RUSH: Speaking of the news, it’s happened again here. It’s happened again, this time in UK Times. Not in the Los Angeles Times. Not in the Chicago Tribune. This time it’s in the UK Times. The headline here, and it’s from today: ‘The Great Black and White Hope.’ Who do you think this is about? It’s about Barack Obama. Here’s the subhead: ‘Barack Obama is young, gifted and mixed-race. But can he really break the mould [sic] of racial politics? It’s by a guy named Tom Baldwin.
‘Barack Obama is young, gifted and mixed-race. But can he really break the mould of racial politics? — To understand all the fuss that surrounds Barack Obama, go back to the 2004 Democratic Convention where wooden John Kerry, with his grey hair and stiff salute, was ‘reporting for duty’ as the party’s presidential nominee. They had picked what is known as a ‘resumé candidate’ whose record in Vietnam and the Senate would, they thought, give them a chance of beating President Bush. Then along came the skinny figure of Obama with his jazz-cool looks, exotic name and caramel skin. Though virtually unknown — not yet even elected to the Senate — his speech was, by all accounts, one of the best anyone had heard in years.
‘As good as Bill Clinton, they said, but fresher. … These days he adopts a calmer, more discursive, tone in most of his speeches and though the applause at the end is warm, it is sometimes shorter than it was when he entered the hall. So why does this electrifying speaker feel the need to insulate his audience from the full force of his power? Obama said recently that while ‘I can gin up folks pretty well’, that is not his objective right now. … An aide later told The Times that ‘everyone knows he can do a great speech’, before adding, with a knowing look, that ‘so could Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton’. The implication is that these black candidates for president never made it to the White House because they were seen as overemotional politicians who played into America’s deeply embedded stereotypes. Obama, by contrast, appeals to whites because he is ‘exciting’, not ‘excitable’. … The US is, nonetheless, still a country obsessed by race.’
I don’t think that’s true. I think elements of our country are obsessed by race, such as the media — and this guy in the UK, in their media, is obsessed by race — but I don’t think ‘the country’ is. The evidence just isn’t there. ‘Though polls suggest that Obama is doing well among African-Americans, some still suggest that he is ‘not black enough’ because his ancestors don’t include those who experienced the pain of slavery and segregation.’ In other words, he’s not down for the struggle. He doesn’t have roots to that which defines a genuine civil rights activist and African-American in this country. He’s not authentic. This is the fourth time. I keep being hit over the head for being a racist talking about Obama, when all I’m doing is regurgitating to you people what is appearing about him in white media: the LA Times and the UK Times. This is the fourth piece now on, ‘Is Obama down for the struggle? He’s not authentic. Is he black enough?’ I have
(Los Angeles Times: Obama the ‘Magic Negro’ – David Ehrenstein)
(UK Times: The great black and white hope? – Tom Baldwin)
(Chicago Tribune: Report: Obama’s kin owned slaves)
(UKDM: A drunk and a bigot – what the US Presidental
hopeful HASN’T said about his father…)
(LA Times: Redefining ‘black’ – Louis Chude-Sokei)
(LA Times: Occidental recalls ‘Barry’ Obama)
(LA Times: Is Obama the new ‘black’?)
(NewsBusters: LATimes: Obama Not ‘Black Enough’?)
(GMA Speculates on Obama & Race)
(TIME: Is Obama Black Enough?)
(NYDN: Obama: Growing up black, but African, too. He does not share our heritage)
(LA Times: Some wonder: Is Obama black enough?)
(KNS: Is Obama ‘black enough’ if his roots don’t include slavery?)
(Salon: Colorblind. Barack Obama would be the great black hope in the next presidential race — if he were actually black – Debra J. Dickerson)