Still, I think it would be helpful to revisit Julio's original statement in this thread splintering regarding Obama's support-worthiness from his POV. I think it explains why the (wonkily contested) numbers on youth, poverty levels, and their role in determining who's getting behind Operation: Change! were slapped on the table like a nine millimeter at a poker party gone terribly wrong.
Julio wrote:
But the strongest reason in favor of Obama is, IMHO, that race largely intersects with class in the U.S. and in large swaths of the world. This reason alone really overwhelms the other ones -- for me at least. Blacks in the U.S. are the most oppressed sector of the U.S. working class. Blacks in the world are the most oppressed sector of the global worker. Black and male in the U.S. is almost synonymous with political disenfranchisement, incarceration, and plain being the target of the nastiest forms of racism imaginable. Black in the U.S. is almost synonymous with worker. Black in the world fairs not much better. So I cannot but imagine that, even if Obama messes things up royally and disappoints (which he has a good chance of doing), his being Black is *very likely* to have a serious, positive effect on the individual and collective (civic, political) self-assurance of Black working people in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Caribbean basin, and the rest of the world -- and thereby on the mutual respect, collective self-assurance, and political involvement of working people in the world.
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Exciting!
But wait.
This reminds me of the sort of well meaning stuff I've heard my whole life about how to boost Black self-esteem. As a wee lad, there was the striped suited Bible salesman who insisted I buy the version of holy writ he offered. All the illustrations featured Black people in crucial roles. Including a Black Jesus facing a Black Pontius Pilate in a Pax Romana version of 'Black on Black' crime(Maybe there was even a Black Tiberius back in Rome being imperially groovy).
Why? The self esteem boost man! Nothing wrong with my self esteem mate. In fact, if anything, I've got too much goddamned confidence (speaking of which, why aren't thou bowing before thy Pharaoh, thou wretch!). He was persistent: there IS something wrong with your self-esteem! X number of Black men are in prison. Teevee shows Black men to be vicious hood rats! White women clutch their handbags and hurry to cross the street when they see you - yes, even if you're wearing Armani! Yes, even if a man eating tiger and killer bees are on the other side of the street!
You need this self esteem building Bible brutha!
Later, I was told that when Philly elected its first Black mayor my self-esteem would soar towards the sky like an anti missile interceptor. Well, we got that first Black mayor - a small, peevish man named W. Wilson Goode; my self esteem stayed in its launch bay.
And so on and so forth with various purported self-esteem vitamin shots including, but not limited to: Colin Powell doing anything, rap stars 'rocking the vote' and 'well spoken' Black professionals appearing before Congress during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
So to me, this Obama = Greater Self Assurance For Black Folk sounds like a latter day version of that Bible salesman's Black Pilate illustrated book: nice idea, fat chance.
.d.