Obama: "That's Just How White Folks Will Do You"

A 1995 piece in the liberal Chicago Reader basically refutes Obama's statements that he never heard Pastor Jeremiah Wright invoke his racist rants and also provides some additional insight into Obama's early years in politics.

"That's just how white folks will do you," Obama writes. "It wasn't merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn't know they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserving of their scorn."

Obama on the rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright this year:

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.

In the Chicago Reader it seems Obama was well aware of rhetoric like Wright's and most likely others, as well. How else to explain this? Or did he simply assume this was going on, never having heard it himself?

He says he's tired of seeing the moral fervor of black folks whipped up--at the speaker's rostrum and from the pulpit--and then allowed to dissipate because there's no agenda, no concrete program for change.

Gee, he couldn't have possibly meant Wright here ... right? He wasn't against what Wright was doing, he wanted to prolong the energy inspired by it. Note another key phrase, as well.

"We have no shortage of moral fervor," said Obama. "We have some wonderful preachers in town--preachers who continue to inspire me--preachers who are magnificent at articulating a vision of the world as it should be. In every church on Sunday in the African-American community we have this moral fervor; we have energy to burn.

"But as soon as church lets out, the energy dissipates. We must find ways to channel all this energy into community building. The biggest failure of the civil rights movement was in failing to translate this energy, this moral fervor, into creating lasting institutions and organizational structures."

Oh, but the Right and Christian groups have it easy because they are so narrow-minded and intolerant.

"The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia. And they also have hijacked the higher moral ground with this language of family values and moral responsibility.

Obama also suggests that racism among whites, as opposed to among blacks, is particularly troubling. Yeah, we have so many white preachers like Wright, don't ya know....

Obama, who had to reconcile these sentiments with the loving support he had at home from his white mother and grandparents, dismissed much of his buddies' analysis as "the same sloppy thinking" used by racist whites, but he found the racism of whites to be particularly stubborn and obnoxious.

As for Hispanics ... eh .... while at Occidental:

There he played it cool and detached, and began to confuse partying and getting high with rebellion. After he and his buddies joked about the Mexican cleaning woman's forlorn reaction to the mess they'd created at a party,...

This may be an FM recording of Obama on Johnnie Owens - not quite sure.

Obama's work on the south side has won him the friendship and respect of many activists. One of them, Johnnie Owens, left the citywide advocacy group Friends of the Parks to join Obama at the Developing Communities Project. He later replaced Obama as its executive director.

Another reference to Obama's very close relationship with ACORN. Obama only ran a get out the vote initiative ... hmm, what does the fraudulent ACORN do? But you already know that.

Obama continues his organizing work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons on the south side. Conducting a session in a New Horizons classroom, Obama, tall and thin, looks very much like an Ivy League graduate student. Dressed casually prep, his tie loosened and his top shirt button unfastened, he leads eight black women from the Grand Boulevard community through a discussion of "what folks should know" about who in Chicago has power and why they have it. It's one of his favorite topics, and the class bubbles with suggestions about how "they" got to be high and mighty.

Collectivist? Check:

But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations."

Comments

[John]

This is some good stuff. They're trying to smear Palin over something that happens all over America. It's something that no one expects or chooses.

Obama chose to be in this seperationist church. He can't be elected. Not for America's sake.

[SacTownmMan]

Nothing to see here.. move along.. whitey!

Maybe the NY Slimes will devote 3 articles covering this.....LOL!!

[Mr DeBakey]

"seperationist church"

Well,
Palin has her
seperationist party

John McCain - Country First
Sarah Palin - Country in the Top 10

[Lala]

Is this what Obama has in store for this country? When Michelle said Obama is going to require you to work is this what she was talking about? I'd love to see gang-bangers doing community service.

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_08_31-2008_09_06.shtml#1220243277

[SacTownmMan]

"a vision of the world as it should be"

This was scary when Michelle used the same line from the far left nutjob that impacted their lives in her "Temple of Doom" speech:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

I'm sure this will all be covered in the MSM any time now....... waiting........ waiting........!

We are having the single most socialist nutjob to come along in American politics shoved down our throats and we have to hope that the National Enquirer will cover it because we know that a 17 year old unwed mother is the only real news to the MSM!

[Cowboy Girl]

I see the first of the liberal chimps has arrived, waving a leafy stick and flinging poop.

Debakey, Monkey.

[changer1701]

Wow...I hope this gets some play.

[Mr DeBakey]

"he wanted to prolong the energy inspired by it."

How? Why?

"We must find ways to channel all this energy into community building."

Community building?
Pretty radical.
Can't be having no community building.

[Cowboy Girl]

What's radical is trying to figure out what happened to 500 million bucks from the Annenberg Challenge that "community organizer" Obama and his...umm..."associate" Bill Ayers were using to pay for community building, whatever the hell that means.

More liberal code words for: "Give me money, I'll funnel it to my buds".

[Torabora]

The Annenberg Challenge is figuring out where $500MILLION bucks went. Anyone know?

[syn]

"But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations."

All your everything are belonging to Obama.

My question is; how can anyone who is an Independent voter possibilty think of voting for Obama, would not such act be oxymoronic?

[William Smyth]

"But as soon as church lets out, the energy dissipates. We must find ways to channel all this energy into community building. The biggest failure of the civil rights movement was in failing to translate this energy, this moral fervor, into creating lasting institutions and organizational structures."

Obama doesn't mention Rev. Wright or Trinity UCC. It could be because Trinity UCC is all about building (relying on the grace of God) lasting institutions and organizational structures that can transform the community. This is probably one of the reasons why someone who started out as a community organizer would be attracted to Trinity.

Why do you begin the "That's Just How White Folks Will Do You" in mid-thought? Probably because it gives the false impression you wanted it to.

The prior 2 paragraphs.

When Obama moved back to his grandparents' home in Hawaii, to attend the prestigious Punahou School, he encountered race and class prejudice that would darken his politics even more. At first embarrassed by his race and African name, he soon bonded with the few other African-American students. He quickly learned that integration was a one-way street, with blacks expected to assimilate into a white world that never gave ground. He participated in bitter bull sessions with his buddies on the theme of "how white folks will do you." Obama, who had to reconcile these sentiments with the loving support he had at home from his white mother and grandparents, dismissed much of his buddies' analysis as "the same sloppy thinking" used by racist whites, but he found the racism of whites to be particularly stubborn and obnoxious.

Obama objected when his Punahou basketball coach upbraided the team for losing to "a bunch of niggers." Obama writes that the coach "calmly explained the apparently obvious fact that 'there are black people, and there are niggers. Those guys were niggers.'"

"That's just how white folks will do you," Obama writes. "It wasn't merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn't know they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserving of their scorn."