Watching the returns with a boisterous bunch of Obama supporters last night, including my very engaged daughter Maddie (and with regular calls from her older sister, who giddily stood in the rain for hours to vote for president for the first time yesterday), even a diehard cynic like me couldn't help but get swept up in all the excitement. Especially -- after years of grief from all my yankee family and friends for even living in the Old Dominion -- when VA did us proud and turned blue!
Seeing those crowds of ecstatic people dancing in the streets and parks and squares all over America, you couldn't escape the sense that this really WAS a huge deal, that electing a black man represented something that transcended all of the serious problems in the system and in our country. I am still skeptical that Obama can enact real change in some of the major trouble spots: the wars, the financial mess, and much-needed health care reform.
Still, knowing he took too much money from Fannie Mae, Wall Street, big pharma and AIPAC (to name just a few from my bad-guys list), and knowing that within his first 100 days we might see far less substance than promised, for just a few hours last night -- and really, for the next four years -- the significance of his spectacular achievement eclipses those concerns. This morning I think everyone woke up with a sense of wonder that truly ANY child in this country can grow up to be president.
Granted, you have to sell your soul to get there, and who in their right mind would want it? But Obama smashed through the ultimate glass ceiling and all the ramifications of that are just starting to sink in. Pretty cool.
Does repeating Yes We Can make it so? In the case of a black man becoming president, we now have our answer. In the case of pushing congress to do the right thing -- conduct critical investigations, be responsive to contituents and stand up to the groups that line their pockets -- for now we'll have to rely on the other word Obama likes to throw around: hope. That and the inspiration hangover he got us all drunk on last night.
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About Barack Obama being the first 'Black' or 'African American' president. I don't get it.
First of all, he's only half Black and/or half African American. Is there something like 'the one drop rule' in use here? If he had only one drop of Black or African American blood in him, would that still make him the first Black man to be president? Does he need, say, at least 33.3% Black blood in him? How about 25? Where is the cut off point? Right now 50% seems to be all that is needed.
Or is it that he obviously looks like a Black man? The whole problem is this: Barack Obama is not Black, or African. Does any one know what his name really is? I mean his full name? I don't think so...and no one had enough guts to bring this out during the campaign. His full name is actually...Barack Fitzgerald O'Bama. That's right. Barack Fitzgerald O'Bama. The guy is actually an Irish Catholic! Oh yes he is. Look at him very closely. Doesn't he have kind of a russet glow to him? Look beyond his lips, his nose, and his hair...and you can tell he's Irish. And a Catholic too.
So that means that Barack Fitgerald O'Bama is actually the second Irish Catholic to be president, but the first one who looks Black. John Hussein Kennedy did not look Black.
The biggest problem with Barack Obama becoming president is that all of the computer software all over the world (except for maybe in Kenya) is going to have to be changed so that Barack Obama is not underlined in red as if you've spelled some other words wrong.
Seth Abrams
Say what?! I don't get that comment at all. Obama's father is Kenyan; I would say that makes him half African. JFK's father, Joe Kennedy, was born in Boston, not Ireland, yet no one ever questioned his -- or his progeny's -- Irish creds. Curious.
I am not certain that I understand Mr. Abrams comments - is it an attempt at humor?
The color of Sen. Obama's skin is self-evident - there is no 'one-drop' rule. His skin is black. When he was running for the US Senate, he was asked this question: as a bi-racial man, why did he define himself as black? His answer was that if he had been arrested for holding up the local 7-11, he would identified by the loca media as the 'black man who held up the local 7-11.'
With a father and extended family from Kenya, he also retains his African heritage - a trait many Americans hold dear in their own connections to their 'mother country.'
I don't understand your connecting Sen. Obama to the Irish by changing his middle name from Hussein to Fitzgerald. It is interesting that you chose to change the name that illustrates his connection to Islam to one that is so clearly Catholic.
Finally, I don't think we need to worry about computers not understanding the name Barack Hussein Obama - it is probably the most famous name in the world today, which is what makes so many people in places like Africa and the Middle East so joyous. It is, as he has said, a story that could only be told in America.
I do hope your note was an attempt at humor - many parts of it could leave a reader wondering.
Okay. I will answer my critics.
I have been a Barack Obama fan since July 2004 when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention. At that time I, like many others, wanted him to President one day. And I, like many others, knew in my heart that he would.
During the campaign there were countless absurd and ridiculous things said about Obama. One of the 'charges' leveled against him was that he was a Muslim. And there were people who believed he was also an Arab. Some people pointed to his middle name- Hussein- as evidence of...some nefarious trait. It was all nonsense, and luckily about 55 million Americans thought so.
Some journalists and 'pundits' would try to point out that this was not the first time such a thing had happened in American politics. They tried to use the example of John F. Kennedy to illustrate their point. Kennedy was a Catholic (yes, and he was an 'Irish American' although such politically correct phrases were not widely in use during the 1960 campaign). There was speculation as to whether an Irish Catholic- emphasis on Catholic- could, or even should (due to his possible allegiance to Rome), be elected to the Presidency.
The two cases, that of Kennedy and Obama, are not...congruent. Because while Kennedy was in fact a Catholic, Obama was not in fact a Muslim. But parallels were still drawn.
The fact that Kennedy was a Catholic should not, and did not, affect either his electability or his performance in office. And as only Colin Powell seemed to make clear, while Obama is not a Muslim, such a thing if true should not make a difference anyway.
And then of course there is the major historical 'issue' of Barack Obama being the first African American to be elected to the Presidency. And that he is.
So I figured- it would seem in a bad moment- that I would combine all these issues into one 'comment of political satire'. I suppose that political satire is supposed to be funny. Maybe not. Not always. Even though no one reading my comment knows me and what I might have been up to, the fact that I could write something so fairly outrageous and have it appear as a possible 'honest opinion', does speak to the prevalence and near acceptability of such ideas in our culture today. Therefore, while my comment may not have been funny, it succeeded exactly as intended as political- or perhaps social- satire.
As for the name Barack Obama becoming underlined in red whenever you type it into (at least almost every) word processor as if the software thinks you are misspelling some other words, I need only to direct your attention to the word processor used on this blog comment page to prove my point. I dare anyone to type the name Barack Obama here- or almost anywhere else for that matter- at this point in time, and not have it underlined in red as if you were misspelling some other words. You just can't do it. Barack Obama is not yet in the collective computer software of this world. But no doubt soon his name will come to be understood as well by a computer as it is by a 3 year old child now living in Kenya.
Passing note: The name 'Hussein' is generally recognized by word processing software. I wonder why that may be?
I just realized something. If Ms. Martin does not understand why I would change Barack Obama's middle name to 'Fitzgerald', especially in the context I did, it seems clear to me that she must be unaware that the 'F' in John F. Kennedy stood for 'Fitzgerald'. If she knew that, it would have always been entirely clear why I 'chose to use' that name. The fact that Ms. Martin so easily recognized the name 'Fitzgerald' as 'clearly Catholic' fortunately just proves the point of my satire...and unwittingly 'proves the untrue point' that Obamas detractors were trying to make about his middle name, 'Hussein'- that it is clearly Muslim. If 'Fitzgerald' is so "clearly Catholic", then why isn't 'Hussein' so clearly Islamic? My 'satirical point' exactly.
Furthermore...Barack Obama's reason for calling himself 'Black' (as explained by Ms. Martin) is as honest as it is flippant. I ask you seriously now: How little 'African American' would some one have to be to NOT BE considered an African American? Is it the 'if the Police arrested me' rule? What if someone were 1/4 African American and didn't look African American at all? What if that person did not pass (or fail- depending upon how you want to look at it) the 'if the Police arrested me' rule? When is race a matter of perception and convenience? Barack Obama seems to be saying just the same thing himself. 'If the police arrested me, it wouldn't matter that I was 1/2 white...it would be their perception of me that I am Black and it would be convenient (as in easy) for them to say so.' Because I look Black I am Black...not necessarily to me...but to the Police. What if he didn't look Black? There are books that have been written by Black people who didn't look Black describing their unlikely experiences in our culture.
So what is the operative rule here? Is it the 'one drop rule' or is it the 'if the police arrested me' rule? I don't think we are prepared to decide the issue. I guess Barack Obama gets to decide for himself what rule he will use...as long as the police don't eventually make the decision for him. It's probably not up to white people (is Barack a white people?) to decide for Black people what makes them Black or not.
Is 'the question of Race' a scientific question, a self-identity question, or is it a 'social construct'? Either way, for now it seems to be a matter of perception and convenience.
As for the argument that Barack Obama is African American or Black because his father was Black and from Kenya and he still has extended family there, it is equally and obviously true that his mother was white and from the United States and he still has extended family here. In fact, he is distantly related to Vice President Dick Cheney. How much more white are you gonna get?
In conclusion let me say this: Obviously Barack Obama is Black and an African American. But on closer examination..............
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