Barack Obama is nothing if not predictable. What's interesting is that he carries all of the baggage with him up front. You can smell it coming and watch all the people who were destined to be stunned, be stunned. And of course all the people who were destined to be offended, etc. Obama has proven to be, in my opinion, a great litmus test for American credulity.
Several months ago, I predicted the dawn of the No Excuses Era. I suppose it required a trip to the NAACP for people to take notice of the truth, and so it is more obvious than ever. Let's see who grasps the implications:
The Big Time is where Obama has a lot to prove - when he deals with the ass end of a standing trillion dollar deficit, and on that scale the struggles of little black boys and little black girls don't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
When I get some free time, I'm going to compare Obama's address to GW Bush's. That should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. In the meantime, read all of Obama's "you're on your own" rhetoric like you should: The well is empty and that fiction y'all call black politics ain't going to deliver squat.
The problem with this and all black role modeling. Only people with racial hangups need black role models. And only people who want to affect people with racial hangups want to be black role models. It is one of the great temptations of my class of folks, those formerly known as the Talented Tenth.
See if you were Talented Tenth, then you already know about a litany of black role models, because you study prior role models with a bit of envy and a bit of spite. If you buy into what I call the role monkey circus, then you already know that somehow you have to overcome the same demons you intend to chase out of your followers. So you might start during Black History Month with Carter G. Woodson and get enough inspiration from him for you to be a beacon to others. And basically you need enough self-esteem to assume the task, that plus the initiative taken on Woodson, and an opportunity to play show and tell. Bam, instant role model. Do it enough times for enough media and you become a 'black leader'. Do it in a calculatedly brilliant way in front of all America in the political arena and you might even become Barack Obama. But the underlying premise never changes, you're a show off in front of people who don't have the courage and demon-shields to do for self.
In life, success has many faces and is hard to define, failure is easy to define. It whatever successful people have power to 'empower' and decide you ain't got it. Rights are the gift of the strong, and sometimes the strong aren't generous.
So this is pure role monkey circus and Obama is saying what the Talented Tenth has been itching to say for a while. No Excuses. Obama thinks he has nothing to prove to anybody, and to the NAACP crowd he's exactly right. He's not beholden to the Civil Rights Establishment or the Grass Roots. Something that was made very clear when he dissed Uncle Smiley and a host of other wannabe black leaders, including his own minister. Now he's demonstrating that once again big time with some rhetoric from the hip which illustrates exactly how much he has learned since being a community organizer. That stuff is only good for getting votes, but that's just a mediocre hustle. See if you were Talented Tenth, then you already know about a litany of black role models, because you study prior role models with a bit of envy and a bit of spite. If you buy into what I call the role monkey circus, then you already know that somehow you have to overcome the same demons you intend to chase out of your followers. So you might start during Black History Month with Carter G. Woodson and get enough inspiration from him for you to be a beacon to others. And basically you need enough self-esteem to assume the task, that plus the initiative taken on Woodson, and an opportunity to play show and tell. Bam, instant role model. Do it enough times for enough media and you become a 'black leader'. Do it in a calculatedly brilliant way in front of all America in the political arena and you might even become Barack Obama. But the underlying premise never changes, you're a show off in front of people who don't have the courage and demon-shields to do for self.
In life, success has many faces and is hard to define, failure is easy to define. It whatever successful people have power to 'empower' and decide you ain't got it. Rights are the gift of the strong, and sometimes the strong aren't generous.
The Big Time is where Obama has a lot to prove - when he deals with the ass end of a standing trillion dollar deficit, and on that scale the struggles of little black boys and little black girls don't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
When I get some free time, I'm going to compare Obama's address to GW Bush's. That should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. In the meantime, read all of Obama's "you're on your own" rhetoric like you should: The well is empty and that fiction y'all call black politics ain't going to deliver squat.
