Posted by
Jeremy Randolph on Sunday, August 12, 2007 4:17:29 PM
So imagine a campaign event where Barrack Obama is being questioned by Fox News' Chris Wallace. After answering the usual questions about current affairs, Obama is hit with this question. Are you white enough? Of course there would be the standard media frenzy. Then would come the calls for Wallace's resignation by Al Sharpton and finally the eternal apologies and reconciliation.
Never mind the issue of insensitivity, let's explore the relevance of a question like that. It wouldn't make much sense. All of our Presidents have been white and they were not loved by all white Americans. If being white enough meant securing the white vote, then that would presume to say that all white people think and vote alike. That would certainly be an ignorant belief and somewhat prejudicial. I mean talk about labeling. Who needs labels like conservative or liberal when we can just go straight to black or white?
This whole discussion is quite childish but some don't seem to think so. Earlier this week A CNN reporter asked Hillary Clinton "are you black enough" . So again let's move past the initial stupidity of asking that question and look at it's relevance.
What does being "black enough" mean. Black like Al sharpton or black like Colin Powell? Black like Michael Jackson or black like Michael Jordan? Black like Jesse Jackson or black like T.D. Jakes? Black like Louis Farakhan or black like Martin Luther King. Black like who?. Now, if you are completely void of any grasp of history or these peoples character then you might not realize that these people are as different as any random group of white Americans.
The idea that being "black enough" has anything to do with one's political perspective is just as absurd and blatantly prejudicial at it's very core. There are many black voices that do not agree with the liberal concept for America. To attempt to deny them that belief while simultaneously being true to their heritage is obscene and un-American.
It's about time that the black community start to ask some questions of it's self appointed leaders. These same leaders that have guided them to vote for the so called "candidates for the black community". For nearly fifty years, black Americans have voted for liberal democrats based on the idea that they had a better plan for low income black families. While the evil conservatives would want to punish the black community even further.
I have spent the last twelve years living and working with young people in black ghettos. I'm still waiting for the white liberal politician to ride in on their big white horse and make it all better. I'm reminded of a 1992 presidential ad for Bill Clinton that focused on the last four years of the George H.W. Bush administration. It chronicled all of the so called broken promises that were made and while showing images of destitute american's it asked "So how ya doing?" It was powerful and that argument helped Clinton win the presidency.
The great society has triggered the spending of somewhere between six and ten trillion dollars over the last five decades. Politicians continue to convince us that government should and can fix the problems. Every four years new promises are made to the black community in order for liberals to get elected. So to those second and third generation Americans living in our ghettos, my question is, How ya doing?
Jeremy Randolph