The Unbearable Blackness of Barack Obama

Shit like this makes me really angry.

The article, for those unwilling to click, is entitled, "So Far, Obama Can't Take Black Vote for Granted."

No, that's not what irritates me. What irritates me is the sense both from the writer and from the people quoted within that a truly "black" presidential candidate should be expected to carry the black vote, simply by virtue of his blackness, but his specifically American slave blackness. To wit:

“When you think of a president, you think of an American,” said Mr. Lanier, a 58-year-old barber who is still considering whether to support Mr. Obama. “We’ve been taught that a president should come from right here, born, raised, bred, fed in America. To go outside and bring somebody in from another nationality, now that doesn’t feel right to some people.”

Guess what? This statement is bald-faced fucking racism. It's black-on-black, but it's still racism. Barack Obama (according to his official bio over here) was born in Hawaii - America, last time I looked. According to the wiki on him, he went to Indonesia with his mother after his parents split, attending a madrassah from age 6 to 10, then returning to Hawaii to go to a private school until he finished high school. All of his collegiate and subsequent career was in the United States. So what's the problem? How the fuck is Barack Obama considered un-American? Because his daddy's daddy wasn't a big industrialist in the States who did business with Nazis? Because any white politician whose father was a big industrialist probably did business with them (well, this basically refers to the Bush and Kennedy families). Oh, but wait; there's more. Just in case you didn't quite get the picture:

“I’ve got nothing but love for the brother, but we don’t have anything in common,” said Ms. Dickerson, who wrote recently about Mr. Obama in Salon, the online magazine. “His father was African. His mother was a white woman. He grew up with white grandparents.
“Now, I’m willing to adopt him,” Ms. Dickerson continued. “He married black. He acts black. But there’s a lot of distance between black Africans and African-Americans.”

I'm sorry. You'll accept him as a presidential candidate because he married black? Because he acts black? How about you take a look at his policies, you stupid fuck? Shouldn't that be more important than any skin tone, any physical characteristic whatsoever? And what the fuck does it mean to act black, anyways? By the mainstream definition, doesn't that mean he should have a criminal record and write songs about bitches, blunts and 40s? Surely there must be a voice of reason somewhere in this article, right?

“He’s going to have to win over some African-Americans,” said Mr. Walters, who is black and heads the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. “They have a right to be somewhat suspicious of people who come into the country and don’t share their experience.”

Oh, they have a right to be suspicious of people who don't share their experience, ok. How many people were the rich-ass son of a former President, were set for life monetarily, got cushy assignments keeping them out of Vietnam and were allowed to run several businesses into the ground before being bailed out by daddy's friends? How many people were former actors and the head of SAG? How many people were peanut fucking farmers?

Here's a thought: maybe if black people stopped being so hung up on being "black" and excluding everyone they don't like who doesn't fit into their little club, they might be able to move on and effect some real change in society. Maybe if black people weren't so afraid of becoming "Uncle Toms," of being labelled a traitor to their race (whatever the hell that means) because of a simple desire to better their and their family's economic situation, black people wouldn't remain shockingly poor as a whole. Yes, there are difficulties; everyone who is not white faces them. But they also need to wake up and realize the effect their own acts of self-sabotage have.

I don't even really care much for Barack Obama. I don't know much about his platform, and I think he's been deliberately vague on the subject. He doesn't have much experience as a legislator, and I think that making him President at this point in time in his political career might be a big mistake. But he deserves to be judged as any politician, as any person does: by the strength of his words and actions. Do not fucking walk up to him and say, "You don't understand me." Guess what, asshole? No-one understands you. No-one has experienced your unique set of circumstances, no-one has your specific personality and no-one chose to respond to their circumstances in exactly the way you did. Get the fuck over yourself and everything that you think defines a person, because you are wrong, wrong, wrong.