Jackson Free Press

Leonard Pitts' column today is both smart and hilarious.

I'd like to add to this that I interviewed some 18 year olds in the suburbs near Portland last week, and one asked if it is illegal for a black man to become president. The others, none of whom had heard of Obama, said if a black man ever became president, he'd be shot.

For all its getting-off-the-hook about it, the Northwest has some serious race conversations to have.

Previous Comments

ID

110254

Comment

Bump. This is a brilliant, brilliant article. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-02-02T13:58:07-06:00

ID

110255

Comment

So far I think Tiger Woods has succeeded in being multi-racial, as opposed to being Black, since he plays golf real well, is rich, and doesn't have any white in him. If he were white and black or vice versa, wouldn't he automatically default into being black? If he were poor, couldn't play golf at all, and walked or drove through the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time wouldn't he be treated just like all other Blacks because of his skin texture? Or would the average majority-race police officer immediately become enlightened and see and consider the multi-racial identity and treat him like multiracial people are treated in this country? Are multi-racial people treated better than Blacks? If all Africans, Afro-Americans, Blacks, and Negroes could play golf real well and were rich would it make any difference in how we're perceived and treated? I don't know I'm just wondering! Orenthal James Simpson appeared to have gotten beyond many of the restrictions of being black in America until a couple of white people got in way of his switch-blade. Now, he's having a real rought time trying to make a comback. We black folks aren't crazy either. Neither do we trust a mad O. J. with a knife. I said earlier we need some classes on what to do about blacks, women and other minorities having the "audacity of hope" and trying to achieve positions and things beyond their assigned places and limitations. It was much easier when these people happily stayed in their places. There simply isn't enough room for everyone! Why is this so hard to understand?

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2007-02-02T15:05:03-06:00

ID

110256

Comment

I should add in case anyone doesn't know that I joking and mocking the powers that be in my last few sentences of the earlier comment.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2007-02-03T13:25:04-06:00

ID

110257

Comment

Ray, I really adore you. I heard this NPR program today where this woman was just railing all over the place about how Obama isn't black because his ancestors weren't slaves. And I am so confused: when did that become the measuring stick of being black? What does 'black' mean? This woman said Obama didn't have to grow up with the same struggles as black people, but I really think being biracial would be even tougher. Maybe you wouldn't be accepted by either major group. Anyway, she railed on, then tried to ultimately make the point that she isn't mad at Obama for not being black but she's mad at white people that he's the "black" person we latch onto. Well, I understand her frustration that white people will only accept a black man who is light-skinned with a voice like a white man, but a) I think accepting the Barak Obamas of the world can only lead the U.S. closer to accepting the thick-voiced, whiskey-skinned black people later. Also, why do black people always get mad and see people as less black when they're articulate? Everyone is up in arms about white people because Joe Biden called Obama articulate, but black sometimes people do the same thing to each other! I just interviewed this kid the other day in Portland whose black friends call him white because he speaks 'properly' (now I personally think 'proper speech' is all relative, but I'm using these relative terms in the ways other people use them). Anyway, the strangest part of the whole program to me was at the end when the NPR correspondant got the lady to admit that she had married a white man and her kids are biracial. How do those kids feel, listening to their mama say he ain't black cause his mama is white (and, too, because his dad came here voluntarily rather than on a slaveboat, but still, the white mama has to play a part ...)

Author

casey

Date

2007-02-06T12:56:31-06:00

ID

110258

Comment

Thanks Casey. I adore you, too. Yeap, this race issue is a confusing matter. I don't like to see myself as separate from Africans. But some of them have told me I'm not pure. To temporarily injure their arrogance of superiority about me I've generally said "Thank God I'm not pure." It injured me to say this because I know too well I didn't voluntarily end up hers and my ancestors suffered long and hard as a result of this forced subjugation. Moreover, I don't want to give some racist idiot the idea that I think he did us a favor by capturing, abusing and destroying our sense of family and knowledge of self, history and lineage. Similarly, I don't like to separate needlessly myself from others of any race. However, I have studied and noticed that some folks don't want my company. I can handle the truth of this and would never force myself on anyone. That woman you described is confused and sick in the head. Barack Obama, too, understand this race problem. He knows he's considered Black despite his mixture. He can handle it. I bet he also knows some misguided Blacks will also say he's not Black. An old wise man I like to get advice from is a very light-skinned person. He showed me a picture of his parents. His mother is very light-skinned and his father is clearly white. He says no one wanted him and his siblings to play with their children. The Whites resented them for being mixed and the Blacks disliked them because they were ligh-skinned and although usually hated by white, too, they often received advantages darker Blacks couldn't get. Becuase of all the complications and stereotypes about race, sex, gender, and sexual orientation: I take the position of being the best person I can be no matter my race or sex. The good people beyond such limiting aspects or walls will like and adore us. The rest can kiss... As a youth I got ridiculed a lot for refusing to drank alcohol, do drugs and sleep with every woman or girl who wanted to sleep with me. I also got ridiculed for marching to my own beat even when I didn't really know what the beat was. I simply said the hell with everyone else, I intend to find out whether something else exist.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2007-02-06T13:31:52-06:00

ID

110259

Comment

As to the being articulate, or smart label that I mostly got, I'm smart and slow as to some matters. When it matters I can be very smart and skilled. When I don't care I perform and act like it. I don't like to be easily categorized. I prefer there to be mystery about me. None of us can be totally defined as articulate, smart, slow, and the likes. I prefer that people think I'm a little bit of all of them. I bet my comment on this blog or thread have shown a multitude of understandings, skills, deficits, enlightenment, oblivion, and cluelessness. I don't know that Obama is any more articulate than Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Braun, Shirley Chisolm. All four of these are very articulate and smart. And Sharpton could be the most articulate although probably the least formally educated.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2007-02-06T13:54:47-06:00