Monday, June 30, 2008

Black Patriotism and President Obama

Right wing extremists, with the support of mainstream media outlets, have begun to challenge the presidential candidates on patriotism. In Barack Obama's case, suggestions of his alleged traitor tendencies are based in racism and xenophobia. The dominant narrative of American history largely privileges white people and ostracizes immigrants.

The pages of common textbooks will tell you that whites founded this nation and that all American presidents have been of European descent. From the same books, you'll learn that blacks were generally servants and had no role in the prosperity of this wealthy nation. Even today, ordinary immigrants are being associated with vicious terrorists. Thus, President Obama is being subjected to a double whammy. Not only is he black, but he is also the son of an immigrant.

Millions of West Africans were brought to the so-called New World against their will and subjected to involuntary servitude for hundreds of years. They were exploited workers who never benefited from the fruits of their own labor. Would it be extreme for the relatively recent descendants of these forced migrants to be a bit unpatriotic?

Although Mr. Obama does not carry the same historical legacy of the majority of African-Americans in this country, dominant culture still places him within the broadly defined racial category of blackness. In America, everyone with one drop of black blood is considered black, regardless of country or ethic origin. For President Obama, that will mean that he is part of a history that is not directly his, but is that of his kindred people of African descent.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Chastising is Counterproductive

Even though I plan to vote for Obama in November, I was deeply disturbed by his remarks on Father's Day. I know that he is running for President of one of the richest and whitest countries in the word, but I don't think it's acceptable for him to abandon his alliance with all people of African decent.

We are all one group, a diaspora, with one origin and many present whereabouts. In the United States, the community of people of African descent is very diverse. A majority of us were brought here as captives in chains, while still a sizable minority chose to immigrate here on their own free will in search of the American Dream. President Obama's people are from the latter group, characterized by their willingness to immigrate to the West on their own terms.

On Father's Day, Barack Obama was oblivious to the plight of African-Americans who were forcibly transported to this Hemisphere. Audre Lourde taught us that the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. In this case, that means that people of African descent should not succumb to the old tactic of divide and conquer. President Obama should not have berated other black people in his attempt to get into the Oval Office. As we have learned from Dr. Rice, opportunism can override grassroots activism as easy as a bomb destroys a village.

Black fathers are not the principal cause of the many social ills affecting African-Americans, more over, there are institutionalized forces that negatively impact many people from different walks of life. Mr. Obama's speech conveniently excluded major barriers to a stable middle class two parent household including, but not limited to: the prison industrial complex, inadequate reproductive health services, unfair representation in the media, prohibitive health insurance costs and racially based educational disparities.