BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Did Barack Obama Just Pull a Bill Clinton “Sister Souljah Moment”
January 17th, 2008
“In United States politics, a Sister Souljah moment is a politician’s public repudiation of an allegedly extremist person or group, statement, or position perceived to have some association with the politician or their party. Such an act of repudiation is designed to signal to centrist voters that the politician is not beholden to traditional, and sometimes unpopular, interest groups associated with the party although such a repudiation runs the risk of alienating some of the politician’s allies and the party’s base voters.”
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Richard Cohen in the Post made Louis Farrakhan — a former State Senate constituent of Obama’s, and the honoree of a publication by his church — an issue today, and Obama has a comment out now:
I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.
That’s a pretty sharp statement on a subject that can cause a bit of a headache for Obama in his Chicago backyard, but should help settle something that was whispered for months before Cohen wrote it.
So Obama is taking a bow to the ADL (Anti-defemation League).
I’d like for Obama to detail this Anti-semitism. According to the ADL anti-semitism is when you say any Jew in the history of the world did any thing wrong. Also, I wonder does he repudiate the Million Man March?
And oh, Am I the only one who notice that in the Debate last night that Barack pledged to “expand the military”. If you’re shutting down the war in Iraq, as he said he would do for the 10 minutes prior to that, why do you need more military for rotations to stop “3 and 4 year deployments”. Not having the war stops “3 and 4 year deployments”.
Freudian slip? Trying to tell us something Barack?
Is this a shout out to the military industrial complex?
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12 Responses to “Did Barack Obama Just Pull a Bill Clinton “Sister Souljah Moment””
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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I saw that in the Chicago paper, it is a shame and I would have refused, The Honorable Minister is not part of the Obama camp so there should be no need to put him down. Having said that, Barack is surrounded by white folks telling him what to say,there is no way he could be elected or nominated if Farrakhan is made an issue.White folks would walk but many black would follow suit to the Hillary camp.Remember we let white folks pick our heros. I was discussing the election with some white liberals and they asked me who would I like to see run with Obama, I Sharpton and Minister Farrakhan as Secetary of State. If Farrakhan was the international face of America, we would gain respect in the world,but like a large corporation we will select our leaders based on internal needs vs external needs.
This is not the same as Clinton coming into Jesse Sr. national convention and talking shit about another guess, it is a diservice to but them both and the same light. We are fooling ourselves if we think Obama can think completly like us and win!! He cannot and that is why white like him, he is not too black on issues
“I saw that in the Chicago paper, it is a shame and I would have refused, The Honorable Minister is not part of the Obama camp so there should be no need to put him down.”
Exactly, especially after all this time that Obama’s been a prominent member of that community and a member of that Church. If you didn’t have a problem with him then, why do you have a problem with him now?
He could have just made a general statement that Farrakhan is not apart of his camp, and he’s not a member of the nation of Islam, so there’s no need to account for him. As a matter of fact he could have turned it around and asked why is it assumed that it is his job to apologize for another Black man. If you have a problem with Farrakhan, take it up with Farrakhan.
All kinds of smart ways he could have played it to get around the issue without going full frontal at the brotha. This Duplicity is becoming tiresome.
“if Farrakhan is made an issue.White folks would walk but many black would follow suit to the Hillary camp.Remember we let white folks pick our heros”
See, this is all the more the issue that I’ve been making the past week here. If we get a castrated Black man who has to move based on white approval, in the end, what’s really the difference?
I don’t know if I can take the duplicity. I’m too much about the real and straight forward.
My thought is that it was not a sister Souljah moment. There is a difference between Bill (wannabe first black president Clinton) and Barack Obama. Barack had no other alternative but to limit his exposure, and not agree with certain comments when asked by media. Hell, Obama may not agree with many of your or my comments. It’s OK, I’m not mad a him. I understand that he must limit his exposure to more radical elements of the black community.
It doesn’t matter what black person is running he will never be good enough for blacks. Jesse Jackson is to militant, Obama to white, Al Sharpton has a perm. Cry me a river why don’t you, we are our biggest critics and I really think we don’t want anyone of color to succeed. I don’t care who you pick, as long as he is black there will be a problem with him, why because he’s black. He will say the wrong things, walk the wrong way, align with the wrong people. I think a lot of blacks secretly want whites to rule over them. They are just use to it. They prefer their bosses whites and their servants black. There is a difference between criticism and attacks. I feel this is an attack. Why should he align himself with Farrakhan(extremist)?
He has a campaign to run, and I don’t think he’s a puppet. I think he was very well aware of the statement he made. I think he honestly feels that the things Farrakhan says does not represent him. He’s not taking a bow. There are plenty of black people who don’t agree with Farrakhan, and I am one of them. It’s not the meaning behind what Farrakhan says because I know what he’s trying to say, but how he says it, the passion behind his words, which I feel insights hatred. If someone were to say such things about blacks, we would be up in arms, and ready to protest. I just wish we would defend ourselves in the same manner, whether or not, the statements are true.
When they called Obama an anti-patriot, I wish we as people had a league that would attack all those false reports, and shut them down as racism. Instead we have black organizations that help spread the falsehoods. We have Bob Johnson running to the defense of the Clintons. Even GLAD has the ability to go after those who attack homosexuality.
America is not ready for a black person, because black people aren’t ready. I don’t think we shouldn’t be critical, and I don’t think we should vote for a man simply because he’s black, but I don’t want the reason for him to not succeed be a lack of black support. He can’t take on all our issues, and he shouldn’t be held accountable for every injustice done to blacks.
I meant *too militant, *too white
AAPP, I started to post this last night as a response:
“Well I’m part of that “radical element” AAPP, so then why am I supporting a guy just because he’s Black, if he’s just going to be a Black version of a white president? Truth be told, Obama being Black is the tipping point for my support. Otherwise, taking race out of the equation, I favor Edwards a little more; hell, I’m a populist.”
But then I held it and saved it as I thought about your response some more and looked at Obam’s comment again and thought, well not so bad; maybe AAPP has a point.
But in researching something else I found that Obama’s Pastor, who he describes as his spiritual mentor, takes mostly the same positions on the world of the modern Jews as does Farrahkan.
Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, a church which my cousin attends, herself an Afro-centrist, who was telling me when I was in Chicago a couple years back about it’s large and elaborate Kwanzaa celebration (I think the biggest in the city); and about the Church being unabashedly Afro-centric.
Pastor Jerehmiah Wright himself is one of the “radical” that you speak of. He’s clearly one of us.
“The rebellious son of a Baptist minister, Wright was hired by Trinity United when he could find no Baptist church to take him. The congregation on 95th Street, then numbering just 87, had recently adopted the motto “Unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian.” They did not mind his fiery red Afro and black power agenda.”
Rest of the article www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/profiles/chi-070121-relig_wright,0,5184608.story?coll=chi_news_custom_religion_promo
Wright has many of the same thoughts about Zionism as practiced to oppress Plantains and so forth, that Farrakhan has. Wright and Farrakhan are homeboys; they’ve been down for decades. As I alluded to in my comment to JD above, I can’t believe that Obama and Farrakhan haven’t hobnobbed over the years, so why denounce him now? Obviously to appease the Euro-Jew community and their other white allies.
You might say, “well great, we’re getting a Black Liberation disciple as president.” But so what if he doesn’t act on it, and he does the same things to maintain power that he’s doing right now to gain power?
I could sit here guessing about is this a ploy just so he can get in, and then he’s going to come strong; but I have no way to accurately know; but what I do know is the actions I see.
MrsG, for me it all comes back to what do we have to offer at the alter of white approval to get a Black president; and then what benefits do we get out of these sacrifices?
I’ve asked numerous times over the last week what do we get from this presidency and all I’ve gotten is that we get some symbolism and a step towards change. 400 years and we get another step. One for which we have to capitulating to white people even MORE. How much do we have to concede to them before we finally get to be human?
I’m attacking Obama? Okay, somebody gives a man an award. Another man says he shouldn’t have gotten an award, and that’s not an attack; but this is?
You’re right, Blacks do need an ADL to stand up for us so when a Black man, like many others of us Black, white, Arab, and so on; points out the hypocrisy in Euro-Jews crying victim and racism all the time, while at the same time practicing ethnic based apartheid against the Palestinians; we can hit back.
We’re not ready for a Black president, Black people need to become full citizens first.
A nice debate and good comments, I heard barack say today he is happy for black support but he is just as concern with white rural southerners that have lost jobs. It did not sit well with me but, he has to say that to get votes,plain and simple.Regarding Trinty, it has a membership of uppity blacks and is no way revolutionary or a threat to the US
Whatever Trinity may be, the leader has positions about Israel and Euro-Jews that are comparable to Farrakhan’s. He went with him to Libya back in ‘86 to meet with Khadafi.
So again, we’re getting duplicity from Obama.
I agree with your assessment, and attack may have been an overstatement. I know you are well informed, but there are so many people hailing him as The Magic Negro. My fear is: he can’t and won’t live up to that standard.
It’s both sad and pathetic how much black politicians are tied up over Farrakhan and the Israel/Jewish issues. Yet white politicians get a pass when it comes to the Trent Lott’s racism and bigotry of others. Especially the racist right wing talk show hosts. What makes it worse is that racist political commentators like Tim Russert keeps the shit going under the guise of legitimate news or debate. We definitely need change in this country.