[lbo-talk] at least he's black!

Marvin Gandall marvgandall at videotron.ca
Sat Feb 16 03:25:59 PST 2008


John Thornton writes:


> Julio Huato wrote:
>> John Thornton wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Why give Obama a pass on this BS? Would you give Clinton a similar pass
>>> if she said something this offensive and stupid?
>>>
>>
>> Because he's black.
>
>
> That makes it more dangerous and offensive, not less.
======================================== In which case, you'd expect to see a strong backlash from within the black community, as there was against the Clintons for their remarks in South Carolina, wouldn't you? If Obama's comments were equally "offensive, stupid, and dangerous" to blacks, why didn't we see a similar reaction? Certainly, you'd think the Clinton campaign -through the black leaders who support it -would jump at the chance to hit back at Obama and erode his base at this decisive stage of the campaign.

But as far as I know, very few if any have castigated Obama as an Uncle Tom for stating that black people have made substantial political progress but that there are unfinished tasks to complete to eliminate the remaining institutional expressions of US racism. It seems to me that for most black Americans this would be stating the obvious, and explains why there hasn't been any outcry. I imagine that those who took note of Obama's stress on the historical progress to date saw it, like Julio, as a rhetorical effect to spur further action. There may be other reasons to get exercised about Obama, but this one seems trivial.



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