Archive | January, 2008

Why Are Blacks Identifying with a White Woman for the Presidency?

29 Jan

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Obamawatch 2008! Continues

 I placed this one in the category of Musings from the Classroom because inherently, my inspiration for this one came from me standing around after class and surrounding myself in the company of more of my enlightened colleagues

 As the Baptists conventions of this country meet here in Atlanta, some of the past graduate students found themselves on ITC’s campus today. It was wonderful to hear these pastors speak with great jubilation about Sen. Barack Obama’s win in South Carolina and his historic run for the presidency. As these pastors of churches in South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama speak of the Super Duper Tuesday primaries standing outside in the darkening and windy air, they spoke with much hope and anticipation about Obama’s candidacy.

 Even though I’m not always one to jump and play the race card, I believe I’m about to right now, so be prepared.

 As much as I appreciated the words of Toni Morrison likening Bill Clinton to a black man in the United States, I believe that we still need to realize that Bill Clinton and Hill’ry are white.  Frankly, I’m glad that I was able to watch Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta say on FoxNews on King Day of this year that “it is not a fairy tale” that Sen. Barack Obama is running for the presidency.  Now I’m not saying that either of these candidates has uniquely played the race card, but what I am saying is that in this country, race has become such a taboo subject that people are afraid to call it as they see it—even black people.

 As I delve deeper into the color line that is painfully evident in these monochromatic proceedings concerning our government at the higher level, I can’t help but wonder, what is it about this black populace in these United States that makes them align themselves with a white woman over that of a black man?  (Now, for the women that read this, I’d be very interested to hear your take on it.)  But to the black men that support Hill’ry, I’m very interested in what is it that makes you identify yourself with the morals, ideals and philosophy of a white woman over that of a black man who has had much more similar struggles to us than Hillary Rodham did or even Hillary Rodham-Clinton EVER did.

I mean, lets deal with this for a while.

The white woman has been this ideal of many things in the face of a white predominant society.  They are still the epitome of beauty.  And white womanhood stands at the zenith of what women should struggle to be.  Relative to black men, white women are what black men want over a “strong sistah” who will create too much “baby mama drama.”  Even more so, white women supposedly engage in the more lascivious sexual acts, those which a black woman may not.  White women have been this “untouchable item”; always out of reach of the black man, and I wonder for those black men who support Hill’ry, what is making them do so.

To black womanhood, those who suffer from WWS (White Woman Syndrome), as one of my high school teachers so eloquently stated, white womanhood is the diametrical opposition to their nature.  If one were to create a list, I daresay that the majority of attributes given to one would stand in opposition to the other.  Granted that’s the stereotypical assumption, but there are exceptions to the rule of course.  But again, here, I wonder why would black women align themselves with Hill’ry when everything about white womanhood many black women have fought against.  I’ve seen many of my contemporary black women fight against the indoctrination of how to wear their hair.  We have bought hook, line and sinker this model of the perm that was capitalized upon by Madame C.J. Walker in an attempt to assimilate into the white woman’s status of what is beautiful!  I’ve seen black women stare in the face of white womanhood, trying to make black men see them as beautiful just the way God created them–and then many of them too have run into the camp of Hill’ry, joining forces and ingesting the rhetorical remedy of Billary’s words, allowing many black women to succumb to the insanity that is WWS.

 One of the preachers standing outside who has a congregation in Montgomery, Alabama told me that he couldn’t understand the ignorance of some his parishioners.  He said, how could his parishioners advocate to their children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren to be pro-black and to follow their dreams, but meanwhile support a white woman?  Black people across this country have harped and screamed and cried and prayed and done everything condemning black men for not standing up, for not doing this, that AND the other.  But now, when we have a black man, running for president, who has decidedly pro-black values and is a family man, with a BLACK WIFE (that’s a whole other blog post in itself) and the closest dirt they can find on him is his ties to Tony Rezko, a fundraiser for which Obama has apologized and given the money back and his ambition of wanting to be president in kindergarten, then we want to vote for Hill’ry because “the Clintons have been good teh’ rus.”

 So, suffice it to say, I’m glad to hear older black men, who have pulpits endorsing the black male candidate for the presidency.  It did my heart quite well; it was quite an encouragement to let me know that some of us are in fact heading in the right direction.

[added after original post time: I'm still confused, and I feel the need to flesh out my confusiong in this blog rather than write a new one.  How is that we as African American people have taught our young kids that they can be whatever they want and African Americans have always dreamt of the day when an African American can be president, but when the opportunity arises we act as if we don't want it.]

 Keep it uppity, JLL

Toni Morrison’s endorsing Barack Obama

29 Jan

Don’t get me wrong, I like Sen. Barack Obama, and we all know that I endorse his candidacy, but Dr. Leslie Callahan did mention that her issue is that there is no woman of color who is poised in the political arena to move through the ranks of our representative government.  That being said, I believe that it is interesting that Ms. Morrison endorsed Obama after making the correlation between black men and former President Clinton.  I think that it is interesting that she used the word “black” as how many black liberation theologians use the word “black.”  The word “black” does not necessarily denote skin color, but rather a state of being.  Disenfranchised people, irrespective of race, would be defined as “black” persons of the world to many black liberation theologians.

That being said, keep it uppity, JLL

Here’s her full endorsement letter:

Dear Senator Obama,

This letter represents a first for me–a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years.  Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate.  I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America.  Only conservative or “new-centrist” ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me “proud.”

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates.  That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can’t train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace–that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader?  Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed?  Someone with courage instead of mere ambition?  Someone who truly thinks of his country’s citizens as “we,” not “they”?  Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

Good Press for Obama’s pastor?

28 Jan

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An Obamawatch 2008! exclusive article.

This is an article that I received via email concerning the media’s perpetual fascination with Sen. Barack Obama and his pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.  I think it does stand to reason that any article published in a newspaper of a major city that has enough audacity to refer to God as a woman is in fact good press.  However, I do admonish the readers of this article to do a Google search of Alex Beam to see what his past articles have read like, it should be an interesting read.

Keep it uppity, JLL

as a note of biblical reference, the mention of the sermon in the article is a reference to a January 13th, 2007 sermon at the 11 o’clock service.  “Putting Limits on the Lord,”  John chapter 6  www.tucc.org

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/28/obamas_not_running_from_his_minister/

ALEX BEAM

Obama’s not running from his minister

By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist ?|? January 28, 2008

Elbows are being thrown in the presidential campaign: some name-calling, some vague allegations of skulduggery and double-dealing. But this is not the Main Event. The real dirty tricks, a la Swift-boating, will kick in around Labor Day, after the two parties have chosen their candidates for the general election.

Should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will become much more famous than he is now, and much more famous than he would ever want to be.

Wright, the pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago, is already a little bit famous. Former Illinois state senator Obama has worshiped at Trinity for many years and borrowed the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” from one of Wright’s sermons. As “Obama’s minister,” Wright has been profiled by several newspapers, and the forward shock troops of the right-wing hate machine, i.e. Fox News, have already lobbed a few shells in his direction. But in a competitive national election, Wright can expect the fire to double, redouble, and redouble again. Obama will end up wishing he was Mormon.

The first accusation against Wright, and by extension against Obama, is that Trinity is a “separatist” church. In its mission statements, Trinity proclaims its commitment to God and to the African-American community that surrounds the church. “We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian,” its website proclaims. “Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent.”

More or less by accident, I found myself in Obama’s old state senate district a few times last summer. It is overwhelmingly black and very poor. (Originally 72 percent African-American, with 23 percent of the families living below the poverty level, the 13th senate district became less black but remained equally poor after a 2002 remapping.) One of the district’s major white-run institutions, the University of Chicago, has been talking about urban renewal since before World War II, with very little to show for it.

Whites are welcome at Trinity, but the huge congregation, which claims 8,000 members, is almost all African-American. So if the church proclaims its commitment to “the Black community, the Black family, the Pursuit of Education, the Pursuit of Excellence, and the Black Work Ethic,” God bless them.

Doesn’t God help those who help themselves? Well, She tries Her best.

Wright is accused of being “controversial.” Heaven forfend! Controversial, as we know, means uttering truths in a very impolitic way. In a famous, controversial sermon called “What’s Goin’ On?” Wright opined that “the entire war in Iraq and the larger ‘war on terror’ have been based on lies, half-truths, and distortions to serve the agenda of the United States imperialism.” Let’s see . . . there were the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction . . . now the Bush Administration wants to negotiate a “treaty” with Iraq for a permanent American military presence. If it acts like imperialism and quacks like imperialism, maybe it is imperialism.

Wright’s other major sin is being “wrong” on Israel. He has compared the Israeli rule in Palestine to South Africa’s apartheid regime, and called for divestment in companies doing business with Israel. But Wright’s thinking has been very much in tune with the policies of the mainly white, New England-rooted, United Church of Christ, to say nothing of mainstream American Protestantism in general.

For obvious reasons, Obama has had to put some distance between himself and his pastor. But to his credit, he has not severed his ties with Wright, and there is no indication that he will. To her credit, Hillary Clinton, who paints herself as a church-attending, Chicago-area Christian Protestant when it suits her, has not dragged Wright and Trinity into her anti-Obama smear campaign. Yet.

Maybe Clinton is too smart to take on Wright, who possesses not only great rhetorical gifts but a ferocious sense of humor. Earlier this month, he addressed the Clinton-Obama battle head on, telling his congregation that many feel African-Americans should vote for Mrs. Clinton “because her husband was good to us.” But “that’s not true,” Wright proclaimed. “He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky.”

He who has ears, let him hear.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.

  

Obamawatch 2008!

28 Jan

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We are now on Obamawatch 2008!

I vowed that after the South Carolina primaries, and the presumable win of Sen. Obama that I would then put the Uppity Negro Network on Obamawatch and make a concerted effort to pay closer attention to the political pundits since I can now avail myself of the cable news networks, namely CNN and occasionally MSNBC.  I’ll watch FoxNews when I’m the mood to throw stuff out of my room–they’ll get me worked up enough.

I further thought about making a separate category called Obamawatch, but the New Hampsh– primaries taught me to not be so presumptious.  So all things Obama will be filed under Politics and susbsequent categories as necessary.

Now, to my point.

This primary is unlike one in my memory.  Granted, this is only the third one that I was truly aware of what was going on in the whole political arena.  I consciously remember winter of 2000 when my U.S. History teacher (shout out to Kyle Westbrook History chair at the new Walter Payton H.S. of Chicago) was quite disappointed when Bill Bradley seemingly was not going to get the nomination and we had, at least to us, the little known governor of Texas (even though it was Texas) who only qualification was that he was the son of our former president.  

I also remember that fall of 2000 because in the weeks leading up to general election, two 16 year olds were going at it everyday all day when we had a chance to argue about who was better qualified with their own “fuzzy math.”   And I actually remember that I went to bed Tuesday night fully expecting to hear that Al Gore had won, and I woke up on the Wednesday morning having to put on my uniform for J.R.O.T.C and my friend was sitting there already and I threw my bookbag down on the floor and we commenced just totally miffed at the series of events surrounding the election.  I think throughout the course of November or prior to the election we actually would stop class and the other students would actually turn their attention to us (this was a R.O. class and truthfully did we do much substantive work?  I think not).

I also remember 2004 campaign, but I believe because that was my first presidential election I only voted in the general election of the fall voting for Illinois’ sad governor Rod Blagojevich and for the horse of a man John Kerry.  Personally, I did like Kerry.  He had the New England liberalism that I appreciated and I personally did think he was qualified for the job–however, I think he signaled the momentary death of the Democratic party.  How the hell you couldn’t defeat someone as incompetent as Bush is beyond me.

So, these years, in 2007 to 2008, because clearly we’ve been running these elections for at least a year as Sen. Obama announced his candidacy in February of 2007, is the first time where I paid attention closely to the primaries–and actually voted–in the early elections in Chicago for the February 5th, Super Duper Tuesday where the 20+ states all hold their primaries.

All of that being said, why are people doubting Sen. Obama’s ability to not garner votes from the other states?  Granted there are places where black Democrats are not as big as in South Carolina, however I do believe that Iowa does stand to reason that Obama can do it!  It was the first state to vote for their delegates and perhaps does show the temper of midwestern states, something that Hill’ry and her campaigners somehow overlooked.  States like Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas and Missouri will be very interesting as midwestern states.  Not to mention the Mountain States of Colorado and Idaho and the southern states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee (one need only ask an Al Gore who failed to carry his home state and a Harold Ford who fell victim to a rabid Republican in the 2006 U.S. senate election). Lest we forget that in fact Obama was able to mobilize white, women voters to vote for him and not Hill’ry.

ALSO, since we’re on the topic of things forgotten, Obama was the FIRST to speak and run on the campaign of change and somehow the political advisors told both Hill’ry and Lil’ (who wish he was Big) John to use the word “change” as much as possible the day after Obama’s Iowa caucus win.  So now we have mindless Democratic supporters who suffer from that ever contagious disease of political amnesia and now have rearticulated “change” as their own candidate defines it.

Well, make sure to read the blog that’s posted after it, it too is an Obamawatch 2008! related article.

Keep it uppity, JLL

This also seems to be the primary of delegates.  If my memory serves correctly, after the New Hampsh– and South Carolina primaries, for the most part Al Gore and John Kerry had sealed their fate as doomed candidates against the Karl Rove machine.  But currently, let us remember that Sen. Barack Obama has more delegates than Sen. Clinton, a point that neither campaign has made light of, and left the media to do so.

Back on the Grind

24 Jan

This post is intended to merely announce (and in a weird way) celebrate my return back to the grind of school life.  As I drove the nearly 11 hours back to Atlanta during the middle of the night at the end of Martin Luther King Day, I heard a particular news report that said that the third Monday of January (which coincides consistently with King day) is in fact the most depressing day of the year.   The report went on to say, if my memory serves me correctly, that the combination of holiday bills beginning to pour into the mailboxes across America, that fact that most vacation time is done and the reality of the holidays being completely done and getting back to the grind of normal life—and combined with the fact that it’s a Monday—lead psychologists to dub that Monday the most depressing day of the year. 

I could imagine so. 

Without taking on such a severe air of melancholy in this post, I’m merely signaling the creation of a new blog category called “Musings from the Classroom” which will address all things that I’ve learned in the classroom.  Now they may be crossed reference, undoubtedly, with Religion, Politics and Theology of Preaching.  This will prove to be an interesting semester whereas my “heavy hitters” this semester are Theology of Preaching, Healing Miracles (NT exegesis) and I’m trying to squeeze in a Preaching in the Social Context or History of Preaching. 

So be on the lookout for the stuff that comes up in class and I’ll keep you all posted. 

Keep it uppity, JLL

New Blog Skin

18 Jan

Just let me know if you like how the new blog is set up.

JLL

A Generation Gap: an Excuse to vote for Obama

18 Jan

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I was mentioning to my mother just the other day that the African American voting bloc was looking for one good excuse to vote for Barack Obama and the Iowa caucuses gave them that excuse.  Black people in this country were sick and tired of the “symbolic” candidate much in the form of Rev. Al Sharpton or Carol Moseley-Braun (whatever happened to her) both in 2004.  Now granted my parents and I endorsed Al Sharpton (and that when I began to listen to what Rev. Sharpton had to say and no longer viewed him as a clanging gong, but rather a viable asset to the African American community), I too was tired of always having a black candidate run and bring up the black issues and yes, these were issues that specifically spoke to my needs and my people and my community, I was at a loss because ultimately, my candidate was not going to win.

But, someone must have received a pneumatological facsimile to suggest Barack Obama to speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and suddenly after the Liberman’s and Joe Biden’s of the day had sounded the death knell to the Democratic Party, this guy with a funny name with ties to the South Side of Chicago got up and spoke and the room was totally electrified and the rest has really been history.  Obama’s name has been on the lips of many since his election in the fall of that year to the U.S. senate and definitely now as he is a contender for the Democratic nomination.

That being said, what Obama symbolized in the Iowa caucuses and is expected to do so in both Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary (because of the endorsement by the food services union and their being allowed to caucus in the casinos and because nearly 50% of South Carolina’s electorate is African American) is that he is not an old guard black politician.  He’s not a polarizing character and THAT’s what young African American voters like.

Now, because I went to a mixed high school, roughly 1/3 black, 1/4 white and the rest divided between Latino’s (mostly Puerto Rican and Mexican) and Asians I had a much different perspective on race relations to that of my mother who went to an all-black public high school on the South Side of Chicago in the 60′s or my dad who went to an all-black private Catholic school in rural Louisiana in the 60′s.  In fact, often times my parents would snipe in disgust because I was always “coming to the defense of white people.”   Till this day, facts are facts and reality is your reality; one should be slow to force one’s reality on another and then pass it off as fact.  Hmmmm, I could stay right there for a while couldn’t I? 

But I digress.

Because of my more motley perspective on things, its real hard when I hear a Andrew Young or a John Lewis say such antiquated things about Barack Obama’s candidacy–reality being touted as facts.  I’m not as quick to say “that’s two people’s funeral I will be happy to attend” as one of my colleague opined to me in private, but comments like that do make me want to label these two as anachronisms who maybe need to “go somewhere and saddown.”  I believe this mindset of many elders is the result of entitlement and tradition and outright jealousy–three lethal poisons to this modern movement.  When they speak, they speak out of context for me and my generation; based on what me and my generation have dealt with, they frankly have not earned the right to speak on my behalf.

They are out of touch with my generation (and frankly I consider myself born inbetween generations being an ’84 baby).  Andrew Young believes that by invoking the name of Dr. Martin Luther King that he has identified himself with the black community–not so if one makes such inane statements.  And if I hear during the Al Sharpton Show one more time, John Lewis carry on about “bubbas in a bar of soap” I’m going to scream–when was the last time any of these two engaged in dialogue with people of my generation?  When have the availed themselves to dialogue with my generation to in fact listen to our concerns and not take it as a time to revel in their own glory, and use it as a time to recall and recant “when I organized this march” or “when Dr. King and I”?

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So, when a Barack Obama comes onto the scene without any ties to this old guard of politics and does what the old guards have told us little young black kids “You can be whatever you want to be.  You can be President of the United States” then they balk and pull a John Lewis “For me personally, I have a long association with the Clintons and I’m very loyal to my friends,” which for me is a cop-out.  I suggest that the Andrew Youngs and the John Lewises (and dare I say my friend of the daytime talk radio Rev. Al “the do” Sharpton) of politics are simply jealous because Barack Obama has suceeded where they have failed. 

By this far in the game these old guard black politicians are equally as corrupt and are mere charlatans over the black community.  (And yes I’ve voted for some old guard politicians–in fact I voted for one yesterday here in my 4th ward in Chicago [stay tuned for upcoming blog on Chicago's early elections: Vote Early, Vote Often] and I’m quite sure about their charlatanism, but I’d rather see my money go back to black people, quite the same way other ethnic groups keep the money in their own community–I’m just doing my part to help the brotha out.)  So, I guess when you run on a ticket of it not being business as usual, I guess politicians begin to wonder where their money will be coming from.

But the people wonder, where do the politicians loyalties lie.

We should be free to vote our conscience–and it appears the youth’s conscience is Sen. Barack Obama!

——-

That being said, wouldn’t it be something wrong if we had George H.W. Bush for four years, Bill Clinton eight years, another Bush for eight years and then another Clinton for possibly four, maybe eight years? 

Keep it uppity, JLL

I’ve Come Too Far Not To Throw My Rock!

18 Jan

I Samuel 17:40, 49-50a

1Sa 17:40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him.

I do believe I may use that as a sermon title, so if I see it anywhere else, please make sure you quote me!

But, I believe that this is quite the case of race relations here in the dark and early morning of 2008.  We’ve yet to see what the year will bring; it’s still dark outside.  But in the stillness of the night, the hope and anticipation of the year hangs heavy like the early morning fog of a summer morning; palpable and tangible eagerness is in the air.  This year so far stands to be a banner year for politics already–if Sen. Obama wins the nomination, we may yet have another Red Summer, one of race relations coming to a head in this era of post-modern Civil Rights.

The reason I entitled this post as such was because a friend, who emails me on occasion, usually with the fluffy “Pray this prayer…” at the top, and “If you love Jesus and all his friends, send this to 10 people…” and these emails usually suffer the swift death of my DELETE button.  But this time I decided to look.  Now this friend is an original New Orleanian, who now resides elsewhere in the country and is doing quite fine with her new life, but she sent me a Youtube clip of 30-year-old white men, who clearly were enjoying the Bowl Championship festivities in New Orleans–beer in hand.  From the prodding of a white liberal woman, behind the camera, we hear the real sentiments of whites, not just in New Orleans, but in the country no doubt, about how they really feel about certain segments of the black community. So, for anyone to say that we don’t have a problem with race in this country, they are truly living under a rock.

Hell, I live under a rock sometimes.  Because my interaction with white people is so limited, not because of my dislike or hatred for them, but rather I chose to attend three HBCUs, Dillard, Fisk and now ITC, I sometimes can be out of touch with, shall we say, other points of view.  For instance, I went with a friend up to Wisconsin for New Year’s Eve, me and her were the only black people in a group of seven.  Well, I knew that even before I agreed to go on the trip up to a summer house and club hop to celebrate.  However, one of the guys in the group had went to Tulane.  My friend mentioned that I had went to school in New Orleans as well pre-Katrina.  Naturally he asked “Where’d you go?” and I responded, “Dillard University” proudly remembering my days on the Avenue of the Oaks and joyfully singing the alma mater “Fair Dillard” at various chapel services.  To which his response was “Oh, where’s that?”  

I actually ignored him.  

Now this was in a car packed with five people, and I do believe I ignored him.  Even, if I quickly said “Gentilly” and moved on with my other conversations, I forced myself to not deal with his own ignorance.  How could one attend Tulane University for three years, 2002-2005 and NOT hear mention of Dillard University?  Even the mayor had spoken at Dillard on numerous occasions, and I consciously remember seeing news trucks at school for various events–was he really that isolated from the reality of 67% of the people who lived in New Orleans pre-Katrina? 

Apparently so. 

So in the wake of the rude awakening of this Tulane graduate, and after viewing this Youtube clip with these drun-ken white boooooys, which is at the bottom of my post, I realised that I’ve come too far not to throw my rock!  Moreover, we as a black people have come too far to not throw our collective rocks at the establishment.  By establisment, that means those that act as if we are non-peoples and non-entities.  If the same aged person as I, 23, was so oblivious to what was going on in Gentilly, while he was Uptown on his Tulane campus, then we really have a problem.  If these ya-hoooooooo boys in this Youtube clip felt comfortable enough, drunk or not, to say “nigger” so freely into a camera in this day and age of Youtube and the like; and felt comfortable enough to speak of things of which they DO NOT know or understand (that being the culture of growing up in public housing and being the victim of institutionalized racism in an antebellum and post-bellum country and city that had been marred by race relations) then we in fact have a serious problem.

Well, what I say to the Barack Obama’s of the WORLD, don’t be deterred from throwing your rock!  Just like David, we’ve come through a selection process where we were the most unlikely candidate for the job of king; David had to deal with Saul’s craziness and even then tried to defeat the enemy, by using the enemy’s armor and defenses.  But thanks be to God, that there was a brook, or rather a stream of water running nearby with which David was able to pick his five smooth stones. 

But it seems to me that Barack, is merely the relief pitcher in a long tiring game.  The game has been tied up and its merely the 6th inning, we at least have three more to go.  As the starter pitchers of the game, Martin Luther King, Jeremiah Wright, Asa Hilliard, Shirley Chisolm, Dorothy Height, Harrold Washington, Gardner C. Taylor, Wyatt Tee Walker et. al., walk off of the field to a standing ovation from the crowd, there’s always a Barack Obama or an Otis Moss III who’s been in the bullpen warming up as the relief pitcher.

Barack is merely walking up to the mound getting ready to throw his rock at the opposing team–I really could take this all the way to church and somehow find a hoop in all of this, but I wont–and for those who read this, I encourage to find the same resolve to say that “I too, have come too far, not to throw my rock!” 

Keep it uppity, JLL

Confronting Obama with a ‘Farrakhan Test’

17 Jan
This rarely happens, but this is in fact an article that stands alone and I have no extra commentary with which to support it.  Steven Benen does an excellent job in stating his point.  This was an email forward and I hope that those who read it pass it on to their friends and put this one as well on the email circuit.
 http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/16/confronting-obama-with-a-farrakhan-test/
By: Steve Benen on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 AM – PST  
Two weeks ago, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen devoted an entire column to criticizing Barack Obama over his use of a statistic — the senator claimed that more young African-American men are in prison than in college — that Cohen insists is false. The columnist used the disputed number, and nothing else, to accuse Obama of “mendacity” and failing to “give a damn” about the truth.It was a spectacularly dumb column, and an unusually awkward attempt at accusing a presidential candidate of dishonesty. For one thing, Cohen’s piece included obvious errors of fact and judgment. For another, a closer look at the disputed statistic about young African-American men shows that Obama may very well have been correct.

Undeterred, Cohen goes after Obama again yesterday, with an even more ridiculous hit-job.

Barack Obama is a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama’s spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said “truly epitomized greatness.” That man is Louis Farrakhan.

Maybe for Wright and some others, Farrakhan “epitomized greatness.” For most Americans, though, Farrakhan epitomizes racism, particularly in the form of anti-Semitism….

It’s important to state right off that nothing in Obama’s record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan. Instead, as Obama’s top campaign aide, David Axelrod, points out, Obama often has said that he and his minister sometimes disagree. Farrakhan, Axelrod told me, is one of those instances.

Fine. But where I differ with Axelrod and, I assume, Obama is that praise for an anti-Semitic demagogue is not a minor difference or an intrachurch issue.

I’ve read Cohen’s piece several times now, trying to understand what possessed him to write it (and what possessed his editors to publish it). I’m at a bit of a loss.

At first blush, there’s clearly a degrees-of-separation problem. Obama belongs to a Christian church. The church has a pastor. The pastor has a daughter. The daughter helps run the church magazine. The magazine featured some praise for Louis Farrakhan last year.

Cohen sees this and insists, in his nationally-syndicated column, that Obama has a personal “obligation to speak out” — not because Obama has been connected with Farrakhan or anti-Semitism in any way, but because his church’s pastor’s daughter’s magazine said something complementary about Farrakhan.

This is utterly ridiculous and Cohen ought to be embarrassed for putting his name on such nonsense.

The Denunciation Game can quickly become a slippery slope. Are Roman Catholic presidential candidates expected to denounce their church’s leaders for every controversial comment or decision it’s made? Mike Huckabee is an evangelical Southern Baptist, and it wouldn’t take too long to come up with a fairly lengthy list of contentious remarks from the church’s leadership. Is it incumbent on Huckabee to disavow them all? Billy Graham has been close with the Clintons. Does Hillary have an “obligation to speak out” against some of Graham’s intemperate remarks?

No, of course not. The very suggestion is silly, and yet, it’s the basis for Cohen’s entire column.

Henry Farrell gets the broader context exactly right.

I strongly suspect that Barack Obama is being asked to condemn Louis Farrakhan not because there’s some bogus two-degrees-of-separation thing going on, but because Barack Obama is black, and because black politicians are supposed to condemn Louis Farrakhan before they can be trusted. This isn’t racism, but it’s an implicit double standard, under which black politicians have a higher hurdle to jump before they deserve public trust than white ones. More generally, this is a bad, wrongheaded, and even dangerous article. Richard Cohen shouldn’t have written it, and the Washington Post shouldn’t have printed it.

If recent history is any guide, Democratic supporters of Obama will take Cohen to task for writing inane tripe, and Democratic critics of Obama will suggest that somehow Cohen has a point.

I’d like to think we can reach a point at which Dems can just be Dems, and criticize stupidity, no matter which Democrat is the target. Cohen’s column should be Exhibit A.
–
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. — Thomas Paine

Obama’s church congregation furious at ‘racism’ accusations

16 Jan

This is the United Church of Christ’s stance on the fallout following Sen. Barack Obama’s announcing his candidacy for President.  I thoroughly encourage every one to read this and pass it on to whomever to stop the inane and utterly vile rhetoric that has been spewed from the mouths of ignorant and backwater people with a redneck mentality.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6580

By staff writers

15 Jan 2008
With kind acknowledgements to J. Bennett GuessThe head of the United Church of Christ denomination in the USA has reacted with anger and frustration to accusations of racism circulating about it largest congregation, which is also Senator Barack Obama’s home church.

As Obama and his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, argue about the legacy of Martin Luther King, the fact that Obama’s local church describes itself as “black” is being used by his opponents to accuse his campaign of being rooted in racial politics.

But this charcaterisation of Trinity UCC in Chicago, Illinois, has raised the ire of the Rev John H. Thomas, the UCC’s general minister and president, who called the e-mail-driven claims “absurd, mean-spirited and politically motivated.”

“Our national offices in Cleveland, as well as other settings of the UCC, have been forwarded countless e-mails that obviously derive from a similar source,” Thomas said. “They contain misleading statements obviously meant to undermine the integrity of one of our most vibrant, mission-driven congregations.”

Thomas said, while it’s not his intent to come to the aid of Obama or any presidential candidate, he does feel it’s imperative that “the attacks against one of our UCC churches be challenged forthrightly.”

Mr Obama has been a member of Trinity UCC for 20 years.Since he won the Iowa caucuses on 3 January 2008, a flurry of e-mail messages with identical language and sentiment began circulating across the internet, claiming that Trinity UCC was a “racist” congregation because of its long-stated church motto: “Unashamedly Black, Unapologetically Christian.”

“Trinity UCC is rooted in and proud of its Afrocentric heritage,” Thomas said. “This is no different than the hundreds of UCC churches from the German Evangelical and Reformed stream that continue to own and celebrate their German heritage, insisting on annual sausage and sauerkraut dinners and singing Stille Nacht on Christmas Eve. Recognizing and celebrating our distinctive racial-ethnic heritages, cultures, languages and customs are what make us unique as a united and uniting denomination.”

While Trinity UCC is predominately African American, it does include and welcome non-Black members. The Rev Jane Fisler-Hoffman, Illinois Conference Minister, who is white, has been a member of the congregation for years.

“Trinity is a destination church for many members of the UCC, a multi-racial, multi-cultural denomination that is largely Caucasian,” Thomas pointed out. “When in Chicago, many UCC members flock to Trinity to share in and learn from its vibrant ministries, dynamic worship and justice-minded membership. Contrary to the claims made in these hateful emails, UCC members know Trinity to be one of the most welcoming, hospitable and generous congregations in our denomination.”

Trinity UCC was founded in 1961. Ten years later, when the Rev Jeremiah A. Wright became its pastor, the church had 87 families. Today, Trinity UCC has more than 8,000 members, 70 ministries and three Sunday worship services.

Trinity UCC is also the largest congregational contributor to ‘Our Church’s Wider Mission’, the UCC’s common purse for regional, national and international ministries.

While the circulating emails are written to appear as if they are coming from a groundswell of persons, with different names and email addresses, each uses nearly identical language, makes similar claims and even manages to make the same mistakes. For example, each makes introductory reference to “Trinity Church of Christ” instead of “Trinity United Church of Christ.”

“It’s clear that someone is using the internet to give the appearance of widespread concern and, thus, to hopefully create traction for this absurd story,” Thomas said.

———–

About the UCC

Formed by name in 1957 by the union of the Congregational Christian Churches in America and the [German] Evangelical and Reformed Church, the UCC’s roots in American history are deep. Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were from UCC traditions, and a full 10 percent of present-day UCC congregations were formed prior to 1776.

Many UCC churches trace their founding to the early 1600s, when the Pilgrims and Puritans first came to America. These Congregationalists, as they became known, sought religious independence from persecuting political authorities in Europe. They believed firmly in local church autonomy, covenantal church life, personal piety and the priesthood of all believers.

Today, the UCC holds firmly to these early religious tenets. Often recognized for its historical and contemporary social justice commitments, its present-day approach to worship, however, might be considered traditional by most standards.

Interestingly, the US Congregational Life Survey, published in 2002, found that UCC members, slightly more than members of other mainline denominations, listed traditional hymns and biblically-sound preaching as being essential to good worship. Surprising to some, the same study also found that slightly more UCC members self-identified as conservative rather than liberal a tidbit that President Calvin Coolidge, a conservative Republican and the nation’s only Congregationalist president (1923-1929), might have found interesting.

Although each congregation’s liturgical style is influenced by its heritage and members preferences, as is true in most mainline denominations, the UCC, as one pastor aptly put it, is known for its “beautiful, heady and exasperating” mix.

Known for arriving early on social justice issues, the church’s history includes being the first to practice democracy in church governance (1630), the first to ordain an African-American pastor (1785), the first to ordain a woman (1853), the first to ordain an openly gay man (1972), and the first to support same-gender marriage equality (2005).

In 1773, Old South UCC in Boston helped inspire the Boston Tea Party and, in 1777, Old Zion Reformed UCC in Allentown, Pa., hid the Liberty Bell from occupying British forces.

Hundreds of schools including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Howard, Fisk, Wellesley, Smith and Oberlin owe their beginnings to the UCC. The UCC’s publishing company, The Pilgrim Press, is the oldest publisher of books in North America.

Obama and his family live in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, which is home to Chicago Theological Seminary, one of the UCC’s seven seminaries and the city’s oldest institution of higher education.

Largely regarded as a northern church, about 80 percent of UCC members are clustered in the Northeast and industrial Midwest. The UCC is the largest Protestant church in New England, the birthplace of Congregationalism, and it has more than 700 churches in Pennsylvania, the heart of the German Reformed tradition. The UCC is also strong in New York, Missouri, Florida, Hawaii and the Pacific West Coast.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, two states with early Presidential contests, the UCC has 188 and 138 congregations respectively.

In recent years, the UCC has posted growth in the South. The denominations second largest church, the 5,500-member Victory UCC near Atlanta, affiliated with the UCC in 2002. The UCCs fourth-largest, the 4,300-member Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas, Texas, joined in 2006, as did churches in Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Columbia, S.C., among other places.

Last year, the UCC launched its national Nehemiah Project with plans to start or welcome at least 250 new southern churches within five years.

While Obama is the only UCC candidate in the 2008 presidential election, the 2004 campaign included two UCC members, both Democrats. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, now chair of the Democratic Party, is a member of First Congregational UCC in Burlington, Vt., and then US Senator Bob Graham is a member of Miami Lakes Congregational UCC in Florida.

The current US Congress includes 10 UCC members five Republicans and five Democrats.

With kind acknowledgements to the UCC news service

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