Rachel’s Tavern- Shakesville Comment on Whiteness and Racial Awareness
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- I’m Afraid President Obama, Himself, is a Bit of Coward on the Race Issue
- Highly Skilled US Immigrants are Emigrating: What’s the deal?
- Troll Comments Galore
- Mark’s Spinach Face
Mar
10
I’m Afraid President Obama, Himself, is a Bit of Coward on the Race Issue
Filed Under Uncategorized by Rachel
I voted for Obama, twice–once in the primary, and then again in the general election, but this is something he does that drives me crazy. In typical political fashion, he talks out both sides of his mouth. I knew Eric Holder would get flack over his comments about America being cowardly, but it had to be from Obama himself. Of course, being the Barack Obama that he is; he distances himself, but then admits that there is a point to Holder’s comments.
President Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Mr. Holder’s indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.
“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.
In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, the president said that despite Mr. Holder’s choice of words, he had a point.
“We’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict,” he said, adding, “We could probably be more constructive in facing up to sort of the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination.”
I haven’t had much time to write about Obama, but this is a big part of the reason I think having a black President doesn’t mean that racism will go away in this country. Obama is always placating his detractors, and he probably never would have been elected if he didn’t do so.
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19 Responses to “I’m Afraid President Obama, Himself, is a Bit of Coward on the Race Issue”
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He is still the President with his own interests. Throughout this whole process people made him out to be some sort of messiah, which I found to be quite delusional and unrealistic. I find some of the unscripted things he says a little…unsettling, perhaps awkward. I’m glad he’s breaking down barriers in the US, but that doesn’t mean he should be allowed to dodge valid, necessary criticism.
I too am disappointed with President Obama, but I don’t completely blame him, either, considering his detractors. I’ve heard reports that white supremacists and far-right militia groups have grown more active ever since Obama got elected. I think there is a very real risk that Obama could put himself in very real danger should he get more progressive about racial issues, which would almost certainly provoke his enemies.
Ouch…prof Rachel. You are going to be tough on his “O” ness, aren’t you?
I will never forget a statement one of my Political Science professor’s made: “When a person gets elected to office, whether it is the House, the Senate, or the Presidency, the first priority of that person is to serve the agenda of the Party -(D) or (R)”. The “agenda” of the party is framed and pitched under the pre-text of “what the American people want”. Of course, there are dissenters in both parties, but they are few.
I cannot remember the author (Tim Wise?) who stated that election of Barack Obama is no more of an indicator that the U.S. has overcome racism than the election of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan means they have overcome sexism”.
not only did President Obama have to placate his detractors, he had to tread lightly over the delicate racial sensitivities of many of the white people who voted for him…which is why he had to kick his former pastor to the curb.
In the 500 years of western civiliation in the Americas…the race issue is the expression of a pathology from white society…white people were the primary enslavers, the sole segregators…white society are the cowards who can’t come to grips with a legacy that was of their own making…
until white society decides to search their own souls, what’s to discuss?
I have to agree with Kandi; people have unrealistic expectations of Obama. I don’t dislike him, I just think he is overly sensitive to the sensitivities of whites.
Yeah, Adam, I’m afrid I”m gonna have to be critical of the O-man.
While I agree with you ronnie that white created this racial mess; I’d just like to see the President be a little more of a leader. For example, he could have just said nothing about Holder’s comments.
One more thing to add…I feel like not only did are there unrealistic expectations in the area of race, there are unrealistic expectations all around. You can’t blame people; Bush was terrible, and under his leadership we got into several big quandaries. It won’t be hard for hi to be better than Bush, but it sure will be hard to undo these fiascos.
Wow, didn’t see the quote before. I think you’re right on the money when you’re right on the money with you concern about Obama’s response. How do we have an honest dialogue on race if we don’t acknowledge where we are? I wonder exactly Obama would have said, no doubt something like, “some would call the US a nation of cowards for not talking about race, but I disagree. We talk about race all the time, but seldom have the right conversations.” Wait, that wasn’t half bad. If tenure doesn’t work I’m gonna hit up O’s office for job
Rachel,
placate is as placate does…I wish the President had let Holder’s comment stand on their own, but it’s the nature of the political animal to cover your @#$! in order that his enemies not gain advantage. Sometimes symbolism may be the best we can hope for in these times.
Ronnie Brown,
You stated: “until white society decides to search their own souls, what’s to discuss?”
Indeed, I have said many times that people of European/Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian descent desperately need to emotionally and intellectually honest when it comes to our history and our relationships (or lack thereof) with people of color.
Obviously, I have been reading your posts for close to a year on this forum. I have often found your comments to be searing and on point.
At the risk of being inappropriate, I want to ask if there is a single white person in the circle of people you know who has done the “soul searching” that you mentioned? Equally, is there a single white person in your social circle that you consider trustworthy?
Adam
I tend to believe that it is hard for people of color, and particularly for African Americans, given the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, to fully and authentically assert themselves as leaders in positions of power. There is the feeling, real and imagined, that Mr. Charlie is always watching. And, to large degree, he is. So, while President Obama’s reluctance and reticence can be linked to historical context, he needs to move beyond it. In fact, we as African Americans need to move beyond it. But, then again, I am not the President. That said, all of the butt-kissing of Whites is unnecessary.
Rachel, I mistakenly and originally placed this comment under the post re: Eric Holder. It belongs here.
I fixed it, and deleted the other comment.
The reality is if Obama starts talking too tough on race, he will alienate the scores of folks that still feel the topic is taboo. I think Obama wants to be the 44th president more than the 1st black president. And while he certainly recognizes the history in such an achievement, he will always walk the center line… he has to.
While the example you give may be Exhibit A in his first 50 days, I’d argue that Exhibit B is his relative quiet concerning the recent ICC announcements regarding Darfur.
Adam,
There are four periods of my 50 years when i have had significant interaction with white people. First, as an high school/junior college basketball player. Second, my time as a struggling actor. Third, as an community activist during the time of the L.A. Riots and Four, as a freelance Hip-Hop music writer (XXL, RapPages, Urb). In all of those categories white folk as a rule tended explain race in terms of economic theory. They spoke in the personal…”I didn’t do, or i didn’t have…no connection to the general white collective; no sense of colective responsibiity.strictly individual.
in regard to a trusted white person in my social circle…still a work in progress.
Ronnie Brown,
Damn.
After 50+ years of living, I was hoping you would say at least one person.
Your statement does confirm what I hear from the handful of people of color that I have been so richly blessed to develop relationships with: that nothing develops beyond work relationships and superficial courtesies in public.
Whether LA area (where you live) or the Chicago area (where I have grown up and have family) – two of the three most ethnically and culturally diverse areas of the country -the same pathetic picture emerges.
Tell you what, I realize you know me only by my entires…I will foward my information to Prof Rachel to give to you before I make my next trip to southern Cal next year. I do consulting work for contractors in LA. There is an office we have in Compton that I may do some work in next year. There is woman running an office there who has become sort of hero for me. I also have family both in Riverside County and in LA.
I’ll buy dinner and beer (or any beverage of your choice) when I come….if you want. Keep you posted.
Yours,
Adam
Adam,
Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise we’ll hook up and break bread.
btw, the lack of soul-searching among most white folk should not be suprising…i say again, slavery, segregation, and any expression of superiority are based on the notion that white people imagined themselves to be Black people’s betters.
It’s the impulse that drives the people who troll these kind of sites; who induldge in the most outrageous stereotypes about Black folk. To analyze the monster within is beyond the ability of many…To acknowledge any element of equality or parity between whites and Blacks would be considered at fate worse than death.
The Cowardice of America, that I think Holder is referring to, and Obama is kow towing to by even chiding Holder, is for example this: The Civil Rights Era Murders where the the perpetrators were known, evidence collected, go unprosecuted for decades, until you start getting black attorneys general in some of these Southern States. Some where FBI had infiltrated the Klan, and allowed church bombings and lynchings to go on.
Secondly, where you get into the paradox where when Nancy Reagan is saying Just Say No, 80% of the Illegal Drug Users are White Men who make 50Kilobucks or more…but guess who’s going to jail?….and I haven’t even mentioned Ollie North and the Contras supplying the Crips with Guns and Cocaine, free and untainted, Rush Limbaugh gets caught with 3 Year supply of prescription opiates, a felony, no jail time…no nothin, but possession of less than an ounce of crack gets you more time than half a kilo of powder…Cowardice is a mild claim.
But I like to go where the body count is…
Let’s posit for the moment that OJ did kill Nicole (which I personally believe because I never liked him as the role model white America once held him up to be…because he never played the race card…till he got in trouble)
So OJ beats his black wife, leaves her for a white woman, who he beats…and in the logic of the narrative we are to believe inevitably kills her, hires a lawyer who get him off. People are outraged. Why exactly? That you can buy justice. He did what white men in his social standing do all the time, beat their wives in greater proportional numbers than black men do. (Silence on that score) Hire fancy lawyers and get off. So why aren’t we outraged that you can buy justice? (Cowardice) Why aren’t we outraged that close to 600 women in L.A. county in Nicole’s circumstances have died since her…(In L.A. County every 9 days a woman is killed by her domestic partner) O.J. isn’t the only man who could think if I can’t have you no one can, where’s the attack on that social phenomenon? Cowardice.
O.J. says on Geraldo “God made a mistake in making me Black”…he didn’t learn that from his black mother, or his black wife…and if God made a mistake in making him black, how is he going to compensate, by having a trophy wife…who taught him a blonde blue eyed woman is the ultimate prize? Not Black America.
Cowardice.
I don’t think we’re really ready to tackle the thorny intersectional interstitial problems yet…the ones which are the most obvious, where justice delayed is justice denied, is what Holder was referring to in his Black History Month speech.
Barack Hussein Obama is as much a product of America, as O.J. Simpson…which gives me both hope, and pause.
I think obama should be left alone with this subject, it’s not his responsibility to get rid of racism. He did his part by starting the conversation when it was forced upon him but thats it; but to think neively that racism is over since he got elected is rediculous. It’s up to the american people in their homes to eradicate racism because thats where it will make the biggest differnce. I like obama and voted for him but i was never neive to believe he is going to stop racism (remember what he went through in the primaries about his race, it wasnt pretty, and sadly it’s still going on). I just want him to stop the war and fix the economy but race to me is a issue that should be left alone.
No wonder I didn’t vote for Obama.
amen, style, people need to let go of this subject, this usbject ahs been boring for awhile now.