Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Fear Of A Black Candidate



It is amazing to me how many Black folks are tripping over themselves not to support Barack Obama; this is where I say, 'I understand we do not want to fall into stereotypes of blindly following the color of our skin.' But I'm definitely not interested in saying that, not today. As far as I am concerned, here is a smart Black man, yes, 'articulate and clean,' as some idiot has noted, but of course he is so much more than his media image. I am greatly concerned that Black folks, in an effort to spite 'the man,' are not giving this guy a fair shake.

I believe the fear here is that he represents the white man's choice of Blackness (he's not even Black according to some, don't get me started on that front actually; this is the only country in the world where a dark skinned man isn't automatically a Black man, I say ridiculous!). I believe a lot of people fear that by supporting Barack, white folks will be dancing in the streets congratulating themselves on being progressive -- of course they will! But that should not stop us from supporting the man. If Barack Obama was a pimp, some drug lord named B-Daddy, white folks would still be gushing with pride saying, I'm voting for a Black man. We are so far beyond the days of taking our cues from the White majority -- support, or lack of support for Barack, should spring from our own determinations of his fit for the position, not with one eye on the master.

The problem here is Black folks have gotten very accustomed to listening to a narrow list of "black leaders." I'll put them in facetious quotes, but I think I'll be gentlemanly enough not to name names, we all know who they are. So when these guys don't get in line, with their perms and mustaches, to say Barack is the messiah there is hesitation in our footsteps. "Well if the Right Reverend Whatever is waiting to see what Barack does, I'll wait too." Problem is the Right Reverend Whatever might not be thinking about your future while he waits, all he might be thinking on is the fact that once we all love Barack, well, his photo ops and marches on the 6 o clock news, will no longer be front page.

I'm being particularly hard, but that is because if I come across one more Black person who gives me 'the face,' when I mention Barack, I'm going to scream. You know the face, it's a reactionary cringe at the man's name, maybe they look away, but finally they say, "well, we'll see..." WE'LL SEE? What the hell does that mean, and what the hell does that have to do with anything? I believe it is finally dawning on a lot of people that the last six years was a vacation in hell we all blindly signed up for, question is, are we so deep into that hell that we don't know what hope looks like?