Obama's Victory Speech: "This is the Moment it All Began."

1.






I'll start from early on in my evolution... I am a biracial man whose father is African-American and mother is Caucasian. My parents met in 1959 when my un-wed mother was in a nursing school where my father was employed as a nurses aide... my mother was engaged to a white man who was attending engineering school. My father had an African-American wife and (5) children at the time of his extra-marital relationship with my mother. At some early point of my mothers pregnancy with me she made the decision to marry her fiance, and to lie to everyone about who the father of her un-born child was... she achieved this by claiming that I had been afflicted with a skin-disease called "melanism".
My mother and step-father had four more children together in the space of nine years after I was born, and we grew up together in a middle-class household in white america where the subject of "race" was never discussed. My earliest recollections of having to be aware of race was when I was asked questions about the color of my skin by other classmates in first grade... "Why was my skin dark?", "Was I adopted?" race was certainly a hot-button issue in 1965-66 when I began school , but any awareness that my mother and step-father had achieved from growing up in their white neighborhoods in the 40's and 50's was insufficient in preparing them for raising a biracial child... and to complicate things, they were both in complete denial of their complicity in my mis-education. When I came home from school after having been asked questions by fellow students from my all-white school district, my mother then explained "the skin-disease story" to me... "other kids with this disease usually have dark blotches all over their bodies, so you should feel fortunate". When I would tell my mother about other boys and girls who would call me names or act aggressively for no apparent reason, I began to understand that I would get no further assistance from her to explain this rationale... my step-father was even more removed from the conversation and would only add, "You know what your mother said".
By the time that my step-father transferred jobs and our family of (7) had moved from the all-white Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Stow to the all-white school district of Portville in Western up-state N.Y. it was the spring of 1970 and I was in fourth grade, and already the veteran of many racial incidents and altercations between myself, classmates, and even some adults. My four younger siblings had also been told the same story, and had to explain the same things to their friends when asked why they had a brother who was black... "Hey, did your mother fool around a little bit??" I remember how much that hurt me when I heard it, and I'm sure that they felt just as badly when they did... nonetheless, this was a "subject" that we never discussed as a family, not once, at least in my presence.
I was taught through my observations of my mother and step-father to keep quiet about things that I wasn't sure about, and I was also taught to ignore the obvious.
As I matured into my teen-aged years and began to experience societies issues and insecurities in coming to terms with this countries racial in-equalities during the 70's, I felt an increasing need to rationalize and then codify the information that my mother had given me, regardless of what I was beginning to realize inside... I felt an increasing discomfort, yet there was noone in my life to offer any prospective... I had learned that black people were a part of society that we didn't talk about. ( There was a black family in my small town, and they were poor and lived in a run-down house near the river...I never had any opportunity or reason to associate with them)
I was a "B" student and also began taking an interest in sports where I was above average. Meeting other schools and student athletes were opportunities to then be exposed to populations that had not been inured by my story yet...I was just another black kid to them.
Communicating my experiences to my mother and step-father was difficult because they had no experience with racial prejudice, therefore when I had problems with other children it would be looked at as an issue that "I" had in getting along with others(as well as intra-family sibling issues).
Because "race" was being ruled-out entirely, by my mothers denial of my father, she could not logically use that rationale to explain any conflicts that I would have. My step-fathers complicity in this was to blindly support my mothers viewpoint.
The "white" viewpoint has always been that blacks(black society) were pretty well cared for, and what contact they did have would be polite and careful... What, with the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts being passed, the playing field had been leveled.(re: my mother and step-father's generation)
The feelings and comfort of my mother were apparently what was important, and her inculcation had to have been partly comprised of the idea that white society acted as the gate-keepers and care-takers of an infantilized black population.




questions:

How has black society formed its identity?

What role models have been used, and how does white society react to positive
black roll models today? (Are they held to a more critical prism??)

Is there enough information readily available for black people to easily form a
positive racial identity?

Is it important that black society is able to connect accurately the dots of its social
evolution in America? and is it also important that white society can connect those
same dots??

What is White Privilege?

What is White awareness?

What is Whiteness?

What about Affirmative Action?

Is Race just a social construct?

How do we improve our society in America?

Is there any other way(besides the attrition of the old guard) to achieve this??



Dave Myers
www.discussrace.com

Dave Myers at 2:16PM on Jan 4th 2008

2. This is the Moment it All Began? This is the day that a Black man wasted his opportunity to lead by saying, "Pretty Please" to fix our political problems. Barack Obama isn't the answer. Rule number one in politics is "Be Strong on National Security." Rule 2 is "Never Negotiate from your knees." How do we stop an abusive relationship? Ask any woman with a Black eye watching Oprah. You don't say, "Pretty Please." You also don't call Oprah until after you've "Demanded Change!" Somebody could think you actually like the sickness and abuse? Why must we "Demand Change?" We broke the Constitution after 9-11. We got punched in the mouth and said, "Pretty Please." We have no rights! Obama isn't leading and he's making it tougher for the next Black to lead. Soft on National Security is wrong. Do you think President Bush would have negotiated with Democrats for America if we said, "Pretty Please?" Do you think Al Qaeda will stop just because we are polite? Does Obama think we can end the occupation of Iraq being courteous? Oh, he's really fired up! I want whatever he's inhaling or snorting! The wrong Black man could be worse than any White. Obama could be a Harvard Overseer? Debate is war. My mouth is a machine gun.

Cecil Jones at 3:00PM on Jan 4th 2008

3. Greetings of peace,

I would like to respond to the first commenter named Big Al Sharpton.

Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim. Why do you deny him his Christian faith when he repeatedly states he is a NOT a Muslim?

Second, do you know that a good majority of the Africans enslaved in America were Muslim? Please read "Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas."

Do you know that Muslims have fought in virtually every war in this country INCLUDING the Civil War?

Also, Malcolm X was first in the Nation of Islam and later he was an orthodox Muslim. Did he not LOVE black people? Did he not GIVE his LIFE for black people?

Finally, do you know how offensive your comments are to African Americans who are Muslim? My brother is a United States Marine who has been away from his family years at a time serving this country including in Afghanistan. My brother was born a Muslim just like me and the rest of our siblings. We are the descendants of slaves in this country. We love Islam and we LOVE black people as well as ALL OF HUMANITY.

Did you know that the MAJORITY Of Muslims in the US Military are African American Muslims? They leave their families EVERYDAY to serve this country.

Please, stop spreading the misinformation. Please, please, stop spreading the hate.

Historian at 4:26PM on Jan 4th 2008

4. Hillary Slams Obama

http://www.judiciaryreport.com/hillary_clinton_slams_barack_obama.htm

anonymous at 5:12PM on Jan 4th 2008

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jimy232 at 5:52PM on Jan 4th 2008

6. You need to listen to Barrack Obama speach, he's not talking about division he want every one to start working together.

james at 6:46PM on Jan 4th 2008

7. Obama is a punk!

Big Al Sharpton at 8:26AM on Jan 5th 2008

8. Obama is just what America needs, no longer will people look at Blacks as less than. If you want to know what people think of Blacks just go to niggermania dot com and see. Also help get this site shut down please

Danielle at 10:49AM on Jan 5th 2008

9. the time has come and the time is now to face reality. lets stop with the if he's musilm,white,black green whatever who cares the point is that he seeks change and a better america. just think about yourselves what if you were that mom going to sleep gasping for breath crying tears losing faith because your son or daughter is fighting in iraq for america to make it a better place. so lets help end that mother's cry and help fight that stronger fight by just listening and giving obama a chance for surely it is up 2 god and if it is in his will "OBAMA IS 08"

knowledge at 2:53AM on Jan 6th 2008

10. I was happy to wake up Friday Morning, turn on the National News program to find that Sen. Obama and Gov. Huckabee had both won the Iowa Caucus for their respective parties. Hopefully the rest of the country will use wisdom when they go to the polls too. Keep up the good work Americans. I see us going in the right direction if this is an indication of what's to come.

Mr. Hill at 9:32AM on Jan 6th 2008

11. Would all of you please take a look at these blogs. Do you realise that if Obama was Chinese we would not be having this conversation!!! Why because we are the only race that does not support our own. We have got to get out of the habit of supporting every other group of people but our own. One thing is for sure, we may feel that Obama is not the best candidate for us, but CLEARLY the others are not for us, they already have a proven record. What have they done for us in the past? The same thing that they are going to do in the future, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. B at 10:44AM on Jan 6th 2008

12. Cecil, you can be polite. It's not now one ask, it how you respond if aknowledged in the negative. That is the time to let people were you stand.

Randy at 11:10AM on Jan 6th 2008

13. OH I FORGOT RO SAY. OBAMA IS AN AMERICAN. I AM FOR HIM. AN NOT FOR HIS SKIN COLOR

Randy at 11:20AM on Jan 6th 2008

14. OBAMA is a GREAT man and he will work for humanity and make a positive change.
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Natalia at 1:25PM on Jan 6th 2008

15. Yow sad my people are, if it's my black people writing so much nonsense.

All my life I only knew that white people was who we had to listen to running for office - had only white people to vote for. I didn't know who they were, but it was my obligation to vote. Were they intelligent - I didn't know, but it didn't make a difference. Were they racist - probably. Did they care about the poor and African-American people - it didn't matter because that's who was on the ballot. Now, with an intelligent Black man, married to an intelligent Black woman steps out there, my people are saying all this stupid stuff. They probably don't vote anyhow, or probably have little political understanding, or dislike their race. How sad.

But think about it, Obama doesn't seem to need our people anyhow, because we aren't in Iowa, and he swept the Caucus. Thank goodness he doesn't have to depend on the votes of the people who are doing such stupid talk.

God Bless him! and too bad about you. Cast your vote for the white man so he can subject you to degredation, just as in the past. You'll love that.

Obama is my man, and I pray for him. I am so very proud to be Black when I listen to him.

G. Blackburn

Gwen Blackburn at 4:20PM on Jan 6th 2008