Obama - The Movie

Please visit my other blog, Difference of Opinion, for today's post. Don't be shy, leave a comment.

Well, well, well ...

... it would appear that Hillary Clinton's tactics have come back to bite her in the posterior! (I couldn't resist going back to the 7th grade in Mr. Faulk's class) Anything about this picture look a lil' strange to you? I received an e-mail this morning that had a picture of former President Bill Clinton shaking the hand of none other than - Rev. Jeremiah Wright. That's right, you see it, that is Wright and Clinton in 1998 at a breakfast at the White House. I'm not sure how you get on the guest list for one of those shindigs but I'm pretty sure the president has to know you or has to be associated with you in some way. Also within this particular e-mail, a short letter addressed to Wright is signed by Clinton, allegedly. I say allegedly because I don't believe this letter was really written by the former president. But anyway, apparently Wright was there to help the president through the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. I guess it is OK to link Obama with Wright because he's black and perhaps as angry as Wright, but it is not OK to link the Clintons with him because they're not, right? Wrong. If simply being linked to Wright is a campaign killer then it should yield the same response for the Clintons. It won't and I'm not surprised. I posted this picture and this response to show you that it shouldn't matter who you know or who you are "linked" with because you are two different. If I wanted to be a complete ass, I'd say that Wright condones the fact that former President Clinton cheated on his wife since this picture was taken on hours before Ken Starr's report about the president and his intern was leaked to the media. But I don't want to be one, so I won't say that - anymore. ;-)

We know, we know ...

... the melanin-challenged don't understand the "black church." They never have, don't expect them to start now. Rev. Jeremiah Wright threw Sen. Barack Obama under the bus yesterday. As much as he says he speaks only for himself and as much as Obama says Wright doesn't speak for him, it is quite clear that he does. Here's a newsflash for you, black folks have always been categorized and judged by the people who look like us. It's true, why do you think so many of us cringe when we hear our people use the word "nigga" and split verbs and butcher the English language? It's not because we're uppity, it's because no matter where we go, what we wear or who we associate ourselves with, we will always be looked at the same as the drug dealer, the high school drop out and just outright ignent! Am I saying that because we're educated we're better? Absolutely not. We're no better, we're no worse. What we are is fed up. We catch Hell from our lighter hued bretheren and our own people because "we think we're better." It's not that way at all. Since all of these snippets of Wright's sermons have surfaced and been taken out of context, all of Obama's naysayers, Clinton supporters and folks who just hate on him, he's been judged by what Wright says. My grandma told me a long time ago that people judge you by the company you keep and she was right. Eight years after her death, she's still right. Since these sermons have surfaced, black folks are being viewed as bitter, angry, belligerent and unpatriotic. While we certainly have a reason to be all that, the majority of us are not. If we're so damn unpatriotic why is it that the majority of the soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are of color? I'll tell you why. All of these patriotic, red blooded Americans are quick to spill blood and have it spilled for their country as long as those bleeding don't look like them. This whole thing is really starting to piss me off because I was thinking earlier this morning about how white people are not judged by those who are less than intelligent who belong to their race. If we judged white folks the way they judged us, we would assume that all of them are prejudiced like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms. We would assume that all of them are stupid like George W. Bush. But we don't do that, because they're all different and so are we. Don't judge Obama by Wright, they are two different people. Don't assume that Obama has had the same experiences Wright has, because he has not. I don't see anyone mowing down those leaders who are Catholic because their spiritual leaders molested children. So stop saying Obama and Wright are one in the same. But, it would help is Wright would go somewhere and sit down.

The Speech Heard 'Round the World

Finally, Sen. Barack Obama has addressed race in his campaign and guess what, folks still aren't happy. Surprised? Don't be. I learned a long time ago that you can never please everybody so there is no need to try. Obama made several very valid points about race and some of the relationships that he has had that transcend race and go beyond the surface dressing that the rest of the world sees. Here's the Mar. 18 speech in its entirety: Since the beginning of this race, Obama has maintained that this election is not based on race, but on the issues. Well it seems that Obama's counterparts have made the main issue race and some have even gone so far as to say he's living in a fantasy world. Now that some of his now former pastor's comments made in church services have surfaced and doomed to live on in perpetuity on YouTube, some people are starting to question whether or not Obama and the pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright are in fact prejudice. Here's the sound bite: Never mind the more than 400 years of systematic racism that's been allowed to thrive in this country. Never mind that church is still the only place where you will be able to catch black folks in a group that transcends generational and socio-economic boundaries. Never mind the fact that Obama is bi-racial. Pay attention to the fact that people who do not understand the black church are now condemning it. Pay attention only to the fact that white Americans say black people should just "get over it" because it is the fault of our white ancestors. Only pay attention to the fact that we must fear, belittle and condemn what we don't know. "Why are you saying all this, Smarty?" Well I'm glad you asked. I'm saying this because in the beginning of this race, Obama was a Muslim masquerading as a Christian to get elected. Now that it has been "discovered" that he is a Christian, he's not the "kind" of Christian that is acceptable in America. I say to all of those critics and people, make up your mind. Either you want him to be a Christian or you don't. They used to say he wasn't black enough or he was too black. Again, I say, make up your mind! Here's a newsflash for you, a lot of black preachers, shoot, I'll go out on a limb and say the majority of black preachers have at some point addressed their congregation in a manner that relates closely to this whether about race, sexual orientation or gender specific topics. Don't believe me? Take in a church service at a predominantly black church after a major issue that affects the black community. I personally guarantee that the subject/sermon or what have you will be something similar to that one. The only thing wrong with that speech was the fact that he brought politics into the pulpit, other than that, more power to him. Church has always and forever been the core meeting place for people of color. There are no country clubs, no neighborhood committees or anything that resembles that outside of the church. I don't think Wright's speech was hate speech at all, add to that the fact that all we get is a freakin' sound bite so we don't know the context of his words. When people like Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and the whole Fox News team take words and twist them or take them out of context to mean what they want them to mean. Don't believe me, check out how she listens defensively and totally takes it all out of context: I'm not saying that people aren't entitled to their opinions but when people make these opinions with little or no information they are wrong. She strikes me as the type of person who has lived in a shell thinking that the world is good for her entire life and that America is always right. It bothers me that she is making a snap judgement about a pastor and all of his congregation and every sermon the man has ever preached based on the snippet of a sermon that she's heard and what people have told her. She, along with her cohorts, needs to attend a black church and I don't mean one of those dead churches without a whole lot going on. I mean one of those COGIC churches full of those "tongue-talking, sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled and fire-Baptised" kind of churches where those folks have been through some things. She needs to spend time in these black communities where racism is alive and well and where black folks still can't get ahead regardless of what they do. I don't understand how she equates the pastor telling his congregation that America is run by "rich, white men" to racist ideology. She acts like the man stood up in the pulpit and said, "Kill Whitey!" The man has stopped going to the church, denounced, rejected and renounced the preachers words. He said he doesn't agree with those statements and the pastor has recused himself from the campaign. Can we please move on now and get on with the business of electing a president?