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Sharpton: Blackness and Fighting

Although I disagree with Shelby Steele’s thesis on Obama, he was right about one thing: so-called black authenticity in politics is largely intertwined with being angry and confrontational. Al Sharpton made this point plain as day in the recent New York Magazine piece.

In his book, Steele argued that black leaders either conform to bargainer or challenger identities. Bargainers give whites the benefit of the doubt with regard to racism and challengers constantly rub racism in the faces of whites. Steele asserts that Obama is a bargainer, a claim which I think is entirely off the mark (where I discuss here ). But Sharpton demonstrates that Steele is on the money about the challenger concept being the dominant identity of black politics. From the New York Magazine article:

Until recently, Sharpton’s relationship with Obama has been more aloof. Sharpton has also been underwhelmed by Obama’s campaign. “He never came off as a fighter,” he says, a strategy that he thinks has hurt Obama with a key demographic: black women. “Black women like a fighter. Even if you’re fighting a fight that is not my fight, I will believe that you might fight my fight. And to come off as ‘I’m all right with everybody’ doesn’t give people who want a fight a comfort level. I want somebody who’s at least a little upset with somebody, because I’m mad as hell. If you’re not mad, how do I get passionate about you?”

Sharpton thinks Obama should take more cues from his wife, Michelle. He still thinks about the time he bumped into her at a recent Chicago fund-raiser. He claims the conversation went like this.

“How you doing, Mrs. Obama?”

She’s tall, and looked down at him. “I’d do a lot better if we had your endorsement.”

Sharpton tried to play dumb. “What do you mean?”

“We need your endorsement. I’m just telling you straight out: We need your endorsement. What are you going to do?”

Sharpton didn’t know what to say. “I’m like, ‘Uh, well, duh.’ I mean, she was like a sister back in Brownsville, where I grew up!”

Could he have played the tune of the angry black women stereotype any clearer? Did he not represent the angry black man stereotype perfectly? Could he be any more wrong?

Sharpton’s premise is that being a fighter and projecting anger go hand in hand. But who was a greater fighter for justice than Martin Luther King? Was he angry? Of course. Was that central to his message? Absolutely not. In fact, he fought his fight embracing a principle that is in opposition to this sentiment. Al, more than anyone, should get this.

I don’t care about Sharpton slighting Obama. That’s politics and I’m not here to defend Obama. But I do care about Sharpton (and the media) appointing himself the arbiter of black authenticity. To claim that he is not impressed by Obama because he doesn’t seem angry enough and implying that he is not black enough because of it, is just plain ridiculous. And I, for one, am tiring of him speaking for all of us.

**Hat tip to Baratunde Thurston of Jack & Jill Politics, Carmen Dixon of All About Race, and Desmond Burton of Afronerd from Wednesday’s Bloggers’ Roundtable on NPR**

Nappy Holidays

Wishing everyone the best for the holiday season–whatever you celebrate; whatever you believe. It’s a time for reflection, introspection, and connection.

I felt like Jesse writing that…

Don’t forget that The Great Debaters comes tomorrow–Christmas day. Could make for a nice Christmas evening outing. I’ll be checking it out then along with about half of the  black community.

Speaking of which,  stay tuned for a piece I wrote related to the film to appear in the Philly Inquirer on January 1.  I’ll post it here at that time.

O.J. Again?

Last week in Iowa, John Edwards fielded a question from the audience regarding what he would do about the possibility of “payback” from the black community towards whites if Obama were elected. Referencing the O.J. case as an example, he said:

“How are you going to get that brought out in your campaign? Will the same thing happen? If he should become elected, you think Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey are going to let him forget about that and their obligation?” the man said, not identifying who he meant by “he” and “him.” [Source: MSNBC]

Blood Money: Criminals Gone Wild

I was made aware of this video a couple of months ago but resisted writing on it since I did not want to give it any more air play than it was receiving at the time. But now that the film is out and is all over the blogosphere and newspapers, I don’t think my little blog can do anything to add to the hype. So my 2 cents on this:

A DVD purporting to show real footage of violent crimes including shootings, carjackings and sexual assault has the Internet buzzing, police investigating and critics outraged at reality filmmaking gone wild.

Tech Check: High School Graduation Rate

This one’s strictly for the nerds [my hand raised].

I promise to only hit you with these more technical “checkups” (what I’ll be labeling as tech checks from here on) every couple of months or so. Sometimes, I just can’t help myself. Plus, just maybe, some of you (okay, maybe one or two) are interested in a brief breakdown of the debate regarding the dropout/graduation rate for minorities.

So what is it? 50% or 75%? Probably the most popular view is that 50% of blacks/Latinos graduate from high school but there is a sizable contingent who argue that the graduation rate is 75%. A pretty significant difference. What gives?

What Was He Thinking/Drinking?

Civil rights activist. Former congressman and mayor of Atlanta. First African American UN Ambassador.

Yep, all titles held by Andrew Young; the same man who made the off-the-wall remarks during this interview. I know he was “just clowning,” during part of the interview–but in a public forum? You have to wonder what he was thinking. Or drinking.

Let’s break down his main points:

Prosperity Preachers

In my undergrad days in Atlanta, I remember many folks referring to two of the black megachurch preachers, Creflo Dollar (yeah, that’s his real name) and Eddie Long, as “Theft Yo’ Dollar” and “Eddie Wrong.” I always thought there was a lot of truth in those nicknames–still do. This new news gives me no reason to think otherwise.

Two Atlanta preachers with large media ministries snubbed a U.S. senator’s request for documents sought in a probe of nonprofits.

In response, the preachers say Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is crossing the line of separation between church and state.

The Rev. Creflo Dollar, of World Changers Church International in College Park, and Bishop Eddie Long, of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, were among six media ministries from which Grassley requested records a month ago. [source: AJC]

Shelby Steele: Obama is a Bargainer

Shelby Steele wrote a piece in Time last Friday on his new book, A Bound Man and was on NPR yesterday discussing it. Given that I have yet not read his book, I was interested to read and hear a first-hand account of his thesis on Obama and why he can’t win rather than a review. I don’t always agreed with Steele, but I do find his work interesting. He addresses race at a deep level and brings some interesting ideas to the table.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I think Steele accurately describes the kind of “bind” Obama is in: he’s caught between demonstrating black authenticity to blacks and not scaring whites or smearing racism in their faces. Steele says that part of demonstrating black authenticity is to be a challenger, which in part means to, “assume whites are racist until they prove otherwise.” This is in contrast to being a bargainers who, “gives whites the benefit of the doubt” with regard to racism. Steele argues that Obama is a classic bargainer–which whites like. But he is also confronted with black expectations of him being a challenger from black.

Immigrants, English, & American Culture

There has been a lot of hoopla about Latino immigrants and whether they make real efforts to participate in and assimilate to so-called American culture. Some say they do while others say they choose to self-segregate and make little effort to learn the English language. The recent Pew Research Center Report got me to thinking about what makes me uncomfortable about some of the latter arguments. I’ll get to that in a sec–first, one of the main findings from the report…

The report indicates that on average, pretty large numbers of Latinos (particularly Mexican, Dominicans, and those from Central America) speak little or no English. However, it is a different picture when comparing across generations:

The surveys show that fewer than one-in-four (23%) Latino immigrants report being able to speak English very well. However, fully 88% of their U.S.-born adult children report that they speak English very well. Among later generations of Hispanic adults, the figure rises to 94%. Reading ability in English shows a similar trend. [Source: Pew]