Barack Obama’s Typical Awful White Grandmother
By Uppity Woman on April 9, 2008 at 11:03 AM in Barack Obama, Race, Race Card, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
You know her now. The Grandmother.
The Typical White Woman who “helped to raise” poor Barack Obama.
The one that he would like to disown but he just can’t, right?
The one he threw under the bus in sacrifice to the potty-mouth Reverend “Goddamn America” Wright.
“I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe”.
Those are very strong words, aren’t they? Being curious (garlic-nosed women are allowed to be curious, aren’t they?), I wanted to check out Barack Obama’s Typical White Woman Grandmother. I wanted to know what his grandmother did for him that wasn’t as good as what Jeremiah Wright did for him. I wanted to know what his Typical White Woman Grandmother did to him that warranted putting her in the same category with a hate-monger.
I wanted to know what that Typical White Woman Grandmother did to him that encouraged Barry Obama to think he should even discuss the potential of disowning her (….but I can’t….I just cannn’t!).
I keep asking myself what exactly were you saying here, Barry? You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives? What exactly did your Typical White Woman Grandmother do that made her deserving of being placed into the same category with a miserable racist who says Goddamn America and spews hatred from the pulpit? Sound bites. Sorry, I mean he spews hatred in sound bites. Well actually, he isn’t spewing anything right now, since he seems to be lying really really low in wait, filling his time in building his million-dollar home.
OK, so exactly who was this terrible grandmother that Barack Obama loves in spite of who she is? I won’t bore you with too many early historic details that nobody cares about at this point. That would remind you of the person who rips out his wallet and you are stuck looking at a boatload of ugly kids’ pictures hanging down from a plastic carrier. Or going to somebody’s home and being forced to watch videos of their trip with the kids to Waterworld or something. And God knows, Obama has bored us with his fictional rendition of his life details often enough.
Her maiden name was Madelyn Lee Payne and she was born of a white collar family in Kansas. She married a furniture salesman named Stanley Armour Dunham, much to her parents’ disapproval.
Stanley enlisted in the army after Pearl Harbor and Madelyn worked on the Boeing Assembly line as an Inspector. To be sure they struggled as so many, including my parents, did during the war. Of course Barry wasn’t born yet so I don’t imagine the struggle is burned into his personal memory bank, although perhaps in his next Memoir, he will find a way. God knows he is very good at making things up as he goes along.
Barry’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham was born in 1942. But they called her Ann. The family moved around a bit, having lived in the states of California, Texas, Kansas and Washington. Stanley managed furniture stores, while Madelyn worked in restaurants. Madelyn attended the University of California-Berkley while in California and the University of Washington while in Seattle. In Seattle, Stanley managed a large furniture store and Madelyn went to work for a bank.
When Stanley found a better furniture store opportunity, they moved to Hawaii. Madelyn found a position at the Bank of Hawaii in 1960. The Bank of Hawaii was the Number One bank on the Islands at the time. In 1970, Madelyn became the first female Bank Of Hawaii Vice President. Overall I would say Madelyn was a go-getter wouldn’t you? Madelyn was a go-getter wouldn’t you? I wonder how well she would have done under an Obama Presidency? Or how she would fare if she were running against him?
Barry’s future mother attended the University of Hawaii, where she met Barack Hussein Obama-the-First, a Kenyan graduate student at the University. Stanley and Madelyn were not thrilled that she married him, especially considering Barack Hussein Obama-The-First’s Kenyan father sent the Dunhams “this long, nasty letter saying that he didn’t approve of the marriage.” According to Obama in his Memoir, False Memories of Simply Everything Dreams of My Father, his mother told him he “Didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman.” Of course, given the fact that other details of his book have been merilessly debunked, it’s hard to know if this actually happened or if Barry pulled this detail out of an orifice. Frankly, I am not sure which is more frightening–that it happened–or that Barry fantasized that it happened.
(Uppity Note: Swell. What if the guy has a Jones about white women. Now I KNOW I wouldn’t have a prayer under Barack Obama. Good thing it’s never going to happen because It’s The Women, Stupid.)
After Ann’s marriage to Barack-Obama-The-First failed and he left her and little Barry, Ann remarried. Barack spent four years with his mother and her second husband in Indonesia. At that time, one account says that Barry’s mother Ann was an anthropologist employed on development projects in Indonesia and around the world helping women obtain microfinance. The Chicago Tribune has her working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. In any event, but for the fact that Indonesia wasn’t exactly a modern country, it’s pretty safe to say that Barack probably wasn’t exactly scrounging for food like so many American children are doing today as we speak.
Barack Obama voluntarily returned to Hawaii at age 10 to live with the Dunhams in their highrise apartment. Let me repeat that. Barack Obama chose to go to Hawaii because he wanted to live there instead of Indonesia. In other words, his Grandparents did him a favor. He also got to pick the school he attended - the private Punahou School in Honolulu. The kid had it really bad with his Typical White Woman Grandmother I tell you!
In Memories I Pulled Out of My Ass Dreams Of My Father, grateful Barry, who went to live with his grandparents by his own request because he didn’t want to stay in Indonesia, writes,
“I’d arrived at an unspoken pact with my grandparents: I could live with them and they’d leave me alone so long as I kept my trouble out of sight.”
As I considered that remark, I kept asking myself what exactly his nasty grandparents might have done with Barry’s “trouble“? I mean, what did they do, Barry? Lock you in the basement? Ignore you? It must have been pretty bad right? I mean, why else would Barack compare his grandmother to that Man of Hate God Wright?
I decided to check out what people who were actually there with Barry, people who weren’t making money off of a book, had to say about Barry at that time. I wanted to understand exactly how much Barry’s “trouble” troubled the Typical White Woman, how much of it was his typical white grandmother’s fault that he should cite her all these years later in comparison to a potty-mouth like Reverend Wright.
SusanUnPC explains Obama’s penchant for story prevarication, so I suggest you read that piece to understand exactly what a liar Obama really is. I will just encapsulate though: Much of what Barry has to say in I Want To Be President So I Think I will Write a Phony Biography Dreams Of My Father is, as his former classmate Ray says, “Bull“. This kind of makes it hard to believe barry’s remarks on national TV when he sacrificed his grandmother for Jeremiah Wright. Go ahead, read it. I’ll wait.
Now, back to our story.
Let’s take a look at Barry’s description of his Typical White Woman Grandmother and compare it to what others who were there at the time had to say:
In his fictional account biographical book, Barry describes his Grandmother Madelyn as “suspicious of overwrought sentiments or overblown claims, content with common sense.”
That explains it!
Grandma had common sense!
She was suspicious of overblown claims! Kind of like the overblown claims in Obama’s book and on the stump. Let’s fry that old woman on the National Stage to save our ass right now!
But wait! Let’s take a comparison look at how Barry’s friends at school perceived how Stanley and Madelyn the Typical White Woman actually treated Barry Obama and his “trouble”:
“A close friend of Obama’s from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him “Gramps.” Orme recalled that years later, at Obama’s wedding reception in Chicago, Obama brought the crowd to tears when he spoke of his recently deceased maternal grandfather and how he made a little boy with an absent father feel as though he was never alone.
Madelyn Dunham, a rising executive at the Bank of Hawaii during Obama’s Punahou days, was more reserved but seemed to love having her grandson’s friends over to play and hang out.
“Those were robust years full of energy and cacophony, and
she loved all of it,” Soetoro-Ng said of her grandmother, who has lived alone since her husband died in 1992.”
Shame on Obama’s grandmother! Obviously she deserved to be sacrificed on national television in a speech that was supposed to address Jeremiah Wright’s foul-mouthed I-Hate-You-All speaking problem, but instead turned out to be a chastising speech on racism, thus making Jeremiah’s bilious behavior the fault of every white American left on earth–including Obama’s grandmother. Seems fair!
None of this seems to add up does it? During his skewering of his elderly Grandmother on National TV, Barack Obama told us another one of his stories about his Typical White Woman Grandmother who broke his heart when she was afraid of a black man she thought might hit her over the head, or some such crap. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be convinced that Barack Obama prevaricated this story about his grandmother and the black man just like he made up the story about the nonexistant Life Magazine photo of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white? (Obama calls this nonexistent Life Magazine photo a moment of “revelation”. Does this not just make you shiver just a wee tad?)
I suggest that poor Madelyn, who did everything she could for Barry-The-Ingrate, would say today, Barry You Are Full Of It if she were to speak. How upset and disappointed she must be, at a time of her old age and infirmity, to have been victimized on national television by an ambitious Barack Obama.
“In a striking snapshot with his grandparents, Stanley smiles proudly while Madelyn hugs him fiercely, as though she doesn’t want to let him go forth into a world far from the remote island that for so long had been his home.”
Where is the shame? Your “trouble” was you.
But plenty of us already knew that. I wonder if you ever even call her. I see you hauled the poor woman out for a new TV ad, so I guess you did call her recently. So much for that “unspoken” agreement about hiding your “trouble,” eh Barack?
References:
The Not So Simple Story Of Barack Obama’s Youth (A Must Read!]
NoQuarter: Obama’s Books: Composite Characters and False Memories
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Originally posted at Uppity Woman blog.
Funny how it was Barry’s Daddy that ran off and left him, but he seems to have more bitterness toward his mother and grandmother. He can forgive the abandonment apparently, but he can’t forgive his mother and grandmother for being white.
As a woman, that absolutely amazes me. His father was an SOB, a drunk and abandoned him…but to hear BO tell it, he was his life force.
Personally I feel as if he has stuck a sharp stick in the eye of his “other side”. He could have talked about unifying people, coming together, by talking about his experiences on both sides - that could have been a very potent story.
But he has decided to “be AA” (this is NOT meant to be racist).
NOW, when you look at his AA background, you find Wright, and an angry Michelle and his Kenyan family - and Spike Lee…who speaks like Wright and suggests that “we” will be swept into the ocean if we don’t get out of the way.
I AM worried about Obama. And you can’t touch him because that would be racist. Very smart of him to take that position and put the rest of us in a corner.
But I have a solution. I simply will NEVER vote for him.
Run. Hillary. Run. And if BO steals this nomination from you, I will write you in - come hell or high water.
heh have you heard of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech?
it’s a doozy
No - I’ll go take a look.
its not so different from Spike’s washed into the Ocean.
“His father was an SOB, a drunk and abandoned him…but to hear BO tell it, he was his life force.”
Where and when did you hear “BO tell it” that his father “was his life force”?
Well, I consider an adult who abandons his family an SOB. He died a drunk. And he did abandon his wife and child.
The second part does not mean that he “actually” used those words - but it seem fair to intuit that he gives his father credit for him from his book “Dreams FROM MY FATHER.”
Personally, I think the book should have been about his mother and maternal grandparents’ teachings that brought him up.
“Well, I consider an adult who abandons his family an SOB. He died a drunk. And he did abandon his wife and child.”
No one was arguing that point.
“The second part does not mean that he ‘actually’ used those words - but it seem fair to intuit that he gives his father credit for him from his book ‘Dreams FROM MY FATHER.’”
That’s a far cry from “hearing” him “tell it”. And it is never “fair to intuit” anything from the title of a book–you actually have to read it to know what the book is about.
“Personally, I think the book should have been about his mother and maternal grandparents’ teachings that brought him up.”
Again, if you had read the book, you would know that it is.
idunno, sometimes you have o get divorced for the sake of individual sanity
H was also a bigamist, Obama’s father.
The fall out, the damage to the psyche, being rejected by his father the bigamist for the other family, is devastating to child.
No way around it.
If you listened to some you would think that the world is painted in black and white, and yet there are so many shades of gray.
My father has made many huge mistakes in his life. He is also an amazing person who faced incredible odds.
Unlike some in the media and on the right, I don’t feel like I have any right to criticize Bill and Hillary’s relationship. No matter how much of their personal lives have been dissected by the pundits, I can’t possibly know the complexity of their relationship. Similarly, I don’t think that you or anyone else should be making assertions about what you think the relationship is like between Barack and his family members.
The things some of you say on this site are very ugly. As much as I hear about how Obama supporters have said this or that horrible thing to you, it seems that very few of you stop to think about how negative you yourselves have become. It’s sad.
Anybody here spend 20 years with a Reverend who gyrated on stage as he spoke about Hillary and Bill, then lambasted Guilliani for being Italian?
Then screamed the N word, on Christmas while endorsing the guy who is supposed to bring hope?
Instead of an apology to his political opponents and to the victims of Sept. 11th, Obama chose to start talking about how typical white people are to blame.
Don’t call that amount of hatred normal. It is not. Obama’s 20 year leader is a Farrakhan, he continually blames this poor judgment on everybody but himself.
He lied when he said he was “so over” “past” these “old” people’s “old fights.”
Truth is– Obama is not who he seemed to be a few weeks ago.
He needs to apologize for his Reverend’s hurtful words, apologize to the Clintons and Guilliani for the way his 20 year spiritual leader endorsed him, apologize to the victims families of Sept. 11th and own up to his own really serious issues.
Nobody here has a minister who supports terrorism as a tool for change.
Barack will never apologize because it would show he is wrong. It is a sign of weakness which would put him in a much different light with some of his supporters. The sad think is that his non-supporters already know that he is weak, but his Obama addicts have still not come down from their highs. He must be some potent sh$t.
Barry’s Blaming:
First his mother, then his grandmother, next it will be his wife, then somehow his daughters will have caused him terrible trauma when they up and marry two, indescribably scary typical white men.
He had to blame someone - taking responsibility is against his religion!
In his first book Obama also tells a different story
about his grandmother’s fear of black men. He says that while on a bus going to work, she was accousted
by a black man for money. When she got home she was very scared by this encounter and she told his grandfather….not Obama that she didn’t want to
take the bus the next day. She didn’t tell Obama of her fear, but he saw that something had upset her
and asked his grandfather who told him what had happened. So it appears that this incident morphed into the story he told in his race speech of how she told him of her fear when black men walked by……..like typical white people.
Yep. More Obama “bull”.
“So it appears that this incident morphed into the story he told in his race speech of how she told him of her fear when black men walked by……..like typical white people.”
Obama’s quote from the Philly speech doesn’t indicate that his grandmother directly told Obama her racial fears, only that she told his grandfather. It was his grandfather who then relayed the story to Obama, out of anger at her.
From the Philly speech: “a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe”.
This quote fits the story that he heard the “confession” from his grandfather, along with the “stereotypes”. So I don’t believe there’s actually “a different story” going on here.
Ah the W.O.R.M. patrol his here.
I know this is a stupid question…. But what were the chances that OBAMESSIAH’s granny would encounter random harassing homeless black men at bus stops in 1970’s Hawaii ? Story always sounded a little fabricated to me. I’m not judgin’… I’m just sayin’.
This was my sentiment exactly… as having vacationed regularly in Hawaii during the 70’s and have many friends who lived there during that time… there weren’t very many African Amerian people in Hawaii during those days. So, I’m sort of discounting his story that a black man harrassed his grandma on a bus in Honolulu in those days.
Yes, his grandmother was a lovely woman…devoted her life to giving him opportunities and emotional support.
His father , on the other hand, deserted him and never looked back. When he died in a car wreck due to his own alcoholism and reckless driving, Obama Sr. left wives and children scattered all over the landscape.
Does this mean his father is a “typical Black person?”
If the shoe fits.
“Does this mean his father is a “typical Black person?””
This is what happens when you play the race card so deftly, yet covertly. This is why I say he has no regard for the way he has exploited AAs for his own personal gain. A remark like this is simply turn about fair play.
In the ‘must read link above, a teacher in Indonesia recounts that Barry wrote an essay as a child about wanting to become President. Not that I had any doubts, but that confirmed what I’ve known from the beginning. This has been a long orchestrated plan. From playing basketball with black guys so that he could watch their mannerisms and affect them, to everything from writing the book, to becoming a community activist, then State Senator and US Senator.
Whites may be mad now, but soon AAs are going to feel like they were broadsided by a mack truck.
I agree with Shainzona above. He could have run a very moving campaign as a biracial candidate that has learned from both experiences. Why oh why did he think that wouldn’t be powerful and effective? No, he just had to create this bullying atmosphere of racism and guilt trips like the country really needed that with all that we are facing now.
Maybe that’s his plan for uniting the Party after he gets the nomination and AAs will already committed to him body and soul. He’ll flip the switch and you’ll see him parade his Cacucasian roots proudly to put whites at ease. I have to figure this is his plan.
Don’t fall for it. Anybody this cold and calculating has a hidden agenda.
This has been a long orchestrated plan. From playing basketball with black guys so that he could watch their mannerisms and affect them, to everything from writing the book, to becoming a community activist, then State Senator and US Senator.
Mimi!!!
LOLOLOL! Are you kidding?
You might want to try reading the link to the story above and the LOL!
“The Not So Simple Story Of Barack Obama’s Youth”
The link is above.
10th floor please. Thanks mimi..
I kept my trouble out of sight.” ….
(even though the elevator was crowded.)
Rev Wright…
who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe
…was standing next to Obama,Ayers,Meeks,Rezko,Emil,Rashid Khalidi,and the Nesbit brothers.
DING! (doors open) Michelle gets on at the third floor. The overbearing perfume of ode’ de corruption made my eyes tear.
DING! (doors open) Madelyn Lee Payne gets in on the 4th floor. All the eyes averted and moved in unison away fom her. (like the kids in South Park) She all alone. The space between them was several feet but in reality, it might as well have been all the way to Hawaii.
DING! (doors open)
Saeed Amidi,Auchi,John O. Brennan,
Goolsbee,Toni Preckwinkle,Jabir Muhammad
…got in on 7th floor. The smell of money ambition and perfume of ode’ de corruption mixed with having to state the obvious.
Ding (doors open) 10th floor. Whew!
Thanks Uppity.
Yes, she’s right. His grand misogynistic scheme for the White House started when he said that the girls in his class had “cooties” and chased them around the yard. It continued in social studies class in which he systematically cut Florida and Michigan out of every map. With Rovian brilliance he plotted multiple schemes for keeping votes from being counted by convincing his classmates to believe that they didn’t really exist. He came up with the idea of fund raising from small donors by bullying younger kids for their lunch money.
And if you believe this post you really have gone off of the deep end with your hatred.
Who cares what brought him to the piece of crap he is today?
Who cares what brought him to the piece of crap he is today?
Uppity,
Ah, YOU. Did you forget?
Your hate saddens me.
Your love for this empty suit saddens me. What the hell do you see in Barack Hussein Obama?
I don’t think an empty suit would have been elected the editor of the Harvard Law Review. Say what you want about him, but he isn’t dumb. I don’t love him either, he was my second choice out of three who were all decent but flawed in my opinion.
I see someone who is trying to broaden the party rather than stick to the same dialog that has allowed us to lose so many elections. Given a choice I would rather not vote for someone who voted for NCLB or the war in Iraq. I will vote for her if she wins, but she isn’t my first or second choice.
Yikes,
A member of my family graduated from Harvard Med; he was a very bright person also, but he was a dysfunctional alcoholic who attempted suicide three times. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
A person can be extremely bright in one arena and be as dumb as a box of rocks in other areas.
Why are you being sarcastic about information that has come from Barack’s own words? I don’t get it. His words are Barack! Lately, his words have shown how pathetic a president he would be. His comments about experience on the world stage and about his vice presidential choice were just downright stupid.
Have you ever taught kids? I have, and at least half of them say they want to be president when they grow up. The kids I worked with were poor minority kids in the ghetto, if any of them was actually capable of coming up with a scheme to become president I would think it was an amazing feat. The idea that this should be held against them if they actually make it close one day is so ridiculous that I can’t take this comment seriously.
If Obama had the “audacity” to think that as a mixed kid living in Indonesia that he could actually be the president of the United States one day, I think that is amazing, and it helps make him exactly the kind of person I would be proud to vote for.
Obama is not ghetto kid. Your post really doesn’t make any sense to me. So, support Obama because I “might” have had a dream as a kid of being president? I know you are probably a nice person, so I will only say that I don’t see the logic in your response. Actually, it is a little disturbing to know that someone puts so much significance on his heritage. As I typed, he wasn’t a ghetto child. He didn’t know deprivation in any way. I guess to each her own.
My point was that MANY if not most kids say they want to be president when they grow up. The likelihood of my students in the ghetto actually achieving that goal is very slim (although I would never tell them that), and the likelihood of a mixed child living in Indonesia one day becoming president is also very tiny. I think it is admirable when people set big goals for themselves and work towards achieving them. I don’t see it as an evil scheme.
I respect people who work to break boundaries, that’s true for Hillary and Barack. I don’t vote based on race or gender(Edwards was my first pick), but I do think that it would be exciting to see a minority or a woman in the White House. As a Latina who is younger than both Hillary and Barack I wanted to think that something like what we’re seeing was possible, but I didn’t really believe it until this year. I think it is inspirational that either one of them would think that it was possible for them to achieve something that has never happened in America before. I’m not going to apologize for feeling that way.
Yikes…. I just want to ask you the same question I asked my daughter….. Print up the pay equity/labor
stats with regard to pay differences between MEN AND WOMEN. Peruse them at your leisure…. Notice that the inequity is spread throughout regardless of class, race, age and occupation. Now ask yourself which of the candidates are most likely to deal with this problem? As a woman don’t you get a little tired of being treated as a second class citizen. I’m just sayin that this is a real issue, that many women find relevant. Something to consider. As for me, I’ve been waiting for a female democratic candidate my whole adult life,and in these times …. Women’s issues are a very real GLOBAL CONCERN that a female president could actually address. Think about it.
Yes, it’s been proven if you raise the status of living of women you raise everyone’s status of living. (UN reports)
Think about it, women and girls are 52 percent of the population worldwide. Women account for 70 percent of the world’s people who live in absolute poverty. Women work 75 percent of the world’s working hours, produce 50 percent of the world’s food, and yet earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent of the world’s property. Worldwide, 25 percent of all women are raped during their lifetime. Depending on the country, 25 to 75 percent of women are regularly beaten at home. Between 10 percent and 50 percent of women report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Over 120 million women have undergone female genital mutilation. Women hold only 12 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide. Women account for 66 percent of the world’s illiterate adults, and girls account for 66 percent of the world’s children without access to education.
Hawaii is a place where many financially challenged people live. Many are homeless. Many natives are mixed with black heritage. (How smart are you)
Ooop’s, many whites have too mixed with black heritage. Have you checked your DNA?
Assuming that this tale has a factual basis, I’m curious about how large a build his grandmother has. I’ve encountered many street people, and some are very aggressive and/or have obvious mental problems. Apparently it never occured to Obama that his grandmother, a woman, might have a legitimate fear of a man who was physically stronger and threatening, whatever color he was.
Add it to his general cluelessnes about the realities women deal with. And his privileged cluelessness about what low-income people of all backgrounds deal with. And so on. A lack of ability to see, or lack of interest?
This is also what came to my mind when I read this part of Barry’s speech.
Barry doesn’t have a clue about the women’s experience — and how at times we can be even afraid of a larger aggressive male.
As women we self-censor where we go — and we don’t walk into a group of strange men in unfamiliar surroundings.
In urban settings aggressive panhandling can be very threatening to women.
I have been in very similar situations as his grandmother — and so have other women — so we immediately saw Barry for what he is — a LIAR.
Also I have the added insight of having grown up in Hawaii, where someone of color is the norm rather than the exception.
Actually, I read in one of the pieces where they picked on him in Indonesia because he was fat, not because he was black.
Oh my God! He must have been persecuted terribly by all those typical white people in Indonesia! I understand there are just TONS OF them running rarampant at night taunting fat biracial children. They say it is a national nightmare!
Wow! Surely he has suffered so! But then when does the Savior not suffer thus.
Was the that the one where his “street mates” said he had a “hard head”? It was in Chicago Cribune.
Excellent explanation Northwest Rain. Very well put.
Exactly, women deal with kind of thing all the time. Another manifestation of his sexist attitude. And this was Hawaii for goodness sakes. Not exactly a population exlusively filled with pale people.
instead of being mad at his grandmother it seems like he should have been mad at that black man who accosted her for money.
Everyone needs to remember how Jessie Jackson had mentioned a similar fear about black men when he was running for president. I don’t blame any women fearing any man, regardless of race, who is panhandling her.
I wonder if it was wise to present so much of the early years the way he did in his book.
The silence from the GOP on Dreams is staggering.
Normally you want your youth to be a bit more enigmatic than that. A bit Romantic. Hey, GOP here’s some oppo for you: interview my old class mates and coworkers! Compare and contrast their memory with my memoir.
You also have the problem of misremembering stuff–everyone has their own POV.
The silence is deafening.
The book is largely fiction. The Chicago Trib had a blast with it.
The man is toast.
so far.
NOTE: this is not intended to be racist in any manner, so I aplogize in advance if anyone sees it this way. It’s just that as today’s “feminists” are dismissive of the work we “older” women/men did to gain women’s rights, it seems some AA’s see the work done to help race relations in the past is passe, and doesn’t count for anything. As Ann Richards once said about GWB (I use it now to reference today’s young women…not the ones here, I might add!), “Personally and professionally, they landed on 3rd base and thought that they got a triple.” (I LOVE that line!)
There is something about Obama that I can’t put my finger on. I think that, because I can’t put a finger on it, it worries me even more.
For example, Obama can go to any church he wants. He can listen to any dogma he wants. He can even take his children with him. But what I want to know is what he believes after living through those sermons for 20 years (Obamaphiles say we only heard 30 second of sound bites - which, is, of course, ridiculous - Rev. Wright preached the same dogma all those years - he might have used a better choice of words sometimes, but he still preached the same things.) The issue I want to understand is the anger and threatening language that was used.
Am I really “whitey”? And what does Obama “blame” me for?
I have also been unsettled at Obama’s overt embrace of his Kenyan heritage - a heritage he got from a man who deserted his mom and him right soon after he was born. BO was raised by his mother, step-father and grandparents. But the Kenyan connection gets much more play - the MSM even had cameras on his step-grandmother when he won Iowa. I’d like to hear more about what that means to him. What does he embrace from his father? What does he reject from his mother? How does he compare and contrast those life experiences with the person he is now (and I don’t want romanitized fiction from his book).
And on his web site there was an endorsement from the New Black Liberation Party. And what role does Farkakan (spelling?) play in his psyche? Both of these groups/individuals are militant and angry. Where is Obama’s anger?
Then yesterday, I read the following. It’s more of what I want to know about Obama and his views - Spike Lee sounds vaguely threatening to those of us old timers who don’t see things the way new AA’s do.
It just adds to something that is unsettling to me.
Here’s what Spike Lee has to say (from over at HuffPost):
“The Clintons, man, they would lie on a stack of Bibles. Snipers? That’s not misspeaking; that’s some pure bullshit. I voted for Clinton twice, but that’s over with. These old black politicians say, “Ooh, Massuh Clinton was good to us, massuh hired a lot of us, massuh was good!” Hoo! Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins–they have to understand this is a new day. People ain’t feelin’ that stuff. It’s like a tide, and the people who get in the way are just gonna get
swept out into the ocean.”
I suggest he visit Mr Tutu and become an Anglican.
In that link to Obama’s early days, it seems that the racial abuse he got was from Indonesian kids. Sounds like a very sad childhood out there in Jakarta.
It makes me ill to read Spike Lee’s comments. I just don’t think that he realizes that comments like those just make Obama much less attractive to voters that might have considered him. Apparently anything that was done for the good of the AA community becomes shit once Obama arrives on the scene. What exactly has Obama done for the AA community that deserves this elevation to God-like status, and tears down the decades of service that Clinton, and Dinkins, and Rangel, and Tubbs, and Jackons Lee, have given? Nothing. Obama reads speeches written by middle aged white men, and he flubs and blubs all through non-scripted events, yet he is some kind of messiah?
Bill Clinton knows a hell of a lot more about growing up poor in America than Obama, but people like Spike Lee and Rev. Wright insist on separating us by the color of our skin, instead of the commality of our struggles.
Where was Obama? The African Americans who do not support Obama should not fear these threats that have been lobbed against them… Spike Lee may think that they’re going to be swept into the ocean, but we will never let you go under.
“There is something about Obama that I can’t put my finger on. I think that, because I can’t put a finger on it, it worries me even more.”
Funny, that’s what my Mom used to say about Ronald Regan and Dubya.
Your mom is one smart lady!
So Spike Lee is a racist? The black civil rights movement split just before MLK was assassinated with one faction being very radical, like the Black Panthers. It would seem that Spike Lee is part of the non MLK or Black Power movement.
So this branch of the old civil rights movement now believes that they are owed the white house and it doesn’t matter that Barry is totally unqualified to be President?
Also there seems to be that underlying threat of violence we’ve heard before. If “they” don’t get their way — then there will be hell to pay.
This is so sad — because this IS racism — not reverse racism — but real hatred of another because of the color of their skin.
Yes, Barry is having a huge impact on politics — a huge negative impact.
And this is how they want our vote? By using threats, insults and intimidation?
Shainzona, I understand and yeah….It’s kinda scary sounding. It’s also pretty damn hypocritical coming from a multi-millionaire. Mr. Rock sets up the crowd and OBAMESSIAH THEN LAYS ON THE opiate for the minions.
Any way you cut it it reeks…. I think that seriously OBAMESSIAH’S poor ol’ typical white granny has got to be tied up somewhere, or heavily sedated, or perhaps senile…. You an bet she doesn’t know what’s goin on. OBAMESSIAH’s campaign has been as anti-civil rights as Rhodes rants were anti-feminist and for anyone who lived through that era ( not on TV ) it’s bewidering and kinda scary.
He pimped her in his latest TV ad in PA. Poor thing is all bent over, but he hauled her out, after what he did to her. And she STILL gave her all to the shithead.
What can you expect from a mediocre filmmaker who, too was raised in a privileged environment largely due to his mother and her family. His grandmother helped bankroll his first feature. But I won’t go into that.
It’s really troubling to me that Obama has brought out so much ugliness in the black community over his candidacy particularly with leaders who make up a minority in our Congress and other politcal walks of life. How many black Senators are there? Oh yeah that’s right… ONE and he’s running for POTUS.
In spite of what you may feel about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and they have a very high negative image in the white community, their campaigns, especially Jackson’s, did not bring out this kind of public antipathy within the AA community. So when I say I am suspicious about Obama and his willingness to throw EVERYONE UNDER THE BUS JUST TO ACHIEVE HIS GOAL, I am deadly serious.
Spike Lee really shows his political ignorance with that remark as well as a total lack of respect to people I know have openly celebrated his success and were proud AAs of his accomplishments in a racist industry that is hard to make it in. One that perpetuates the ugliest of black stereotypes in media.
If Spike had half a brain, he’d realize first, that the Primary in NYS passed on Super Tuesday so there’s no reason any of the people he mentioned to come out for Obama right now other than to appease him and the rest of the hysterical black community. Hillary’s not going to fold her tent if Dinkins and Rangel throw their support behind Obama. This is BIGGER than the two of them. So what would be the point, really?
They can let the Primaries play out and if Obama wins then surely they will throw their support behind him. Also, Rangel’s Congressional District was reapportioned many years ago and it now includes part of the upper West Side in Manhattan, not just Harlem, an area populated by many whites. Unlike John Lewis, Rangel has to serve many interests in his district which is also heavily Hispanic. Rangel as Chairman of the powerful Ways & Means Committee, has to work with both Parties. He has to show some political shrewdness and just plain good political sense.
But the main reason is that Hillary is the junior Senator from HIS STATE as well as from his own Party. It wouldn’t be very smart for him to jump ship unless for some reason the pressure was heavy on him from the majority of his constituents. Spike should ask if any prominent Democratic Illinois politicians are for Hillary? Probably not. Also, Rangel will have way more sway with Hillary if he remains loyal to them to the end and then tells them, it’s time to throw in the towel. Considering that the rest of the leadership has acted like such complete jackasses and bullies, the Clintons I think would be more inclined to listen to someone like him at the finish line.
But this goes to show you what political neophytes all of these Obamatons are. And led by the biggest NEOPHYTE of them all, Obama. This is why his not-ready-for-primetime ass is in the trouble he’s in. He’s turned the entire black community into the Crips and the Bloods, complete with drive-bys on Super Delegates. As the saying goes:
“You can sure tell an Obama supporter, but you can’t tell them much!”
I promised myself I wasn’t going to say this, but Spike is an asshole. And is every bit as self-serving as Obama. But’s what’s worse, he’s a pretty stupid one at that. But as I’m not a big fan of his movies, I knew that already. Pay him no mind.
And can Arriana Huffington get any more shameful? Giving Spike such a public forum to lambast prominent black leaders in such a filthy and demeaning way and using such antiquated racial slurs against his own people, thereby opening up the possibility for these slurs to be used by just anybody in the future.
Shame on you, Arianna!
Last month Kareem Abdul Jabbar posted a blog in support of Obama. At least his commentary was intelligent, but that’s because Kareem is smart unlike Spike. However, when I tried to post a comment in response to all of the fawning white male basketball groupies supporting Kareem and Obama, my comment didn’t pass moderation. All I pointed out was that given Kareem was horribly swindled out of his money by his own accountant, which caused him to have to play basketball one year passed his prime and looking every bit of it to the point where people might forget that he was once great, - why should anyone trust his judgement on Obama since it obviously was sorely lacking in his own personal life?
But of course, Arianna’s Nazi moderators wouldn’t let it pass.
Just when I thought I had reached the bottom of the barrel, I lift it up and find Spike Lee joining the ranks of AAs determined to bully the Democratic Party over this biracial candidate’s nomination. Along with all of the white people who are helping Obama do this.
If I can get the $$ I’m thinkin of opening a chain of rehabs for shell shocked real democrats who suffer PTSD after watching their party get hijacked and take a nose dive that sets back the party further than Reagan could’ve dreamed in those halcyon days in sunny california…. May have to set them up in Canada….
better to just donate the money to Hillary’s campaign…
Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson, jr., and others who are playing the race card with a venegance, can’t see that they’re screwing over the AA community in the long-term. Just as with Obama’s entire campaign strategy, they go for the instant gratification goal of getting Obama the nomination, while damaging the Democratic Party, the strides in racial unity, and the AA community.
The term “sell-out” is used (along with other names that I will not repeat) by Spike Lee, and others supporting Obama, to attack AAs who do not support him. The promotion of that idea is that if you are AA and successful in areas other than entertainment or sports, if you have broken the ceiling to the ivory tower to succeed in the mainstream, then somehow you aren’t black enough. According to Spike Lee, Rev. Wright, and others are throwing those terms around, if you aren’t angry and resentful, then you are slaves to the whites. So.. Spike Lee, what EXACTLY is the measure of success in your eyes?
All of his flaming rhetoric achieves is perpetuating the idea that success isn’t possible if you’re AA in America. It’s a convenient tool to threaten the AA community and shame them into supporting Obama, but is that lifting people up? Is that the unity and change Obama’s been promising?
I posted a comment above on Spike.
You bring out some very good points. What signal is it exactly sending to the white community when people like Spike Lee is carrying on this way? Spike has enjoyed tremendous success compared to other struggling filmmakers. But like so many AAs who have enjoyed more success than certainly this AA, they are angry in a way that I simply cannot fathom. Spike is rich. I am poor. I think a few million dollars earned could turn some of my anger down just a notch.
What is he griping about, of all people? If his concern is the black underclass, what is he doing to help them? I notice he moved out of his native Brooklyn area to Manhattan and not the black part of Manahattan. Where do his kids go to school?
I have talked to so many AAs and none of them have a sufficient answer to why this rabid support of Obama other than the symbolism of him getting to be president. And they’ve convinced themselves that his credentials match Hillary’s.
In the process, prominent AAs like Spike coming forward and spewing this kind of ugliness at their own kind, encourages even more suspicion about Obama, especially because he is not exactly one of our very own. Many of them are revealing such a level of political ignorance that is, frankly, embarrassing. (See my post above for explanation.)
At some point blacks are going to have to have a pound for pound discussion of Obama’s experience and qualifications versus Hillary’s. They’re going to have to listen to ALL of the facts about Obama as well as examine the part the MSM played in this election cycle.
They’re also going to have to understand that bullying people during an election in a democracy is tantamount to fascism. That so many of Obama’s supporters outwardly express disdain for an American citizen’s right to choose a candidate is troublesome to me. More than I can say.
Yes, they really need to step back, take a breath and deal with that.
about Obama, especially because he is not exactly one of our very own.
Mimi,
Whoa. Are you the same person who used to visit the NewsBlog when Steve Gilliard was alive?
If so, I understand more. I seem to recall that we got into it when you were defending a woman with a bazillion kids and no husband.
bazillion kids and no husband.???
Like a great many families in the US.
What about the understanding the statement,
They’re also going to have to understand that bullying people during an election in a democracy is tantamount to fascism.
is difficult for you?
It is a damn shame that the first AA person, with a shot at the presidency, feels the need to car jack the facts and lay waste to the truth.
The picture reveals an embarrased arrogant smile by Obama as his grandma hugs and loves him with all of her might.