Comments

1. gatamala wrote:

   Gaiter’s piece is great. Even though I will sit out if Hillary gets the nod, I must co-sign with the following passages:

   
   There was a great deal of ridiculous noise about whether Obama was culturally black enough for black voters. In fact, the real question has always been: “Is he white enough for white voters?” ….

   I am so much more than “darker.” Chris Matthews’s “bad stuff”– Jim Crow… slavery– it happens to be me. It is my history, the roots of my culture. In those few words, exposing what I believe to be a not-uncommon attitude, Chris Matthews spat filth on all of it– on my father, my mother, and my forebears. It was classic projection and a revelatory insight into a larger attitude toward the American sons and daughters of African slaves. We are the taint. We are the sin many Americans want to forget. Our very existence reminds America that, for most of her history, she befouled her ideals like rodents foul their nests. And then we have the gall to walk around, signposts of their shame. How dare we insist that they remember it? And anger? We haven’t the right. Jews can rightly proclaim “never again,” but we dare not. White Southerners can resent their defeat in the civil war and fly their hateful flag with pride, but we dare not suggest that we remember our historical treatment in this country. We dare not show “anger.” That’s a right reserved for the fully human.

   I can’t help but believe that many people support Obama because it is easy and makes them feel good.

   Posted 07 Mar 2008 at 9:07 am ¶

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