Obama: U.S. ready for black president (re Ford comments)

[rebel with a cause]

By JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press Writer

White House hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), taking a fellow black lawmaker to task, said Saturday voters are ready to elect a black president.

"At every turn in our history, there's been somebody who said we can't," the Democratic senator from Illinois told a nearly all-black audience of about 2,000 at Claflin University.

"Some people said we can't do this, we can't do that, so we shouldn't even try. If I have your support, if I have your energy and involvement and commitment and ideas, then I'm here to tell you, 'Yes we can.'"

The comments drew the loudest ovation during a question-and-answer session in his first campaign swing through South Carolina, an early voting state.

The first-in-the-South contest here is seen as a test of candidates' abilities to reach black voters. Half of the state's Democratic primary voters are black.

Obama responded to comments this past week by Democratic state Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston, who helped mobilize black voters for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in 2004, but has switched to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 presidential race.

Ford said Tuesday that Obama, a first-term senator, has much to prove. "The media made this guy bigger than life," Ford said. "This guy isn't tested and they made him a rock star."

Ford said one reason he was supporting Clinton, the New York senator, is that he is skeptical Obama can win the presidency and worries his nomination could hurt other Democratic candidates.

"Every Democrat running on that ticket next year would lose — because he's black and he's top of the ticket. We'd lose the House and the Senate and the governors and everything," Ford said.

Ford drew widespread criticism for his comment and later apologized.

<snip>

State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin tells candidates the race is open and the black vote is not monolithic.

Darcel Lancaster, an 18-year-old Claflin freshman, spent nearly two hours waiting in the morning's chill to be the first in line to see Obama. The biology major said she wouldn't commit to Obama's campaign.

"I'm going to look more into others," she said.

She doesn't expect him to win every black vote — including hers.

"Some people think he's not black enough," Lancaster said. If she picked Obama, it wouldn't be because of his race, she said. "He's not full black," Lancaster said.

(read full article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070217/ap_on_el_pr/obama2008)

[goclark]

1. Many Blacks aren't "full Black" in America

That is so foolish to say.

[rebel with a cause]

4. I'm not full white

but I don't know of many who would not judge me as such. :eyes:

[skipos]

2. What the hell IS "full black"

and how do we measure it? I think most Americans aren't "full" anything.

[rebel with a cause]

5. Oprah is full black. (African heritage)

But most of us are of mixed heritage. This is just another way of finding a way of nit picking a candidate.

I spoke to Obama about the plight of mixed racial children one time, and how he is a ray of hope for many of them. It seems that racially they are identified by their non-white parent except for when they identify themselves in this way, and then it is pointed out that they aren't really that because they have a white parent.

My children were called every racial term imaginable by some in the white population, but they were "gringos" to the Latinos. They were discriminated against in so many ways, but when my daughter (a straight A student) received a college scholarship for Latinos with high scholastic achievements, it was constantly pointed out that she was not a real Latina because I (her mother) was white. I told those that said that I wished they would tell all those who didn't think she was a real "American" that so they could come to some sort of agreement we could be guided by. :shrug:

[depakid]

3. I agree with some of what Ford is saying

Ford said Tuesday that Obama, a first-term senator, has much to prove. "The media made this guy bigger than life," Ford said. "This guy isn't tested and they made him a rock star."

That's undeniably true- the Dems elevated Obama to a level of prominence that he never earned, and I suspect that his inexperience will come back to haunt him in the coming year.

[rebel with a cause]

6. time will tell.

But intelligence is sometimes more important than the so-called experience.

[goclark]

10. Bring it on!

[JanusAscending]

19. I disagree with you on one point....

It wasn't just the Dems that elevated him, it was the people, the American people who have heard him speak and seen him up close and personal!! He has a very strong "magnetic aura" also know as Charisma, that is unexplainable!! I think it's that he crosses all of the barriers, and we feel he is a Uniter!!???

[Miss Chybil]

7. I hate racist comments - from everybody.

On the one hand, Obama is too black. On another hand, he is not black enough. Nobody can see the man through the melanin. It's maddening.

[rebel with a cause]

8. I agree.

We all see the color of someone's skin, just the same as we see the color of their hair etc. What is important is how we process the information. We either see it as only a feature, or we judge the quality of their being by it. Unfortunately, too many put such importance on skin color that they do not see the person.

[madrchsod]

9. darcel is a biology major

and she does`t know anything about dna?----------- "For example, the DNA of an Arab-American, an African-American, and a Hispanic of precisely the same Afro-European genetic admixture would be "racially" indistinguishable. And a "White" woman with, say, 25% African ancestry such as Carol Channing would show exactly the same BGA as a "Black" man of the same admixture."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race
Race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[zonkers]

11. Without Black culture --- our country would suck. Black Power!!!!!

[Hekate]

12. "Full black"? That's a very, very young person speaking

Unless I am seriously mistaken, nearly all African-Americans whose ancestors passed through slavery now share quite a lot of "white" DNA with the rest of the population, regardless of their features. How does she think Malcom X and Redd Foxx came by their red hair? Or is she so young she isn't aware of them either?

If she means that neither of his parents was African-American (which they weren't) then she should say so.

It's going to be very instructive to the rest of us to watch the African-American community grapple with its own racism, colorism, and cultural biases.

Hekate

[JanusAscending]

13. HUH???

His Father was Afican from Africa. What does this mean to you? That he wasn't an American makes his genes less black, or Obama not of African American Decent? You've got me confused???:crazy: :shrug: DC

[Hekate]

14. As we are coming to learn, "African-American" seems to mean "born in the US"

As we are coming to learn, "African-American" seems to mean "born in the US" -- not born in Africa and immigrated to the US. That is, seems to mean that to the African-American community, as near as I can determine from public statements by various people.

I am white -- let me get that out of the way right now. My bona fides are 12 years on my county's Affirmative Action Commission here in California. Also I have a particular interest in Barack Obama because he was born in my home state, Hawaii, and is of mixed-race parentage, which is the norm there -- although there aren't very many African-Americans in that mix.

Now having said all that, by the definition of "born in the US of African descent", Barack Obama's parents were not. His mother was a white girl from Kansas, and his father was a black man from Kenya who was a foreign exchange student with no plans to remain in this country. Barack Obama is African-American -- but neither of his parents were. And now there are those in the African-American community who want to argue over whether HE is "black enough," and whether he has a true understanding of the up-from-slavery African-American heritage.

What I find so fascinating is the way that black Americans are now publicly struggling with what that identity means. At first it saddened me, but lately I have concluded it must be a necessary step on the road to a wider understanding.

That's all I meant.

Hekate

[JanusAscending]

18. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm not black either, but my late husband was. We have one daughter,who recently wed a very white man of Irish decent.I am of Scot/Irish/Native American decent. They had a baby 6 mo. ago who is as white as I am, and has light brown almost blond hair, and blue eyes. Because his Grandpa was black, he is black. ( 1 drop rule) This whole race thing is so absolutely ridiculous, and people are making it more complicated than necessary! I don't know where I read it recently, or who said it originally, but "there is only one race, the human race made up of different hues" In my heart, if an African migrates to the United States TODAY, and becomes a naturalized citizen, he is an African American, just a much as a person born here.:shrug: DC

[Hekate]

20. You're welcome. Excellent op-ed today "Shades of Black" in the LA Times

There's a different title online than in the print edition, reflected below. I recommend the whole essay.

As I said, I've gone from being startled at the reaction of the African-American community's response to Obama, to being rather saddened, to now just being extremely interested in how this plays out. I've decided that Barack Obama's candidacy is a milestone on the road to political maturity not just for white America but for black (whatever that is) America as well.

Hekate
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-chude-sokei18feb18,0,7672643.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Redefining 'black'
Obama's candidacy spotlights the divide between native black culture and African immigrants.
By Louis Chude-Sokei

February 18, 2007

ALTHOUGH NOT quite able to pass for white, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been able to pass for African American. He is biracial, but not white; black, but not African American; American but not African. What has entranced the country more than his somewhat vague policies is Obama's challenge to conventional racial and cultural categories....

[rebel with a cause]

15. My opinion, for what it counts, on Barack Obama and the black vote.

African American people should not be expected, or urged, to vote for Barack Obama or anyone else because of their skin color. Neither should women be expected to vote for Hilary because of her gender. People's votes are theirs to do with as they chose and they should vote for the person they believe to be the best person for the job.

On this same point, no one should be told not to vote for Barack Obama because of his skin tone. That was my problem with what the two State Senators from South Carolina had to say. I could care less that they chose to back Hilary, that is their right, but I did have a problem with them using "race identity" as a reason to call for people not to vote for him. I feel that the use of the old fear (that if a minority crosses the racial boundaries that have long been set up, means that the white population will then be so afraid that they will take it out on everyone else) is a self defeating idea that needs to be challenged.

I am not stupid enough to believe that racism is dead, I know it is still out there. Sometimes it is covert and sometimes it is in your face, but it is still almost always there. And where there is not full racism, there is still prejudice waiting to be cultivated into racism by the right circumstances. But should we all live in fear because this might happen? I say to live in such fear is to live a life not fully realized. If we go back to the way it was, how much greatness will be denied because genius will be suppressed? How many of us will suffer great losses because others are denied their right to be all they can become?

I believe in equality. I believe in fairness. But that is not why I will be supporting Barack Obama. I will be doing so because I believe in him, and even if I don't always agree with him, I agree with him more than I do others who are in the race. I will not tell others that they should vote for him, that is their decision. But I do say that if you, whether you are black, white or whatever choose to not vote for him because of his skin tone, then you should take a look at yourself and your own narrow mindedness. (I hate the racial identity thing of "black or white", but do not know how you get around it sometimes because we are all too comfortable using it) By the way, the racial rhetoric that is coming out now so publicly about Barack, is one that many bi-racial/multi-racial children/people have lived with for most of their lives.

[Hekate]

16. Thanks for initiating this conversation, by the way.

I think Barack Obama's presidential run is going to cause a lot of people in this country to rethink what they think they know about race and class.

The best outcome is he becomes the "bridge person" I think he was meant to be -- and that I think he intends to be. The worst outcome I don't even want to contemplate. But in between is a huge space with an opportunity for all the citizens of this country to mature.

Hekate

[rebel with a cause]

17. Thank you for adding your insight into it.

I have found in the last few days that if you addressed this subject at all, it has been met with a challenge from people who thought their voting right was being challenged and as such the conversation was being shut down. There was no thought being put into the bigger subject of why this statement was being made by the state senators and what it all really meant. I see it as having two sides, the social one of what would even make such a statement feasible, and the political one of why this type of statement (fear) would be used and why it would be so polarizing.

I just don't see anyone else questioning this as much as I do, so I guess that says a lot about myself. 1)I have too much time on my hands. 2)I think too much. 3) this type of reasoning interests me more than it does the average person. 4) Any insult anyone would like to insert here I would probably accept. (note that I said probably) ;-)

edited for spelling.