What matters-Candidate of the people-Obama08

Franz Fanon and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote about the dilemma of having to choose whether one is black or just a citizen of your country. What does it matter your skin color? This age old question is relevant even today as Senator Barack Obama attempts to become President of the United States of America.


Photo: Gerald People

Critics wants to know, how say you Obama? Black, African, African-American, HalfAfrican, or bi-racial? The answer it seems will determine if Obama will get a nod from African-American voters or not. Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes

in the eyes of many blacks, Obama departs from past black presidential contenders such as Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, and Messrs. Jackson and Sharpton. They were readily identifiable, urban-bred, African-Americans who spoke out boldly on civil rights, poverty, and economic injustice. On the other hand, the racially mixed, Harvard-trained Obama, as the so-called postracial candidate, has soft-pedaled these issues. It's no accident that his appeal among whites seems stronger so far than among blacks.

Hutchinson, a darker hue African-American subtlely suggest that Obama is not a chocolate favored brother who understands what it means to live in a predominately African-American poor community. Obama has lived in a more isolated and protected world because of his raced white mother and grandparents and therefore he is unable to connect to the issues that are destroying black communities.

If true, Obama is not the first contender for Presidency that was of the fairer hue.
Colin Powell, the four star general, was thinking about running for President, and the color or race issue was not a big deal. Why? It's something about this first time out Senator Obama that has the well-established brothers in an uproar.

There is something beyond Obama blackness. Obama had no problem claiming backness.

Obama was not afraid of offending his mother from Kansas, when he identfied himself as being black. Unlike, Tiger Woods who was given the same question and decided to combine his father and mother ethnic background and not offend either parent. Nevertheless, America will still defined him black based on the fact that at least one of his parents was dark in complexion. So Obama claimed his blackness quickly.

Too quickly as he charmed America with blackness.

Obama has charmed raced whites folks, no protests, no marches, no dues paid.

It is that no dues paid by this educated, handsome charming Obama, that has old guard African-Americans in leadership in conference about Obama staying power among the powerbrokers. Obama is too young and the young die early in this game of dues paid. So, old guard leadership decides to hex Obama with the the Martin Luther King, Jr. hex.

Dr. King,Jr. like, Obama was deemed too young for a leadership role in taking his people to the promise land according to old guard ,established African-American leadership way of thinking. So, it is not his lack if blackness that will be their excuse for not supporting the well educated and handsome Obama. The brutal truth is that Obama is too new on the political scene, too untested, too politically nice, too liberal, and most of all, he's an African-American. To blacks even for the well-established old guards, Obama is too black to seriously have a real shot at the White House.

It's a nice way of saying, the old guard does not trust Obama. Pointing out his blackness, is a way of saying they don't believe Obama will stay true to the old guard way of being black by paying dues , keeping them around, if the people elect him to that seat. The old guard has no use for Obama because he is too black. It was Senator Joseph Biden who defined Obama blackness as non-traditional, by stating, he is storybook black. Not quite mainstream, but clean enough, not dirty black, but mixed with raced white to be considered even nice looking.

Clean enough blackness..

Shirley Chisholm experienced similar skepticismof her blackness in her bid for the white house. Shirley was too black because not only was she a first generation black American. And Chisholm, was a black female which made her definitely not part of the old guard leadership style or way of thinking.

Black leadership did not believe she was the right one, labeled an outsider, as well as not a "he". Chisholm had to go it alone,

I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.

Chisholm did not wait on old guard leadership approval, she knew she was too black. Obama only knew he was black, not too black.

The old guard have no use for Obama because he is black, he thinks like a black, he is not quite mainstream, taking their lead from Joseph Biden. With all the limelight on Obama, old guard leadearship are worried that corporate America may not be willing to meet their demands. And Obama just may not take them along on his ride because they are not black enough. These old guards feel safe with Hilliary Clinton. Clinton will have to be black enough for these old school blacks and their connection to her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

So Obama does a Chisholm. Obama takes his campaign to the people..to the street. It is here, the grass root folks who believe that Obama is rooted in the essence of what it means to be a black in America. It's in his walk. Watch Obama movement, he lets you know, it is an outsider that can mingle with the insiders without missing a step in his stroll walk. It's a style of blackness in that walk, a coolness, a level head under pressure. Other African-Americans will not vote for Obama because he is black. Obama has not embraced these African-Americans to map out their benefits in voting for him. Obama has not internalized their way of compliance with mainstream politics. Obama is too black in his identity still, for them to jeopardize their connections to raced white power.

But Chisholm said it best,

The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready' to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start… I ran because somebody had to do it first. In this country, everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that has never really been true.

That's the same message Obama gives to this little boy (in the picture below) in Alexandria, Virginia, when his momma asks who shall I vote for?

photo: Gerald People