[Marxism] Obama's acquiescence to white privilege

[Charles Brown]

All the Black Agenda Report says on the history and present of racism is true, of course. I've said similar things myself many times, on this list and related email lists. 

And I 'm sure Obama knows they are true, given his background as an anti-Apartheid  activist, community organizer in the Black community in 
Chicago and , duhh, his church and pastor.  

The problem is that this speaking truth to power rhetoric is not working anymore, to the extent that it did in the past; it has reached a limit. In fact, it is stalled since the 1970's.  It's not working with the group that needs to believe it - white people.  Michigan's white voters recently made affirmative action unconstitutional, for example, demonstrating extreme ignorance and denial of the facts recited in the BAR article. The signal characteristic of Reaganite racism is denial of racism.

The end of racism , as I have often said, will be the change in the conduct , the consciousnesses and practices ,  OF WHITE PEOPLE.  Black people already understand the below. But it is not Black people's consciousness and practice that needs to change.

So, the problem is how to reach white people on racism.

Obama is trying a sort of reverse psychology to reach white people. And in a preliminary way  it is working.  Obama's tactic is , roughly as follows: 1) Ok white people, you say , in your opposition to affirmative action ( and denial that racism still exists)  that we should all be color blind now. 2)  OK, be colorblind and vote on character only; he even throws in some fainting moves agreeing that racism is "90% of the way to solution; if you think he doesn't know that that's not quite true, you just aren't paying close attention to him , his books, his wife, his pastor.  Believe me, Black people know he knows he's fainting a bit on that. Feint moves are important to a basketball player, smile  3)  Looking at the candidates , I have the best character. 4) vote for me , a Black person , for President !

And in the act of voting for a Black person for President, millions of whites are taking a significant anti-racist step for them. Sure it's not the end of racism. But if Obama were to win the office of President, it would be an anti-racist reform , comparable to the _Brown vs. Bd of Education_ decision.   Such a reform people like Black Agenda Report   and Doug H. ( whom I've told about this many times)  miss in their analysis of the O phenomenon.

This is all preliminary and a "getting the foot in the door". Of course there will take a lot more than electing a Black President to raise the average life expectancy of Black people and Brown people and Red people to equal that of whites ( Life expectancy seems to me to be the ultimately significant statistic on the impact of racism.  Income is important , but we should mention life expectancy as often as income).

And , in general , it is the "next" generation who are getting it. As, I think Joaquin discussed, many young people are voting for O _because  he is Black_. Hallelujah ! Affirmative Action voting in young white people. 

The O gambit is complex. O is not the only key player.  There is a division of labor - good cop , O; bad cop ,Rev. Wright. The success of this was reflected even in some of the tv journalists. One white woman tv journalist, in response to Obama saying that his grandmother had said racist things that made him cringe said "I spoke with some of my friends about our grandparents and we said, yea Obama is right.

All this right now is at a level of potential. But if you think that if Obama gets in ( still a long shot in racist America) he won't use the office to do something in the struggle against racism  , and for multiracial unity, I think you are wrong.  


Charles

Dbachmozart ] 

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clip from The Black Agenda Report -
 
this means Obama would leave American race relationships frozen in  time. 
 
White men, the recipients of the most unearned  privilege, wealth and power 
over the four centuries of English-speaking  settlement (theft) in North 
American, therefore have nothing to fear from Barack  Obama. Obama makes it quite 
clear that he not only considers white men’s riches  to be sacrosanct, but he 
believes every word of the mythical origins of the  white settlers who seized 
power from the British Crown. These men were “farmers  and scholars; statesmen 
and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape  tyranny and 
persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a  Philadelphia 
convention that lasted through the spring of 1787,” said Obama. No  mention of 
slaveholders or slave traders in the bunch. By dishing out a  historical narrative 
of race in America that omits the theft of the continent  and genocide of 
Native Americans Obama tacitly accepts the lie that most  European settlers were 
escaping religious persecution - a fairy tale that even  children’s 
schoolbooks seldom tell anymore - and pretends that the whites  acquired Indian lands 
by legal means. But what’s the point of arguing about such  matters, since 
everyone involved - especially the Indians - is  dead. 
 
-clip-