Obama and the Failure of the American Black Race

As a typical White person, my curiosity of the Obama personality has faded from a potential presidential candidate, to that of an empty, typical pol person whose only attributes are a charismatic personality and silver-tongued rhetoric. He can really engage the masses with his eloquent words.

Upon closer examination, his candidacy is supported by a two-legged stool that is getting increasingly wobbly as each day passes. "Yes we can!" goes the chant, a mantra that seduces the naive, the ignorant, the hopeful, and the young. This is the first leg of the stool. The Change Candidate. Would I like to see change in Washington? Yes, I would. Not only with the current administration, but also with the failed Congress. The Democrats promised a lot of things and Pelosi has delivered nothing. She hides under her desk, popping out at opportune times to bore us with the same old weasel words about Bush, then retreats to the safety of her desk. Congress still insists on putting more pork on the legislative table. And life, in D.C., goes on as usual. Change. Do I think I'll see it with Obama as president? Hell, no.

The second stool is that he "voted against the Iraq War". Okay, I get it. I understand that concise statement, as I've heard it on news sound-bites a million times. So these are his two qualifications? Pretty weak and not indicative of leadership potential, unless you count leading the masses over the cliff in the presidential election.

So now he's embroiled in the racial dynamic, thanks in large to the outrageous, fanatical rantings by his former pastor. And that leads me to the issue of the racial divide.

Obama issued his own racist comment by labeling all Whites as typical - "Typical White person". I guarantee that if a Republican had used the phrase "typical Black person", that person would have his head handed to him by the Blacks, the media, the so-called Black leaders, etc.

The context of Obama's statement was that a typical white person would be fearful of meeting a Black person on the street. When he was talking, I pictured myself on a sidewalk, walking towards a group of Black youth who are dressed in gang-style clothing. You're damn right I would have some fear in my heart. As a matter of fact, I remember some years ago when Jessie Jackson admitted the same thing. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something like "if a group of Black kids are walking towards me, I'll cross over to the other side of the street".

I also guarantee that if a White priest, pastor or rabbi said anything similar about the Black race in a sermon, there'd be hell to pay. What scares me more than the so-called Reverend of Obama's, is the reaction by the people in the church to his venomous statements. Oh, I'm sorry. It was "taken out of context". That's what otherwise intelligent Blacks have said in the Reverend's defense. Context? He said what he said. Did Imus get a chance at "context"? Did Trent Lott get a chance at "context"? Can any White person use the "context" card as a defense mechanism? Hell, no.

Race relations? Where are the activist publicity hounds named Sharpton, Jackson, and others during this latest flap? I watch ABC news, Fox news, CNN and listen to NPR. These racists are missing in action. Go back again to the converse scenario with a White Reverend, and these jackals would be howling, shoving their faces into cameras, leading marches, and singing civil rights songs.

Therein lies the problem. Since the turbulent 60s, American Blacks haven't progressed in society. And don't blame Whitey. That's too convenient and disingenuous. I was a teenager when the Civil Rights Act was passed. I argued with White friends of mine and lost a few due to my sympathy and allegiance to the Black cause. When I was on a bus from Texas to Alabama in Basic Training in 1966, I witnessed racism first-hand when the contract restaurant manager refused to serve the Blacks in our Air Force Flight. We all said he could go to hell and walked out of the restaurant, hungry but proud for defending our Black comrades.

This country enacted the Equal Opportunity Commission. Blacks were given preferential treatment in jobs, education, etc. There was open admission to the City College in New York City when I was a student there.

So what happened in the meantime? An extremely small percentage of the Black population took advantage of what was offered, and advanced. Too many, though, retreated into the comfort zone of a phony Black culture and used the crutch of blaming the White man for all their ills. The so-called Black leaders turned the ghetto misery into a cottage industry, becoming in essence, the new Massas and the ghetto was their plantation. Rather than encouraging Black men to act like men, get a good education, become something, they instill a sense of deprivation based on their skin color. And the bogeyman is Whitey.

I thought Martin Luther King said he hoped for the day when people wouldn't be judged by the color of their skin but rather by their character? Apparently, the Black leaders and activists ignore that part of history.

Bill Cosby was the only Black in recent memory to tell it like it is. And he took a tremendous amount of heat because of it. If I said what Mr. Cosby did, I would be branded a racist for pointing out the painfully obvious facts.

The prison population is comprised mostly of Blacks, but way out of proportion to the Black population in this country. If you listen to Black leaders, they imply that these thugs are political prisoners, put there due to a racist Justice System. Bull feces. Examine the crimes behind the faces: murder, rape, and other felonies. The facts hurt. Just watch the local news and the evening news. One story after another illustrating Black crime. The most twisted thing is the Black on Black crime. Worse yet are innocent Black kids getting shot to death while walking in their neighborhoods. Whitey cause that? Bull feces. What can you do? Increase police patrols? Then when they do, community activists accuse the police of profiling or picking on Black kids. You can't win.

Where are the Black fathers? A huge percentage are M.I.A., fathering children with multiple girlfriends and taking zero responsibility for their offspring. Who raises the kids? Black grandmothers who have had enough trouble in their lives without getting a reprieve.

Michael Jordan said it best: "Don't act Black, don't act White. Act like a man!" Maybe, just maybe, the situation in the inner cities wouldn't be so bad if the kids now running wild had a male role figure to guide them.

When I hear about the racial divide, and the need for dialog, it makes my blood boil. These are code words for a sit-down and blame Whitey for being racist. The "dialog" would be nothing but a monologue, a one-way drive-by.

And it goes on and on. I feel sorry for hard working Blacks, for Black professionals, for Black military members, because they have had self-appointed "leaders" that disgrace them and are not worthy of them. It's time for the honest Blacks to get some courage, speak up and tell the truth. A real agent of "Change" is desperately needed in the Black community. Not a silver-tongued politician who hasn't done anything of the sort up till now, nor a wife who only recently became "proud to be an American for the first time in her life".