Race and Obama...Hand me a Reid or a Blagojevich...
I think it's finally time that I, Ernest Lewis, Jr. finally weigh in on the mess with race around President Obama and race. Let me make this clear that this is clearly opinion and perspective not a overwhelmingly researched treatise. When I think back on election day in November...I legitimately could not grasp fully what I was experiencing emotionally and visually. I am only 23 and 350 days old and I never thought that I would see a black man accepting the presidency of the United States in my lifetime. As I walked in my dorm at Wake Forest close to 11pm from worship rehearsal I sat on my bed and watched and soaked it in all of the coverage. But, I knew that the road as president for Barack Obama would not be easy and that this is another big thing to rub the open sore of America's racism and racist history.
So...Fast-Forward to Jimmy Carter's comments about race and Obama's difficulty to get legislation through. I have found that race and the "head-nigger in charge syndrome" reared its ugly head. The syndrome is basically the reasons why there is a ceiling in this country (placing a slave as fieldmasters, placing a token black(person of color) in a power position, the current presentation of the Rooney rule in the NFL, just a few) Let's be real that there is a ceiling for success for people of color in this country. This comes from the fact of the history of this country has an almost 500 year racist gash. I know slavery ended in 1865, but it really did not end until about 1965 with the Civil Rights Act that affirmed the rights that Black Americans already should have had. Slavery and the institutions from this horrible era (lynching, the KKK, racialized laws/Jim Crow, segregation). All of this is writhing under the surface of the dialogue of this country. So Jimmy Carter is correct in that sense...I am not going to call every Federal politician racist, but there are some major unaddressed race issues in Congress and in the country at large. Having a "head nigger" that is educated and is in the highest office in the land...scares a lot of people and they are preparing unprecedented acts and words to attack President Obama.
So Harry Reid, the Honorable Harry Reid and his insightful comments about then Senator Obama describing him as a "light-skinned black man, with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Let me yell from the mountaintop, "HARRY REID IS NOT RACIST BASED ON HIS COMMENTS!!! BUT I CAN NOT SAY THAT HARRY REID IS OR NOT RACIST, BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THE MAN!!!" What Harry Reid said is very similar to something that I thought during the election. I think whiteness and blackness are great mysteries in this country. White is right...Black is evil. Let's think about this, would have Obama been elected if he was as dark as I and at the same level of education and charisma but he had a "Negro" dialect? I think not. Blacks and Whites see themselves in him because of race...that does not make us racist. Now, Harry Reid, politically savvy man enough to be in the Senate for over 30 years...makes a statement that may be true, but is going to be controversial. Harry is foolish for saying it, not racist...knowing the backlash that would have occurred.
Now you have Blagojevich saying that he was "more black" than Obama because he shined shoes as a kid. Now...how foolish is that!! That is like me saying, "I am more white than him because I went to a predominantly white university!?" Blago just needs attention and is grasping for it. In response to the foolishness...I did post on FB, "everyone wants to be black without the consequences and the history...Harry Reid wanted to say Obama is a Light-skinned Nigger..." I think this country has taken the worst road for/to reconciliation. It's a road paved with lying to ourselves. Everything is not ok, a helluva lot better than it was even 20 years ago. But, this country and this world is riding unstable racial relations. Hiding how we feel or feelings we struggle with creates taboos and stigmas and end up hurting far more. It creates the climate that Blagojevich feels that he is more "black" than a black man and feels that it is a legitimately intelligent statement. So, stop riding Senator Reid and learn to be honest with yourself...I struggle with whiteness sometimes or blackness. To my conservative brothers and sisters...you aren't qualified to hound Senator Reid. You claimed Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms as the godfathers of neo-conservatism. Don't bring up the party of Lincoln as if he was a visionary of racial justice (that makes me a bit angry, because Lincoln gets to much credit). As I posted on a friend's FB profile, "Let's not put Lincoln up too high...The democrats are the party of opposition...and the root of godfathers of the neo-conservative movement (Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond). But those men left the Democratic party as it changed post-depression. The Republican Party now is more like the democratic party of the 20's-30's. The party of Lincoln was also the party of the KKK and black senators during the Reconstruction. Lincoln wasn't such great man to free the slaves...just look at the real language of the emancipation proclamation and the way black soldiers were treated and you see that Lincoln could care less about slavery but needed man power for the war. Just saying that GOP needs to stop claiming the legacy of Lincoln and using it as the reason to join the Republican movement. Just my two cents."
So...that's where I stand...Race is still a major problem and until we treat it with the heart of truth and justice we will continue to fail to heal. I believe that the Church of America is at the heart of the race problem...and it needs to be healed there before it ever truly gets fixed in the marketplace and the law houses. Maybe more on that later. So...good night and much love to everyone.
Ernest
So...Fast-Forward to Jimmy Carter's comments about race and Obama's difficulty to get legislation through. I have found that race and the "head-nigger in charge syndrome" reared its ugly head. The syndrome is basically the reasons why there is a ceiling in this country (placing a slave as fieldmasters, placing a token black(person of color) in a power position, the current presentation of the Rooney rule in the NFL, just a few) Let's be real that there is a ceiling for success for people of color in this country. This comes from the fact of the history of this country has an almost 500 year racist gash. I know slavery ended in 1865, but it really did not end until about 1965 with the Civil Rights Act that affirmed the rights that Black Americans already should have had. Slavery and the institutions from this horrible era (lynching, the KKK, racialized laws/Jim Crow, segregation). All of this is writhing under the surface of the dialogue of this country. So Jimmy Carter is correct in that sense...I am not going to call every Federal politician racist, but there are some major unaddressed race issues in Congress and in the country at large. Having a "head nigger" that is educated and is in the highest office in the land...scares a lot of people and they are preparing unprecedented acts and words to attack President Obama.
So Harry Reid, the Honorable Harry Reid and his insightful comments about then Senator Obama describing him as a "light-skinned black man, with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Let me yell from the mountaintop, "HARRY REID IS NOT RACIST BASED ON HIS COMMENTS!!! BUT I CAN NOT SAY THAT HARRY REID IS OR NOT RACIST, BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THE MAN!!!" What Harry Reid said is very similar to something that I thought during the election. I think whiteness and blackness are great mysteries in this country. White is right...Black is evil. Let's think about this, would have Obama been elected if he was as dark as I and at the same level of education and charisma but he had a "Negro" dialect? I think not. Blacks and Whites see themselves in him because of race...that does not make us racist. Now, Harry Reid, politically savvy man enough to be in the Senate for over 30 years...makes a statement that may be true, but is going to be controversial. Harry is foolish for saying it, not racist...knowing the backlash that would have occurred.
Now you have Blagojevich saying that he was "more black" than Obama because he shined shoes as a kid. Now...how foolish is that!! That is like me saying, "I am more white than him because I went to a predominantly white university!?" Blago just needs attention and is grasping for it. In response to the foolishness...I did post on FB, "everyone wants to be black without the consequences and the history...Harry Reid wanted to say Obama is a Light-skinned Nigger..." I think this country has taken the worst road for/to reconciliation. It's a road paved with lying to ourselves. Everything is not ok, a helluva lot better than it was even 20 years ago. But, this country and this world is riding unstable racial relations. Hiding how we feel or feelings we struggle with creates taboos and stigmas and end up hurting far more. It creates the climate that Blagojevich feels that he is more "black" than a black man and feels that it is a legitimately intelligent statement. So, stop riding Senator Reid and learn to be honest with yourself...I struggle with whiteness sometimes or blackness. To my conservative brothers and sisters...you aren't qualified to hound Senator Reid. You claimed Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms as the godfathers of neo-conservatism. Don't bring up the party of Lincoln as if he was a visionary of racial justice (that makes me a bit angry, because Lincoln gets to much credit). As I posted on a friend's FB profile, "Let's not put Lincoln up too high...The democrats are the party of opposition...and the root of godfathers of the neo-conservative movement (Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond). But those men left the Democratic party as it changed post-depression. The Republican Party now is more like the democratic party of the 20's-30's. The party of Lincoln was also the party of the KKK and black senators during the Reconstruction. Lincoln wasn't such great man to free the slaves...just look at the real language of the emancipation proclamation and the way black soldiers were treated and you see that Lincoln could care less about slavery but needed man power for the war. Just saying that GOP needs to stop claiming the legacy of Lincoln and using it as the reason to join the Republican movement. Just my two cents."
So...that's where I stand...Race is still a major problem and until we treat it with the heart of truth and justice we will continue to fail to heal. I believe that the Church of America is at the heart of the race problem...and it needs to be healed there before it ever truly gets fixed in the marketplace and the law houses. Maybe more on that later. So...good night and much love to everyone.
Ernest