Prometheus 6

via Politopics

Looking Black and talking white
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
Special to the AmNews
Originally posted 1/26/2005

Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for two days. With Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry dissenting, sixteen members of the Committee, including Sen. Barack Obama, sent her nomination to the floor of the Senate for confirmation.

I watched the hearings. If I were without any prior knowledge of Rice and Obama and had been blindfolded, I would have never been able to sense that either Rice or Obama had ever shared the African experience. Ebonics was out of the question.

White legislators, on the other hand, never forget to mention the "Founding Fathers."  They respect the  Founding Fathers  for making them who they are. Blacks have their own Founding Mothers and Fathers. Usually, they are kept in storage while Blacks adopt the "Founding Fathers." 

Rice's family lived in "Bombingham" during Dixie's bloody days of the 1960's, but they were far removed from the civil rights movement. Obama also had no connection with the Black struggle. Obama, Rice and their ilk have hijacked the goals of the movement.

Ms. Winters of Politopics feels this is "unfair" (regular quotes, not sneer quotes):

What does that mean? Not every black person is going to be like these people and not every black person should? And who says that these people represent the only true black experience? Who says that their sacrifice is the only standard by which sacrifice can be measured? We have to move beyond the days of determining one's commitment to their race based on how they sound when they speak or how much their acts and deeds mimic those of others that came before. We all contribute in different ways because we are all different people. There shouldn't be any "black" way to talk, think, sacrifice or anything else.

Let us consider this.

Once a fictional person challenged my "right to speak for Black people" (THOSE are sneer quotes). He said he lived next to an upper middle class Black person who he was confident wouldn't agree with any of my 'answers.' I told him that was possible, but I'd be willing to be we'd agree on the questions. Mr. Maddox is pointing out that Sen. Obama and Dr. Rice do not appear to agree with the majority of Black folks on those questions.

Maybe it's just the weight they place on the questions. Maybe it's that they feel the questions lie outside their domain. But Dr. Rice and Sen. Obama are catching some heat for it, just as Black kids are told they are "acting white" when they seem to disrespect (by not attending to) the things other Black kids find important self-identifiers. They stand as much chance of being accepted as exemplars by Black folks as you would have of being an exemplar for Christian evangelists by insisting the church celebrate Passover.

Personally, I have little beef with the choices these folks have made. Sen. Obama in particular said right up front he's not going to inherit Adam Clayton Powell's role as the Senator from Black America...I actually respect that enough that I was one of the first folks to add him to my blogroll (until the election was over, anyway). Dr. Rice I find more problematic because she publicly equated the Iraq invasion with the Civil Rights movement...still I categorize her as a loyal employee and let it go at that.

Still, this means I am not saying either of their actions are representative or specifically supportive of the Black American communities. I'm saying you shouldn't expect it of them. And I'm not saying they aren't "really" Black...I'd say that's a larger matter than one's performance in a very public job. But I can Sen. Obama is not a "race man," Dr. Rice is not a "race woman."

Something else to consider.

Ms. Winters says there should be no Black way to "talk, think, sacrifice or anything." How would your average Republican supporter respond to this statement?

There shouldn't be any "American" way to talk, think, sacrifice or anything else.

Maybe she's right...but we are shaped in large degree by our experiences an common experiences bring about common ways. So even if there "shouldn't be" a Black way of being, there is.