I'd like to hear from blacks on Obama

[Hugo Chavez]

I keep hearing he is white.  of course he's part white, part black.  How do you view him?  White, Black, both or none of the above?

[Hedgehog]

I keep hearing he is white.  of course he's part white, part black.  How do you view him?  White, Black, both or none of the above?

Huh?

WTF does his ethnicity have to do with anything?

I think there are other things that sets Obama apart from the rest of the society than being "black" or "white".

How about him being a politician?

Being part of the political culture, structure up in Washington, just like all the other candidates, including Ron Paul.

My point is, Obama, Clinton, Romney, Huckabee, McCain and Ron Paul all have more in common with each other, than Obama with some white thrash in North Carolina or some black ghetto kids in Detroit.

Or Hillary Clinton with some battered women in Iowa.

Or Huckabee with some minister in Midwest, or McCain with war vets.

Or Ron Paul with any Libertarian Internet keyboard warriors.

These candidates have their differences. But they are essentially molded from the same.

[Hugo Chavez]

Huh?

WTF does his ethnicity have to do with anything?

I think there are other things that sets Obama apart from the rest of the society than being "black" or "white".

How about him being a politician?

Being part of the political culture, structure up in Washington, just like all the other candidates, including Ron Paul.

My point is, Obama, Clinton, Romney, Huckabee, McCain and Ron Paul all have more in common with each other, than Obama with some white thrash in North Carolina or some black ghetto kids in Detroit.

Or Hillary Clinton with some battered women in Iowa.

Or Huckabee with some minister in Midwest, or McCain with war vets.

Or Ron Paul with any Libertarian Internet keyboard warriors.

These candidates have their differences. But they are essentially molded from the same.

geez...  I'm only asking because I've seen everyone else constantly saying he's not black or he is.  We're in America Hedge, race is a constant issue.  Not for me, I do not judge based on race and that's not at all what this thread is about.  I was just curious how blacks see him.  It's a valid question when it's brought up so much.

[Quickerblade]

geez...  I'm only asking because I've seen everyone else constantly saying he's not black or he is.  We're in America Hedge, race is a constant issue.  Not for me, I do not judge based on race and that's not at all what this thread is about.  I was just curious how blacks see him.  It's a valid question when it's brought up so much.

some love him some cant be fucked, Jamie foxx is a huge supporter, and he says its only cause obama is black.

[youandme]

It's not a popularity contest. But since you asked my family owns a restarant and the people in the kitchen 10+ (big place) all like Obama, previous voters of Clinton.
 
All you have to do is check his line up for campaign funds and see the African American money sides with Obama, being all former Clinton loyalists.

I don't think many people see him as white, since he worked for and ran black organizations, and mentions slavery in about every speech.

[mightymouse72]

and mentions slavery in about every speech.

if your above statement is true, then i would label him a racist.  depending on what context he mentions "slavery in every speech" would depend how much of a racist he is.

not all racists are white and evil.  some are black, wear suits and have their own race in their best interests.
not saying he is, just my observation.

[Tre]

America loves its Black entertainers, but Obama's not running as 'the Black candidate'. 

I view him as Black, because he's Black, but I don't really obsess over it.  I just know that America - despite what people think they're reading in the various polls - is not ready to elect a President who is Black.

Exception?

Colin Powell.  If he was running for the Republican nomination, as difficult as it might be for a lot of White voters to do so, I do feel they'd be willing to pull the lever for him. 

He is America's best leader and the fact that he is not in the race (and has no interest in the position) is very telling. 

Obama is the flavor of the week, because Oprah said so, but for whatever reason, there are still millions of Democrats nationwide who have a love affair with the Clintons that they are not willing to part from. 

[Tre]

if your above statement is true, then i would label him a racist.  depending on what context he mentions "slavery in every speech" would depend how much of a racist he is.

not all racists are white and evil.  some are black, wear suits and have their own race in their best interests.
not saying he is, just my observation.

I've heard him mention it a couple of times and it didn't play well at all.  In fact, when he mentions Dr. King or Civil Rights, it just doesn't sound right...at least not in the context of the talks he's giving at the time. 

I would not classify him as a racist, however.  I would argue that he is attempting to appeal to voter sympathies by using a sensitive issue and a popular icon as well.  All politicians do this, but in the instances I've heard race-related stuff invoked, the references have seemed horribly out-of-place.

For the record, I am a Black former Republican (now Independent), but do not (yet) support Obama for the nomination.  I'm actively campaigning against Hillary Clinton and would support Obama if Edwards makes the decision to bow out (something I hope he WON'T do right away). 

[youandme]

if your above statement is true, then i would label him a racist.  depending on what context he mentions "slavery in every speech" would depend how much of a racist he is.

not all racists are white and evil.  some are black, wear suits and have their own race in their best interests.
not saying he is, just my observation.

You got to read his book, I won't spoil it.


Go to B&N and pick his book up "Dreams of my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"  Tell someone sitting in a chair that their car is getting towed and have at it.

[mightymouse72]

I would argue that he is attempting to appeal to voter sympathies by using a sensitive issue and a popular icon as well. 

i would say you are 100% correct.

pollies will say just about anything to get a vote.

but, for me, the jury is still out on the racists label.  i want to see if he uses the race card and how much.  especially if he wins the nomination.

i guess the same could be said for hillary and the sexists card.

[headhuntersix]

All pretty good posts...first off I think he's full of shit over the race thing. He mentions things in his book..trying to identify with other black Americans...yet friends say things did not happen as he mentions. He went to a private school in Hawai and then on to well respected universities. He didn't exactly take the path of an inner city black. If he can't be honest about this, pandering for votes, what else is he going to do.

[Al Doggity]

All pretty good posts...first off I think he's full of shit over the race thing. He mentions things in his book..trying to identify with other black Americans...yet friends say things did not happen as he mentions. He went to a private school in Hawai and then on to well respected universities. He didn't exactly take the path of an inner city black. If he can't be honest about this, pandering for votes, what else is he going to do.

He's never pretended tp be "hood" or- to my knowledge- implied that his background was harder than it was. However, even before he got to Harvard, he had established a reputation as a social activist. He didn't really have grand political ambitions in those days, so I wouldn't consider his referencing of his earlier activities disingenuine.

[headhuntersix]

I've read parts of his book, based on what people said, for myself. He was preparing himself, atleast in my opinion. He said things were bad for him in Hawai..yet it wasn't true..

Obama says he is a Christian with "deep faith rooted in the Christian tradition." He is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ of Chicago, which on its web site declares to be a "congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and "an African people" who "remain 'true to our native land,' the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted a "Black Value System" which pledges allegiance "to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System" and a "personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System."

http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=747


He's full of shit....
I am indebted for the source text in this column to a copy of Obama’s speech posted by Lynn Sweet on the Chicago Sun-Times web site. Although I often disagree with Ms. Sweet on Obama, she has occasionally reflected genuine integrity in the way she has addressed his flaws.]

To put it bluntly, Obama is a congenital liar. Obama grew up lying to himself. When he went to Kenya and discovered that his mother had painted a fantasy world concerning his father Obama paused, and then just resumed and kept on lying. He is still lying.

[Decker]

I've read parts of his book, based on what people said, for myself. He was preparing himself, atleast in my opinion. He said things were bad for him in Hawai..yet it wasn't true..

Obama says he is a Christian with "deep faith rooted in the Christian tradition." He is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ of Chicago, which on its web site declares to be a "congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and "an African people" who "remain 'true to our native land,' the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted a "Black Value System" which pledges allegiance "to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System" and a "personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System."

http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=747


He's full of shit....
I am indebted for the source text in this column to a copy of Obama’s speech posted by Lynn Sweet on the Chicago Sun-Times web site. Although I often disagree with Ms. Sweet on Obama, she has occasionally reflected genuine integrity in the way she has addressed his flaws.]

To put it bluntly, Obama is a congenital liar. Obama grew up lying to himself. When he went to Kenya and discovered that his mother had painted a fantasy world concerning his father Obama paused, and then just resumed and kept on lying. He is still lying.

All politicians lie.  Bush was supposed to have been a cowboy. 

[Al Doggity]

I've read parts of his book, based on what people said, for myself. He was preparing himself, atleast in my opinion. He said things were bad for him in Hawai..yet it wasn't true..

Well, of course he was preparing himself for a successful life. But there is no evidence- or even a suggestion of such- that he callously manipulated his way into his current prominence.


The whole trinity church "scandal" is pretty stupid. Even if you read the what you posted just as it is, there really isn't anything damning there. It becomes even less incendiary when you take it in context. This is from an interview with the church's pastor (dated prior to Obama's recent notoriety):

    Many black Christians were leaving the church for other religious traditions, including the Black Hebrew Israelites and the Nation of Islam, who taught that Christianity was a white man’s religion imposed on them by slaveholders.

    “They didn’t know African-American history,” Wright said. “They were leaving the churches by the boatloads. The church seemed so disconnected from their struggle for dignity and humanity.”

    Wright set out to show young people how other major religions also participated in the slave trade, how many abolitionists were Christians and how Jesus’ concern for the oppressed related to the struggles of the black community….

    Wright sought to build on the black theology of liberation introduced in 1968 by Rev. James Cone of New York, by emphasizing Africa’s contribution to Christianity rather than that of mainstream white theologians.

    “To show there is an independent form of thinking there about religion that stands on its own, that’s really more life-giving than what you get from Europe,” Cone said. “Black people who come from that approach have a very healthy understanding of who they are.”

    To bolster that pride, Wright takes members of his flock to different African nations every year. Wright also encourages youths in the congregation to attend historically black colleges and universities, sponsoring a scholarship fair each year.

He's full of shit....
To put it bluntly, Obama is a congenital liar.

You haven't really pointed out anything he's lied about. And you definitely haven't pointed out a pattern of lies.


.

[Colossus_500]

I keep hearing he is white.  of course he's part white, part black.  How do you view him?  White, Black, both or none of the above?

he's black AND white

[JBGRAY]

Perceptions do not equate to fact. 

Fact:  Barak Obama is half-white, half-black.  His father was from Kenya, his mother is a white woman from Kansas.

Fact:  Heterosexual whites are not the only group capable of racism, nor are they the sole perpetrators of it.

Fact:  Ethnicity should not be a great consideration when it comes to politics and voting.

Perception:  Barak Obama is black.  He has dark skin, so that makes him black.  He is called black, and is known to be black.  Therefore, he is a black candidate in the same mold as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Alan Keyes.

Perception:  Only heterosexual whites are capable of racism and is perpetrated by this group the vast majority of the time.

Perception:  Someone's ethnicity can be a sole determining factor in which one gets elected or not.

[youandme]

But there is no evidence- or even a suggestion of such- that he callously manipulated his way into his current prominence.

You have not read the book, have you?

I think Al Doggity is a member of this one, what do you do help them out in the grant writing department with your psychology degree?

Here are their points, written by a committee back in 1981...

Commitment to God
Commitment to the Black Community
Commitment to the Black Family
Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”
Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community
Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions
Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.

[Al Doggity]

You have not read the book, have you?

I think Al Doggity is a member of this one, what do you do help them out in the grant writing department with your psychology degree?

Here are their points, written by a committee back in 1981...

What exactly do you think you proved with this post? I already addressed this in a previous post. There's nothing racist about their mission statement...

and I'm not the one pretending to be a psychologist.

[Tre]

You have not read the book, have you?

I think Al Doggity is a member of this one, what do you do help them out in the grant writing department with your psychology degree?

Here are their points, written by a committee back in 1981...

Commitment to God
Commitment to the Black Community
Commitment to the Black Family
Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”
Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community
Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions
Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.

1981, you say?

That's actually GREAT stuff - as you have written it - and is what Blacks should be striving for today.

I do not know this church, its theology, or its philosophy, but based on what you have posted, it looks like they stand in STRONG opposition to the left-wing '"n**** you ain't never gon' be nothin" defeatists like Jesse Jackson.  

Is that what I'm reading or have I read them wrong?  

NOTE: I do not disagree at all with those who will contend that a White group with a similar manifesto would be described as a racist hate group.  But despite the apparent affluency of your Black, middle-class friends, I want you to know that there truly is a crisis in modern Black America and although I do not know how they have defined their words, I do like the idea of a Black Value System and it starts with valuing ourselves...something that has been devalued in America since we first arrived here.

[Al Doggity]

1981, you say?



NOTE: I do not disagree at all with those who will contend that a White group with a similar manifesto would be described as a racist hate group.  But despite the apparent affluency of your Black, middle-class friends, I want you to know that there truly is a crisis in modern Black America and although I do not know how they have defined their words, I do like the idea of a Black Value System and it starts with valuing ourselves...something that has been devalued in America since we first arrived here.

Possibly...but not an entirely apt parallel. If it was a Chinese or Armenian church here in the US, do you think there would be much controversy?

If a White  church instituted these tenets , it actually WOULD be exclusionary.

[Al Doggity]

You have not read the book, have you?

No, but since you have, why not enlighten me with actual facts instead of vague allusions?

[youandme]

What exactly do you think you proved with this post? I already addressed this in a previous post. There's nothing racist about their mission statement...

and I'm not the one pretending to be a psychologist.

Yeah psychologist  

Just adding to JB's perceptions and facts. Like Tre just said he would not fend if someone were to say if it were a white group that it be called a bigoted bunch.

Chinese, Armenian yeah that is exactly their suit being a collectivistic culture, non parallel more like it.

[youandme]

No, but since you have, why not enlighten me with actual facts instead of vague allusions?

The book is good itself. One allusion off the top of my head is the Muslim school controversy. In public he fends off all talk of Islam, and him being taught in a Muslim school as a outright lie, as one of his advisor's told the media. In the book while in Indonesia he spent 2 years in a Muslim school, the book stated later on that it was because of money issues, and only because of money issues that he attended. Later on though during the end it reverses and now Obama as a child reflects on how he adourned Muslim life and heritage, embarking on a journey as a adult to study the life of Islam. In real life some have said he is not really a Christian, but only converted to win support for votes, I really got the exact feeling myself in reading his actual life story, the same goes for the newly elected Louisiana gov. who converted from Hinduism. The book only went so far as to describe his grandparents, his grandfather being the colorful...who would take Obama to red light districts and to bar...anyways I would like to have heard more lineage into his middle name Hussein, he stated his father was a atheist, but what caused such a stir in religion and his questioning of faith and disdain for Catholicism choosing Islam, then Christianity?

[Al Doggity]

Yeah psychologist 

What is this? In almost every post you make, you (poorly) attempt to imply that you have some sort of psychology/ social anthropology background. You just did it again.

Chinese, Armenian yeah that is exactly their suit being a collectivistic culture, non parallel more like it.

Most mainstream religions are collectivistic by definition.  And way to miss the point.

Here is the website of an Armenian church I used to pass on my way to work:
http://www.armenianprelacy.org/index.htm


Here is the mission statement:

 Today, with the existence of an independent Republic of Armenia, the focus of the Church should, and is, changing, although the basic mission remains unchanged. It still embraces the religious, the educational, the cultural, and the social in its continuing dedication to the betterment of its people


Here is