People are linking this Newsbuster's item with Michelle Obama talking about a Black inferiority complex. How can that be? It isn't as if someone would take advantage of Martin Luther King Day to remind them about life on the plantation, is it?
You know, there's always that doubt in the back of the minds of people of color. People who've been oppressed and haven't been given real opportunities. That you never really believe. That you believe that somehow, someone is better than you. You know, deep down inside, you doubt whether you can do it ...
WSJ: Hillary Clinton's recent claim that Republicans run the House of Representatives like a "plantation" was old-fashioned political and racial pandering. After all, she uttered this remark at what certainly would have been a prime venue for her husband: a largely black audience on Martin Luther King Day.
"People who've been oppressed and haven't been given real opportunities." This is the world view of the self-victimized whiners. Other than those few who inherit wealth, and even some of them, successful people recognize an opportunity others fail to see, take a risk on it, and work hard to realize success. They are not "...given...opportunities."
Posted by: Fred Beloit | Monday, November 12, 2007 at 05:52 PM
This is not about being self-victimized whiners. GEEZ!!
Michelle Obama is speaking directly about the history of blacks in America. She was addressing the legacy of TWELVE generations of slavery followed by another 100 years of Jim Crow, in this country. Michelle is not attempting to project anything onto whites. This is not about Michelle being racist, rather it is about the mental impact of RACISM.
MLK said it best when asked how he had the courage to walk in those lines and protest for a better America he thought about it when he wrote his letter from the Birmingham jail...he said that his daughter asked him why she could not swim in the public swimming pool and as he answered her to tell her about her station in life as a Negro he could see the clouds of racial prejudice forming in the blue sky of her 6 year old mind. Imagine having to tell your child what they CAN't do, so that they learn 'their place' in society. Imagine it, can you? Think it builds self=esteem?
White folks simply do not get how the mental shackles of racism have been passed on for generations to black folks. White folks forget that many of us have grandmothers who were not allowed to sit in public balconeys or drink out of public water fountains. So many whites do not understand that blacks are only ONE generation removed from the JimCrow era of racism in this country. That pervasive racism severely limited opportunities for blacks and the vestiges still exist in homes all over America where 70 year old grandmothers live with their families and 80 year old uncles can still tell the stories of how they were called boy at 50.
That is why Michelle said that she is hoping they will wake up. All blacks who 'pioneer' or blaze a trail have significant scars and the community has significant fears. If you ever want to know how bad racism was to combat, just recall these words spoken by a black athlete who integrated ball playing in the 60s when asked what it was like and how bad it was, he replied "If they tell me I need to integrate heaven to get in, I just won't go"
This is not about white folks it is about the historical legacy of racism in this country when it comes to black folks having optimism, hopes, ideals and the esteem and courage to pursue their dreams. They have to overcome generations of fear in their OWN homes first to garner the support that will provide that foundation.
Learn something about America...it is not all peaches and cream even AFTER the civil rights act.
Posted by: sagacious | Monday, November 12, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Balderdash!
This nothing but political opportunism and racially motivated posturing for votes.
Just more typical Democrat pandery and dramatizing for the votes of the blacks.
Why not focus on the opportunities of the present and the hope for the future, instead of dwelling upon the miseries of the distant past?
Posted by: seekeronos | Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 09:48 AM