If barack obama is such a great leader....why are we always moving from one crisis to the next

That's a good question...

...I'd word it differently, though...just for grins and stuff...

The actual question is "What is black"?
Or maybe even "What does it mean to be black"?

I get from the tone (if you can get a tone other than the clatter of a keyboard on an internet forum) that there's something about his identity that is wholly determined by his skin color. This is largely the problem with a "post-racial" society that hasn't totally grasped what it means before that term was coined.

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way.

My nephew Tony's mother is white. When he was a young boy, he had a fight at school, because his skin was light and his hair was curly and he was getting teased because nobody could figure out what he was (racially).

His dad (my brother) told him and his wife that, for the sake of the boy's sense of self, he was black. His rational (and it proved to be correct) was that no one else would see or believe or accept him as a white kid. He had to be black becasue he couldn't be anybody else.

This was more than 30 years ago. As I've said, time moves these things as people move. There is less need for anyone with a biracial heritage to discount it or "side" with one particular race or another.

But then, in that context, it was appropriate for Tony. It gave him some stability and a sense of who he was (good and bad) that could lay as a foundation for his development into a productive member of society.

Tony's in the midst of a residency in St Louis for plactic surgery, by the way.

I would consider Barack Obama "black", if I'm forced to simply consider his humanity from a spot on the color wheel, and if only for the reason that he could not be accepted by some white people simply because of his skin color.

If there are white people who take offense at the president often sympathizing with black people (many of whom in his life experience he does not share a common history with, as you quickly pointed out), I would believe it to be a matter of their underlying feeling that he is "not one of them".

The sense that he does not speak for them. Or even that he betrays them on some level, because he is America's president. Not the south side of Houston or Chicago or Harlem or any other "ghetto" or "black" neighborhood's president.

Or even worse, to some; that he speaks TO them—as if anybody white needs to be told anything about what black people think and feel and believe...like white people need to be lectured by the Executive about anything relating to black people at all...

Black people are not monolithic and are not homogenous. We have as many different opinions and feelings and biases and warts as anybody else, despite being cattle-carred into marginalism for the bulk of our existence here.

For want of a better term, there probably isn't a racial group in the country more "American" than black people. We simply can't be anything else.

And that, ultimately, is what Barack Obama is to me. American.

Yes, his skin color does determine, to some people (black and white) what kind of man he is, and where his loyalties should lay.

But if you are going to measure a man by what he does, rather than what he looks like...black people can do a lot worse than him.

But that's just me. I'll try to find that sheet Reverend Sharpton emailed out with my cookie-cutter responses, cause I know that's not what he'd have me say....

 

Obviously there's no reason for us to emulate China. Our economy and China's economy are on completely different stages in terms of development right now.

Of course China's growth is not sustainable, its economy have been experiencing extremely rapid growth for over 30 years now. Now that China is getting closer to the lower end definition of a developed economy, it's economic growth is slowing as expected.

I don't know what you mean by short cuts, pollutions problems in developing economies is neither a new problem only discovered in China nor is this problem unique to China.

 

I guess I'm not as tied to the antiquated "one-drop rules" that were common in the Jim Crow era. I don't see Obama as black. I see him as half white / half black.

Look at Arian Foster -- nobody calls him the greatest Mexican American running back of all time, do they? Why not? His mother who raised him is Mexican American.

It's time to move beyond Jim Crow era identification badges.

 

You're not serious, are you?

The President commented on what you and many people seem to consistently ignore—the very real practice of "guilty until proven innocent" employed among black people of all walks of life.

The President spoke from personal experience. As careful and as advantageous an upbringing as he had, he still found himself at times a suspicious-looking person, no matter where her was going to school or who his parents or grandparents or legal guardians were. What he looked like determined how people treated him, on average. And that is a feeling anyone black in this country can identify with.

And that personal experience is hard for people who have not had to endure it to endorse.

Lawyers. Doctors. Disk Jockeys. Plumbers. Teachers. Students. Children.
Any of them that are black, to varying degrees, have suffered someone else's prejudice and fear based on what they think all black people are like...

...based on crime stats and race-baiters and every other crass and craven opinion or half-distorted fact that could be plastered on black people so that you don't have to deal with anyone on on individual basis.

You can blame all black people for the actions of a few if you want. The only reason why that kite flies is because there's wind for it.

C'est la vie.

 

And again, you miss the point.
Or my point.

I said if I had to call the president "black" I would. I don't think of him as "black" in the sense that most people who don't like him think of him. Or even people that do think of him as "black".

I don't see the president as "half-"anything, personally. He either is or he isn't, but the racial aspect is what people will focus on until it does become "antiquated"...by people who won't rely on that to define other people...not themselves.

And I did also say that the time to have to make such statements of nonsensical fact has largely passed.

The time to dump-all-the-"black"-people-in-the-same-bucket tactic has been over for a while, too...

Just for reference...does Barack Obama's "half-white" pedigree enrage you when he talks about "black" things that he couldn't possibly understand?

 

Probably the best post I've ever read on clutch bbs

 

If I remember that Casey Anthony case at all...

...I believe she said her daughter was a white guy.
Not a half-white guy, either.

Usually, you've got to have more of an "actual" in order to get to a "potential" like you suggest in this instance...

...but hey, I'll ask Al Sharpton what he thinks my answer ought to be next time I see him...

 

OK I think we have a lot of common ground.

...and to answer your question, no he doesn't enrage me when talking about "black" topics he couldn't possibly understand. He does look absolutely ridiculous when doing so, however. He starts dropping the letter G on words to try to fit in, and he starts using the voice intonation of Jeremiah Wright...then references "Cousin Pookie". It's obvious he's trying to hard, which makes me think he's a phony, but it certainly doesn't enrage me.

just look at the difference:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4eyVBZcmfqA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Lol super ghetto? A bit much, no?

 

Strong post, you should post more often. Obama's presidency has been interesting for me to watch for that reason alone......even though I'm not a supporter.

 

I do and the rest of the world seems to as well (for the most part).

The whole "half-black" argument only seems to pop up when his detractor think they can use it to their advantage.

I've often wondered if his detractors would have called him a "half-black" man when he was just a senator.......

 

What is the "average african-american" upbringing?

I have family members who identify as "african-american" and I couldn't give somebody a definite answer on the question. The community is far more diverse than popular media would have you think.

 

This is a hard concept to explain to somebody who have never lived in a nation where people who are the same "race" as them are not the majority.

When I lived outside of and visited other nations where African/black people were either the majority or almost the majority I could feel the difference. It is stark.

 

Ahhhh.....

...and now, I believe, we come to the payoff.

I'm going to do something I haven't done in awhile...
...and that's go off-script (so much of Al Sharpton's stuff is 3rd grade and easy to follow)...

Remember when I asked "What is black?" or "What does it mean to be black?"

Maybe not...rhetorical lines of conversation weren't taught to me very well in public school (assuming I had more than a puppy's ability to grasp the concept)...

Largely, what is "black" in a historical context is seen as "negative" or "bad" or "wrong". Conversely, what is "white" is seen as "positive" or "good" or "right".

It's strange to think that large, abstract (and usually pretty consistent)concepts like those can so easily be transduced down and assigned to a few people in a few places on Earth, but then you take a look at what religion does, and it's not as far-fetched as it seems.

But also here in this country, often what is seen as "white" is "smart", and what is seen as "black" is "dumb".

I remember some years ago, Jesse Jackson was talking to some local reporter in some school about making "ebonics" a part of the curriculum in the school of the area. Something about "...catering to the needs of the community..." or something like that.

There aren't many times when I can recall being made to feel stupid. I had a good reputation as a pretty smart kid (absent the required delinquency of my "color") in school, insofar as what a public school education was worth to anybody who could afford a "better" one.

While I could acknowledge and even admire some of the basic sentiment of the argument Jackson was trying to make (make school a priority in poor neighborhoods), he went about it totally the wrong way...so naturally, that would make one question his reason for it.

I've always believed that a culture survives and thrives through language. Basically, how we communicate with one another is how we share ideas, weigh opinions, determine facts, and reveal empathy. Language is the closest thing to telepathy people have to share the multiple variations of human experience with one another.

And without the commonality that language presents (tone, mood, inference, compassion, anger, acceptability, et al)...things that technology cannot replicate in communication...it is very easy to misunderstand, misinterpret, and misuse our differences and our struggle to identify and eliminate them for the good of our society.

That "ebonics-as-second-language" reference Jackson made was wrong simply because, in a practical sense, no one would speak like that except in very specific settings at very specific times. In a broader context, essentially endorsing slang (which is what "ebonics" is—like Cockney English or Mandarin Chinese or even Pig Latin—derivatives of the parent language) is expecting it to be acceptable to the rest of the people who would encounter it. And that would never happen.

But I can also understand the need to develop a relationship with people where they are, and most of the time that can only be done by standing in their shoes, after a fashion. Again, for me, it's about communication, not dictating or directing or even guiding. And to communicate effectively, for me, means an experience that is more deeply involving than what you might get on a talk show or an internet forum.

I believe that sometimes, in order to lift someone up, you have to bend a knee and offer them a hand. It's not an open-ended transaction, talking to people. Or at least it shouldn't be.

It's not about where you are. It's where you're going and how you're going to get there, to me.

And there are some black people, unfortunately, who may need to know that they have minds that are more than capable of the challenge of being competent. No matter what anybody else thinks or says or does to them....

 

As though there isnt any OTHER contexts besides start-up capital for reasons that businesses dont succeed?

Such as ineffective
management
Business model, schematic
Planning, execution
Hiring, talent evaluating
Saturated market
Lack of networks
Bad location
Bad timing, LUCK

There's lots of variables in LIFE that factor into things.

Money is important. Though not always truly indicative of true abilities. It can just mean a lesser talented person sikply has more chances to keep trying until they hit. And a talented person with less capital has to strike upon their first 2 chances

 

Can't speak for Houston, I've never been to Houston.

But if you are curious about "African-American" wealth......look no further than Atlanta. Everything you describe, your community, neighborhood, schools, etc. can all be found in ATL. Don't make the easy mistake of assuming that your relatively small community is the norm.

So.....again I have to ask, what is the "typical african-american" upbringing?