let’s be serious. yes, america is changing, but let’s stop congratulating ourselves for minimal progress.

we still live in an america where a mediocre white candidate has the same if not better chance of being elected as a superior colored candidate.

we have a military that accepts all kinds to die for our country, but dares to ask many of its soldiers to hide parts of their identity.

our current democratic candidate can’t publicly discuss/rejoice in the full weight of the history he’s about to make for fear of losing because it’s not the type of history the gatekeepers want to recognize or validate.

because full recognition of that history would be an implied confession of the advantage they’ve carried over the past 224 years. and no one wants to admit that their victory was won on an uneven playing field. no one wants to believe that they may not have been the best after all.

etc…etc…

the bottom line is that we’ve not even reached a point where race can be publicly discussed without choosing between dishonesty or political ruin.

and if we can’t talk about it honestly, then we can’t tackle racism in a real way.

and if we can’t tackle racism, then the gatekeepers win, and then they, not us, will keep the tokens flowing… or not, depending on the era and who’s at the gate.

and none of this will truly progress america.

should we be excited about obama? absolutely. should we use this occassion to proclaim the end of the racial nightmare? hell no.

we’re just getting started.

i can’t speak for others, but i ain’t looking for tokens or bones, man. i want full integration. and that white boogeyman at the gate? i want to run him over and bust through that thang.

I’m also not sure what motivated this post about not neeing “white men to achieve, authenticate or legitimate our goals.” Is it part of the Biden discussion in this thread? Are you suggesting that the Biden pick reflects a need black men have had to be “approved” by white men? Or that at the very least this choice of Biden taps into a vein of African-American male experience, demeaning but understandable, wherein “success” in American society requires the that “minorities” be embraced by the dominant culture or approved for entrance into elite centers of power? Has this been part of Obama’s own developmental drama?

Isn’t it possible that the very opposite of what you say has happened? First, look at the incredible historical irony of Obama’s achievement. He’s OUR first African-American presidential candidate (by the way, no race owns him, he’s an American candidate). His presence on the platform tomorrow night signifies a tremendous transformation in American political history. (Talk about cognitive dissonance…and the great cultural distances we’ve traveled in the last few years). Two things astonish me–that fact he’s there and the fact that we’ve gotten used to that fact so fast. This tells me there’s obviously been a profound realignment in this country in the politics of power and race (this is absolutely undeniable). This also tells me that, because I’ve so quickly become used to Obama’s presence at the top of the Democratic ticket, I welcome, I embrace (as do millions of others) the change that he represents–racially, politically, ethically.

There’s a paradigmatic shift happening, and again, look at the historical irony of the situation. Obama is reaching down to an older white man, reaching down to him–you see this don’t you?–and elevating him (Biden) to a position of power that he would not likely have otherwise seen in his lifetime (Biden’s one of the perma-Senators, like Kennedy).

So, as I started to say before, I think the opposite of what you say is happening. It’s Biden that needs Obama to legitimize him (Biden), to authenticate him (Biden), to help him achieve his goals (Biden’s). Biden is in a position of seeking the approval of an African-American presidential candidate–so that he (Biden) can find a place in what is fast becoming a multi-racial (or multi-ethnic) political power structure.
This is the huge historical irony I was talking about above.

OK, now it’s time for the readers of the blog to tell Rhetor to chill because he’s taking up too much space.

Michelle was resplendent: she exuded class, stature, beauty, and intelligence.

And man can she represent.

Put it this way: she makes Barbara Bush look like she (Barbara Bush) is qualified for nothing better than being the head of a local Girl Scout Troop, teaching the basics of cooking, good hygiene, and knitting mufflers for your hardworking man. Just as Barack makes George W. look like he should be selling barbecue tongs at the local hardware store in Crawford, TX. The Bush’s are about as ordinary as you get, and they never deserved to sit in the White House.

Kiese, I agree with you about Obama not hooking up with Hilary for VP. I would have enjoyed the intense political dynamism of that match-up. It would have been wonderfully volatile.

But I’m not too worried about the Biden choice. Not all old white men are the same, as much as the look like it. It was quite telling that JB was called over to Georgia right before he was nominated–absolutely affirms why he’s on the ticket. Looking at the Obama/Biden ticket nervous white men from Ohio and Pennsylvania (man I hate Ohio!! The spineless fucking heartland–it needs a bypass) will be less likely to cringe knowing that half the ticket looks like them.

this is me wondering how far this country has come from that kind of anxiety.

and that’s just the campaign. i wondering about the election. we saw what the repub machine did to fellow blandies in 2000 and 2004. i’d venture to say that they’d put on the craziest show yet for the whammy.

or at least they’d try.

like i said, i think it’s a brilliant concept. dangerous as fuck, but brilliant. and so gangsta.

but i wonder so much about his thoughts/reasoning about not picking her, and how much those thoughts had to do with whammy anxiety. maybe not much at all.

and what about michelle? not sure if she has ambitions like hillary, but she ain’t laura bush. i know that much. she’s powerful, and is clearly going to be an active first lady. she might not have factored in this at all because her role would be so different, but i wonder how hillary would feel if bill had a female vp?

now, i’m worried that those over 40 white women and pissed as fuck and not going to support this nigga. i understand the pick. i just don’t think biden brings the ticket anything substantial and whatever he brings, the diss of clinton does more to hurt him … unless both clinton bust their asses and really campaign as if hillary clinton was on the ticket.

this shit saddens me. last thing i’m gonna say about it.