[lbo-talk] Adolph Reed on the politics of the crisis

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Wed Oct 1 16:49:05 PDT 2008


Charles Brown wrote:
>
>
> Obama has repeated the right wing talking points on "personal
> responsibility", which are absolute garbage, on many occasions.
> This is an attack on all poor people and Reed is accurate on this
> point.
>
> John Thornton
>
> ^^^^
> CB: Garbage.
>
> Jesse Jackson, a leftwinger , used to do a whole rap much longer than
> Obama's, on Black, men's "personal responsibility" as fathers. " A boy
> can make a baby. It takes a man to raise one", etc., etc. Nobody called
> them rightwing talking points then, 'cause they weren't.
>
> Obama is a _Black man_. His discussion of these responsibilities is
> left-wing criticism-self-criticism.

You mean the same Jesse Jackson who said he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off for "talking down" to Black people and "morally lecturing" the Black Community and perpetuating inaccurate stereotypes about negligent black fathers? So Jackson and I agree that Obama is using right-wing talking points about personal responsibility that are garbage. Good. You know what I'm talking about Charles. It's crap when Cosby does it and it's crap when Obama does it. You know it is.

Dorene I hate to seem condescending but I don't believe you have any idea what I'm getting at. If you read transcripts of Obama's lectures and then read Melissa Harris-Lacewell's critiques of them you'll understand better what I'm getting at. She's a professor of African-American studies at Princeton, knows her shit, and has more specific examples on the subject than I. Or try Michael Eric Dyson's criticisms. He's sociology professor at Georgetown university and an Obama backer but is bothered by Obama's nonsensical rhetoric about personal responsibility as pandering to his white supporters because he know Blacks won't abandon him.

John Thornton



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