As the news came in last night that Senator Barack Obama was the presumptive Democratic nominee, I got a tear in my left eye. Yeah, I know it’s a little dramatic, but my mind just shot to all the times I’ve been called a nigger… so I doubted this. I remembered in college writing papers on lynchings — where I had a collage of dead black people (and some whites)… so I said this would never happen. I recalled how my great-great grandmother was born a slave in Virgina… so I feared this. I remember my grandfather telling me the stories of being raised in the Jim Crow South and how they are still dead bodies in the lakes of Virginia… so it was hard for me to fully believe this. It was this flash of all these thoughts and I said, “Wow, this is really happening.”
Yes, I know this isn’t about race. I am happy that Obama didn’t mention he is the “first black nominee” in his speech last night. However, I saw it in his smile, staring into the crowd, nodding his head — we knew he knew and we didn’t need him to say it.
Many people of color always have the assumption of racism, that nothing will ever prevail. Sure, there are already folks with a defeatist attitude. Some are already saying he will never win the general election. Okay, well, you thought he would never beat out all of the white male nominees. Then, you thought he would never beat Billary, but now we are here. You better get a lil’ faith. I don’t care about your cynicism. I don’t care about your loyalties to the Clinton Dynasty, we are here. A space that no one thought we would get.
Lastly, there are many white Americans who are proud. When I watched that 90% crowd in Minnesota last night it proved to me again and again — this isn’t a black movement.
Still, as a black person in America, I do need to relish for a minute.
I believe now and have always believed that Barack Obama will be our next president. This is the exact right moment in time for him to be elected. Gas is over $4/gallon, foreclosures are at an all-time high, global warming is a major concern, inner-city public shools are crumbling, and the American middle-class is being squeezed into poverty by inflation and the costs of war.
Mr. Obama has the perfect opportunity to restore America’s reputation in the international community and restore American’s faith in our government. That is what hope is all about.
alizoom:
i cannot accept that such “racial constructs” did not become political realities until caucasians became a minority in the usa…
as they have always been globally
i agree that we are all humans…and actually all humans are africans as the eldest humans are africans
but i resent the convenient and belated recognition of that fact only as it serves an increasing WHITE minority!!!
i hope you are right and that i am wrong…as i would love a black camelot
but i truly expect the very same shock in 2008 that i felt in 2004 when gwb stole a second term…
most racists would rather suffer with blacks than see blacks excel…
and most republikkkans play dirty…even if they must create another 9/11 type hoax to make jm win in nov…
fyi
ab
ajasalama:
ditto!!!
i ask myself these same questions daily
and i think i find my answers in how the media/republikkkans have and will continue to attack michelle obama…much worse than they do barack
that is why i adored it when clay pasted halle’s face over mo’s and asked that same valid question
i have never seen a candidate’s wife so villified
and it has only just begun…
mo was even blamed for their joint love of TUCC when i initially wrote about how the media’s colorism seemed to make her a target of more venom than bo…
from houses on plantantions to today’s corp offices and hollywood films,
it seems that white amerikkka has always BLATANTLY preferred blacks who share their blood/hues
peace
ab
Is biracial individual, closest a black men would ever get to to the white House?
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. The day is young, and this time it may really be “”morning in America”.
As the parent of a biracial child, I can tell you that biracialism is – and should be – defined by that individual.
Race is a social construct, actually created in the 1700s to justify slavery and colonialisation to get all of Europe on board with the burgeoning and very profitable slave trade. When Elizabeth I took her reign in England, the monarchy was broke. It was shored up by her acceptance and financing of English slave traders to compete with the Spaniards and the Portugese.
Genetically, Obama is biracial. Socially, his life choices mimic those of a “black” man. His wife is black, his children are black, he lives in a largely black neighborhood. Until recently he attended a black church. He represented a predominantly black state congressional district here in Illinois. He sought out the “black” side of his family, although they were halfway round the world and there was no real social pressure for him to make such a move.
In my time, I have met enough “all black” folks that have spent their lives running from any black allegiances – think CLARENCE THOMAS, WARD CONNER (unless it was personally beneficial). Both of those men have full black-American parents.
It is incredibly dangerous for us to demand over and over “blood allegiance” from our folks that are the best and brightest amongst us.
Did white folks vote for Obama because he has “half of them” in him? Well, my 47 years of personal experience with white folks tells me this: unless they’re in or of a biracial relationship, they do not accept the construct of biracialism. My daughter has lost friends AFTER those friends parents fund out that her mother was a dark-skinned black woman.
All the naysayers that believe McCain will be elected because he’s white – well, white folks are finally felling the full effects of their racism and holding us back. So busy worried about what was getting in, not thinking about what was getting out. Gas, food, bad mortgages, layoffs – white folks got to pay the piper hard and long with the rest of us.
I’m looking forward to a Black Camelot in January ’09.
One subject of discussion that often comes up when discussing the US president election with my white friends and some others from other ethnic background (including blacks) ” is whether or no Obama is black”
My question is by no means questioning the blackness of biracial people, but one can’t help but asked if is ok to consider biracials as black?(is Obama black?). Especially now that there are movements from some mulattoes organisation trying to promote a different identity from that of the Black race.
further more is Obama winning this election comes with the public awareness of this racial background? would this be different if he had 2 dark skin black parents
And would a dark skin black man ever come close to this level of success with respect to president electiion that Obama is achieving now?
Is biracial individual, closest a black men would ever get to to the white House?
alizoom:
ditto
for months i have praised their black love and mo
and what a wonderful first lady she would be…
mo is what i like best about bo
fyi
ab
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/
AR2008060404521.html
Nice read about the togetherness and blackness of Obama and Michelle – especially for those of you who don’t believe Barack is “black enough” (and you know who you are…)
dennish:
i told u yesterday that i was voting for bo in nov
yet
u and alizoom chose to attack me and ignore that
as i said jm will still win
here is a great article on wny jm will win in nov
it is called
“return of the real white people”
http://www.theroot.com/id/46699
fyi
ab
dennish:
what corner?
what do you do?
and where???
i am an educator who has dedicated my life educating to poor black children and underducated/working adults
i am also a veteran radio producer & host and columnist who has educated masses with rebel info since 1976
i am also a lesbian activist who has spent my life in social actions since i was a NAACP prez at age 17
see more on my bio online etc
ie
http://www.geocities.com/ambwww/honors.htm
now:
what are YOU doing beside cheerleading for alizoom????
rsvp
ab
Alicia, you’re either part of the solution, or you are part of the problem. How about coming out of the corner you have backed yourself into, stop your diatribe of self-victimization, and do something constructive.
Believe it or not, you have a choice in all of this. You can either live in the world that continues to fail you, or you can at least get off your behind to do something to make a change.
There will never be an island that you and all of your “hate whitey” colleagues can live on, so you might as well do something to make the world a better place.
As far as I am concerned, Obama has been the closest thing to representing change for the good.
Now what are you planning on doing?
alizoom:
the only winners now and in nov are
john mccain and his republikkkan ilk…
re: katrina
see:
http://www.geocities.com/ambwww/katrina.htm
fyi
ab
Two points Ms Banks, what did HRC do about NO and Sean Bell, who was one of her constituents? And, two, Obama is half white, and, has run a race not based on skin color like the tag teaming, race baiting Clinton’s did for the “working class white” vote.
For once it would be great if black folks did not need a white man or woman to validate their lives and just be happy, that it was only 45 years ago that the majority of us could not even vote, and, now he is running for the WH? That’s just amazing, and, its credit to the young who are letting this race and gender trash stay in the past.
Oh, so now you’re blaming Obama for Katrina and the death of Sean Bell?
And let me guess, you left you cushy confines and high-tailed it over to NOLA to help the victims and rebuild? And you’ve been out in the streets of NYC with Rev. Al, protesting the verdict, risking your own personal freedom?
You talks a lot of shit.
So, did Miss Hill invite you to her Saturday night is for losers party, as she has all of her ardent supporters?
Go on, vote for McCain. You know you wanna…
alizoom posted:
“it is not black America or white America, it about the promise of America”.
great slogan!
but it did nothing to help katrina victims, or sean bell etc…
bon soir
ab
alizoom:
i hate all republikkkans even more than i hate you…
so
why do u keep ignoring that?
further proof that you seek only to attack me
never to address my valid points herein:
obama played dirty politics to slay black politicos in chicago
and he played blacks dirty last night by failing to embrace his BLACK first
verbatim
fyi
ab
ITA, Anonymous, getting back to Clay’s POV:
I gathered up a peaceful smile upon my face upon seeing Barack and Michelle makin’ history – WORLD history. And the world awaits for the earth’s teenager, America, make REAL CHANGE and lead the way.
“You can’t win ‘em all, that’s why they call it Democracy!” – Harold Washington, Chicago’s First Black Elected Mayor. We didn’t wait to be invited to sit at the lunch counters, or attend the schools, or worked the jobs – we pushed on in, a change is gonna come whether ya’ like it or not. As Barack said in ’04, “it is not black America or white America, it about the promise of America”.And making America keep its promise to all of us.
And we must NEVER forget that we are all in this together. So, if Alicia’s beloved McCain wins in November, then somehow, someway we get down on our knees and pray that the real God of the Children of Israel guide him and help him see the real truths, as that same God guided the children of the African Diasphora to survive their enslavement, by ANY MEANS NECESSARY, so that we can commiserate over today’s historical events.
Times are a’changin’ – and they ain’t a’changin back.
Oh, and if you’ve just got to label me, then OK, I’m a straight sistah, from my toes to the tip of my Motions relaxer. But I fought on the frontlines with Act Up from the early eighties, and my daughter’s godparents are a loving gay male couple with children of their own (um, sorry Alicia, they’s white boys, so if this makes you roll over in your grave, then visions of sugar plums will dance in my head at twilight’s sleep). I’ve recently fought the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (successfully I might add) to bring gay and race-positive educators into my daughter’s and other neighborhood schools.
So, Yes. I. Am. Straight, but gayly forward.
Oh, Alicia, is that a black french/spanish name, or a white
french/spanish name?
alizoom:
every single thing i have stated about obama is documented fact!
especially his shady legacy in chicago
name one rumor i have posted abot bo
and then document your proof that hillary is gay!
Anyway…getting back to the “hope” theme and positivity of the post. Amen Clay!! It’s unreal-they can’t deny what happened last night. No matter what the outcome in November.
alizoom:
i love michelle obama
much more than bo actually
as
she is much more honest about racism and ignorance in amerikkka
i praise her often
and
i am glad she found a great man like obama to marry her and make her beautiful black daughters legitimate…unlike your single miserable self…
fyi
ab
alizoom:
i adore my name
alicia michelle banks =
spanish and french
(“uh lee see uh” &)
“meshell”
my dad named me after a spanish prof’s/french prof’s daughters
since age 12, i have spoken french fluently also…to communicate with colonized native african fellow warrior friends…
listen:
never ever call me your “sista”
not even in jest
female attack dogs like you
are NOT and NEVER have been in my tribe
fyi
ab
NOW WAIT A MINUTE!
alizoom has a daughter? this whole time I thought alizoom was a gay man but does this mean she is a straight woman? Hard to believe becaus she is readdddddddddddddddddding for your nerves like a butch queen on the stroll. She must have a gay brother!
i love it!
it does not suprise me that you are a gaybasher
No, not a gaybasher. But if you can question Obama’s “blackness”, and spread false rumors and lies about him, then I can certainly raise up the so-called rumors about Hillary’s sexuality that have circulated for years? If you’re so upset about and antsy for Obama to cut his finger and prove his “black” blood”, how about Hillary openly hugging and publicly acknowledging all of the gay women that have gotten her she is? You think she’d publicly claim you in West Virginia? Pennsylvania? Florida? But you’re OK with that, aren’t you?
So, Obama is bi-racial, half the legion of a woman as white as you beloved Hillary. But Michelle is BLACK, and has caught hella flack for being authentic. Now what does that make Mya and Sasha (their daughters) in your racist dogma? Is Michelle a trader for lovin’ a half-black man?
Riddle me this? Or are you still on Miss Hill’s payroll (BTW, she just announced she’s suspending her campaign on Friday, so that’s your last paycheck. I recommend hitting the unemployment office on Friday, or wait until next Wednesday when the lines clear).
Maybe ol’ pasty-assed Johnny Mc will kick in on yo’ welfare check…
alizoom:
your denials and tangents will not clean up your feces herein
do not speak for clay
and you respect clay so much by
implying that he has a vagina as you slur hc????
spare me your bs!!!
real chicagoans speak for themselves
as i do
i have never been a bubba fan and i blast him often
and chelsea is a fine white woman…she is everything you want to be
i proudly retain my slave name in honor of the slaves
that donned it
i will never take an arbitrary african name
my NATURAL hair, my NAPPY mind, and BLACK WARRIOR soul are african enough…
fyi
ab
i have had my own audiences online since 1991
and on the air and in print since 1980…
Never. Heard. Of. You.
Perhaps you mean “in the air”…that plane ride on ValuJet that moved you from Chicago to Atlanta?
“and then that would make Hillary a bi-racial baby like Clay and my baby”
Ooops, my bad. I meant that frog-faced daughter Chelsea who I’m sure the plan was to push her off on us as President in ’20.
alizoom:
i have had my own audiences online since 1991
and on the air and in print since 1980…
sorry you are so late!!!
but
welcome
alicia banks
ELQOUENT FURY
http://www.geocities.com/ambwww
&
OUTLOOK
aliciabanks.blogspot.com
fyi
ab
that is also why i don locks and do not wear a horrid perm or parent confused bi-racial children as alizoom does
uh huh, cause “Alicia” is such a proud Motherland name.
Yep, I gets ma’ hair fried, dyed and laid to the side EV’RY six weeks. Hell, set a clock to me! Hell, Greenwich should call me – WHAT TIME IS IT? HELLO?!?!?
FOR SOMEONE SOOOOOOOOO black, and all of that, you just loved you some Miss Hill and Massa Bill, didn’t ya’? Don’t cha? Sing the lullabye to ‘em gal:
come on now and lay you head upon yo’ mammy’s (that would be you Alicia) breassssss…
Telegram to Alicia: Toni Morrison was being S.A.R.D.O.N.I.C. when she called Bill the “first black president”. Take a big ol’ bite of the reality sandwich and be careful was you take in the literal (although if Bill were the first black president, then he married a white woman, i.e. Miss Hill and then that would make Hillary a bi-racial baby like Clay and my baby and then you must hate Miss Hill now because she married a a black man and took a brotha away from a sistah and polluted the world further with zebra genes…and has your head exploded yet because I’ve been dying for David Cronenberg to remake that movie “Scanners”…)
My baby’s beautiful, as all of God’s creatures. And she’s here by God’s grace, and not your racist opinion. And as dennish posted earlier, how dare you post such racists and nationalistic rants on a site whose owner is bi-racial himself? You’ve got “so much” respect for Clay? Yet you come into his “home” and dis other bi-racial folks and those of us with partners of other races?
Naah, “my sistah”, you ain’t black, and you ain’t no Chicagoan, because the one thing a “true” black Chicagoan would do is step in someone’s “home” and insult them.
So..have you talked to the McCain camp yet? Confirmed ad space and rate (delivering dozens of voters based on your HUGE influence)?
alizoom:
it does not suprise me that you are a gaybasher
all of the -isms are indeed related…and you are just a veritable potpourri of hatreds
did you know clay was gay?
do you owe gays herein an apology?
if hc had a penis
i am certain she would tell you to perform fellatio upon it as hatefully as all you post herein!!!
fyi
ab
alizoom:
do not hate me because my eyes are beautiful
and yours are defective and doubled by ugly specs…
my eyes are adored by many
u too i bet…
fyi
ab
of all the women in brewster place
robin given’s character was the most afrocentric and noble
she adored herself
i love the women of bp!
and as i recall
the only person robin’s character condemened was her elitist pristine euro black mom played by cicely tyson
fyi
i adore myself too
that is why i was INSULTED by obama’s glaring omission
of race from his speech last night…
that is also why i don locks and do not wear a horrid perm or parent confused bi-racial children as alizoom
does
if i were heterosexual and wed a white male, i would marry john brown and i would have an afrocentric child like clay cane/halle berry/shemar moore/huey newton/bob marley etc…
or even one like obama was before june 3…
fyi
ab
PS, Alicia: Obama should screamed and shout all day along about his blackness when Hillary shows us her penis and comes out of the closet.
your stellar site is awesome!
now i see why you dare to degrade mine so…
Don’t have no official website. My stumbleupon is a list of my favorite sites on the internet (damn, Sherlock Holmes and Homeland Security ain’t got nothing on you bubble eyes!)
BUT, if and WHEN I get a site, I’ll have the temerity and good taste to resist re-directing traffic from a great, well-informed, controversial and always interesting site such as Clay’s. Get your own audience of interest for your own raggedy-assed site.
PS: Obama didn’t have to talk being black. As Fred Sanford said to Lamont: when you showed up in the room, they knew you was black”.
So Alicia, why don’t you vote for McCain, or throwaway your vote and write-in Hillary.
And then kill yourself.
ps dennish:
re: “crystal balls”
i have the EXACT same rights and “balls” that you do
to choose any candidate
and make any predictions about anything
and i will continue to exercise my rights precisely as you do
the media may coddle obama’s fans, but i never have and i never will!!!
fyi
ab
i am always amazed at such selective and insincere condemnation!!!!!!!
i have praised clay often for his afrocentrism and his being so always…
i will NEVER EVER apologize for defending myself from the incessant and rabid personal attacks of alizoom and her neocon eurocentric ilk herein
how dare you even ask me to as you ignore them???!!!
when did clay make you the moderator????
again:
obama was black enough until june 3…when he failed to mention his blackness in his victory speech
FYI!!!!!!!
ab
Barack Obama is “bi-racial”…and so is Clay Cane, Alicia. I think you owe Clay a huge apology for your inappropriate attacks today. You act as if you are intimate with Barack Obama – do you have any more of a relationship with him than any of the rest of us who read this blog?
And where did that crystal ball of yours come from? Can you hook the rest of us up with one so we too can so arrogantly predict the future?
I would have to say that you have done a pretty good job of insulting an entire group of people today, including the author of this website. It’s apparent that you haven’t dealt with your own issues of self-hatred, because your dialogue smacks of internal hatred for people not “black enough”. What is “black enough” anyway?
I loved that scene in The Women of Brewster Place where Cicely Tyson CLOCKED her afrocentric daughter Robyn Givens, putting her in her place because she felt her mother gave her a “slave name”.
Alicia, you sound very similar to that Robyn Givens character – compartmentalizing people because their genetics aren’t as “pure” as yours are, and you have no idea who they really are.
alizoom:
your stellar site is awesome!
now i see why you dare to degrade mine so…
alizoom.stumbleupon.com
wow…
ab
alizoom:
are you sure you are a chicagoan????
because intelligent homies would never offer up bo’s chicago legacy as a defense…
fyi:
So, suddenly we find that Obama helped poor people in Chicago before he became a Harvard lawyer. After Harvard, Obama joined a Chicago law firm. Later, he used his powerful legal networks to unethically destroy revered local black politicians. He played sinister signature games to destroy black politicians who he considered mere casualties of war along his accelerated and premature path to the White House. His mythical road to DC has been paved with political treachery that led to the demise of black politicians Alice Palmer and Gha-is Askia…
see more at:
OUTLOOK
aliciabanks.blogspot.com
alizoom et al:
i am a native of chicago
i prefer jazz vocalists like nancy wilson to any hip hoppers
and when you finish attacking me so amusingly
and moronically
take some time to watch tv today and notice how media pundits are:
reminding us that rezko and obama are pals
suddenly referring to obama as the “candidate of color/bi-racial”
etc…
in 2008, a black man will never be president even if he magically morphs into a white man…amerikkka is still far too racists and chocked far too full of fools like you!!!
bo’s orphing has just begun and his bi-racial DNA will make this curious transition more expedient…watch and see
last night was the beginning of the end of blackness for BO…he will now become a colorless icon
what is indescribably despicable is that
most of his black fans will be as arrogantly ignorant as you and similarly dare to deny the inherent insult to blacks within such sinister colorizations…
the amoral annoyance about mulattos is that they can always be black when they choose, then become become white when they must….bo is doing what he must now in vain
as racist white voters embrace bo’s colorless games, they will STILL vote for the authentically white jm in nov
fyi
ab
Well said, alizoom.
Alicia, if you had said “race cannot be avoided in the political arena” or “many people, including myself, have an issue with Obama and just how “Black” he is and whether he can beat John McCain,” then i would call you a “realist,” because those statements are true.
But to state as fact that Obama has somehow sacrificed his “Blackness”, “whitened up/become colorless” (which is it, hon?) or that he will not beat John McCain because it takes a white man to beat another white man, is not only defeatist, it’s downright ignorant. Aaron McGruder would have a field day with you, toots.
You may be repulsed by “Obama’s failure to be black one last time” (what the fuck does that even mean???!!), but I am even more nauseated by your failure to sound intelligent just once.
which is precisely why obama will swiftly become whiter each day…
Well, since the next POTUS is going to be a white person anyway, IT MAY AS WELL BE OBAMA!!!!!!!!
You know, Alicia, you should just vote for McCain in November, or write in Biz Markie or Lil Wayne or Busta Rhymes or Lil Kim or Robin Thicke or…IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU? Do ya’ bleed Bic Ink Ms. Alicia? Ish ya still gonna peels Missy Hillary’s grapes for her?
Still trying to get a free ride for your weak-assed blog, I see. Well, I’m sure McCain ’08 will be doing internet ad placements soon – LOOK ‘EM UP! HOOK ‘EM UP, Countess Blackula!
And for the rest of ya’ – Obama didn’t win on a “message of hope” anymore than Mandella prayed South Africa to sovereignty. Obama won on pure, calculated, precise, get-down-with-the git-down politickin’.
That’s how we do it here in Chi-Town!
kristy:
amen!
which is precisely why obama will swiftly become whiter each day…
peace
ab
dennish:
why did you ignore what i actually stated herein?
i will vote for obama
i want people to stop pretending that racism is a relic and that republikkkans ever olay fair!!!
unlike obama,
i walk in the shoes of a black female with two black parents daily…fyi
only a white person can defeat jm in the fall
ONLY time will reveal whether you are hoodwinked by hope…or whether i am realistic beyond hope
peace
ab
dennish:
i wake up and live a wonderful life daily
check my bios anytime…
thanks for your concern
fyi:
i will NEVR consider defeatism synonymous with realism!!!
peace
ab
Plus…White people love Obama…until he starts to push a “Black Agenda”
I’m just sayin….
Go Obama
I think people need to wake up and realize that it’s not the 60′s…it’s 2008, we need to be smart about things.
Hope will always be hope and I’m glad Obama gives people something/someone to believe in because Bush did NOT..but, America is still America.
Don’t label me as a defeatist…I’m a realist. I think Obama is proving alot, But I also think things are very calculated. America did NOT become the superpower that it is by hope, believe that.
Obama’s inspiration is a great thing, but it took us (Black people) 100 years just to get the right to vote. So, how can it take less than 50 to get a black president? Are we progressed that much? I don’t know…think Hurricane Katrina, Imus, Jena 6
Wow – Alicia, with a defeatest attitude like that, I wonder how you get out of bed in the morning?
What do you want – hopelessness and another 4 years of Republicans????
Repulsed by his failure to be black? Do you walk in his shoes every day???
His speech last night gave me goosebumps. It’s the first time I have felt proud to be an American and allowed myself to entertain the possibility of hope for my country.
His message is about hope – and if that’s not black enough for you, then go ahead and vote for a crooked corporate whore like McCain.
It’s ironic – people have been waiting for this kind of inspiration since 1960 when Kennedy was campaigning, and now that they have been given it – they turn it into something to bitch about.
How sad.
i endorsed obama today
but i know jm will win in nov
i loved watching mo and bo together in victory…
BUT
i can never ever cry over a black man whitening himself for the racist white masses!!!…
bubba never had to deny his whiteness to be down with the blacks who have betrayed him and hc
i was repulsed by obama’s failure to be black one last time…it was a classic betrayal of the blacks who have carried him to his glory
he is officially colorless now…which means mo will be an even blacker target of racist republikkkans as his permanently colored spouse in days to come…
peace
ab
OUTLOOK
aliciabanks.blogspot.com
His other shout out that made me smile was when he and Michelle gave each other…a pound :)followed by a thumbs up.