Post race

In reporting on Jesse's nuts gaffe, the NY Times states,

"if Mr. Jackson is no longer the leader of black Democrats, it seems fair to ask if Mr. Obama, in fact, is."

Blacks must have a leader!!! I mean, they are this giant monolith and only listen one person, and that person was Jesse! No, it was Farrakhan! Wait, wasn't it Al? And now you tell me that there are Black people who don't listen to any of them? Head exploding!

Seriously folks, so many white people are chomping at the bit for a "post-racial" world - that by breaking apart the old black guard (which was going to happen at some point), and then questioning if the "new black leader" can lead blacks (this is where I interject, where is the leader of the white Democrats?), what they are hoping for is that there is no "black leader." Without a leader, and everyone is on the Obama train, regardless of race, then we must live in a post-racial world.

Except this post-racial world would still run by white people (Obama running the country or not). Did anything really change?

Money

I think it is ridiculous that Clinton people expect Obama to pay off her debt. Where are all those big time donors she flaunted now when she needs them?

Its just that this whole scenario kind of reminds me of some of the White Overseers/Plantation Owners (Bill/Hillary - Hill did marry down) who would "cajole" former slaves into "helping" run the plantation after freedom. It was called sharecropping and it goes something like this:

The cotton needs to be picked, and its a win win situation if you help us Barack.
We will (pretend) to pay you,
we will try to get our former supporters to vote for you - but of course, we can't promise you any real votes
and by helping us, we will protect you from the white lynch mobs that are forming,
we will call off our attack dogs, the biggest one being Bill, and we hope you don't mind that Howard Wolfson just joined Fox News!
So get back to work for us!

Maybe its just me.

Reflections of Youth

There is a new movie out about white kids in the summer of 1994, trying to find themselves in "The Wackness." And yes, mandatory hip-hop soundtrack is included. As are Adidas shell top sneakers! (really 1994? then I remember, these are white people memories!) I go back and forth between ideas of white authenticity rooted in "blackness" versus the shared American experience (though its not like the majority of Americans willingly admit to the Black experience as being the American experience). And who am I to judge, given that I went through a similar stage, though five years earlier and without the white friends part.

Oh, and without the drug part. See, this is where the white/black divide really comes into play. The point of the story is of a young white kid who sells pot for pocket money. But we all know that he is going to college after the summer, and not about to become the next Pablo Escobar. So it is safe. No one is really going to judge him for his youthful indiscretions. This is not really the case for young black men. We don't have Black coming of age movies where there is that automatic happy ending of a middle-class life. Where we can laugh off the drug dealing. And ten years from now, that white kid uses his drug habit as a way to have "Street Cred." (with who? other white people)

The Overseer

I have to admit, Bill Clinton has always been a little too redneck white trash for me. And one can never really get rid their roots, you know? No what how much money you make, lose, etc., your core is your core - even people who had terrible childhoods have to work really hard their entire lives to not lapse. Doesn't mean people can't change, they just to work at really hard every day.

So, this whole Bill is going to endorse Barack makes me a little uneasy. The fact that Barack has to kowtow, and they are going to have dinner "on the former President's turf," makes me feel like someone has a lot of power and is forcing someone, who also has a lot of power, to bend. Its like Bill has become the Overseer of the (Democratic Party) plantation, and will let Barack know he doesn't tolerate any kind of "uppity-ness." And why isn't Bill the Plantation Owner? Like I said, he's white trash and we all know who did the dirty work for the slave owners.