In the interest of truth in advertisement, I should mention up front that I am a Black man who made a $100 contribution to Obama's campaign early on and then saw the handwriting on the wall, thought better of it and immediately switched giving the same amount to John Edwards' campaign.
Why did I flip-flop on Obama? I did so because, the handwriting that I saw was that of another emerging non-white candidate stepping into the shoes of the same old well-worn template of the other illustrative anointed "non-white"- American leaders, leaders whose very forgettable works are now seared in our recent collective memory by the likes of Linda Chavez, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, J.C. Watts, just to name a few of the more obvious ones.
What they all have in common is that they were all so thoroughly socialized into American racist politics, that they were sent out front to do the "racial dirty work"- that their racist white overseers no longer were willing to do, or willing to leave their fingerprints on. The other collective legacy of this group is that to a man (and woman) none would be caught dead doing anything positive for their own tribal group interest. This template is now so well established that non-whites are better off electing a racist white than a non-white.
What also distinguishes these leaders from their white counterparts is that as a prerequisite for their jobs, they are forced to announce their loyalty to white tribal and racial politics up front: as their first and most important act of fealty. The most obvious way of doing this is through race-based tribal groveling. And failing that, by conspicuously ignoring, denigrating or avoiding to mention their own respective tribal group's concerns. Without this opening act of genuflection in the direction of white racial tribalism, and away from their own, these non-white candidates could not be considered "safe enough"- to hold office. Their bona fides could not otherwise be guaranteed. As Bill Clinton put so eloquently about Obama, "he remains a risk,"- "an uncertain quantity."- In Clinton's coded language, this meant of course that Obama, before being properly vetted, represented a clear threat to the established racial social order. And as a result of such a perception, he was not a candidate that could be entrusted to be elected to the highest office in the land.
Unlike Hilary Clinton, who openly and unabashedly championed women's reproductive rights, and other tribal women causes; or Joe Lieberman, who works tirelessly and openly for Jewish tribal causes, and even switched parties to continue doing so.
Or even John McCain for that matter, who as a "conservative Republican,"- openly courts the passive aggressive racist vote. However, unlike their white counterparts, all of the non-white candidates such as Obama, are expected, as their first act of loyalty to the established social order, to grovel before their white audience through well-established and coded racist genuflections. Historically for blacks, this kind of groveling is normally referred to as "Uncle Tommish"- or "Aunt Jemimaism."- Its purpose is to make clear that upon arriving in office the non-white candidate in question will "work tirelessly"- for the racist agenda and for the racist interests that remain the subtext of American society and is the whole of the substance of the established social order.
For those who may think this is just over-the-top hyperbole, I should also point out that I am one of literally only a handful of Black professionals who was inside fighting behind the scenes against the deep plantation level racism that existed in the bowels of the U.S. State Department while Colin Power was the Secretary of State. Somehow, upon Powell's appointment, I had gotten the cockamamie idea that since Powell was Black, under his leadership the plantation embarrassment that the State Department had become, would be addressed and corrected. It was not. Business of course continued as usual, and the racial situation remained the same, and at least among whites, Powell became the "darling"- (or is it the "pet"-) of the Republican Party. I retired before Ms. Rice took over the helm, but the scuttlebutt from my old colleagues is that the situation actually got worse under her tutelage.
But one does not need my personal story to attest to this phenomenon, for it is so widespread in the US Government, that the evidence is everywhere self-evident.
How We Know that Obama is now fit for the Job of the U.S. Presidency
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