<p>Just to support Obama and don’t say anything negative because he is black is also a form of racism.</p>
<p>I met a woman who told me she voted for Hillary-she candidly told me that she didn’t want to vote for anyone who had relatives living in Africa. Sadly, racism is alive and well.</p>
<p>I have to agree with some of the posts…what bothers me is there is a backlash against Oprah for supporting Obama and not Hillary (another women). Anyone who votes for or against a woman because she is a woman, is a wasted vote, anyone who votes for or against Obama for the same factors is also wasted. Vote on policy and not GENETICS!</p>
<p>Bill and Hillary are sleaze-balling their way back into the White House. She has no more real experience than Obama. Oprah - and I - support Obama because he is the better candidate and the better person.</p>
<p>What experience does Hillary really have?? Come on!!!
She was First Lady which is pretty much a wall flower job.
Then she has been a senator for 1 full term.</p>
<p>What the Clintons fail to understand is that by marginalizing Obama, Black voters like me will stay home in November.</p>
<p>She doesn’t have experience!!! She never held an elective office when she ran for Senator in NY - my stupid state. Previous experience in the shadow of a Presidential relative in the White House was the same experience George Bush could claim. The NYTimes piece quoted in the thread “Is Hillary done, cooked and baked” makes reference to her exaggeration of experience and also makes mockery of the importance of years of experience…</p>
<p>By marginalizing Obama, white women voters like me will vote for ANYONE other than Hillary in November.</p>
<p>So Hondu what you are saying is that unless your candidate wins the nomination, you won’t play. You will take your toy, go home and sulk in a corner.</p>
<p>I voted twice for Bill. But I’ve come to despise both him and his wife. I am very tempted to stay home, too, if she gets nominated.</p>
<p>I made the mistake of voting for a mass murderer of children once; I can hardly consider voting for his wife. (The question is: did she know, or didn’t she?)</p>
<p>"You keep on talking about race, but let me tell you when the race got injected. When he sought and got he endorsement from Oprah (Oprah chose race over her long time belief of feminism).</p>
<p>Oh come now, Simba. Listen to your logic. You are honestly saying that race is the only reason that Oprah Winfrey is endorsing Obama? Really? Well let’s turn that logic on its head and say that the only reason why prominent whites are supporting Hillary, or Edwards is because they are white—because race is the only thing that matters in this election, right? It has nothing to do with a candidate’s stand on the issues. It has nothing to do with the belief that a given candidate would make the most effective leader. It all boils down to pigment. </p>
<p>Oprah Winfrey “rejected feminism” by endorsing Obama? How’s that? Are you saying that in not endorsing Hillary, the Female (with a capital “F”) candidate, she’s rejecting feminism? How is endorsing a candidate simply because she’s a woman any better than endorsing one simply because he is black?</p>
<p>“The race got injected when he started talking about MLK - he was in diapers then and being of Kenyan dissent he has no clue of what the Civil Right struggle was. In my opinion he is the one who is trying to exploit his color.”</p>
<p>:eek:</p>
<p>Where to even start in response to that…
Oh yeah, I forgot that Obama’s father must have been exempt from obeying the “Whites Only” signs if he ever stepped foot in pre-1965 Alabama, or while in South Africa. They could tell he was “Kenyan”, not just a plain ■■■■■■■■ or “Kafir”, and therefore, just a good as white. He wouldn’t know anything about racial discrimination, or be able to identify in any way with the American Civil Rights struggle. And since racism magically vanished immediately after the signing of the Civil Rights Act, Obama (an American born citizen of these United States) would know nothing of racism either. MLK’s struggle had nothing to do with this son of a Kenyan and American white woman. Got it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It’s OK for Hillary to “talk about MLK” in her campaign because she’s white, and it has nothing to do with race. But for Obama, a black man to talk about MLK, it’s “injecting race” into his campaign, and thereby, “playing the race card”. Got it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>“An interesting article in the NY Times today about Obama’s 26 year old speech writer, and his opening line for Obama when he won the Iowa primary: “They said this day would never come.” The speech writer and Obama agreed that the line “would have multiple meanings to multiple people,” and specifically would relate to “the day that would never come, when an African American would be winning the first primary in a white state.””</p>
<p>“Certainly, Obama and his campaign people have consistently reminded us that he is a black man. The fact that he is has definitely not hurt him in this campaign.”</p>
<p>Yeah, because otherwise, there would be no way anyone would ever be able to tell that Obama is a black man. I forgot that America has become so race blind, that his race couldn’t have any bearing on the way people might vote, neither positively, or negatively. </p>
<p>So Obama speaking the truth: that many nay sayers did indeed say that that day in Iowa would never come, is “using his race” in this election? People did indeed say that for various reasons, some of which had to do with Obama’s race, and some of which did not. Obama is running his campaign upon the “audacity of hope” and “courage of vision and change” premises. Obama knows that his candidacy is a long shot which requires a sort of audacity of hope in and of itself. The fact that he acknowledges these facts is not race baiting. </p>
<p>So the only way people will not accuse Obama of using his race will be if he refuses to be photographed with any blacks, refuses to accept any support from any prominent blacks, and pretends he isn’t a black man in America. He must accept support only from prominent whites, and prominent white organizations Got it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Poetsheart: I wrote the above (what you quoted) in response to the comments posted on this thread that the Clintons “injected race” into this campaign, and suggesting that every time they mention race, this somehow hurts Obama. And, yes, since he is a black man, why even mention race at all, or compare him to other men of color? What’s the point in doing so? The same is true about gender with Hillary; it’s hard to hide the fact she is a woman. Nevertheless, her gender and his race have certainly helped to make them the top two Democratic contenders right now-- no doubt about it.</p>
<p>I do think that Hillary’s gender has hurt her far more than Obama’s race has hurt him. Accusing someone of being racist is much worse than accusing someone of being sexist. So, I do think Obama has mostly been treated with kid gloves in this campaign. If you criticize him, you’re accused of being a racist. If you criticize Hillary, you might be accused of being sexist, but honestly, no one cares. People make jokes about being sexist, for heaven’s sake.</p>
<p>Obama does walk a fine line-- how much does he embrace his race, without turning off white conservatives? And I agree, there are plenty in this country. To suggest, though, that the Clintons somehow damage his campaign and hurt his chances for election, every time they inject race into the conversation, is not only ludicrous, it’s insulting-- to Obama, to people of color, and to those of us who are Caucasian and not racist. </p>
<p>Once again, I am not supporting either Obama or Hillary-- and my lack of support for either one has nothing to do with race or gender. I’m supporting Edwards, because I think he is the only one of the three who can beat McCain, should McCain get the Republican nomination. I think he’s also the only one who has come up with detailed and viable plans on all the issues, and he did so early on. The other two followed his lead. He’s also been the best in each and every debate. Unfortunately, he’s only a middle-aged white man-- not a rock star, with neither race nor gender on his side-- and, consequently, never got the media coverage he deserved.</p>
<p>In all this talk about race, isn’t fascinating that Obama who was born from the womb of a white woman is automatically black. Doesn’t that say a heck of a lot about race in the USA?</p>
<p>Hondu: Interesting little Q&A with his half-sister in yesterday’s NY Times magazine supplement. They asked her if she considered her brother black. Her answer: “Yes, because that is how he has named himself. Each of us has a right to name ourselves as we will.” They also asked if she considered herself white. She answered, “No, I’m half white, half Asian. I think of myself as a hybrid. People usually think I’m Latina when they meet me. That’s what made me learn Spanish.” </p>
<p>So, apparently, this is the race with which he <em>chose</em> to identify. </p>
<p>What do you think that says about race in the US? I’m not sure what you mean by that.</p>
<p>“In all this talk about race, isn’t fascinating that Obama who was born from the womb of a white woman is automatically black. Doesn’t that say a heck of a lot about race in the USA?”</p>
<p>wait a min. Hondu, didn’t you say the following?</p>
<p>“What the Clintons fail to understand is that by marginalizing Obama, Black voters like me will stay home in November.”</p>
<p>The way I understood the above statement (perhaps I was wrong) is that unless a Black candidate is nominated, black voters like you will be staying home. In an election you do marginalize your opponent. You don’t praise him/her.</p>
<p>On the same note let me ask you and poetsheart the following question:</p>
<p>When and how one should criticize a black candidate without the racial implications?</p>
<p>You shouldn’t criticize (or praise) a Black candidate. Period. You should criticize or praise a candidate. </p>
<p>He’s toast.</p>
<p>My friend Joy Zarembka has written an excellent book on the social construction of race.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The Pigment of Your Imagination: Mixed Race in a Global Society: Books: Joy M. Zarembka](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Pigment-Your-Imagination-Global-Society/dp/0979100305/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200947168&sr=8-3]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Pigment-Your-Imagination-Global-Society/dp/0979100305/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200947168&sr=8-3)</p>
<p>In Kenya, she is always seen as “white” (even though they know her mother, a native Kenyan.)</p>
<p>By the way, if anyone wants daily reports on what is happening in Kenya, I recommend her father Dave Zarembka’s blog: [url=<a href=“http://www.updatesonkenya.blogspot.com%5DKenya”>http://www.updatesonkenya.blogspot.com]Kenya</a> News<a href=“AGLI/Dave%20Zarembka,%20on%20the%20righthand%20side.”>/url</a></p>
<p>Simba, your interpretation is wrong. As I have noted, I voted for Bill twice because at that time I preferred him. But his current dirty politics has soured her on me so that if she is the nominee I may stay home in November. Basically, if the Clintons had played fair and square this long time Democrat would fall in line. The negative ‘race’ politics has turned me off.</p>
<p>You said “In an election you do marginalize your opponent. You don’t praise him/her.”<br>
Fine by me but marginalize the opponent on the issues not on race.</p>
<p>Just another point, I did not care for Kerry in 2004, but he was the better of two evils, so he got my vote. The Democrats came up with the wrong nominee then and if Hillary gets it, she too will be a mistake because she cannot bring America together like Obama can. She like Bush is a divider not a uniter.</p>
<p>By the way, Simba, I don’t think you have outlined what experience Hillary has that is exponentially better than than Obama or Edwards. I keep hearing in the news that she has 35 years of experience. All I know about is her being first lady of Arkansas and the USA which is a “fluff” role and one full term as a senator. Other than that she has been a lawyer involved in controvertial deals like Whitewater.</p>
<p>“You shouldn’t criticize (or praise) a Black candidate. Period. You should criticize or praise a candidate.”</p>
<p>mini: I don’t get the last part of your sentence.</p>
<p>
^ This is where the real debate should be - what kind of a president do we need today</p>
<p>Hondu, I agree completely with you that Obama is a uniter, but he has no chance against the Republicans… he will turn to dirty politics eventually, too</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is something na</p>