I just got through watching CNN Presents: Black in America, Reclaiming the Dream.  It featured a panel discussion that included many scholars, religious leaders and activists in the black community.  There were several segments including ones on the breakdown of the black family, the achievement gap and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

I found it especially interesting that not once did I hear any serious discussion of racism or any serious dialog about black/white interaction in America at all.

Even though race has no biological basis, people cling to it as if it were a religion. People were obsessed with asking if Obama was Black enough before South Carolina. Now the Republicans are trying to suggest that he is "too" Black. What we need is a clear test that everyone can take to determine if they are Black or not.

It is hard to ignore it in this campaign.  Race.  

For the first time ever, we have a presumptive nominee who is an African American.  There is no escaping it.  Race.  

Senator Obama delivered nothing short of an inspiring speech about it.  Race.  

But don’t we live in a colorblind society?  Shouldn’t race be inconsequential?    No.  And no.

Thoughts about being Black or White in America.

There have been a lot of diaries this past week about FISA, and a lot of subsequent responses as to the nature of just how horribly our nominee has "betrayed" us. In the quest to restore some measure of sanity, the actual practical outcome of the election is lost from sight.

More after the fold.

On this morning's edition of Imus In The Morning, Don Imus claimed that his remarks yesterday about Adam "Pacman" Jones were widely misinterpreted. He says that his comments were sarcasm and that he meant to insinuate that Mr. Jones had been arrested six times because of racial profiling.

This is a kind of difficult situation to read. Obviously this was going to be Imus' defense whether legitimate or not - but I think it boils down to one thing. If he DOESN'T KNOW who Pacman Jones is it very well might not be racist. But if he DOES KNOW who Pacman Jones is it seems clearly racist. Sorry I-man but this particular African American is not the victim of racial profiling - Pacman is just a legitimately crazy dude that seeks out trouble. I mean honestly, who makes it rain at a Vegas strip club and then makes a scene to get the money back??

Anyways, I don't really know whether to believe Imus or not but here is the full audio of his defense. Give it a listen and weigh in with your own thoughts and opinions:

As I browsed through the list posted today on TPM about staffing additions to team Obama, I grew curious about the last name listed; African American Vote Director: Rick Wade

While other Kossaks are pondering the deep inner meaning of the Solis-Doyle hire, I wanted to take a good look at the person who will more than likely be coordinating GOTV efforts in African-American communities.

So I cross the street and she asks me, if she could pay me to get this SNAKE outta her daycare. I'm like- don't you know black dudes don't do that steve irvin shit?- okay I didn't say that, but I sure as hell thought it...But anyway she's like it's small, it's like a worm-

So I agreed to go with her to at least LOOK at the snake before I signed up. When I got in there one woman had all the kids in a room , with the door locked, which I understand. Then I see like 7 or 8 women, grown ass women, some bigger than me, all freaked out like the place just got robbed.
    I'm not exaggerating- when I saw the snake, a garden snake, maybe a foot long, and as thick as a pen. This thing was puny, and it was just chillin on top of a box. I asked for a towel or something I could put it in- So i grabbed it with a small towel, wrapped it up, and tossed it in some woods away from the building...

With all the FOX news jabs on Obama, this topic has come up.  Everybody knows down deep that it is just unacceptable to have "Baby Mama" on national TV, and it's also unacceptable to repeatedly make the "Osama" mistake too.

Afterall, Obama is black because of biology.  Same with his given name.  Neither of these things has anything to do with who he is.  Abusing these things on National Television is wrong, and many are going to call it hate speech.

There is a very strong case for them being right, but I actually prefer to just characterize it as unacceptable and indefensible and call it good.

Putting my asbestos suit on. I am unambiguously trying to stir things up. Devils Advocate. Discuss. Tell me I'm wrong. But.

African Americans will be rioting on election day 2008. I'm likely to join them. When their voting rights are suppressed in the first election of one of their own are enforced, the result will be inevitable.

UPDATE Epilogue (10:40 CDT June 16, 2008): I could have worded things more delicately, but I'll stand by the main premise. Also, "concern trolls" are usually interested in raising doubts in order to support the opposite stance of the community. We all overuse the term in lieu of engaging in the substance of an argument. So, if I'm a concern troll, how is my diary going to inadvertently influence how black and white people vote? Yup. Logically, not at all. In the end, my point is more to ensure that caging doesn't happen and that enough working voter machines are in place in locales such as Cleveland and St. Louis (when they have NOT been sufficient in the past).

If you don't think it can happen, you haven't been paying attention for the last dozen years. Make me wrong (as usual) people.

This from cnn.com:

http://www.cnn.com/...

CNN correspondent and Grand Dragon Wizard Jason Carroll implies that Barack Obama marked himself as biracial on his census form.  By which he means that Barack Obama SHOULD HAVE marked himself as biracial on his census form.

Cnn's Jason Carroll

Surfing through the black-oriented political blogs yesterday, trying to get a sense of the reactions to Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, I was struck by the number of comments by those who still didn’t think Barack Obama was "black" enough to lay claim to being the first Democratic nominee.  

The fact that he grew up with a white mother, an Indonesian stepfather, and his two white grandparents have convinced these holdouts that Obama’s upbringing disqualifies him from the right to claim to be African American.

Of all the things we as black people have done to ourselves since we’ve been in America, none of them is more preposterous than this need to authenticate ourselves through this imaginary, ill-conceived litmus test, a measurement whose many permutations all contain the same common denominators – to have experienced at some time during your life a certain amount of shared suffering, poverty, or poverty-level subsistence.  

I have been involved in the discussion regarding the DNCC Blogger Dust-Up from the beginning.

I decided to write about it in my Anchorage Daily News Community Voices Column:

"...there was another accusation that was much more controversial and mostly ignored in the blogosphere ... until the mainstream media got the story. Several "blogs-of-color" claimed that all of the blogs in the state blogger pool were "white-male blogs" ... suggesting that the DNC designed that on purpose. Two of the black bloggers claimed that since the state blogs had special floor access the DNC did not want "black people on the floor."

I was one of the state bloggers and not male so I took exception. "

The topic of this diary has been published numerous times, but it can not be stated enough. What Obama's candidacy means to the black community is so difficult to put into words. However, these bright young men do a wonderful job.

As many of you are no doubt aware by now, Barack and Michelle Obama did a celebratory fist pound just before the victory speech in Minnesota on Tuesday. The moment struck me as funny, charming and strangely symbolic on an evening when the first African American secured the nomination from a major party.

But the fist pound has started to become a hot topic and was even brought up in last night's interview with Brian Williams. I've even seen a lot of straight up racist responses to the fist pound, in which many are responding with xenophobic paranoia and black stereotypes.

So what do you think of it? Was it a political gaffe? An affectionate moment between Barack and Michelle? I personally enjoyed it but I'm sure others will react differently.

Here is the video of the fist pound along with Brian Williams' question to Obama:

I’ve been a strong supporter of Barack Obama for many reasons: his leadership style, his practical liberalism, his focus on the future and his goal of bringing Americans from all walks of life together to get things done.  I also support him because he’s black.

Don’t misunderstand me—it’s not that I wouldn’t be supporting him anyhow, or that voting for a black man makes me feel good as a white person, or anything as surface or superficial as that. But his race and his background is important to me, because I’ve lived in so many places where largely African-American, Latino, or Asian communities were metaphorically walled off, mired in poverty and violence, with too few signs of progress making their way through the neighborhoods.  And I wanted so much for children in those communities, for biracial children and children of all colors to have the most positive example you could find of why color doesn’t have to be a barrier to success, and that no matter what color you are, you can grow up to be anything that you want to be—even the President of the United States.

That’s why for me, a single comment was the single best part of the single best story that I read this week: "Tonight is the night that all Americans became one."

I was born in October of 1968.

It was perhaps the most profound, tumultuous, significant and tragic single year in U.S. history.  Most of the important events of that year happened before I arrived on the scene, but I still feel connected to them by the coincidental appearance of this date on my drivers license.

In Viet Nam, it was the year of the Mai Lai massacre and the Tet offensive.  In Czechoslovakia it was the year of the Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion.  In Mexico City it was the year of the Olympic Games and a black power salute.

In the U.S. it was the year of Civil Rights legislation.  It was also the year that Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed.

And Martin Luther King Jr.

Here is the Barack Obama's speech on what is truly an historic political evening. If you had said years ago that a freshman Senator was going to raise $200 million dollars and defeat Hillary Clinton in the primaries I would have said you were crazy. If you had added that he was an African American named Barack Hussein Obama I would have asked whether you were sober.

But now - on this night it is finally official. Barack Obama will be the nominee for the Democratic party and quite possibly the next President of the United States. Here is his victory speech given (ironically) at the same location the Republicans are to hold their convention.

So without further ado: