> 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).
I don't know *now*, but 25 years ago, if you had asked Cubans, including Blacks and Mulatos (using the term they use), who they would rather support, the Soviet Union or the U.S., most of them would have said the Soviet Union. I am sure of that. In spite of the interactions, there wasn't much in the form of personal affection between Cubans and Soviet people, but a sense of civic duty and gratefulness would have guided this answer.
Now, imagine those same Cubans back then, watching a basketball game between the Olympic (amateur) teams of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. All (or most) U.S. players being Black. All the Soviet players being White. Who do you think they'd root for? Yep, the U.S. players. Because they'd be Black.
I was there. I watched this kind of a game with my Cuban pals, 26 years ago, in Camagüey, Cuba. An amateur match. *All* Cubans (Whites, Blacks, Mulatos) were for the Americans. Because they were Black. I could tell you many more stories like this. The point of them all is that one underestimates the influence of African (or Asian, or Latino, or White) nationalism at one's risk.
To be frank, I don't get too much into figuring out the mechanisms of this phenomenon. Mass psychology is mysterious to me. Call it "irrationality." It operates nonetheless. I mean, don't take my word for it. Observe the actual political behavior of most Black Americans in this electoral season. Gradually, but steadily, they're moving to support Barack. Some of them are very critical, for very good reasons. But most people, even if they don't buy the "inspiration" tale, will support Barack or deep down hope for him to win.
Why is this shift gradual? I don't know. In part, I think, because they fear their hopes will be betrayed. I don't mean the hopes of Barack advancing some progressive agenda. I mean the fear that he may be killed, the fear of a backlash from the Whites. You can examine and re-examine policy stances and speeches all you want. That is not it. It's not about that. It's not about *what* the candidates think or do. It's about *who* the candidates are.
You mention Colin Powell. You see, Powell played the most ignominious role in selling the invasion on Iraq. Shame on him. Ask regular African Americans what their view of the Powell. They may be critical, but they will tend to rationalize his behavior. Good or bad, it's part of us. People make a sharp distinction between him (or Condoleezza Rice, or Clarence Thomas) as individuals with aspirations and rights (including the right of messing things up big time) and the policies they chose to advance. I'm sure that Colin Powell is not in disgrace among Blacks. They still respect him in a way that White liberals or radicals don't.
Does that mean that we must support candidates with the wrong policies just because of who they are? There's a tradeoff for you. In some cases, that may be too much to take. But in the case of Barack, the tradeoff is not hard (for me at least) to figure out -- considering the feasible alternatives. I don't care about Barack as an individual. I discount what he says to a large extent. I care about the effect of his presidency on the movement of the class, especially of the sectors of the class that need to move most badly. Why? Because I say repeatedly, if the big problems we have as a society are to be solved, they can only be solved by the united, organized workers. And a class cannot unite if its most disadvantaged sectors are left out.