Obama victory will prolong US racial divide

[OzmO]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3451323.ece

From Times Online
February 28, 2008
Obama victory will prolong US racial divide, says British equality chief
Barack Obama

Hannah Strange

One of Britain’s most influential black figures today accused Barack Obama of cynically exploiting America’s racial divide and gave warning that he could prolong, rather than heal the rift.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country’s first black President.

Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites.

"If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don't have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities," he wrote.



Mr Phillips compared Mr Obama to Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, prominent black “bargainers” – those who strike a deal with white America not to make an issue of historical racism if their own race is not used against them.

But, in a warning to the Democratic candidate, he added that Cosby now cut a “sad and lonely figure” because he had abandoned the moral weapon used by figures such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson in insisting that “in the end, salvation for blacks won’t depend on the actions of whites.”

"In truth, Obama may be helping to postpone the arrival of a post-racial America and I think he knows it," Mr Phillips wrote. "If he wins, the cynicism may be worth it to him and his party. In the end he is a politician and a very good one: his job is to win elections."

He added: "If he fulfils the hopes of whites, he must disappoint blacks – and vice versa."

Mr Phillips said that there was no “British Obama” in part because the black British community was much smaller and therefore less likely to produce such high-achievers, and because “Black Britons can't bring centuries of white guilt to bear with the devastating impact that African-Americans have done for two generations”.

The equality chief, a former Labour politician and broadcaster said he did not expect Mr Obama ultimately to win the Democratic nomination, although he conceded it was possible. However, if he did come to power, Mr Obama would not emulate JFK, he predicted, but Bill Clinton, with all the "charm, skill and ruthless cynicism" that entailed.

Mr Phillips is no stranger to controversy, having drawn criticism for past comments on multiculturalism in British society. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, once said he was a prime candidate for the far right British National Party and his appointment to the CEHR was bitterly opposed by a number of black organisations.

[240 is Back]

i thought it would UNITE the country.

most people care more about healthcare and national safety than they do about the color of a leader they'll never meet.

I'd elect a purple leader if he'd give me free healthcare and invade pakistan and get bin laden.

Would you?

[OzmO]

i thought it would UNITE the country.

most people care more about healthcare and national safety than they do about the color of a leader they'll never meet.

I'd elect a purple leader if he'd give me free healthcare and invade pakistan and get bin laden.

Would you?

lol

Your facetiousness cracks me up sometimes.

[Dos Equis]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3451323.ece

From Times Online
February 28, 2008
Obama victory will prolong US racial divide, says British equality chief
Barack Obama

Hannah Strange

One of Britain’s most influential black figures today accused Barack Obama of cynically exploiting America’s racial divide and gave warning that he could prolong, rather than heal the rift.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country’s first black President.

Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites.

"If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don't have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities," he wrote.



Mr Phillips compared Mr Obama to Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, prominent black “bargainers” – those who strike a deal with white America not to make an issue of historical racism if their own race is not used against them.

But, in a warning to the Democratic candidate, he added that Cosby now cut a “sad and lonely figure” because he had abandoned the moral weapon used by figures such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson in insisting that “in the end, salvation for blacks won’t depend on the actions of whites.”

"In truth, Obama may be helping to postpone the arrival of a post-racial America and I think he knows it," Mr Phillips wrote. "If he wins, the cynicism may be worth it to him and his party. In the end he is a politician and a very good one: his job is to win elections."

He added: "If he fulfils the hopes of whites, he must disappoint blacks – and vice versa."

Mr Phillips said that there was no “British Obama” in part because the black British community was much smaller and therefore less likely to produce such high-achievers, and because “Black Britons can't bring centuries of white guilt to bear with the devastating impact that African-Americans have done for two generations”.

The equality chief, a former Labour politician and broadcaster said he did not expect Mr Obama ultimately to win the Democratic nomination, although he conceded it was possible. However, if he did come to power, Mr Obama would not emulate JFK, he predicted, but Bill Clinton, with all the "charm, skill and ruthless cynicism" that entailed.

Mr Phillips is no stranger to controversy, having drawn criticism for past comments on multiculturalism in British society. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, once said he was a prime candidate for the far right British National Party and his appointment to the CEHR was bitterly opposed by a number of black organisations.

I disagree.  If he is elected, it might help close the racial divide some, but I don't think he'll be elected.   

[War-Horse]

Cosby has only said what needed to be said: "Quit playing the victim role and geta damn job"    But no....they want to watch rap videos and have govt checks delivered  twice a month.......disgusting.




Not everything about me is left....

[youandme]

Coming from the Brits, this holds truth no one knows more than the old regime of racial divide.

good find ozmo

[OzmO]

Coming from the Brits, this holds truth no one knows more than the old regime of racial divide.

good find ozmo

Thanks,  i found it to be an interesting take even though i'm not too sure about it either way.


for example: 

"Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites.

"If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don't have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities," he wrote."


It's hard for me to understand this or speculate on middle class whites as i am partially one, but live in California where i see integration reaching it's full potential.   At any given time you will see latinos, whites and blacks all hanging out together.  It's simply no big deal.  So i'm not sure that his reasoning is sound and that he has a bead on the thinking of the voting population.

Obama will win becuase people want change and he draws voters who would normally not vote.   It won't be becuase white people will expunge their guilt (racism) by voting for him.   If anything the fact he's not fully white will prevent a conservative moderate not to vote him in.

[JBGRAY]

The Bradley Effect, maybe?

The US racial divide will ALWAYS be here.  Not because it is racist, but because it is simply natural.  People of equivalent nationality, culture, religion, and race will always seek to band together and live apart from those who differ.  Too many people equate the term racial divide as two or more groups that despise one another.  This is truth in many instances, but the term also can mean groups that do this without overtly thinking of what they are doing when they seek to choose with whom they wish to live.  For example you move into a new neighborhood because you knew a few people that lived there and said it was a nice place to live....and then, after buying your home and settling down you realize that the people within your neighborhood share largely the same values, culture, and nationality as you do.  This is racial divisiveness of a passive sort.

Let's not kid ourselves.  There are literally thousands of different groups, churches, lobbyists, special interests, corporations, and programs that exist solely to cater to a various group within the US whether it be african americans, hispanics, gays, women, buddhists, scientologists, etc.......The US's philosophies and laws were all derived from western Europe.  For the vast majority of it's history, the US's population consisted overwhelmingly of European stock..primarily, English, Irish, German, Italian, French, and Spanish(including the "homeless" Jews that settled the various parts of Europe).  At no time in history has a nation such as the US changed in such a dramatic way demographically by throwing open it's doors to largely Third World immigration and most of it uneducated, unskilled, and unassimilating immigrants. 

The vastly rising Hispanic population(primarily of Central American/Mexico) claim that the Southwest is rightfully theirs.  Many hold allegiance to the nation of wence they came, coming here only for the jobs and sending the meager amount(by US standards, anyways) back to their home country.  African Americans will never fully assimilate into the US due to gross past injustices and continuous discussions on Reperations and and the rise of various African-American groups.  Many Jews yearn for Israel.  Some of the newly-arrived Europeans never lay down their flags.  Cubans simply wait for the Castro-Communist regime to fall to go back to Cuba. 

I wish the US would learn from others.....that you can't force a vast variety of people together in one land without violent repercussions.  One only has too look at what happened in the Balkans, the former Yugoslavia, Kenya, Darfur, the formation of Israel, Tibet, Taiwan, the former USSR, and so on and so on.

[ToxicAvenger]

and get bin laden.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5943797702828750136&q=frost+benazir&total=38&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

plus been ladin has renal failure...man cant live in the mountains ...he needs dialysis even if alive..

[War-Horse]

The Bradley Effect, maybe?

The US racial divide will ALWAYS be here.  Not because it is racist, but because it is simply natural.  People of equivalent nationality, culture, religion, and race will always seek to band together and live apart from those who differ.  Too many people equate the term racial divide as two or more groups that despise one another.  This is truth in many instances, but the term also can mean groups that do this without overtly thinking of what they are doing when they seek to choose with whom they wish to live.  For example you move into a new neighborhood because you knew a few people that lived there and said it was a nice place to live....and then, after buying your home and settling down you realize that the people within your neighborhood share largely the same values, culture, and nationality as you do.  This is racial divisiveness of a passive sort.

Let's not kid ourselves.  There are literally thousands of different groups, churches, lobbyists, special interests, corporations, and programs that exist solely to cater to a various group within the US whether it be african americans, hispanics, gays, women, buddhists, scientologists, etc.......The US's philosophies and laws were all derived from western Europe.  For the vast majority of it's history, the US's population consisted overwhelmingly of European stock..primarily, English, Irish, German, Italian, French, and Spanish(including the "homeless" Jews that settled the various parts of Europe).  At no time in history has a nation such as the US changed in such a dramatic way demographically by throwing open it's doors to largely Third World immigration and most of it uneducated, unskilled, and unassimilating immigrants. 

The vastly rising Hispanic population(primarily of Central American/Mexico) claim that the Southwest is rightfully theirs.  Many hold allegiance to the nation of wence they came, coming here only for the jobs and sending the meager amount(by US standards, anyways) back to their home country.  African Americans will never fully assimilate into the US due to gross past injustices and continuous discussions on Reperations and and the rise of various African-American groups.  Many Jews yearn for Israel.  Some of the newly-arrived Europeans never lay down their flags.  Cubans simply wait for the Castro-Communist regime to fall to go back to Cuba. 

I wish the US would learn from others.....that you can't force a vast variety of people together in one land without violent repercussions.  One only has too look at what happened in the Balkans, the former Yugoslavia, Kenya, Darfur, the formation of Israel, Tibet, Taiwan, the former USSR, and so on and so on.

Interesting, and probably true.

[tonymctones]

Cosby has only said what needed to be said: "Quit playing the victim role and geta damn job"    But no....they want to watch rap videos and have govt checks delivered  twice a month.......disgusting.




Not everything about me is left....

its so true it may sound weird but it wont get any better until the african american community quits getting outraged at every little thing.

[youandme]

The Bradley Effect, maybe?

The US racial divide will ALWAYS be here.  Not because it is racist, but because it is simply natural.  People of equivalent nationality, culture, religion, and race will always seek to band together and live apart from those who differ.  Too many people equate the term racial divide as two or more groups that despise one another.  This is truth in many instances, but the term also can mean groups that do this without overtly thinking of what they are doing when they seek to choose with whom they wish to live.  For example you move into a new neighborhood because you knew a few people that lived there and said it was a nice place to live....and then, after buying your home and settling down you realize that the people within your neighborhood share largely the same values, culture, and nationality as you do.  This is racial divisiveness of a passive sort.

Let's not kid ourselves.  There are literally thousands of different groups, churches, lobbyists, special interests, corporations, and programs that exist solely to cater to a various group within the US whether it be african americans, hispanics, gays, women, buddhists, scientologists, etc.......The US's philosophies and laws were all derived from western Europe.  For the vast majority of it's history, the US's population consisted overwhelmingly of European stock..primarily, English, Irish, German, Italian, French, and Spanish(including the "homeless" Jews that settled the various parts of Europe).  At no time in history has a nation such as the US changed in such a dramatic way demographically by throwing open it's doors to largely Third World immigration and most of it uneducated, unskilled, and unassimilating immigrants. 

The vastly rising Hispanic population(primarily of Central American/Mexico) claim that the Southwest is rightfully theirs.  Many hold allegiance to the nation of wence they came, coming here only for the jobs and sending the meager amount(by US standards, anyways) back to their home country.  African Americans will never fully assimilate into the US due to gross past injustices and continuous discussions on Reperations and and the rise of various African-American groups.  Many Jews yearn for Israel.  Some of the newly-arrived Europeans never lay down their flags.  Cubans simply wait for the Castro-Communist regime to fall to go back to Cuba. 

I wish the US would learn from others.....that you can't force a vast variety of people together in one land without violent repercussions.  One only has too look at what happened in the Balkans, the former Yugoslavia, Kenya, Darfur, the formation of Israel, Tibet, Taiwan, the former USSR, and so on and so on.

Did you write this?

Good points.