Following was published in Sept. 3 edition of The County News, where I am editor-at-large. The County News is an African American weekly covering Mecklenburg, Catawba, Iredell, Cabarrus and Rowan counties in North Carolina.

Barack Obama stands on the threshold of an historic achievement – the American presidency.

He would be the first black – at least half-black – man to reach this nation’s and the world’s pinnacle of power.

But even as Obama fights valiantly to win this election, many African Americans – and whites – are already trying to assess the meaning of an Obama victory on Nov. 4.

That victory is by no means assured, of course. Most polls indicate a neck-and-neck contest with Republican Sen. John McCain – even after last week’s ceremonious crowning of Obama as the Democratic Party standard bearer.

Some blacks are already criticizing Obama for not speaking often enough or loudly enough on “black issues.” Some noted, for example, that he did not mention Martin Luther King Jr. by name during his acceptance speech. Obama said simply “a young preacher from Georgia.” His critics missed the poetry in Obama’s phrasing. Have you heard of “the man from Galilee.”

And, Obama surely would not want to be accused by those same critics of evoking Dr. King’s name in a vain attempt to make political hay from that young preacher’s historic legacy.

Obama ruffled a few black feathers when he called recently for black men to be better fathers, a contentious issue for many who note that past and current racist practices debilitate black manhood.

Despite the criticism, however, most blacks understand that Obama is in for the fight of his life and of African American election history. Most also understand that Obama is not running as the black community’s candidate. He is the candidate of the Democratic Party, which despite its near universal support from black voters, remains an umbrella organization of a number of groups and causes. Note the Hillary Clinton inspired desires for a female president.

Obama represents the best hope of all those groups for a more welcoming America.

An Obama victory will mean much to this country and to the world.

But what that victory will mean for African Americans is not so clear.

It will not mean “forty acres and a mule” or such other reparations sought by many. While Congress and a number of state legislatures have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery, there’s no consensus on reparations for that horrible national sin.

And, while an Obama-led administration may include more African Americans in positions of power, we cannot expect the entire cabinet and other top slots to be filled solely by African Americans.

Obama is not likely to appoint all black federal judges, though its likely that at least one African American jurist could be elevated to the Supreme Court. The conservative Clarence Thomas needs a good “whist” partner, I’m sure.

Problems that have plagued the black community will not magically disappear. Black-on-black crime and high unemployment, particularly among young black males, will continue to be challenges.

Educational achievement gaps will continue to plague the nation’s public school system, though one can hope Obama would scrap or fully fund “No Child Left Behind.”

Blacks will continue to wrestle with such health issues as high rates of hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease, though Obama is promising to build a health insurance system that covers most Americans.

Those and other Obama initiatives will still have to pass a Congress where legislation looks more like sausage than pork loin.

If Nov. 5 will look pretty much like Nov. 4, why should African Americans care whether Obama is the next American president?

The answer lies at the core of what’s really the most difficult challenge facing the black community and this nation. That challenge is finding a way to inspire hope in the hearts and minds of a growing legion of disaffected and alienated young black Americans.

Obama’s story is the story America loves to tell. It’s a story of opportunity grasped, of obstacles overcome, of hard work and sacrifice. Obama rose to power not because his parents were wealthy, but because he got a world-class education and because he learned to serve his community, not terrorize it.

That’s the story that must be sold to young African Americans and others who aren’t great athletes or entertainers.

An Obama victory in November will be an opportunity for black parents and for teachers, mentors and pastors to once again challenge children to work hard in school. It ‘s an opportunity to tell our children they should dream those impossible dreams, which even when they don’t come true, carry us so much further in life and provide a compass to guide us along the way. It is our dreams, after all, that define who we truly are. It is our dreams which make us pause before making decisions about joining a gang, breaking into a house or picking up a gun. Our dreams make us avoid drug and alcohol abuse and lascivious behaviors. Our dreams keep us working on the job, not because we are working for “the man,” but because we are working for ourselves and our families.

If Obama can inspire a larger number of parents and children to be better today than they were yesterday, to study harder and to work longer, the social and economic impact on the black community and the nation will be immeasurable.

But for Obama’s election to have such an affect, the black community must use it wisely. Election night parties involving youth and including talks on the political history of the United States should be in the planning stages. Workshops, seminars and sermons retracing black history until today should be in the works.

An Obama inauguration should be an occasion for historical education and celebration, kicking off a few days early one of the most informative Black History Month commemorations of our lifetime.

Used properly as a tool of instruction and inspiration, Obama’s election could have an  impact on Black America, and indeed White America, not witnessed since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, black Civil Rights marchers defied obstructing law officers, and black college students refused to leave whites-only stools at lunch counters.

But now, as then, the black community has to be involved in order to reap its reward.

Obama’s election, if used properly, could be a catalyst for the changes black Americans have long hoped for.

junk food fullin up de place
dis is a nada disgrace 
junk food fullin up de place
a now good food guh guh
to waste
strawberry ice cream
raspberry ice cream
dem a bury wi
u nuh si
ice cream ice cream
liven de american dream
Excerpt from "Junk Food" by Mutabaruka

This is the start of a new little series about conscious black people that bring change to the world fuelled on a plant-based diet. Plant-warriors. Green black revolutionaries. Tree-hugging, fist-in-the-air fighters. Rooted original people. Earth/Justice tribes. Um... I think you get the idea. (Diaspora & Continental) Afrikan People that are aware of the connection between "social inequality & environmental destruction" as the folks at the Green For All movement put it.

Starting with Mutabaruka who will always be the face & heart of Haile Gerima's Sankofa for me.
Some time ago, C'BS ALife Allah, a true gatekeeper with his blog Black to Nature, posted a great interview with Mutabaruka, the Dub poet, from over there at Black Vegetarians. In this interview, Mutabaruka beautifully & clearly draws the connection between a raw vegetarian diet, consciousness & africanness as well as today's forms of slavery & dependencies.
Excerpts from the interview:

BV:   How long have you been a vegetarian?

 

M:   About 30 years. I was on raw food for about 7 years, and I went back for 3 years, but I think I going to come back again and continue.

 

BV:   What made you transition into raw foods?

 

M:   Raw food is the way to go. Cooking kill the food. Everybody knows that. Live food for live people. Sometimes you find it very difficult to keep up with it. It's somewhat of a mindset, it's a mind thing.  

 

BV:   Is there a community of folks in Kingston doing raw foods?

 

M:   No, there's not a community. You have one and two people that are doing raw food, but most Rastafarians are vegetarians. The raw foods are the next level. Actually we did kind of try the fruitarian thing for a while, but we came off of that.  

 

[...]

 

BV:   You have it all here…

 

M:   Yes, the fruits. Sometimes it's very expensive though. It was nice, though, to experience the different levels, the different stages of understanding how your body function. Anytime you become like that you start to know what you want, how your body function. A lot of people don't know how their body function. When I first become vegetarian, and really moved into the step of raw food, I learned more about my body. It's like you are the one who is building your temple. You are like the contractor who is constructing your body so you know exactly what is what. If something hurt you, you know why it's hurting.  

 

[...]

 

BV:   It's a typical vegan diet?

 

M:   Yes. No animal products. I don't use animal products. I don't use it. I don't wear it. I never given my children animal products. They don't know how cheese is made—egg, honey—none of those things. None of those things, nothing from animals. I grow up my children them that way. [...] My concept of vegetarian is vegetable. “Vegetarian” come from vegetable. I wouldn't include milk and cheese and egg and these things. That is not vegetable. When I say vegetarian, I don't have to say “vegan.” That is terminologies now that make the thing get strange. People say they are lacto-vegetarian and vegan-vegetarian. You can't be a lacto-vegetarian and a vegan-vegetarian. You're either a vegetarian or you're not a vegetarian. A vegetarian is a person who only eats vegetables. So if you are drinking milk and eating fish...you can't have a semi-vegetarian.

 

BV:   Do you have any advice for people who are curious about vegetarianism but have not made the commitment?

 

M:   Well I would say to listen to your body. You have to just know what is good for you. You can't have no strict hard and fast rule for anybody. You have to know what is with you. [...] 

BV:   Do you see a relationship between diet and consciousness?   And, if so, how have you seen yourself grow spiritually as a Rastafarian due to your change of diet?

 

M:   One thing vegetarian allow you to do is to become more compassionate. What I get to understand within the vegetarian concept is that all life is one. It's just different manifestations of flesh. The cow, the goat, the bird, they all flesh. Is of one source, the life source. Even the tree is of one life source. When it come down to flesh now, man wasn't made to eat flesh. Your body don't assimilate flesh as such. When you stop eating flesh, you kind of recognize a certain compassion inside of you. You feel like, wow, the cow, he don't eat animal, him just there, he don't trouble nobody. So you kind of start to feel like why should I kill the cow? The cow don't trouble nobody. The cow just eat greens everyday. The goat eat greens everyday and don't trouble nobody. That feeling take hold of you and you start to go into yourself. You start to get feelings toward things. You start to feel more developed into a being, a person. And then you take it from there within the consciousness of what people call God. We move within a level of man taking responsibility… If you kill animals it don't mean that you won't kill a man. Even when the Bible tell you “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” it never said “Thou Shalt Not Kill man.” It said “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and full stop. So who's to say what it is talking about when it say “Thou Shalt Not Kill”? If God wanted animals to be your food, him wouldn't make them with foot to run away, and with eyes. Food not supposed to have eyes and mouth and nose. That is not food. Food cannot have eyes. That is crazy. It help me as a person to understand what really is this thing that is life. As a Rasta man, it allow you to keep a certain sanity in all this confusion. It allow you really to keep a certain train of thought. Because you're thinking on life, and how to sustain and maintain life in its glory, in its fullness, in its totality. So even like me, I wouldn't say that I'm not going to eat animal, but then I wear animal product. That is contradictory to me. If a man say him don't eat cow, but him wear leather shoes, that kind of thought is contradictory because it's the same perpetuation of the killing of the animal to make clothes and to eat… Human being is the only creature on earth that kill to create clothes.  

 

BV:   Did you see any subtle differences between eating a vegetarian cooked diet and eating raw, in terms of your consciousness?

 

M:   Yeah, man! Definitely. The raw thing is a higher level. It's like you walking a line, but it's not a line really, because it make you so balanced. I don't know. Things start to feel more to you. It gets you more aware, more quicker. You don't sleep as much. You're not as sluggish. I remember when I used to be raw, I didn't want to sleep. It was like I was starting fresh. I didn't want to sleep, but you're supposed to sleep. I had to realize that there was nothing wrong with me. Sleeping is not a thing where you have to sleep eight hours. You eat less. You definitely eat less when you eat raw food. Three meals a day is a crazy thing. It's a western thinking.   Three meals a day is a man who is soon dead. And it's kind of ridiculous to eat three meals a day when people don't eat one meal. When you're a vegetarian and you start eating tofu and gluten, it's almost like you're eating meat. But it's not as sluggish. But the raw food thing—you eat less, you're not as hungry. You just eat when you feel like you want to eat. Sometime I eat because I afraid. I didn't really want to eat, but I didn't eat for a long time so I feel I should eat something. It keep you alert.

 

BV:   How have you seen your music and poetry develop and mature? In your relationship to—

 

M:   Eating? Well, the poetry that I write now is just looking around me and seeing things that is happening around me. My poetry mostly is social, political, African-centered. My thinking of black, Africanness, was there before me start to go into this raw food. We were more aware of our blackness before. So it just continued that way. What the vegetarian did was put it into perspective more. You wear Africa, you eat vegetarian, anytime you talk it's African. You kind of get a respect for that. It's what white people say is “wholistic.” White people say everything is wholistic. It gives you a wholistic approach to Africa. Everything has to be directed toward an African-centered perspective. So what we eat and what we wear and what we think has to be in relation to our Africanness. So, my poetry now is just an expression of my Africanness. What I believe African people should do and what

I think white people are doing. So my poems go against white supremacy. We are Marcus Garvey people. Anytime we talk, its about Africa. It's a way to fight against white supremacy. So the food is just a next aspect. It's not really the aspect because we are talking the liberation of African people, whether we eat meat or not.

 

BV:   Is that liberation external or internal?

 

M:   Liberation in every way. Marcus Garvey say, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.” The mental slavery right now is more damaging than the physical slavery that we was once in. Black people get complacent right now with slavery. They think that there's no slavery. So they get very complacent. But the slavery right now is more devastating than the slavery of old because our foreparents could see the chains, so they took out the chisel and they break off the chain on them foot. We don't see them chain, so we think no chain is there. So we get so domicile and so complacent in the European mentality. So we don't really feel it. Part of the thing that is the matter is the food. McDonald's is one of the biggest drug houses in the world right now, but people don't see it as that. It's white supremacy. Americanization of mind. It's more than just eating a burger. It's all about an institution that is inculcating a culture. So we have to understand it even more than just the physical. It's a mental thing. A man don't hunger but go have a McDonald's. Why you don't hunger but want to have a McDonald's? Because them advertise it that way. Them portray it that way. That we are fighting against. And we use the poetry to do that and we use just our own lifestyle to do that. Every time we move, every time we act, that is what we do.

 

[...]

 

Whole interview can be read here.

 

But even as thousands celebrated, the camera could not stay away from the lady in the stands. I do not know her age, although I would guess around sixty or so, but the look in her eyes spoke of many years past. She did not clap or wave, but held her hands clasped tightly together in front of her.  I never saw her yell or scream; in fact, her lips did not move, save a slight quivering that, given the mistiness of her eyes, was an indication of her determination to hold her emotions in check.

I wonder what she was thinking? I imagined that it was my mother standing there; would she remember that day in 1969 when she came home from school, told me to put on shoes, then took me back to Aliceville Elementary School so I could see the tank parked in front of it? Would she remember the National Guardsmen who stood in the hallways, rifles at their sides, ordered to that institution of learning to ensure integration happened without violence?

I imagined my father in the lady's place. Would he remember walking five miles to little Eatman school, having to literally cross the Sipsey River on his journey? Would he remember hauling pulpwood for two dollars a day, which was a huge step up from what he would make picking cotton? Would he remember his oldest sister, Aunt Catherine, giving up on her own college education, choosing instead to leave Stillman College, coming home and running the household so that the rest of her siblings could follow their educational dreams?

I imagined my Aunt Bess standing there. If she were still alive, would she think about Uncle Walter, who spent decades planting, tending, and picking cotton in those vast fields that did not belong to him?  And would she recall that after Uncle Walter's death, how the owner refused to let the family back onto the land, even though our family reunions had been held there around that boat well for twenty years, and the two ramshackle houses that had sheltered at least four generations were still standing? We wanted nothing but our memories; we had no claim to the millions of dollars that those fields had yielded, but since the owner had no obligation to allow us on the land, she saw no reason to.

And I imagined my late mother-in-law, Mattie Wilder Gay, standing there. If she were alive, she would be about the age of that lady. Would she have remembered the nights driving home from civil rights rallies and SCLC meetings? Would she have thought about the time someone followed her, and she feared that she might soon share the fate of Medgar Evers or Emmitt Till? Would she have remembered tirelessly registering Black people in the Alabama Black Belt to vote, an effort she surely would have doubled or tripled in support of Barack Obama's unprecedented candidacy?

I do not know what the lady was thinking, but as the camera insisted, again and again, upon sharing such a personal moment, her eyes unmasked what was at once joy, wonder, and thanksgiving. I was born in 1964, less than a year after the assassination of President Kennedy. I did not see the dogs or firehoses, but maybe she did. I cannot recall the abject despair that must have engulfed the Black community when Martin Luther King, Jr., was gunned down, but maybe she can. I was not attacked on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, but maybe she was. And I have never been denied the right to vote, eat at a restaurant, or sit in the seat of my choice on a bus, but maybe, just maybe, she has.

In that moment, as the camera kept returning to her poignant visage, that Black lady, whomever she was, became Every(Black)man. There are so many who literally gave their lives for oppotunities much less grand than this one. They merely wanted to vote in peace, eat at the same counter, and have some semblance of a fair chance in this American Dream. If only they could have been there on August 27, 2008, as the deafening, soaring symphony of "Aye" acclaimed that Barack Obama, a Black man in these United States of America, had ascended to the very doorstep of a house built largely by African slaves, and which has symbolized, for over 200 years, a level of power and prestige only attainable --no, only imaginable, by White men.

As the lady stood silently, watching the unabashed joy unfolding below, I wonder what she was thinking?

Some individuals have striven so hard to be accepted and to succeed in majority white environments may find themselves transformed with little vestiges of their original self. Others, I know, feel disingenuous as they wear different masks for different people. It is interesting how this plays out in many different environments. Even in the Muslim community, whether on college campuses or in my local area, I find myself shape shifting make people comfortable with me as a Black woman. It is something I do almost instinctually, because this is how I’ve been able to survive in the broader society, in both the corporate world and academia. When I do fall into my normal speech patterns or topics of conversation, I am either very aware or made aware that what I say and how I say things has made my others uncomfortable. This reminds me of the backlash against PC (often by privileged white males).

Some individuals have striven so hard to be accepted and to succeed in majority white environments may find themselves transformed with little vestiges of their original self. Others, I know, feel disingenuous as they wear different masks for different people. It is interesting how this plays out in many different environments. Even in the Muslim community, whether on college campuses or in my local area, I find myself shape shifting make people comfortable with me as a Black woman. It is something I do almost instinctually, because this is how I’ve been able to survive in the broader society, in both the corporate world and academia. When I do fall into my normal speech patterns or topics of conversation, I am either very aware or made aware that what I say and how I say things has made my others uncomfortable. This reminds me of the backlash against PC (often by privileged white males).

Ta-Nehisi blogs:

So my beef with these guys is not that they make structural critique, it's that they seem bound to a set of strategies that just haven't gotten us anywhere. Again, I need to hear about something else besides Affirmative Action and a vague notion of social justice. And then I'd like to see it pitched in such a way that it makes the broader country see their own interest in our interest. That's not merely crass politics--I actually believe that Jim Crow was ultimately bad for the broader country, not just for black people. I don't think boom in prisons is a good thing for any American of any color.

So my beef with these guys is not that they make structural critique, it's that they seem bound to a set of strategies that just haven't gotten us anywhere. Again, I need to hear about something else besides Affirmative Action and a vague notion of social justice. And then I'd like to see it pitched in such a way that it makes the broader country see their own interest in our interest. That's not merely crass politics--I actually believe that Jim Crow was ultimately bad for the broader country, not just for black people. I don't think boom in prisons is a good thing for any American of any color.

She was the Executive Officer (XO) of the command (this was during my Navy career)– the second in command– and from what I’d heard and seen of her, had most likely lived a life devoid of any significant difficulty. In fact, I really didn’t care for her (and as it turned out later, neither she for me) because her comments and decisions consistently showed little understanding of the real world. One of our more heated discussions had centered around granting a waiver for a young Black man who was trying to enlist. He was married with three children, and this XO was refusing to sign off on the waiver because "I don’t think it will be fair to his family, because junior enlisted just don’t make enough money." Amazingly, at least to me, she couldn’t understand that the young man was currently unemployed and living in the projects of Los Angeles. He was desperately trying to take advantage of the best opportunity in his life, and she was denying it because, quite frankly, she was measuring his immediate future against her own standard of living.

Anyway, as I walked by her office, she glanced up. She’d had her head in her hands, face down. She looked at me and said, slowly, "How could they find him not guilty?" I’m not sure if the question was rhetorical, or whether she really wanted me to help her understand, but I merely shrugged and walked away. I realized that her world, her comfort zone, her understanding of how things have to be– all of this had been shattered when the unimaginable happened. I would have to imagine that she was not alone; all over these supposedly United States, White people were grappling with the unthinkable. Famous Black man, two dead White people, and the courts– the one institution that White society had counted on for decades– had just failed them, undermining the most fundamental of societal rules: White lives must always be protected and avenged.

As I listen and read the astounding rhetoric flowing in this year’s presidential campaign, and often stand flabbergasted at the venom cast towards Barack Obama, I wonder what the morning of November 5, 2008 will reveal. Over and over again I’ve heard White people say "I’ve been a Democrat all my life, but there’s no way I’m voting for him." Then, realizing what such talk could potentially reveal, they hastily add "He just doesn’t have enough experience," or "I just can’t buy into his economic plans," or something equally camouflaging. But if, and that’s an "if" of historic proportions, Obama wins, will we see that look again, now on the faces of millions of Americans who cannot imagine a White House that isn’t, well, White? Nearly 13 years later, the O.J. verdict is enough to send many White people into horrific tirades, railing against the courts, the media, and even the late Johnny Cochrane. Some pundits tried to spin it as though much of America’s racial polarization was being exposed, and the resulting dialogue must be beneficial. The realization, though, has been just as much, if not more, animosity and public rushes to judgment. Michael Vick, though hardly a saint, deserved prison no more than someone ticketed for traveling five miles over the speed limit, but the comparisons to O.J. flew quickly. "We can’t let another one get away" was the not so subtle message, and his sentencing, for some, was a signal that order had not been completely usurped.

For the next couple of weeks we will enjoy the conventions, be inspired or incensed (depending on your political leanings) by the speeches, and might even be entertained, in a deviant sort of way, if Hillary Clinton tries to pull some "No she didn’t" shenanigans in Denver. Then, for a few short weeks, the real mudslinging will begin, with actual issues being tossed on the back burner. Accusations will fly, counteraccusations will immediately follow. For millions of us, Black, White, and otherwise, our personal boogeymanometers will be in overload, as either Obama or McCain will be portrayed as, in short, our worst possible nightmare.

But, the day will come. Many of us will go to the polls for the first time, believing for a change that our votes do matter, that we are a viable part of the political process, and that we are becoming a part of history. And then, when the counting is done, and the 21^st century’s first really compelling question has finally been answered, how will America respond?

I pray that it won’t simply be with that look.

Several years ago, I accepted a manufacturing management position with a medium-sized company in Atlanta. I noticed right away that I was the only Black manager there (out of seven at my level), but contrary to what the mainstream likes to believe, there was nothing odd about that fact. It did seem peculiar that my arrival seemed to be completely unexpected by such people as secretaries, payroll, and the like, or that the Black floor employees kept giving me that "Is he for real?" once over. But I was too wrapped up in the new job to pay much attention. I threw myself into it, won the trust of my department, and proceeded to outperform every other manager. Now that wasn’t my assessment (although I thought I was doing fairly well), but came from experienced people outside my department. Even when I was given what was expected to be a guaranteed "he’s going to fall flat" task, I pulled it off in thirty days; the original timeline I was given was three months.

Now let’s cut to the okey-doke: After reducing overtime by 85 percent, reducing the backlog to zero, and missing no deadlines for the nine months I’d been employed, evaluation time came around. Imagine my surprise when the plant manager said "Well, you seem to be managing your department okay, but the other managers are concerned that you aren’t a team player."

What? Exactly. That’s called the okey-doke, and as would be expected, three months later I was called in and offered a few months severance pay (as long as I signed that little waiver). Of course I took it and moved on, committing the whole ordeal to the "experience" category. You see, it didn’t matter if I was more competent and better equipped to do the job. I wasn’t in the club, and after a while, the club decided I needed to go.

Now why am I telling you this? Well, actually I’m hoping the word gets to Senator Barack Obama, otherwise known as The Man Who Would Be President (TMWWBP). You see, several months ago, this whole Democratic nomination thing was supposedly wrapped up. Yes, we all watched in absolute astonishment as Hillary Clinton gave an Oscar-worthy performance in "I Won’t Lose Gracefully," and we kept a wary eye on her apparently insanely rancorous supporters, several of them vowing publicly to support McCain in protest. But even as TMWWBP has chugged right along, mostly staying the high course even as the Repugnant Right becomes ever more despicable and deplorable, Black America keeps looking around for the "gotcha." As August 25^th approaches, well, something is up.

In the last few days, Hillary has taken the unprecedented step of forcing her name into nomination on the DNC floor. Yes, many previous candidates have done that, but no one else has ever done it after endorsing another candidate. Then we find that Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates may very well be seated at full strength. Under the umbrella of "party unity," TMWWBP sent in a letter endorsing such a move, presumably because he and his team have already counted the numbers fifty-leven times, and barring something completely outrageous, have nothing to worry about.

"Paging Mr. Obama, paging Mr. Obama." My brother, we always have something to worry about, and what’s outrageous for us is just another day’s work for them. You may be committed to dignity, honor, and valor, but Clinton and her minions (especially the bitter feminists still holding out for the ERA– I’ll talk about them another time) don’t care if they burn every bridge from Denver to D.C. They hate you, and it would behoove you to start understanding that. Something rotten is definitely going on, and we all smell it. Do you?

I've heard a constant refrain lately – at work, on TV, on the internet – from some of my black brethren about Barack Obama.

He doesn't need to "lecture black people" about personal responsibility.

He should be mindful of the tone he uses when he speaks to us.

He's just saying what racist white people want to hear.

He sacrifices black people to score points with whites and other non-blacks.

I was offended by his criticism of black people.

What gives him the right to call anybody out about anything?

Since he doesn't have anything good to say about black people he shouldn't say anything at all.

What do we want from this man?

Over the next five days, the blog Brown Man Thinking Hard presents "What Do We Want?" which will explore some of the issues that underlie this intraracial discord within black America.

I got this e-mail from the blogger Brown Man, check it out:

I've heard a constant refrain lately – at work, on TV, on the internet – from some of my black brethren about Barack Obama.

He doesn't need to "lecture black people" about personal responsibility.

He should be mindful of the tone he uses when he speaks to us.

He's just saying what racist white people want to hear.

He sacrifices black people to score points with whites and other non-blacks.

I was offended by his criticism of black people.

What gives him the right to call anybody out about anything?

Since he doesn't have anything good to say about black people he shouldn't say anything at all.

What do we want from this man?

Over the next five days, the blog Brown Man Thinking Hard presents "What Do We Want?" which will explore some of the issues that underlie this intraracial discord within black America.

One of the weapons of colonialism and genocide is the destruction of diet. The way that this is done is by adapting the 'conquered' to the S.A.D. (standard american diet). So even before we promote a plant-centric diet the first question we have to ask is a diet derived from Europeans appropriate for Original People.
C'BS ALife Allah in his post "Where the deer and the antelope"

My, my, my...what a concept. All this time, I thought Senator Obama was running for president of the entire United States, but apparently I was dead wrong. According to this bunch, the good Senator is spending too much time talking about national and world issues, and not aiming enough of his rhetoric at our issues. To his credit, Senator Obama did not do what probably needed to be done– namely, have the Secret Service and a few select bodyguards take these knuckleheads outside and slap them up and down the sidewalk for one or two or maybe ten hours. No, he told them quite politely and calmly that they would have a chance to ask questions at the end, then gave them that chance. He then answered their questions, pointing out to them, overtly, that he had addressed every issue they brought up and, a bit more sublimely, letting them know that it’s okay to pick up a newspaper and actually read every now and then.

Now here’s the peculiar part: Apparently these budding activists, who claim to be members of the socialist "International African Revolution," appeared on WAOK in Atlanta this past Friday (thanks to my sister, Miranda, for the info) and proclaimed that they "do not participate in the political process." So why were you standing there cuttin’ the fool and hollering out during the townhall?  Just had to be seen, didn't you? And whatever happened to home training?

Sadly, in spite of all the problems facing this country, too many Black people are just like this group, having bought into the notion that every politician of color must either be consumed with all things Black or admit he/she is a Republican (translation: Uncle Tom). That’s it. No gray area here. Echoing President Bush’s famous words, "You’re either with us or against us," and for Black Americans, that means ignoring bigger issues except where they pertain to or affect Black Americans. For some, the election of Obama to POTUS can only mean bazillions of dollars suddenly being redirected into the waiting pockets of the Black community. The FBI’s primary (only?) focus will be White folks who commit crimes against Black folks. The Justice Department will personally take over every black homeowner’s mortgage and pay the note for them-- forever. Reparations for slavery will not only be doled out with a quickness, but the IRS will suspend all other operations just so Black people can get that money that’s clearly been owed since 1865. It will be the end of racism, discrimination, and Black unemployment– all because the "Black President of the United States" will mobilize every asset at his disposal to fix those things that have been "keeping us down for too long, holding us back for too long, depriving us of our slice of the American dream for too long!" I can just hear the "Amens."

Really, are we that freakin’ shallow? No, must of us aren't, but the few that are don't have the common decency to just shut up and be ignorant in silence.  Come on, Black people-- grow up.

Black Man & Japanese Country Music - how?

Enka lyrics, as in Portuguese Fado, usually are about the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death. Enka suggests a more traditional, idealized, or romanticized aspect of Japanese culture and attitudes, comparable to American country and western music.
Wikipedia on Enka

Jero, Japan's first Black Enka singer, was exposed to this traditional music by his Japanese grand-mother in the US & is currently becoming a big pop star in Japan.

How we always try to box people that exist outside of our social & cultural classifications is emphasised in the Washington Post article about him:

Part Public Enemy, part Sinatra, part schmaltz, it's an act the Japanese public has never seen before, and it is making him a star.

Face your own conditioning [& have some tissues handy!]:

Black, um, Germans?!

Yes, there are black people in Germany! The Nazis haven't gotten hold of all of us yet & the Black Forest ain't as dark & dangerous as many may think. Actually, the history of Blacks in Germany can be traced back for centuries but, well, guess, that will be subject of a post yet to come.
If you don't believe me, start reading up here or have a look at pictures from previous Bundestreffen.

And if you need an audio-visual proof - listen to Afro German by Weep Not Child from the early 90s:

The challenge & value of the Bundestreffen lies in the heterogeneity of people. Although Afro-Germans are often portrayed as an easily definable non-German minority, we have so many different up-bringing & backgrounds, agendas & political views, motives & interests.
There is the black mother who wants their children to be amongst other kids that look like them for once.
There is the black teenager who reads up on Malcolm X, Black Power & the Five Percenters.
There is the young black woman who somehow finds her way to the gathering but cannot stop emphasising that she has never experienced racism outside of this setting as it is totally racist to prevent her from bringing her white boyfriend.
There is the brother who grew up on the continent. There is the sister who never even met her African father.
There is my posse of vegans & vegetarians, Christians & Hebrews, healers & helpers. Always afrocentric, conscious, on the journey to the best version of themselves. Weirdos in the eyes of others as well.

Am I biased? No doubt. Am I sometimes struggling with accepting that other paths may lead to green pastures too, although they are so far apart from mine? Oh yeah!
But...
That's the beauty of crashing exchanging with sooo not like-minded people: Lessons hidden in the most bizarre places.

So if you are part of Black Germania too (denial ain't an option, bro!), here is information on this year's meeting held 7 - 10 August 2008.
And here is the blog where you find information about all the presentations & workshops offered. If you read closely you'll even find our workshop on "Conscious Eating", yay.

You have to accept that there are consequences to your actions.

You have to believe that businesses create prosperity and governments create oppression.

You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans is a good thing, and that U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean Communists is a threat.

You have to believe that there was art before federal funding.

You have to believe that global temperatures are more affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and less affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

You have to believe that gender roles are natural but being homosexual is artificial.

You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by sexual behavior, not a lack of federal funding.

You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is not qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

You have to believe that hunters care about nature. 

You have to believe that accomplishing something is the source of self-esteem.

You have to believe the NRA is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

You have to believe that taxes are too high, and so are ATM fees.

You have to believe that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan are far more important to American history than Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem. 

You have to believe that standardized tests are not racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are.

You have to believe that socialism hasn't worked anywhere and it never will.  

You have to believe that conservatives telling the truth belong in the White House, but a perjurer and a sex offender belonged in jail.

You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be illegal, and manger scenes at Christmas should be constitutionally protected.

You have to believe that the illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese government and introduced to American politics by the Clinton 's is not in the best interests of the United States .

You have to believe that it's okay to give federal workers Christmas Day off and it's okay to say "Merry Christmas" without being offended. 

You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean Communists.

You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.

You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. 

You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

You have to believe that Hillary Clinton doesn't condone Bill's sexual predations.

You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

You have to believe that conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a perjurer and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

You have to believe that the illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese government and introduced to American politics by the Clinton 's is somehow in the best interests of the United States .

You have to believe that it's okay to give federal workers Christmas Day off but it's not okay to say "Merry Christmas." 

You have to believe that McCain attacking Obama is racist, and Obama attacking McCain isn't.

The title above wasn't actually said by anyone but it encapsulates the feelings of an awful lot of white people I run into down here (not all, I hasten to say, and certainly not just in Savannah). There's an impatience to "get over it" on the part of whites, who either don't know or don't accept that the realities of black life haven't really changed since the 60's in many significant respects. We feel the "injury" of forced integration and the social changes it has wrought in the last 40 years but have no real understanding of how superficial those changes have at the same time proved to be.

For example, yes, blacks don't sit at the back of the bus any more and they drink at the same fountains and sit in the same section of the movie theaters with whites and own homes and hold down jobs and are elected mayor and so on. To whites, this is a Big Deal. Many of u8s experience such things as great sacrifices on our part and are justifiably proud of making them. We honestly don't know what else we can do and tend to fall back on the usual Right-wing folderol, "personal responsibility". The society has made blacks equal to whites so if blacks aren't scaling the social ladders, acting with grace and wit, and educated to within an inch of their lives, it's not our fault. They need to take responsibility for their own failures now.

The corollary, of course, is that if blacks aren't easing into white society with grace and wit, it just goes to prove what we've been saying about them for years: that they're inherently inferior. "What do you expect?" people whispered to me when I got here. "It's a black town."

But under the cover of the superficial changes, even a cursory acquaintance with the black community in Savannah turns up lots of anger, residual and current, because to a large degree despite the overwhelming changes of the past 40 years, not much has actually changed: they're still the last hired and the first fired, they're still constantly badgered by police even though the police force has lots of black faces in it, some of them in positions of authority, and they are still given very little room to move compared to whites. A white teen who gets caught selling drugs will be sent to rehab; a black teen likewise caught will go to prison.

Even in tolerant Savannah, it is hard to find a black family in which no member has been to jail. It is still a constant part of their lives. You hear the DWB stories (police stop them for the crime of Driving While Black), the endless stories of being hassled just because you're walking in a white neighborhood, of being arrested for "trespassing" in the parking lot of the motel in which you're staying, and so on. Whenever the brothers get together, a basic staple of their conversation is who went to jail, who got out, who was accused of what, whose lawyer was good, whose wasn't, which cops treat you like a human and which treat you like an animal.

These are fundamental differences between the cultures, and the expectations of whites that letting blacks drink at the same water fountain is going to solve the whole problem is just a form of denial about how deep the problem really goes, and how hard it will be to fix it for real. Major portions of the society we accept will have to be reorganized, and though we're doing that - slowly - we resent doing it at all and drag our feet, bitching and moaning about how we wouldn't have to do it at all if those damn blacks would just accept "personal responsibility" for the way they live.

But that's like saying that if those people from New Orleans had just accepted personal responsibility for Katrina the hiurricane never would have happened and they never would have lost their homes.

It isn't a surprise that white people feel that way, but it came as a surprise to me to find out that many blacks feel that way, too. Especially the women for some reason. They can be as hard as nails with their own, as unwilling to forgive as the most bigoted white you can conjure up. Only three times in all the miles I was hitching was I picked up by a black man even though most of the cars that passed me were driven by blacks. Of all the people who've offered me money, only two were black. They were both women and they each gave me a dollar.

With the first (in Richmond), I had the feeling that she was making a sacrifice, that even a dollar was going to cause a problem to her week but she was going to do it anyway. I was grateful and even humbled by that sacrifice. The other (in Fayetteville) was slumming. She had just put over $40 worth of gas in her SUV and she wanted to feel, perhaps, that she wasn't as selfish as she sometimes thought she was.

The point here is not that black people are stingier or meaner with money, gifts, or aid. The point is that they, too, have bought a certain amount of the "personal responsibility" swill that conservatives have been peddling for the past 30 years. Not as much as whites but quite a bit all the same. Bill Cosby started a furor several times in the last few years when he publicly took the standard conservative attitude - "I did it so if you can't it's because you're lazy and undisciplined" - and beat his own people over the head with it. Of course they were angry. They're used to hearing that crap from whites. It was an insult to hear it from one of their heroes.

But it does make plain the split in the black community between those angry because the discrimination never seems to end despite all the white promises (and now the incredibly frustrating white insistence that it has ended when it so clearly has not) and those who are angry because their friends and loved ones often seem to be taking the easy way out, proving to the whites that "they're all like that" and similar cliches.

There's nothing really new about this split. It has been there for generations but conservative propaganda has given it new life and force so that even blacks are asking themselves, "What's wrong with us? Why haven't we come further in the last 40 years since the civil rights movement than we have? Are they right? Are we just lazy, undisciplined, and dependant on government handouts?"

The poison is everywhere - both in the unrealistic expectations of whites that blacks ought to have become docile and obedient once segregation was technically over even though in many ways how they're treated hasn't changed much, and in blacks' expectations for themselves that it must be their fault if they haven't made more progress. It's a game of Victim/Victim that has to be played out, I suppose, but it isn't helping anybody.

Anywayz with that being said,

So I waited patiently all week in anticipation for this special investigation report, Black in America, and sadly, it really didn't do that much for me. I had anticipated this show, watched all the promos, read all the blogs and news reports, and it really didn't show me anything that I didn't already know about the subjects involved.  It was broken down over two hours with each segment discussing prominant issues in the black community. Lack of good education, Black on Black crime, Single black mothers, the dating dilemmas of the professional black woman, interracial dating, and AIDS. All extremely prevalent important issues that should be brought out and discussed, but it only seemed as though it was just a rehashing of everything everybody already knows. Somehow I was expecting this great documentary that was going to enlighten me and not only other blacks but other cultures about what it truly essentially means to be black in america and I ended up getting the same stories I always see and hear. This first part of the series didn't give me what it means to be black in America, it simply told me the tales of what millions of americans, rather black, white, or purple go through on a daily basis. Being poor has nothing to do with being black, nor does being a single mother, or having AIDS, or being the victim of a horrible crime, yes I understand, these are big issues in the black community, but to say its what being black in america means only reinforces the same sick stereotypes that other cultures have about us.  I don't know, its just my opinion, but to title something being Black in America, you would think that it would explain what it is like to be Black in America, instead it went through the laundry list of issues that continue to plague SOME in the black community, they are what make up a small portion of Black America, not what represents Black America. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's piece of what it means to be a black man, I'm hoping they do a much better job elaborating on that than just listing a bunch of sterotypical stories that I can predict before I even watch, which I have a feeling won't be hard. As a black woman with a brother and a father, I know the struggles of the black man and a little of what it means to be one, its more than just a two hour documentary, I'll be watching with faith for CNN that they know what they have gotten themselves into.

It would take years to write what I feel,

Tiel

"My greatest challenge is getting Black people off white sugar. This has been an on-going struggle for 35 years and I'm losing."

Dr. Laila O. Afrika
in: Zakhah "The Joy of Living Live"