a paddle, pointlessly pointing fingers of blame at each other for being responsible for the clusterfuck of Obamanation that landed us here, while the majority of the black population gathers around at the top, looking down without a rope, scratching their heads and going, “well, if it twists all those folks’ panties so tight up their ass, it can’t be all bad, huh? ‘Bout time.”
The truth is, it’s not Obama’s, or the Evil Axelrovians’ fault that we’re in the shit today; in fact, ya gotta give ‘em props for correctly reading the tea leaves 
and exploiting the madness to their advantage. It’s not black people’s fault either, we’re just the dirt poor kids used to getting coal in our stocking who found a bright, shiny, anonymously donated, tricked- out Radio Flyer on the doorstep one day, that we decided to keep without question, or checking the brake. It’s not really white people’s, or women’s, or men’s, or Republicans’, or any other ethnic group’s, or single entity of our shared society’s fault, either.
Nope, when you think about it, Barack Obopwhopaloobopbalopshamboom is not America’s disappointment, he is America’s legacy.
He is America’s shame.
He is America’s due.
*NOTE: I Googled “scary black people photo,” and the picture I used was found here.
Why didn’t the DNC, Nancy, and all the tugs elect a black WOMAN as their candidate if they really wanted a first???
Fat chance of that happening, BillieJo.
They didn’t even endorse the white one they had.
LOL, well, I suspect it’s because women have a way of going rogue. When you look at the vote histories of women from both parties, they are often to ones who fail to toe the party lines, who don’t consistently honor the status quo. Women haven’t been a part of the system, so they don’t really have anything to lose. Women aren’t allowed at Skull and Bones meetings, at the Bohemian Grove. They don’t even get invited to presidential basketball games. It’s hard to socially shun, stroke the egos, or manipulate a class of people who aren’t allowed inside the inner circle.
LOL, just thinking Cinnie, that photo of the older black guy in the jacket is not scary at all. That is the guy I would run to for help. Maybe it’s the beard, maybe it’s his age, I don’t know. Now Obama, he looks scary, maybe it’s the way you can’t feel any empathy coming from him.
It would be interesting to do a study and see what type of photos of black people are perceived as scary and why. Of the top of my head, young guys who are portraying all this machismo are scary, whereas older black men are never scary. Now older white guys, some of them can give you the creeps. I’m just curious about what is behind our perceptions, how we come up with these biases. Bias that isn’t always wrong, sometimes there is some wisdom and experience behind those instincts.
Ha! Some people think this is frightening.
But, in a dark parking garage, this can be terrifying.
Obama doesn’t look scary to me at all. He looks like one of those boys we used to smack upside the back of the head in school every time they got a fresh haircut.
And, the black guy in the photo could be one of my uncles.
Oh, I know exactly what you mean [giggle]!
Not that I ever smacked anybody … before, but this guy seems to bring up hitherto unknown inclinations in me.
And about the “scare-factor” or “scare-tactic” – that has been in play here too, with regard to the new contingent of darker skinned, black haired inhabitants in many European countries. (Us vs. them!)
Has worked well with especially older people, but (being an optimist here) I don’t think it will have a lasting effect.
(You know, there’s so much else to fear about them, like e.g. … their religion! Snort!)
I Googled “scary black people photo,” and the picture I used was found
cinie, anyone who would even think of googling that has serious issues and it aint the norm believe you me
I did have a serious issue.
I needed a photo to illustrate my point.
What’s yours?
BTW, I found this when I Googled “scary white people.”
If you link to the story at the Calgary Herald it quickly becomes apparent that the real story is the comments not the article. The plantation stakeholders are afraid…. VERY, VERY, AFRAID. and therefore very angry and violent. I notice similar fear when linking to posters at Greta wire who are discussing books about female presidential hopefuls. Or on any “lefty” site when women’s issues are broached. About half the men out there are outraged to the point of violence that their male privilege is about to be challenged. As women crack those last ceilings expect the backlash to be horrendous.
As of today 125 young women graduate from university for every 100 young men and that number is expected to be 150:100 by 2025. Change it is a coming and there isn’t much that the establishment can do against it except convince the republican fat cats in the men’s Country club to cross party lines in the Texas primary to vote against “the bitch” or to use their privileged places in the media to denigrate female candidates of all parties…
…. or maybe take one of us out back of the school dance and gang up on her 20 to one.
Expect more of this. All we can do is lock hands with our sisters and those brothers who are sympathetic and keep marching and writing and running for office. And tell our daughters to be very careful when they think a male “friend” is leading them out of the school dance to hang out with the guys.
Amen. I’m not a violent person, but there are times that I wish I could be more like Rambo.
Umm, weird to reply to my own comment but woke up in the middle of the night. unable to sleep because of my choice of words. Strike “denigrate female candidates” and replace with ” use their privilege to destroy female candidates”. Hard to describe the plantation when the vocabulary we have inherited is a product of the plantation. Or maybe replace with “use their privilege to lynch female candidates” because didn’t one of the MSM (Olbermann) say hillary needed to be taken out to a room/barn/woodshed and not come out?
So why are we surprised when a 15 year old girl is lynched at the high school dance? If Olbermann can keep his million dollar job after saying that and the rappers can make millions from singing about that why should the “Ortegas” and “Cody Ray Smiths” expect life in prison for acting out just what they hear on Tv and the radio?
And tell our daughters to be very careful when they think a male “friend” is leading them out of the school dance to hang out with the guys.
Words to live by.
… but … but … but … Sting”, yes, Sting of the “Rockstar/Hollywood Celebrity Experts on Politics”, who knows that the World can be saved and the poor fed by a song and dance show (or at least their own bank accounts being boosted by it, snort!) says that Obama is, if not exactly send from God, at least he “might be a divine answer to the world’s problems.”!
And he finds Obama to be ”very genuine, very present, clearly super-smart, and exactly what we need in the world” and can’t think of anyone “better qualified because of his background, his education, particularly in regard to Islam.”
What’s to fear?
No…the patriarchy/oligarchy deserves to be punished. Not us poor struggling folks who are just trying to have a better life, working three jobs because it’s “uniquely American.”
We should not be directing the blame at ourselves for this clusterf*ck. Our system has been completely corrupted and no longer produces change. Now what?
Blaming ourselves just makes us depressed and self-hating, which, by the way, is exactly what the top .0001% wants. Because then we don’t feel we “deserve” a better system.
Do we ultimately have responsibility? Yes, but taking responsibility is different from taking blame.
IMHO.
The “patriarchy/oligarchy,” as you put it, sold the bill of goods.
The public bought it.
They are not blameless.
IMHO.
You’re so right Cinie.
… As Americans we should not be shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name.
We gave him the White House based on the same credentials…”
I agree, people are lead and manipulated into supporting candidates who will protect the status quo, not bring about real change. You can’t really “blame” people for being deceived when they’re up against a billion dollar marketing campaign.
But I do blame some groups of people, those of whom I had always presumed knew better. Feminists who engaged in sexism to get Obama elected. Liberals, progressives, whatever, who turned their back on facts and started supporting Bush policies because they were now Obama policies. War is now okay, bailing out big corporations is cool. Hypocrisy is what I can’t stand, so I do blame people who flip flop on their principles.
If the people are blameless, they have no power. They’re just to take what they get and be happy with it. If they do have power, they have a duty and responsibility to wield it wisely. If they don’t do so, whatever they get is at least partially their fault.
But Cinie, what about, as MadamaB mentions the “poor struggling folks who are just trying to have a better life, working three jobs”, who trust their media “the 4th estate”, and don’t have time/are able to blog. How could they even be aware that they are being “bamboozled” and “hoodwinked”?
I believe those people are both blameless and powerless!
I blame the media! They are the ones who sold out and let everybody down! The politicians and ad-men do what they are supposed to do, like it or not … but the journalists? Sheesh, I have almost no words for my anger and contempt!
And they just keep on! After all, who or what’s to stop them?
The people are never powerless. They will always have something the Powers That Be never will.
Numbers.
If they ever figure that out and use it to their advantage, the PTB are toast.
They know that; it’s their biggest fear, and the reason for all the “divide-and-conquer” media machinations.
They have nothing to fear, imo. As long as we can’t even find a way to agree within our own groups (e.g. women united could have made Hillary Clinton president!), let alone agree with other groupings, this power is void – fictional.
The only instances I recall, when people standing together and using their power had a positive and peaceful outcome, are the uprising that led to demolition of the Berlin Wall, and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. And I believe other factors had to be in play too for this to happen.
I’m not trying to be confrontational, Cinie – am just realistic/pessimistic/desillusioned!
And we would still need the media to be on our side to succeed!
I don’t disagree, Pips, it’s just that “the people” have never really figured out who is “us” and who is “them.”
People who work in the media – Us
People who own the media – Them
People who work in government (including the pretendident) -Us
People who own the government – Them
Global plantation owners – Them
Everybody else – Us
The sooner we figure that out, and vote accordingly, the sooner we’ll all be much better off.
I’d like to think I am not prejudiced, but I’ve been raped as an adult, and molested as a child, so walking down the street alone after dark (dogs need walkies), when any male approaches regardless of skin pigmentation it results in my internal antenna quivering.
I like your summation. It truly is a sad situation, where one man, in whom so many invested their hopes and dreams turns out to be a dud. I wonder how that mysogny is working out for them, or whether they will even get to the point that they recognize it?
I, and others, have said many times before, that all men are presumed to be predatory by a woman alone, regardless of either party’s skin color.
Have you read Murphy’s latest?
No, I hadn’t, so thank you for the tip. I generally don’t go to Pumapac – I watched while the internecine fights were going on and it left a bad taste.
Interesting topic, and sad to see the comments at the Calgary Herald in response to the report. Gee, when a man gets attacked by a woman, it’s headline news, but when a woman gets attacked – which happens every two minutes or so worldwide, it’s not worthy of attention. Frankly, I don’t believe his story. Even Aileen Wournos had abuse in her background, which ultimately led to her horrendous crimes. How many female serial killers are there? How many male serial killers? Who are the victims of the male serial killers? How many female serial rapists are there? How many male? Who are the victims of the male serial rapists?
Geez, it’s tough to be a man today. Sorry for derailing the discussion. I’ll retreat now, and go over my notes from my therapy sessions. OOOOHM, OOOOHM. Peace and brotherhood, OOOOHM.
I didn’t bother to read the story, but from the snippet Murphy posted, its hard to believe the assault was completely unprovoked. Maybe he picked the wrong day to leer and make “hey, chickie, baby” noises at the wrong woman.
Cinie, completely agree, Obama has lived up to my expectations perfectly since I didn’t have any to begin with.
As to being afraid of black people, there’s a couple of things going on. First, the media programs people to be afraid. We certainly hear enough stories about scary black people. Second there’s this ancient historical idea that black people are going to rise up and want revenge. But third, there are black people themselves who have bought into these cultural stereotypes and present themselves as scary. Yes, acting like a gang banger and walking down the middle of the sidewalk running people off is viewed as cool. Talking about bitches and hos and how tough you are is cool, regardless of your skin color, now it’s simply a part of our pop culture. I think it’s a pretty sneaky thing, a clever manipulation, to make black people appear more scary. You want to be part of the mainstream culture, please dress and act like you’re crook or a gang banger who just walked off the set of Cops.
There’s that insidious blaxploitation/minstrelcom/gangsta rap assault on popular culture at play again.
While I agree that there is a racial element in all of this, I see it as Obama taking advantage of the feelings of disenfranchisement of the Black Community. I also see that same Community as disappointed at his failure to do as they perceived. He said “Change” and they applied it to their lives. The same way, white folks did. What He meant by “Change” and what they/we expected are two different things. The man is just a player and he will be found out and exposed but at what cost to so many black people who were truly counting on him? That’s a shame.
I don’t know, Lonni, I think Obie’s black support was mainly due to a “foot in the door” mentality. After all, before the campaign started, most black Americans didn’t know Barack Obama from Adam. He never really reached out to us, other than to preach to, or, exploit us, and actively ran away from us on many more than one occasion. Paid prominent blacks and AstroTurfers exhorted us to “help a brother out,” and “cut him some slack” for our common good, and a fat lot of gullible people fell for the okey-doke. The “Obama gon’ buy me a house” faction was much smaller than the “Obama’s yo’ man” coalition and their detractors on the other side of the political aisle delighted in trying to lead us to believe.
I agree that Barack Obama is not a disappointment. He is governing exactly as predicted and expected by most of us lefty PUMAs.
But no, I don’t deserve him. We didn’t deserve Bush either, and he was far worse than Obama, at least so far.
You and I might not “deserve” Obama, but, I think that given our history, and collective, adamant refusal to change vis-a-vis minorities and women, America does.