What Michelle Obama Meant By: Black People will Wake UP

[dafame]

This is a very old topic. I'm not sure how many of you heard about this story but I just recently heard about it for the first time and wanted to say something about it. Sorry that it's not paragraphed.



There was nothing racist about what Michelle Obama said in this interview. She was simply stating a fact that has plagued the black community since the time of slavery and has been passed down throughout our generations. I go back that far because it was through slavery that we as black people were taught that we were inferior and that anything that we could do whites could do it better. This was something that was taught to us as a means keeping us as slaves. It was a means of keeping us from organizing and running away by convincing us that we could not survive without “the master”. It was a way of convincing us to love and wish to serve the master (read – The Willie Lynch Papers).

I read a book once titled: The Mis-Education of the Negro. One of the things this book talked about was a movement in the 1920 for white owned banks to grant loans to blacks that wanted to start business to be operated in their communities. White manufacturers wanted to test the theory that blacks would be more inclined to spend their money purchasing the products that they manufactured if they were getting them from other blacks. These businesses failed dramatically. This was because of the “black mentality” that the products that they were being offered from black business owners were somehow inferior to the exact same products that they could purchase from the white owners. Many of the black business included banks. Blacks were afraid of putting their money into the black owned banks because they were afraid that they would not be able to maintain them and thus they weren’t. I’m sure that we’ve all heard the jokes about or have had discussions on the reality that it is extremely difficult for blacks to receive business loans from banks. This is the direct result of what transpired in the early part of the 20th century.

Although things have greatly changed in that area and the fact is there are more opportunities for African Americans in America than at any other time in our history, there is still racism in a country that was founded on racism and there is still the inferiority complex that blacks have that has been handed down from generation to generation.

Since this historic campaign began I’ve heard term “White Guilt” over and over again. It’s the belief of some people that some whites are voting for Barrack Obama because of a deep guilt that whites feel about slavery. As a black man I can’t speak to whether or not “White Guilt” actually exists but what I can say is that it shouldn’t. I say that based on the fact that none of my white friends or co-workers were alive to experience slavery first hand. However, the fact is that we in this day and age all experience the effects of slavery. Only the way I as a black man experiences it is far different from the way any of my white friends can conceive. To explain this I have to go back to grade school. I can remember in grade school learning about slavery. Each February of each year my teacher would dedicate some time in our history book to turn to the section on slavery. What I learned was that my ancestors were slaves and that they were brought to the country from Africa. I learned that were forced to work and lived on plantations owned by whites. I learned that they were not treated well and were viewed as property. I learned that some of them would try to escape to the northern states where they would be safe from slavery as free men. I also learned each February that what I was going to hear would be no different from what I learned the February prior. This in essence was the extent of the story. But the story didn’t just end there for me. I went to a mostly white school so this is where the story ended for my white friends and classmates as well.

What I never learned is why they allowed themselves to be slaves. In most cases the slaves would outnumber the slave master and his workers 10-1. Why wouldn’t they simply fight back? Are we that weak of a people (as a child this is something else that helps to further instill that feeling of inferiority – catch my drift)? I didn’t learn anything about the methods that were used to make them accept slavery. I didn’t learn about the breaking in process that they would classify as being similar to breaking in a horse. I didn’t hear about how this involved taking the biggest, strongest buck in a new flock (as they were referred to prior to the breaking in process in which they then became a nigger) and tearing him apart at opposite ends by horses to instill the initial fears in the flock. They didn’t mention the breaking of the black woman through a series of rapes and constant beating so that she would completely submit the masters will and would accept her purpose of breading the strongest offspring to give to her master. They didn’t teach anything about the tactic of using fear, envy, and distrust as control methods. Or about the breading of a lighter segment of our race in order to have more of a means to exploit favoritism and create more means of division. These are only a few of many tactics that were used to control slaves and are things that as a people, we still battle with among ourselves each day.

This inner battle is in part what Michelle Obama was talking about when she said that black people would eventually wake up. She was talking about her hopes that we have come far enough as a people that we can begin to break the chain that we wear about distrusting in each other. She was simply saying that to black people that this is real, it’s our time (simply meaning that she believes that the country has come far enough that an African American President is something that can be a REAL reality) and that in time black people would begin to break away from that chain and support Obama believing that it could be real. But we all went through the same school system A school system that didn’t teach us anything about slavery or how slavery in it’s very design was meant to be a means of instilling mental chains on a people that could last 300 years if not a thousand. It’s this Mis-Education that we all got that causes white people to see comments like the one Michelle Obama made as racist, and is the reason that we still as two races of people that have a more unique history together than any other two races of people on earth, are still not able to have REAL dialog about what it means to be black in America.

[ARMANIXXX]

tag

[thx1138]

Actually Obama is 50% "white". 25% semitic and 25% "black". As for Michelle I once saw her in a tight fitting orange dress - what a body!

[hippifried]

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You're it!

[peggygee]

Great post dafame.

While many of the caucasian persuasion,
did not comprehend Mrs. Obama's
statement, I as a Black woman, certainly
did.

As did the Republican Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, when she recently
spoke out on the 'birth defect' that is racism
in America.

[thx1138]

http://intelstrike.com:80/?p=271 Gee, the differences between Obama and McCain continue to diminish.

[dafame]

Great post dafame.

While many of the caucasian persuasion,
did not comprehend Mrs. Obama's
statement, I as a Black woman, certainly
did.

As did the Republican Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, when she recently
spoke out on the 'birth defect' that is racism
in America.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post Peggy Gee. What did Condoleezza say recently? If you have some information or if there's a video send it to me.

[thx1138]

Condi said "the world is running out of patience with Iran's nuclear weapons program." Then she went shopping at Nieman Marcus. :>)

[yodajazz]

Thanks for your thoughts Dafame. I agree with what you said. Also understand what Michelle Obama was saying, but it was about a lot more than just supporting her husband. I heard so many time that there would never be a Black president in my lifetime, I did not seriously listen to Obama’s message myself at first. Some Black people did not support him at first because they felt that someone would kill him rather than see a Black president. That is a sad but realistic expectation in today’s world.

Dafame while I agree with you about the effects of slavery and its related support system, more recent examples of racism have the same consequences. Barrack Obama pointed out in his book “Dreams of my Father” than when he was born, it was illegal in half the states for Blacks and Whites to marry. Getting a drink of water from a public water fountain is something most people think nothing of. But it was not till I was a teenager that it was legal for me to drink at any water fountain in The US. And were talking about 100 years after slavery ended.

It seems that there is a outcry about racism so much as this campaign is rolling. Also I see lies are circulated about Obama with the express goal of creating fear. But it’s also the same tactic that has been used over the years to justify racism. Look at the early movie called “Birth of a Nation”. Black men were portrayed as attacking White women, and the Klan was the noble group out to protect White women. In my lifetime Black men have been murdered just for looking at or speaking to a White woman. But now a product of an interracial marriage has real chance to become president.

This is an amazing time, but a small part of me believes that if Obama is elected, I will drop dead before he is inaugurated. But I will continue to support him, he is the one who best represents my views.

[qeuqheeg222]

does anybody here listen to the last poets???they really asked a lot of tough questions back in the day....anyone got that first record...one of the best ever..