Note that the WH being too quick on the trigger is one of the many results of white folks' constant and incessant work over the previous decades at de-legitimatizing any and all calls of racism from black folks.
Every time we say assert the standard theresnoracism lies ("just a few bad apples", "oversensitive", "reverse-racism" etc.) we add to the drip-drip-drip background environment within which we white folks allow ourselves to get away with racist behavior on a regular basis (backwards-b girl, Sherrod, Obama hates white people, ACORN, "that's reparations!", and so on).
Knowing that they'll be shouted down loudly by white folks of any nominal political persuasion, black folks are increasingly more likely to stay quiet when racist stuff happens, or force themselves to appear to be UBERANTIREVERSERACISTS just so that white folks won't mentally (and vocally) tag them as one of those kind of black people.
After these decades of white folks laying the groundwork for this behavior, it is especially amusing to see white folks today bitching at black folks (Obama, say) for not having the balls to push back.
lmao.
Well-played, white folks. Well-played indeed.
by punditician on Tue Jul 20, 2010 at 04:30:04 PM PDT
Before you go on to the next part, I would like let you know that I misinterpreted punditicians remark of:
After these decades of white folks laying the groundwork for this behavior, it is especially amusing to see white folks today bitching at black folks (Obama, say) for not having the balls to push back.
By doing so, I misrepresented his views at the beginning of the body of my diary. My apologies punditicians. you seem like a real decent guy. (or gal!)
Thank You punditician for the title to this diary and for your comments. I don't agree with all of them, especially the comment about black folks "not having the balls to push back." It is not a matter of having the balls to push back, it's about a strategy of putting up with a certain amount of shit just so you can keep life moving forward. In Obama's case it is not his life, it is this whole country that needs to move forward.
The original title of my diary was going to be "Calm down white girl, it's okay..." That's a saying my oldest son and a couple of his friends use amongst themselves. My son is Black, White and Native American. He and his friends have laughed at themselves because they all have had experiences where they wound up alone with a White woman who was obviously scared and freaked out about it. They joke that in some of those situations they were more nervous than the woman. And Lord help them if anything ever turns up missing.
My son encounters this every so often at work. He drives truck and he has had times when delivering to a white woman's house when he can feel the fear. He keeps from getting too pissed about and in fact can almost find the situation is a bit humorous by imagining saying to these women, "Calm down white girl...it's okay. I'm just here doing my job." He is careful about where he stands when ringing the doorbell and always has his work ID ready. It's crazy, but that is the way it is. He also puts up with a certain amount at racism from guys at the warehouse. Sure he could fight about it or sue or whatever. But as says, his life stops moving forward right then and there. If he was to fight about every racial slur or slight, his whole life would be spent fighting instead of living. Instead he picks his battles very carefully. And he has said as a Black man he would never have the patience to run this country.
Which bring us to President Obama. Do all those calling for his head know that he is a Black man? Do they really understand that fact and all of the ramifications that go along with it? He is going up against a well funded racist hate machine while taking on such problems as the wars, health care reform, financial reform, the gulf spill, problems in Israel, unemployment and a near depression. And never, ever, ever has a President been met with so much hatred. In addition to political differences, he also has to contend with racial hatred spurred on by racists and a press that manages to make everything his fault. Even our so called friendly folks at MSNBC find fault with just about EVERYTHING he does. It does not matter how distant the connection is between the issue and his actions, he is ultimately the bad guy, the weak, guy, the sell out. There are a fair number here on Kos who push this same lie. In another a thread a commenter wrote how much easier it is for white people to be color-blind than for people of color. This is more so in the case of our President. I would guess that at least 25% of white people are racist to some significant degree. He cannot ignore this fact. In every move he makes he has to take this into account. And you just are fukkin ignorant if you don't realize this. And if you judge him and his actions without taking this account you are as much a part of the problem as Fox news.
He just got a major financial reform bill passed and maybe it's not perfect, but its a damn big step forward. (I guess one good thing about people here attacking him about the Shirley Sherrod incident is that they haven't had the time to attack the Wall Street reform bill.) This reform bill has gotten hardly any mention on Kos or in the media. And the fact that a racist smear machine started this whole thing with Sherrod is getting less attention by everybody, including MSNBC than the "It is all Obama's fault" meme. There is a 6 Degrees of Blame Obama game going on where everybody tries their best find a way to Blame the President for everything. It amazes me that the left goes to such extremes to connect and blame Obama with every negative that happens in this world.
Maybe it shouldn't surprise me. I am a Native American woman and I hear ignorant or racist stuff fairly often. But perhaps my biggest disappointments have been things said by people I was friendly with. The latest is their reaction to my youngest son being accepted to Yale. Considering where we come from, this is amazing. You would think my friends would just be happy for him and me. But one of the first things said by about half of them after congratulating me was "Did he get in because he is Native American?" I don't deny it may have had something to do with it. But they know his abilities, including his GPA, his SAT scores, his AP scores, and his volunteer work stack up to anyone who was accepted to an IVY League school. He is in the 98 or 99 percentile in everything. But they still have to bring up race, like that is more important than all he has done. It got to the point that I quit telling anybody because I'd get so pissed at this reaction. Do you think the parents of the legacies who are admitted ever get asked this question? I doubt it.
And I doubt that half the criticisms President Obama gets from the left would happen if he were white. If he were white, he would never have to face this garbage. It just wouldn't come up. Suppose it was Hillary Clinton who won the election. If this same thing happened only Shirley Sherrod was a white woman and we had woman president, this would have never been a story. Nobody would be screaming about Clinton being weak on gender discrimination. Nobody would even connect her with the resignation. I worry even more about this country if the people here on Kos can't see that.
President Obama's job is much harder because he is Black man. And he can never forget for one second that he is a Black man even while trying to keep race from being the center of his presidency. His race causes fear in a whole of folks and you know the power of fear. So we need to have his back because if we don't nobody else will. And I will throw in the standard disclaimer that that doesn't mean we have approve of 100% of his actions, but we do need to stop looking for ways to blame him for everything.
Well-played white folks, well played indeed....