Obama Raises More Interesting Questions Than Harry Reid
Everyone’s talking about Harry Reid and whether he’s (1) racist, and (2) should resign. Well, its all Republicans talking about #2. The reason: He’s been quoted as saying that Obama’s being ”light skinned” and able to talk with no “negro dialect”, except when he wants to, would make him a great candidate for the Presidency in 08. Harry has quickly admitted to the remarks and appologized to just about every black political leader still drawing breath, including Obama of course.ppologies haven’t satisfied the Republican Party Apparatchiks who keep trying to make it a fatal mistake by Harry (who is a “mistake machine” in the order of Joe Biden … nay, even worse) that will lead to his retirement from Dem leadership, a la Trent Lott.
I have to say that, though I am no fan of Harry’s, and this generation of Democrats, I’m on Harry’s side in this one. His remarks, made before Obama elected to run, were not racist. Racial, yes. Reflecting an old fashioned racial consciousness, yes. And quite truthful/factual, yes. But Harry was promoting Obama, selling him to many in his party who are either racist, or very sure everyone else in America is. So I give him a pass on this one. And while the Republican complaints of a “double standard (that Republicans get attacked and condemned for far less “racial” consciousness and words than these) are right, their calls for resignation are tiresomely opportunistic and partisan, and even turning me off.
Maybe its good to point out to the American people, especially those “of color”, that the Dems are every bit, if not more, racially conscious/discriminating and unworthy of the pedastel they seem to be sitting on, and political loyalty they recieve, th calls for resignation are silly.
Harry is mostly an “oldtimer”, who sees social, cultural, and political realities rather clearly. His message was right on. Just not his vocabulary. In fact, he reminds me of an old man I knew some years ago, Charley. Charley was the 70+ year-old president of our community (an enclave in the Santa Cruz Mountains) water system. I was his vice-president. Charley commonly, and frequently, used nasty words, disparaging words, racist words to refer to his best friend (and former vice-president), a black man of slightly fewer years. Great guy, that one. A sweet man I loved, too, but just too busy to keep up with the needs of the water mutual. But the key I want you to see is the language of an almost 80 year-old guy (in the 60s - 70s) and his LOVE and RESPECT for the BLACK man. I think that’s a lot like Harry Reid.
No, the one surprise, the one hint of racism I detect in all this, if there is one, is Obama’s! Obama said, while telling why he held no resentment of Harry Reid, “(Harry) was just trying to praise me”. One might wonder if Obama, himself, thinks being “light skinned”, and lacking any “negro dialect” is praiseworthy, a good thing. If that’s the case, then Obama is what other Black/African Americans have themselves resented and regreted amongst themselves: people who do not like their own blackness and cultural features, and are often called “Oreo Cookies”, or “White” or Plantation Negroes”. I’m not going to say that’s true about Obama, but I think a few, at least, in the black population/electorate might think it is.
