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I’m a middle-aged white guy with a white beard and mostly gray hair(at least I still have hair). Put me in a Confederate uniform and I’m the spitting image of my great x2 grandfather who was an artillerymen in armies that lost to Curtis at Pea Ridge, Grant at Shiloh and Vicksburg, and to Sherman at Atlanta. I know this because he kept a diary, and towards the end wondered why he fought for people who thought blacks weren’t even human. He at least knew they were good soldiers because he fought them and felt lucky to have survived the experience.
And I live in a predominantly black neighborhood in Euclid, Ohio. Because of my appearance, lots of white folks who are racist assume I must be that way, too. Interestingly enough, most of my African-American neighbors presume I’m not racist because I live among them, and they’re right.
Anyway, lots of white people say things to me like “Obama only cares about the blacks; everything he does onlyhelps the blacks.” When I ask them just exactly what Obama’s done for black people, I just get puzzled looks as they think about it and can’t come up with anything.
Neither can I.
Most of my African-American neighbors think Obama’s trying to do good things, but is prevented from doing so by the evil Republicans. When I ask them just exactly what he’s really tried to do to help them, I get much the same reaction as I do from the kneejerk white racists: puzzlement, then something like “Well, he would, but he knows he can’t get it through Congress,” or some such weak response.
Today I drove past an African-American church. There was a sign in front of it which read, “Rich Whites Don’t Want To Give the Money for a Black Messiah’s Dream.”
Maybe I’ll have to go to that church tomorrow to be sure, but it seems to me that the black messiah to which the sign refers is Barack Obama, unless there’s been some miracle around here of which I am unaware.
So, just what has Obama done for African-Americans? From where I sit, squat, unless they’re Wall Street speculators. He sure hasn’t done anything for the ones in my community. If he had, I’m sure I would have noticed because, after all, I live here.
Yes, I know that not all African-Americans support Obama. I do read the Black Agenda Report from time to time, and there are certainly some here on FDL who don’t think very highly of him for what I consider to be very good reasons. But most still do.
So I have two questions for those kind enough to read this post. One, why DO most African-Americans still support this corporatist fraud? Two, the title question, just what has Obama done for African-Americans? Obama cheerleaders, here’s your chance.
42 Comments
Chris Hedges once said that the group in the US with the most sophisticated view of American politics are African-Americans.
I largely agree with that view, because African-Americans realize this bullshit game is rigged from top to bottom. This is why so many do not vote. It has nothing to do with income, or lack of education, or any of the other inane excuses the elite liberal use to rationalize this disparity.
That’s where the “they” are keeping him down mentality comes from. Blacks know that there are forces at play which keep the poor in poverty, which is an inconceivable notion if you grew up as a WASP. From their point of view, there is no “Man” keeping everyone down. Though the WASP-ish Occupiers are finally realizing now what the black community has known all along: it’s all a rigged bullshit game.
Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying “Maybe you’re asking the wrong question.”
Black people never truly believed things would change; there was an outside chance of hope that it would, but the system is so rigged that no one person could change it. Not even Obama. But at least the skin of the person in charge looks familiar, and gives hope to one’s children.
I think they will continue to support him because he gave them what was expected of him: nothing. Maybe a warm feeling in their gut b/c the person fucking them over isn’t white anymore. But that’s about it.
Obama has merely confirmed what they already thought to be true: the world is for the 1%, and good luck surviving if you’re not. But at least now there are some black 1%ers out there. I guess people see that as progress.
But the bottom line is, your main question cannot be answered because black people never asked him to do anything, other than making it through a full term without getting assassinated by a racist white guy.
I think they are sophisticated to know that they weren’t going to get shit anyway.
I think the black community has been slow to realize that Obama is failing them because he doesn’t give a fukk about them, not because he simply cannot help them because of a corrupt system.
Can’t really blame them, and Obama being elected has still been a huge boost for the collective self-esteem of the black community.
But every time a white republican ahole makes some racist comment about Obama, it makes it easier for black people to circle the wagons around Uncle Obama, and not see him for what he is.
Tavis Smiley caught a lot of flack for exposing Obama pretty early on, but he was right and astute in his observations of Obama selling out the black community.
It’s funny, I remember in the fall of 2007 I was in a nyc sports bar, and the then relatively unknown candidate Obama popped up on the big TV screen. I excitedly pointed him out to the black guy next to me, but this guy’s gut instinct was that Obama was a phony. I kinda rolled my unreformed liberal eyes.
The initial impression of Obama from most of the black community was that he was a phony uncle Tom. How right they were.
Not sure if anybody else has read this theory, and I know it sounds pretty crazy, but I basically believe it:
http://www.infowars.com/bombshell-barack-obama-conclusively-outed-as-cia-creation/
Obama’s father was brought to the US in a CIA backed program to groom future African leaders who were more pliable to US “interests”.
At the link you can see the picture of Obama’s grandfather leading the welcoming ceremony for Obama Sr at a Hawaii air force base.
I think Obama’s white grandfather was the CIA contact for Obama Sr.
I don’t think Obama Sr was Obama’s real biological father.
Supposed black radical Frank Marshall Davis took a series of nude photos of Obama’s 17 yr old mother just before she got pregnant, and Marshall Davis wrote about a kinky relationship with a teenage girl named Ann in his sexual memoirs.
I think Frank Marshall Davis was an FBI informant at the least, and I also think he is Obama’s biological father.
When this CIA guy found out his daughter was pregnant, he knew a more age appropriate black father was needed, and the CIA funded Kenyan student was asked to play the role.
Nobody remembers Obama Sr and Ann Dunham even being a couple, never mind married. Ann ran away to Washington State, and didn’t return to Hawaii until after the Kenyan left for Harvard. The only evidence of their marriage is a divorce certificate.
From reading “Family of Secrets” about Bush and the manipulation of his paper trail, such a scenario wouldn’t be surprising.
Obama’s mother and step-father appear to have been CIA as well, so I think Obama was ultimately groomed for the job of President, much like CIA brats Bush 41 and Bush 43.
Clinton was probably recruited at Georgetown, and Hilary also was probably recruited, and never stopped being a “Goldwater Girl.”
Why would our shadow government allow uncontrolled candidates to get elected, when there are so many promising CIA spawn or young natural stars like Clinton to be groomed for the job?
That’s a good answer. Thanks for taking the time to write it. I suppose you would consider me a WASP, since I’m white, have some Anglo-Saxon DNA, and was raised a Protestant. But when you say:
“But the bottom line is, your main question cannot be answered because black people never asked him to do anything, other than making it through a full term without getting assassinated by a racist white guy,” my first reaction was “Damn! Talk about low expectations! I had more expectations than that!”
I guess I did have greater expectations. Not because of Obama’s ethnic heritage, but because of what he said. I DID ask him to do something–deliver on some of his promises. Silly me. That’s not sarcasm, BTW.
You see, my people, my extended family, actually did see the system change for the better as far as they were concerned several times. Their standard of living actually improved after their defeat in the Civil War, again a little bit during the Progressive Era, again under FDR, and once again thanks to LBJ’s Great Society. Some profited under Reagan and his corporatist successors, others like myself did not. Did African-Americans experience the same things? I don’t really know. Not for me to judge.
Your statement that “WASP-ish Occupiers” are “finally realizing” that it’s all a big bullshit game is not entirely correct. I, for example, am descended from indentured servants, slaves for a term in exchange for transportation to the New World because the Old one must have really, really sucked for them. Lots of us have known that the system was rigged against ordinary working people. For centuries.
Sounds to me like it’s way past time to change the game.
As far as “at least now there are some black 1%ers out there. I guess people see that as progress,” that’s the same logic that was used by the English and Dutch a few hundred years ago, by Italian-Americans with regards to Al Capone, and by Irish Catholics with regard to the Kennedys.
It’s tribalism that misses the point about socioeconomic class. It’s a weakness of the working class that has been exploited by their self-proclaimed “betters” so those same folks can stay on top for a long, long, time.
I don’t see that as sophisticated, whether the group thinking that way is coal-country Irish or inner city black. I see that as self-defeating.
And people like Obama, Romney, and Dimon are laughing at us all the way to the bank.
None of that means the system isn’t rigged. That should now be obvious to all with eyes to see. So African-Americans understood that long before a lot of white people did, though certainly not all. Yeah, I guess they would, now, wouldn’t they? For very apparent reasons.
Thanks again for the thoughtful reply, Jest.
You’re right. That sounds pretty crazy. In need of professional help crazy, at that.
That was me. A “Tom” might be a bit of a stretch, but he had all the hallmarks of a cipher.
I saw his “famous” 2004 speech at the convention at the time, and thought it was lame & sophomoric. It was pretty insulting to my intelligence.
Negro, please.
As crazy as it sounds, I strongly suggest checking out the link, and the evidence.
Even aside from the paternity of our President, read about the CIA presence at the U of Hawaii at the time Soetoro and Obama’s mother were studying there.
Soetoro was called back to Indonesia 2 months before a CIA sponsored coup in that country that left 1 million dead.
Obama Sr did in fact get his American scholarship through a CIA funded program, and Obama’s white grandfather did in fact meet and greet him at the air force base.
Hawaii was also a cia banking hub for their Asian activities, and Obama’s grandmother was a bank vice president.
Check out the picture of Obama’s grandparents with young Ann in a Lebanese school uniform. Daddy was likely stationed there.
Does Obama’s biography not read like a scripted fairy tale?
I never really assumed you personally were a WASP, I meant “you” in a general grammatic sense.
I did have slightly higher expectations of Obama than this. I think most people had vastly higher expectations, but deep down black people knew better.
I knew he would be a sellout stooge initially, but he seemed intelligent enough not to stay the course when it was clear he went astray. It wasn’t his support of failed policies that disappointed me, I fully expected that. It was his doubling down on them, despite clear evidence of failure (i.e. tax cuts, health care, etc.).
Black people did do pretty well b/c of FDR, but a rising tide lifts all boats. It wasn’t until Johnson came along that there was targeted legislation for people of color. Reagan was an absolute disaster.
Interesting, it’s good to know that. I feel like there is an entire unwritten history about European immigrants & tribalism that never gets discussed. Especially when it comes to class lines.
– Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address
“During his 1959 trip to the United States, the 29-year-old Mboya raised enough money for scholarships for 81 young Kenyans, including Obama Sr., with the help of the African-American Students Foundation…Vice President Richard M. Nixon, determined not to be outdone by his Democratic rival for the White House, persuaded the State Department to drop its long-standing refusal to fund the program.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/30/nation/na-obama30
CIA files indicate that Mboya was an important agent-of-influence for the CIA, not only in Kenya but in all of Africa. A formerly Secret CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, dated November 19, 1959, states that Mboya served as a check on extremists at the second All-African People’s Conference (AAPC) in Tunis. The report states that “serious friction developed between Ghana’s Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah and Kenyan nationalist Tom Mboya who cooperated effectively last December to check extremists at the AAPC’s first meeting in Accra.” The term “cooperated effectively” appears to indicate that Mboya was cooperating with the CIA, which filed the report from field operatives in Accra and Tunis. While “cooperating” with the CIA in Accra and Tunis, Mboya selected the father of the president of the United States to receive a scholarship and be airlifted to the University of Hawaii where he met and married President Obama’s mother.
An earlier CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, secret, and dated April 3, 1958, states that Mboya “still appears to be the most promising of the African leaders.” Another CIA weekly summary, secret and dated December 18, 1958, calls Mboya the Kenyan nationalist an “able and dynamic young chairman” of the People’s Convention party who was viewed as an opponent of “extremists” like Nkrumah, supported by “Sino-Soviet representatives.”
http://www.infowars.com/bombshell-barack-obama-conclusively-outed-as-cia-creation/
BTW, you should check out this BAR report that is tangentially related. Their “Black Misleadership Class” series is all about this.
This article speaks to what I was saying about African Americans intentionally not making demands of Obama:
http://blackagendareport.com/content/black-america-paralyzed-powerless-irrelevant-year-4-obama-era
What’s your point?
What does that have to do with Obama, let alone his father? Isn’t it a lot easier to bribe and kill people than spending several decades to create half-white cocaine and weed smoking Manchurian candidates by way of Kenya and Indonesia?
Wouldn’t it have been easier to just get McCain elected & be done with it?
How does Michelle fit into all this?
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to just get McCain elected & be done with it?”
They needed somebody like Obama (“lefty”) to solidify Bush’s crimes against the Constitution and Civil Liberties, and even expand them.
Just as importantly, to implement mandatory exploitative health insurance, Social Security and Medicare “reform”, war with Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.
The US public had major Bush/Republican fatigue, so Bush III needed to be from the left.
McCain would have united much of America against the establishment, and I guess they didn’t quite think they could win that fight in 2008.
Another four years of Obama, and Americans might just be glad to take a loaf of bread from the nearest Blackwater Food Relief line.
Exaggerating, but not too much.
The whole party could be over with an attack on Iran, real or fake terrorist retaliation in the US, the collapse of the global economy, and the embrace of martial law by a terrorized and hungry American public.
Not to mention, they could trigger a fractious race war any time the US public started getting too united.
Obama could have killed the Republican Party for a decade with one serious investigation into their activities. That brand bounced back in just two years, thanks to Obama.
Michelle? Well, she gave Obama a ton of credibility with the black community. Many black voters commented on how important it is that Obama married a dark skinned black girl. Had the Obama wife been white or light skinned, he would have been more quickly exposed as being the anti-black elitist he obviously is.
Oh, there’s all sorts of white tribalism that’s seldom discussed–maybe because it’s considered too primitive, maybe because too many white people consider themselves too civilized for that sort of thing. Don’t mean it ain’t there.
For example, my wife’s Irish immigrant great x2 grandmother refused to speak to her son-in-law, because he was a johnny-come-lately Ukrainian immigrant and his skin was(gasp!) darker than hers! My own parents freaked out when I started dating an Irish girl with a Comanche grandfather whose dad was a lowly firefighter.
Tribalism is as alive and well in white American circles as it is in any other.
So Barack’s marriage to Michelle is part of a grand conspiracy. Please seek professional help before you hurt yourself.
Yes, tribalism is alive and well, and it makes us stupid most of the time when it rears its ugly head. So sad.
I think you all have kind of missed the boat. Obama is your typical Ivy League technocrat. His skin color and racial background have little to do with it.
He’s the librarian who won’t lend out a book because someone might need it and the teacher who says “Rules are are rules. What’s right for one is right for all.” Completely lacking in imagination or creativity.
Clueless when it comes to anyone outside his bourgeoisie mentality. A highly educated idiot that has fooled a lot of other highly educated idiots.
“Can’t put a bolt to nut, give you medicine or tell you the law. A man out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoe shine…”
A black Willy Loman with a college degree.
Interesting question, and the answer is pretty much an Empty Set.
After reading at BAR (probably Glen Ford)indicting the entire black political class, I wondered about a diary on the subject. So….I went to a lot of the black websites and blogs I used to poke into more regularly before BAR became my go-to spot, to see what they were saying about Presidential electoral politics.
As far as I could tell, even going back through archives, it was stand Obama’s guaranteed base fare. I was sincerely disappointed, and I confess, surprised. Field Negro, the Root, Angry Black Bitch, Jack and Jill, Ta-Nehisi Coates…all full of posts decrying Republicans as the bad guys.
It was also supremely disappointing to me that as one of my projected Tipping Points to massive resistance was the point when the black churches preached social gospel to that effect. So…when the Return of the Dream, along with Dave DeGraw and others made a big splash, I was elated.
Then discovered via BAR that the next week all the same ministers were in their pulpits preaching that the congregants needed to get out and knock on doors for OBomba. I felt ripped off on behalf of blacks across the nation, to say the truth. And I trust DeGraw a little less now, too, and wonder what he thinks of it all.
Rec’d.
[At the risk of sounding racist]
Not surprising actually but isn’t this the same sort of thing (tribalism ?) that got whites out to vote for Nixon and Reagan ?
Symbolism is a very big deal in a lot of areas.
Yes, and all too often it becomes a substitute for clear thinking.
I no longer have any illusions about Obama. I was just pointing out two kinds of tribalism, one white and one black, that I’ve run into personally and asking some questions. I don’t think the color of his skin should matter, either, but it does to millions of Americans.
Illusion it may be. But illusions can still have power. Power is important.
I’m familiar with the stories about Obama’s connection to the CIA but the right was on the right track, but then really went off the rails when Joseph Farah,
the creator of world net daily and debkafile editor started pushing the birther meme. His disinformation provided a shiny distraction for those with racist and tribal instincts still smoldering below the surface.
Also, If I remember correctly the conspiracy theory of Davis being his father was debunked by the dates. The guy was involved in entryism effort into the Hawaiian Democratic Party and managed to achieve a big win for Labor. He moved to Chicago and married a white socialite.
This was more of an attempt to associate him with the young SDS terrorists – most interesting to me – is that most of these kids that were willing to use violence where bourgeoisie or upper class, but their association with the left discredited the old left. They are now a part of the third-way mindset.
Rather than get bogged down history that is just about as important as him eating dog, what is overlooked is how he worked for a CIA front and they paid for his eduction, how he was groomed for national politics by axelrod, how his wife came by her high paying job, They threatened a lot of bloggers with lawsuits to remove stories about his past associations, but weren’t able to completely scrub his history.
I’ll bet that blago has some stories to tell.
Did you see this? You could print some of these out.
Yves Smith’ description:
Oh you betcha it does.
“I no longer have any illusions about Obama.”
Don’t be so sure, especially considering your track record of having illusions about Obama.
“I was just pointing out two kinds of tribalism, one white and one black, that I’ve run into personally and asking some questions.”
There’s a third tribalism that is more tribal than either. In fact, they refer to themselves as “the Tribe”.
They make up 1.5% of the US, 33% of the Supreme Court, 100% of the top two positions at the Federal Reserve (founded by a German born member of their tribe), they run 6 of the top 7 media conglomerates, and every candidate for President must genuflect and undermine US national security to get even a sniff of the White House.
Don’t ever forget to consider that tribe when thinking about national politics. When you dominate the media and the money printing, it matters not which puppet sits on the throne. They can be destroyed in a day, and every national politician knows it and acts accordingly.
Pointing out the obvious is bigoted, and career suicide.
If you don’t know it now, you still have major, major illusions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_yA8J-oGQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNW9kpjVMqk
x2
Great post…rec
Well, that’s part of the problem, you’re looking in the wrong places. Coates is the best out of the list, but the rest of those sites are fairly boho, establishment, and out of touch with the “proles.”
“Disappointment” is a good word for them, in general…
Excellent post Ohio Barbarian! Recommended.
What has Obama done for African Americans? Nada. In fact, I would argue that due to the fantasy narrative of a ‘post racial America’ surrounding his candidacy and presidency, and his abject refusal to address disproportianate black unemployment, incarcerration, etc; the net result is a huge negative.
What has Obama done for the working class? Screw us.
What has Obama done for the rich and powerful, the banksters, the transnational corporations etc.? EVERYTHING within his power and everything he can reasonably/politically get away with….and then some.
third party progressive now!
You are a racist, paranoid, anti-Semite who sees a Rothschild behind every bush. Bugger off me thread, mate.
Please take this ludicrous conspiracy crap off of my thread. There are enough conspiracies right out in the open to talk about without making shit up.
Besides, properly cooked dog is good eatin’.
Racist claptrap. Flagged. Go away.
> What Has Obama Done for African-Americans?
Is this a trick question? He gave us Angry Black Lady, who makes it acceptable to call white progressives “the real racists.”
The guy holding the middle of the floor in the faculty lounge bull sessions.
Guy I worked with years ago had an interesting experience hanging out occasionally with a Southeast Asia crew hired to bushwhack a development property. He was a sharp observer and he noticed there were no stray animals, no noticeable animals, at all, anywhere on the acres. The crew had a fire pit and cooked their meals on the property.
From The Guardian:
I believe racism and suspicion of others who do not belong to the same tribe is an ingrained human trait that we must always be aware of in our contacts and dealings with other people.
Most people are not aware of their own propensity to make invalid negative assumptions about others while making positive assumptions regarding members of their own tribe.
Most people could benefit from some self-analysis regarding the assumptions they make, not only about others, but also about themselves.
Excellent diary, Senor Barbarian.
Recommended
I have recommended this entry because I think it is very good. Myself a “a middle-aged white guy with a white beard and mostly gray hair(at least I still have hair)” and born in Ohio with ancestors that fought in the Civil War, I can easily identify with your take on all of this.
There are several answers to your question: “What has Obama done for African-Americans”.
My answer would be the simplest one: he has put a black face in the White House. Living surrounded by people of African descent you will have noticed that they come in all shapes and sizes, characters and personalities: smart, dumb, good, bad, honest, dishonest and every combination possible of those qualities and defects… just like all other human beings. The one thing that they all have in common is that when they look in the mirror they see an African-American face, which means that, as Billie Holiday said, in America, they go through life as if they wore shoes one size too small.
So rich or poor, Harvard educated or high school dropouts black, brown, high yellow or red bone, the one thing they all have in common is that African-American face and all the baggage it carries… and they know that, like it or not, all the rednecks in the USA have to see a black face in the White House for at least four years and perhaps four more, while the Marines stand at attention and play, “Hail to the Chief”… like it or lump it… And I would imagine that this knowledge would give considerable pleasure to them all, man woman and child.
Oh, that’s wonderful. Clarence Thomas ring a bell?
Please no personal attacks on MyFDL. -MyFDL Editor
Obviously you didn’t read it the post at Yves, and I was answering the other racist conspiracy theories you appreciated. I’m not anymore of a racist than you are, so I’m going to have to question your reading comprehension.
Well, well. Honor requires that I say “Thank you David Seaton.” Though, to be perfectly clear, as one of my favorite ex-presidents put it, I was born in Texas, not Ohio.
Doesn’t mean you’re not right about the rednecks, though. You are. Whether those rednecks hail from the Deep South or from the Irish/Italian/Slavic suburbs of Cleveland.
That is what is really historic about this presidency and, barring larceny,I believe it should continue for four more years… rub their noses in in it.