[lbo-talk] Barack Obama

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Jul 29 13:39:47 PDT 2004



>[lbo-talk] Barack Obama
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Thu Jul 29 13:18:40 PDT 2004
<snip>
>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>So, it is safe to say that Obama wanted to send a not-so-subtle
>>message that he embodies in his biracial person and background a
>>longing for race-less America, and it won't be surprising if such a
>>message is more pleasing and reassuring than those of older
>>generations of Black politicians.
>
>Like who, MLK?
>
>>I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
>>the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be
>>self-evident that all men are created equal.
>>
>>I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
>>former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to
> >sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

Barack Obama's personal story, unlike Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech you quote above (which has itself become appropriated by conservatives opposed to affirmative action and the like), doesn't remind the audience of "the sons of former slaves." As Obama emphasized, "His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant [in Kenya]" -- a servant not to the Americans but to the British. Obama's father came here not as a slave or servant, but as a foreign student with "a scholarship to study in a magical place; America which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before," as he rhapsodizes.

Cf. "HARVARD'S BLACKS ARE MAINLY IMMIGRANTS OR BIRACIAL": <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040628/014016.html>. -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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