Interesting, no?
ADDED: Here's the whole episode. And going back to January 14, 2007, here's my blog post that this segment was based on, and the underlying article in the TimesOnline, which was called "Obama's charm lost on America's black activists." It's interesting to go back and see how things looked at the time:
Civil rights leaders who have dominated black politics for much of the past two decades have pointedly failed to embrace the 45-year-old Illinois senator who is considering a bid to become America’s first black president....
The Rev Al Sharpton, the fiery New York preacher who joined the Democratic primary race in 2004, said he was considering another presidential run of his own. And Harry Belafonte, the calypso singer who became an influential civil rights activist, said America needed to be “careful” about Obama: “We don’t know what he’s truly about.”
The unexpected coolness between the old civil rights guard and the new Democratic hopeful has added an intriguing twist to the budding rivalry between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton...
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14 comments:
I got it to work and thankfully listened to Bob Wright's geeky lack of sense of humour in full volume.
Can't find anything pertinent to say about this episode, over 1 and a half-years later.
Sure, Sharpton and Jackson are backing Obama publicly, but as we've seen recently, they're still fairly annoyed with him -- in some undefineable, generational, perhaps macho way.
But Ann did mention that the reason many people do like Obama is that he resembles any other (white) politician. A lot of people feel discomfitted by saying this out loud, but you know it plays a factor. He's clearly NOT a Jesse Jackson or even Andrew Young kind of black pol.
But this is less true now, don't you think?
Cheers,
Victoria
And by support, you mean desires "to cut his nuts out"? And saying that "He talks down to niggers"? Ol' Jesse is just that kind of supporter.
With friends like that, etc...
May I suggest no more bloggingheads battles with Mr. Wright.
He seems to take a long time, and uses a lot of words, to say very little.
(but that might have just been more pronounced in this clip cause he was carefully parsing himself in the minefield of racial/post-racial politics regarding Sen. Obama)
It's a great idea if he picks Michael Phelps. After all he has met more experiance in foreign affairs after all!
Al Shaprton IS NOT a civil rights leader, let alone one of the old guard civil right's leaders.
Since when is calling yourself something credible evidence that you are what you say you are. Being a criminal, an extortionist, and responsible for riots and killings does not a civil rights leader make. Otherwise Manson would be one.
Sharton comes from the say it proud I'm Black and I'm loud school of liberation ministry; especially "Give me the money". He is a Jesse Jackson wannabe; aphony who made tons of money and fame on the big lie. Why anyone whould wannabe Jesse is beyond me, but hey, what do I know.
My favorite Black minister was Reverend Ike. He was not a phony or a fraud. Everyone knew exactly where he was coming from.
I've pruned the comments way back on this post. Apologies to everyone I cut. Nothing was offensive, but there was a lot of discussion of a technical problem... and then the Olympics and links to favorite songs. While that is often okay and tends to happen on the last post of the night, I didn't want it on this subject.
Please stay on at least the subject of Obama here. And you can email me if you want to discuss my decision to cut so much.
"... All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?"
***
It's very easy to see why the older generation of leaders wasn't (isn't) so keen on Obama, and just as easy to see why they're having to bite their tongues now and pretend to show support.
Here's a thought: why was it so difficult for us to predict what happened, that if Obama managed to eke out one victory and show blacks that whites would vote for him, an avalanche of black support would move over.
What were we thinking?
"What were we thinking?"
I think "we" in the sense of white people did not fully grasp how deeply black people felt that white people would not vote for a black man to be President. Once they saw it demonstrated in Iowa, everything changed.
Me, I'm brown, but I'll count myself as an honorary white for this one. :p
Perhaps we also overestimated the idea of a mystical connection between the Clintons and black people.
Hey, what happened to all the earlier comments before my "I got it to work" at 9:29?
There were comments about IE v. Firefox, etc.
Pruning, Victoria. Check out AA's 4:29 message about staying on topic.
The only thing I have to say about this is that we'll be "post-racial" when you can't tell what color the demographic is by candidate by who they votes for.
Here's a thought: why was it so difficult for us to predict what happened, that if Obama managed to eke out one victory and show blacks that whites would vote for him, an avalanche of black support would move over.
I don't know, but I did try to tell you.
(And also that there was a bit more complexity, and also more diversity in key places that, for Iowa, reflected other places in this country. I even supplied pix. At least one of which you all saw.)
And you can believe it or not, but this isn't mostly a ITYS comment, but rather something else, entirely.
Go back and look at the Althouse post.
(Also, for myself, I've gone back and looked at those caucus snaps I took, just to make sure I'm not misremembering, or dreaming. Lots of African-Americans in them, and as it turns out, those citizens have turned out to be prescient, or at least emblematic. Not that anyone wanted to to talk about then, or now.)
For my part, BTW, and FWIW, in the interest of disclosure, I'm in the wilderness, as this elongated season has unfolded. (The mixed metaphor is appropriate, in this case.)
We shall see.
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