Barak Obama Doesn't Care About White People
Dean
I remember living in Chicago when Harold Washington was elected; many white residents said that Washington didn't give a damn about white voters. They assumed just because of the color of his skin, and because it was mostly black people who voted into office (he won in a 3-way race and only got in because he got about 90% of the black vote), he would not care about the white voters of the city.
They were wrong. While of course some people liked him and some people hated him--like pretty much any big city mayor--truth is, the man worked pretty hard to reach out to white voters and gain their respect. While some of them never bought it and never trusted him, the truth is Chicago was one of the only cities during that era where "white flight" (remember that?) more or less stopped cold--thanks in large part to Harold Washington.
Imagine if today a major disaster hit, say, the city of Philadelphia. Now imagine white residents of that city, or even from suburbs outside of it, saying that Mayor John Street doesn't care about white residents. What would most people say to that?
You know what they'd say. They'd say that the people saying that were racists. And they'd almost certainly be right.
I notice that so far, I haven't found any statement whatsoever from Senator Barak Obama on the issue of poor white people who've lost their homes, loved ones, and livelihood in Hurricane Katrina. Just some temporizing on whether race was an issue in the hurricane or not. My conclusion: Obama doesn't care about white people who died, nor any of the poor suburban and rural country folk who got devastated outside of New Orleans or Biloxi. I mean, you know, he's black after all. Sure, a lot of white people voted for him, but probably only because he was running against another black man, one who was also completely crazy. White voters can't really trust Obama because they know in his heart he doesn't care about them. He hasn't said one word so far about poor white folks who died that I can find, after all. And you know, if he did say something about them, would he really mean it? Why should I believe that? He's black and I never voted for him after all.
Is all that racist sentiment? Of course it is. I don't believe a word of any of that because it's a bunch of drivel. Obama, by all I can see, is a good man. I would never assume that I know what he thinks in his heart about white Americans, or any other group of Americans. In fact I have a sneaking suspicion I may be voting for the man for President one day. Cobb takes strong exception to my categorizing Kanye West as being a racist. But I'm not backing down--not until West takes back his racist sentiment, anyway.
Pretending you know what's in another person's heart just because of his skin color and because you don't agree with his politics is racist. It just is. So is holding black people to different standards than you hold white people to.
All this gets me to something deeper--a poisonous boil that still hasn't been lanced in American politics. Here's the truth: if you're under 40 years old, you have never lived in an America wherein racial segregation or job discrimination were legal. You've never seen a segregated lunch counter nor a segregated school nor been protected by a segregated military. Never.
Yes, there's still a disproportionate amount of black poverty. But stop and contemplate that word "disproportionate." What does that mean?
A little remarked-upon fact is that the majority of America's welfare recipients are not black, they're white. Most Americans living below the poverty line are white, not black. Most getting substandard educations are white, not black.
Black people can say they have a disproportionate number of underprivileged kids in their ranks, but they can't say they are the majority--and at the rate so many of them are making it into the middle class these days, in another 20 years they may not even have proportions to argue anymore.
Still, today it happens to be the case that the majority of poor in big cities are black. But out in the country, we've still got people living in substandard housing, going to crappy schools, living without health insurance and sometimes even without electricity. Those people for the most part are what we still call poor white trash. Trash we call them--as in garbage. When we don't call them crackers or rednecks anyway.
All those cameras focusing on black people in the big city of New Orleans, is that racist? I don't know. I do know it's easier to point cameras at suffering black folks crowded together than it is to find all the poor white trash scattered out in "the boonies" whose houses are gone and whose loved ones are dead. And when you get right down to it, does anyone care about those trashy peckerwoods anyway?
When kids like that do live in the cities, they're very much a minority--and all the more despised because of it. They're either invisible or treated with contempt. See American History X for a searing look at that. I've known kids like that, white kids who were members of street gangs, and other kids who got their asses beat down just for being white and in the wrong part of town.
You think the Kanye Wests of the world care about them? If they do care, they do a damned poor job of showing it. Unlike, say, these people:
Yeah, Bush don't care about black people. Photos like this--which you can find all throughout his presidency and not just recently--why, they're just photo ops. They're just "damage control." He doesn't mean it. After all, he's white, and a lot of black people didn't vote for him. So we know in his heart he doesn't care if thousands of Americans suffer and die so long as they're black, right?
Kanye West and his apologists can suck on my dirty socks. That kind of comment isn't just racist, it's a slap in the face of everybody who voted for Bush, or even thought about voting for Bush--and frankly, it's a slap on the face of everyone in America.
This points to something (or maybe several somethings) I'm real tired of: the tendency of some people to think that if you don't like someone, it's okay to call him a racist--just so long as he's white. That makes him fair game to say the most vicious and hateful thing you can say about anyone in America.
I've seen it all my life, and I've experienced it personally more than once. And I'm tired of not talking about it or pretending it's not there.
I've said many times that most white people are cowards, because they don't want to discuss race issues openly. They're afraid of being called racists. With good reason: hair-trigger accusations of racism are too damned common, and are tolerated way too much.
If someone is willing to assume racism on the part of a white person just because they don't like them, that is in itself racism. It's prejudice based on race. When we're to the point where the President of the United States can be openly accused of not caring about thousands of black Americans dying just because the cavalry took about 24 hours longer to arrive than maybe they should have, we've got problems we aren't addressing.
And it's not white people "not caring" that's the problem.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Barak Obama Doesn't Care About White People
- Modern Racism Unsheeted
- Watershed Moment for Unmasking Racism In America?
I thought Harold Washington was a great guy and a great mayor, and he had this statesmanlike presence that always made me think he was cut out for higher office.
He never had that 'race-baiter' vibe that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have, either.
Obama? Too early to tell really, but already people are setting him up as the next big thing. He seems like a decent enough guy.
Blacks don't regard you as a race, neither do Latinos.
No one cares when Asians are shot or discriminated against. Quite the contrary, there's silence from the NAACP or the ACLU or the people who declare their interests to be racial justice or equality or some other such noble bullshit.
If that were true, they would value humans of all stripes, and levy their efforts against racism in whatever form it takes.
Black racism has never been dealt with because according to the current conventional wisdom, victims are innocent.
I learned the word "gook" from a black kid. Think he'll ever be called racist?
I don't have much sympathy for anyone anymore when they pull the race card as quickly as the media and Democrats and black "leaders" have in regards to the Katrina thing. A lot of people lost a lot and suffered and died. But I guess that's okay, unless they're black. Then it's a fucking injustice.
I thought civil rights battles were fought for equality, not for some kind of special status.
Guess not.
his posts always seem like psuedo intellectual drivel to me. he always says in twenty words what can be said in ten.
sayign that what Kanye west said was true, is just on its face stupidity. Did Cobb ask God what Bush likes?
it stupid
(this is the same guy who likes Nagel)
The individuals of those times dealt w/ the issues, but those of today world continue to raise the standard from the previous generations. It's like the old man yapping about walking 20 miles to school in a blizzard; good for him and hope we don't live in those times. Someday I might tell the youth I had to drive a car for 4 miles and they will laugh cause they can teleport to school. That is called progress; always fine-tuning the concerns of the present and not limiting it from the past.
DW - "A little remarked-upon fact is that the majority of America's welfare recipients are not black, they're white... Black people can say they have a disproportionate number of underprivileged kids in their ranks, but they can't say they are the majority... in another 20 years they may not even have proportions to argue anymore."
Poverty line as of 2003
--- Whites have the highest Poverty w/ 44%, but the lowest rate of all groups at 8.2%
--- Blacks on the other hand has a poverty rate of 24.4%, Asians 11.8%, &Hispanics at 22.5%
Due to the fact Whites dominate the landscape it would make sense they make up majority of America. Thus 1 out of about 12 whites are most likely in poverty to 1 out of 4 Black Americans... that is major "Disproportion" that one can not brush aside. When 20 years passes by, then hopefully discussions will take a different slant. Yet... we live in the present and not in the future.
DW - "...I do know it's easier to point cameras at suffering black folks crowded together than it is to find all the poor white trash scattered out in "the boonies" whose houses are gone and whose loved ones are dead..."
I would say the focus was more in line that a well-known "City" was demolished more than the make up of its people. If Washington DC was hit, I think most would focus on the city more than the suburbs of Northern VA or Western &lower Maryland. New Orleans was after-all the primary focus before any considerations of other areas before the storm actually touch land.
DW - "When kids like that do live in the cities, they're very much a minority--and all the more despised because of it."
I cannot comment on the movie, but I would believe a white minority in a city would have less negatives than a black minority in most places. One of the greatest causes of fear is lack of knowledge of another race. Blacks cannot escape whites simply due to population (about 3/4 whites according to US 2004 Census), but whites could be very limited in daily activities w/ blacks. I also believe blacks in general have some tendency to look up towards whites as where success is, while whites tend to not establish the same for society -currently- dictates success. (The Stats in regards to poverty, wealth, etc)
DW - "... it's okay to call him a racist--just so long as he's white ... I've said many times that most white people are cowards, because they don't want to discuss race issues openly. They're afraid of being called racist"
I agree to most items mention that I simplified mostly in the quote. Minorities in general tend to have certain privileges in voice than majorities. Is it correctable? That is really up to any majority in regards to their own group. Any small voice that speaks can only survive if the majority allows it to be amplified.
DW - "we've got problems we aren't addressing. - And it's not white people "not caring" that's the problem."
I believe problems are always being addressed &most everyone is probably part of the problem. Just like those that oversimplify by screaming racism on whomever; most others tend to only want to focus on one possible reason as though it will fix all problems. Life is much too complex to give us the privilege of solving any issue in a simple path or form.
Nor is it even mildly excusable that a poor kid from the roughest, poorest, worst neighborhoods in the inner cities is treated as more "privileged" than middle class and upper class black, hispanic, etc. kids, but that is exactly the situation many of them face.
This is a stuff almost no one wants to talk about precisely because of our emphasis on "proportions" rather than individuals. So: presumption is if you're black, you got dealt a dirty hand even if (like, say, Harold Ford Junior) you grew up wealthy and privileged and have never faced any real discrimination in your entire life. If your'e white, your'e assumed privileged, and deserving of contempt if you're down on your luck (or never had any to begin with).
Think! People are not proportions!
When we tried to shop at Five Mile and Grand River, we found at both the grocery and drug store, no one would wait on us. At the doctor’s office at Eight Mile and Woodward, they made us wait until after all the black patients had been seen. (Try sitting in a crowded waiting room all day with a sick baby!)
Sometime in 1985 or 6, the local PBS station produced a documentary that was very clear on then-Mayor Coleman Young’s stance: white people not welcome in Detroit.
It was particularly bad for our son, as one of about five white kids in his school. He was always the one at fault when any problem arose, and the principal made sure to make the point. His 1st grade teacher wouldn’t speak to me at conference time when there was a black parent waiting, and refused me as a room mother. I was denied entry to the PTA.
Our neighborhood was changing fast, and in the last year or so we found a number of the new arrivals wouldn’t let their kids play with our boy because he was white.
What I’m getting at here is there is anti-white racism, and it is alive and well in many places. I found on a bus ride this year from Sacramento home to Yuma AZ, there are Hispanics that take pleasure in treating whites badly. So I won’t take that bus again, and there are towns in California I’ll make sure to avoid if I ever have to go that way again.
I already knew that some AZ towns discriminate in their employment practices. Fortunately this is not something that has affected me personally, but it soon becomes clear to anyone looking for a job.
Dean’s right – this is something nobody wants to talk about. It’s there, though, and it’s very harmful. It needs to be talked about and recognized. When I think about my granddaughter, and Dean’s kids, I wonder what kind of a world they’ll have to grow up in. It seems that we’ve got a situation where a bizarre form of “equality” for some has been achieved at the expense of others, and that’s not equality at all. It’s just racism shifted over.
So does that mean Cobb doesn't care about black people? No, of course not. But if President Bush doesn't listen to Kanye West, and you and I don't listen to Kanye West, that means we don't care about black people. Why different conclusions from the same data? Well, because we're white, of course. In other words, we're judged by our race.
Sounds a lot like a racist view to me.
None of which is what Mr. West said. He didn't say, "President Bush doesn't get my music." He didn't say "President Bush doesn't understand our culture." He said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Cobb's attempts to reinterpret that are disingenuous.
No reality to that at all. It's pretty racist to assume that blacks cannot support President Bush.
Mr. West didn't go into a political discussion on welfare, the environment, and Iraq, so those plenty of other reasons aren't relevant. He said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Mr. West made race the issue. He's the racist.
Bullshit. Prove it, or it's bullshit.
So why is it that, when Mr. West draws it in simplified racial terms, that's acceptable to Cobb? Could it be because Mr. West is black, so he's held to a different standard?
Now there's a logical leap! "Kanye West is a racist, and made racist remarks" is a statement about Mr. West, not about anyone else.
And followers? This twit has "followers"?
I can name one person who made this about a simplistic racial demographic: Kanye West. He's not the only one, but he's the one in question here. He didn't say, "Poor people are suffering." He didn't even say, "Poor black people are suffering," which might have been defensible as an appeal to gain black sympathies and donations from the black community. He said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." He's the one who made race the issue.
Oh, lemme see... On the one hand, we have "Blame Bush." That's an accusation about competence. On the other hand, we have "George Bush doesn't care about black people." That's an accusation about racism. Yeah, that's substantially different to me.
Cobb has called you and me and everyone here a racist, and yet you call him a good guy. I don't buy it, and I'm not taking an accusation like that in silence. When I made a donation to the Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund (at Best Buy, since they're matching all donations up to one million dollars), I didn't write on the check "Only to help white victims." When I drop off cases of diapers and baby formula and Pedialyte and baby food today (at Showtime Cafe, 687 Memorial Dr., Atlanta, where they're gathering donations for relief victims), I'm not going to say, "These are only for white babies." Cobb and Kanye West see everything in terms of race, but I just see people in trouble, and I try to help. So who's the racist here again?
What's important here, and Dean has taken the right road, is to recognize where the rubber meets the road in politics. So I'm much more comfortable when we are talking about actual politicians and not suddenly trying to make Kanye West into more of a symbol than he is. The problem is that too many people infer things about blackfolks through people who are not chosen or elected by blackfolks. This is not about whether the statement is or is not racist, it's about the value of dealing with racism in America by making Kanye West an example.
There's a lot more subtlety involved but that's the thrust of my argument. Shoemaker, you need to read me a lot more carefully. You'll be rewarded if you do. Next Right I'm sorry I make you read so much, but you ought to know I'm a cartoonist too. Next beef you have, take it out on the strip, he?
I'm not inferring anything about any group. I'm inferring about an idividual: Mr. West is a racist. He's the one who made this about race. He's not the only one, but he's the one who's the subject here. And Dean didn't make him a symbol of anything. Dean just pointed out what an ass he is. You're the one who decided that a statement about an individual is a symbolic statement about a race.
And I've got no interest in reading you a lot more carefully, when you start your post by calling us all racists. That makes you no better than Mr. West.
You on the other hand, by deciding this is all about Kanye West have disqualified yourself from the next level of discussion. Fine. Kanye West is a racist idiot. So what? Now you have nothing to say.
Or do you?
The natural human reaction when struck is to strike back. It takes thought and patience to rise above that. When I hear you and others accusing me of racism (as part of the larger group you accused), my first reaction is, "Why the hell am I helping, if this is the thanks I get?" Then my calmer reaction is, "Because people need help. And because it's not about thanks. And because most of the victims aren't the critics. The critics are just people with axes to grind." So I'm trying to deal with my outrage constructively: every time I hear anyone trying to make this disaster about race or blame, I increase my aid donation. Today, you've added a whole case of baby food to the pile.
I am not sure how the poor kid in the worst neighborhood is treated with more privilege than successful folks in any grouping? The fact that one is poor is nothing to be admired nor is it a sign that one is privilege. That is like feeling compassion for the ugly person, which still does not change the ugly person daily social negatives in their life. Whatever these privileges that you state, it must be insignificant cause it surely not helping them get out of the situation that they are currently in.
The focus on attention of whom maybe showing contempt towards the poor white is most likely on the majority whites or any higher status grouping. It is no different to anyone that seems to have more advantages but fails in whatever will tend to be looked down upon more than others that didn't have the same starting ground. All poor groups have one item in common... that they are all poor and many times focus their outrage not onto themselves but more onto those of better lifestyles. (Which tends to hold the image of white)
It is one thing to make an argument if two groups are close to the same stats &one is getting favoritism; it's another thing when the two groups are drastically different in success rate. When a segment of town has a 22% crime rate over another part of town that has 8%... we will tend to focus our concerns on the higher crime rate for corrections before dealing with the other part of town.
BTW DW, this blog hosting site seems so limited... there are so many better set-ups to use than this, seems rather behind the times. :)
But if that's what it takes to get you to buy baby food, you stupid honky greyboy trailer trash redneck peckawood, then you go right ahead.
That's bad reasoning, you know. All it suggests (ALL it suggests, got it?) is that whites are PERCEIVED to have an advantage.
Just like Republicans are PERCEIVED to be racist and anti-poor. Just like anyone called a "neo-con" is PERCEIVED to be pro-Israel at the expense of the US. It has nothing to do with whether they are or not, or even how they act - people believe it. They PERCEIVE something contradictory to the facts... and that STILL doesn't make it true.
Facts are facts, and opinions are opinions. Don't confuse the two.
(Actually we didn't used to be afraid to have it. Some time, I don't know when but I'm thinking it was in the '80s, we turned afraid.)
Or maybe you're not getting that an unfounded accusation of racism goes beyond "provocation" and way out of line. I've donated plenty of money and now most of a day trying to help the evacuees, and I'm not gonna take an insult just because you wanted to make some ill-founded point.
No, but it can prove them, as individuals, to be racists. I haven't seen Dean or anyone but you bring up the conspiracy angle.
Nope. I and people like me were called racists, and I took offense to that. Nothing misplaced about that at all.
No, it's like Kanye West made a racist statement, and then you called us all racists, and now I'm thinking you're both way out of line. As far as America, I'm not rethinking, I'm proud. I visited two different evacuee aid centers today, and I saw tired volunteers (of all races) and exhausted evacuees (of all races) all doing their very best to make do in a bad situation. I saw volunteers who were so eager to help me that it was hard to get through to them that I wasn't an evacuee, and I was just there with a donation. The aid machine is rolling as fast as it can, and the wheels are thousands of individuals pitching in without giving a thought to race. That's America. I don't know where Kanye West lives, but it's not America.
Nice try, but I've done all the donating I can today. I maxed out my ATM card. And tomorrow, I'm traveling. But Wednesday, I'll donate some baby wipes, in honor of you.
An advantage can mean a boatload of things... A 6'2 245 pound man has a physical advantage over the 5'7 150 pound man in the boxing ring - A man could have an advantage because he uses no gloves while the other does - An advantage could be a judge that has a crush over one boxer to the other. In regards to society it could range to culture clashes, environment, any system we diagnose, racism, family history, association of like minds, etc. Generally many if not all play a specific part to could create the absurd stats that are still present to this day.
One of the most recognized sports &entertainment organization is the NFL. Did you know that until a few years back one could count the number of black coaches on one hand in it's -history-? It was not until recently when the NFL fined owners if they did not -interview- black individuals (not necessarily hire) did a spike occur. Do you realize several years back in the NCAA Football that they only had 3 black coaches from over a hundred schools in a given year? How the hell is this possible in a sports league that has more Black Participants than any other group with in it to get these results?
Do not confuse my replies to have anything regarding racism... but an acknowledgment that for -whatever- reason whites have a clear advantage over other groups. What those advantages or disadvantages of any group maybe are being discussed, through various topics each &everyday.
Here's a chance to put a racist in his place. Go ahead. Give it a shot. It feels good.