Showing posts with label Senator Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senator Barack Obama. Show all posts

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Who You Callin' a Sexist?


from NewsOne.com

LEFT OF BLACK:
Memo To John McCain: A Male Chauvinist Pig is Still a Pig
by Mark Anthony Neal

So, Senator John McCain’s campaign has accused Senator Barack Obama of sexism in relation to the latter’s use of the phrase, “if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.” That the mainstream press has spent so much time and energy on this non-issue, speaks volumes about the extent to which real examples of sexism and misogyny remain beyond their full interpretive grasp.

As recently as a month ago, NBC commentator and former NFL player Tiki Barber referred to his on-air colleague Jenna Wolfe as a “full medal cunt,” during NBC’s Olympic broadcasts. The comment generated little, if any, press scrutiny. Now, the same press wants us to believe that Obama’s use of an odd colloquialism is somehow tantamount to issues like domestic violence, inequitable wages, the rape and murder of female military personnel by their male peers and the media’s own questionable coverage of Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin.

Of course, that it was John McCain who felt compelled to raise the issue of sexism in the Obama campaign is absurd in and of itself. My guess is that Senator McCain has likely never heard of the Ms. Foundation or the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, let alone the hundreds of less prominent, though no less effective, organizations and activists that combat sexism, misogyny and violence against women and girls on-the-ground, everyday.

This is the same John McCain who uttered nary a mumbling word when a supporter rhetorically asked, in reference to Senator Hillary Clinton, “How do we beat the bitch”? Now we are to accept that issues of gender are high on his list of domestic concerns? In this particular instance, McCain is in company with many other men: he refuses to challenge other men on legitimate examples of sexism and misogyny.

In the process, he, like they, becomes complicit in the very sexism and misogyny that they claim to be concerned about.

Read Full Essay @

Monday, September 8, 2008

Melissa Harris-Lacewell on Smalltown, America


from The Chicago Tribune

Obama's own small-town values
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell
September 8, 2008

Speakers at the Republican National Convention talked a lot about small-town values. They told America that a man from Chicago could not relate to the homegrown ethics of ordinary people. I know better. Barack Obama was my state senator. Right in the middle of that Senate district is my beloved small town, Hyde Park. There is no small town that knows more about sacrifice, honesty, hard work, community and patriotism.

We know about terrorism. In Hyde Park, I was embraced by dozens of neighbors on Sept. 11, 2001. We stood at Lake Michigan and turned our eyes toward our precious Chicago skyline. We kept vigil over our city, wondering if we would be targeted next.

We know how to be neighborly. Hyde Park is where a homeless man caught me when I stumbled while walking home in the snow eight months pregnant. He carried my bags 10 blocks. He wasn't rich, but he was righteous. Hyde Park is where we make room for each other to set up tents and barbecue in the parks on warm summer days. We parade down 53rd Street on Independence Day and together we listen to blues and jazz. We celebrate America with the flair and flavor of the best patriots.

We know about the energy crisis. In Hyde Park we walk to work, take Metra or catch the No. 6 bus downtown. We are city people, but we share our trees with the monk parakeets and feed the pigeons in the park.

We know about the power of faith. In Hyde Park we brave the bitter winds to gather in Rockefeller Chapel on Thanksgiving morning. We are welcomed by African drums; we are blessed by rabbis, priests and preachers; then we are sent home to our holiday feasts by the smell of burning sage offered by Indian tribal leaders.

We know about caring for our young people. In Hyde Park I watched a young woman turn down corporate job offers so that she could take over as principal of a failing public high school. With the help of parents, the commitment of students, and her own powerful determination, she is making Kenwood Academy one of the best schools in the city.

We know about diversity. Blacks and whites share a chess game in the park. Jews and Muslims work together to feed the hungry. Immigrants and citizens share the lakefront for a jog.

Read the Full Essay@

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Melissa Harris-Lacewell is a professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. She lived in Hyde Park and taught at the University of Chicago from 1999 to 2006. She misses it every day.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Hating the Message or Hating ON the Messenger?



William Jelani Cobb on the Black Left: "Obama and the Suicidal Left"

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Not a response, but this from my Vibe colleague Jalylah Burrell gets to the heart of something at the root of some displeasure with Obama:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright proved himself to have some foolish tendencies at his wild press conference, but damn it, he will always have a special place in my heart and my psyche and that of so many African Americans for cultivating a space in which we can be UNASHAMEDLY BLACK. We don't have to shrink from our color, our names, our musical tastes, our everything.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

March on Washington Overshadowed by Symbolism of Obama Speech


As fate would have it, Senator Barack Obama will receive his party’s presidential nomination on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. The symbolism of the moment has not been missed by the Democratic Party’s leadership and rank-and-file. Even mainstream news pundits have gone out of their way to connect Senator Obama’s nomination to the Civil Rights Movement. The expectation is that Obama will deliver an acceptance speech that will carry the gravitas of King’s historic address in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

In most potted histories of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is treated as the watershed moment in the movement—as if the movement came to a grinding halt and racial integration was fully achieved when all left the lawn that hot afternoon in August of 1963. In reality for King and many black leaders in this country, the March on Washington only put into critical focus the difficulty they faced in the struggle for racial and social justice in this country.

Read Full Essay @

Friday, May 30, 2008

Vet Obama? How About (White) America Vet Itself



from Critical Noir @ Vibe.com


CRITICAL NOIR:
Vet Obama? How About (White) America Vet Itself

by Mark Anthony Neal

So once again technology and the mainstream media have conspired to manufacture a political firestorm regarding another preacher, another sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ and another repudiation from Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Read the Full Essay