CINCINNATI — David A. Paterson, in his first major speech to a national audience since becoming governor of New York, said on Thursday that even as black Americans rejoice about the possibility that Senator Barack Obama could become president, they cannot lose sight of the serious social and economic ills that plague their community and should remain mindful of the racism that still exists.
A voice of reason.
Mumia breaks down his take on Barack’s campaign and raises questions about its future.
It should surprise no one the candidacy of Illinois senator Barack Obama has evoked fascination, not least because of his presumed outsider status as a man at least partial African descent. It is this racial inheritance that accounts, to a considerable degree, for the fascination among both Blacks and whites posed by his candidacy. But as ever in America, race often hides as much as it reveals. For if Barack is an outsider to the American body politic because of his Blackness, he is too an outsider to much of Black America precisely because of his direct East African heritage, one unleavened and unmitigated by the 500 years of Black bondage, resistance, repression and rebellion that is at the heart of the African American experience and identity. In this sense Obama is a double outsider and has had to work out his own way into what being Black in America means.
Listen to the full commentary here.
More from Mumia
Bernie Mac made a surprise appearance at a Barack Obama fundraising event Friday evening — but given heckling from the crowd and a rebuke from the Illinois senator’s campaign for an off-color joke, the comedian may wish he’d just stayed home. Obama told Mac: “Bernie, you’ve got to clean up your act next time,” he said. “This is a family affair.”
Is it just me, or can Black men say anything that the Obama campaign won’t call inappropriate, unfortunate, Old School, etc, etc….?? I guess Obama, although being his good friend never knew Bernie Mac was so “hood”. This is getting a little ridiculous. He’s a comedian!! And a damn funny one.