Re: Let.s Go Hillary

[Charles Brown <charlesb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> ravi 
On Feb 8, 2008, at 4:49 PM, Charles Brown wrote:

> One can say that Al Sharpton carries some real baggage, but what is
> the primary baggage that Jesse carries relative to Obama? Jesse is
> "divisive" *because* he represents black demands for equality.
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Jackson's campaign theme was "Rainbow Coalition", i.e. racial
> unity.  It is the media and power structure who have alienated whites
> from him through typical ( for them) character assassination.


But that's the point, isn't it? Jesse, despite not carrying that  
baggage of Sharpton, represents black "victim mentality", black claims  
for "preferential" treatment, etc... i.e., any sort of black or  
general civil or economic rights claim(s). That's the image (which it  
seems to me *is* partly backed up by Jesse's activism). "Oh yeah, just  
wait for Sharpton and Jesse to turn up any minute now". 

^^^^
CB: OK
^^^^

And that's the  
image that Obama seems to work hard to distance himself from *by*  
making the underlying issues seemingly irrelevant (90% equality, etc).  
And that's the rhetoric of his supporters. 

^^^^
CB: Yea, I think it's clear that Obama is not running as a civil rights/Black activist, but as an integrationist, like MLK's "judge me by the content of my character not the color of my skin."  This strategy is to attract white votes.  White people won't vote for Sharpton or Jackson as stripped of his "rainbow" theme, as you say.  Sharpton ran last time, and didn't come to close to winning.

 Obama is trying to win or go further than Jackson and Sharpton did.  So, O has to jump through white voters' hoops, which includes placating them on race. He does have the "hope" theme like Jackson ( "Keep hope alive").

Obama's mother being white no doubt gives him some elements of personal style that connect with whites that Jackson and Sharpton did not have.

^^^^

Michelle Obama says that  
very soon "black people will wake up" and "get it" and they won't be  
afraid to vote for a black man.

^^^^
CB: This seems a different angle.  This is the appeal to Black votes.

^^^^^
 Oprah says we are now free of  
constraints of race and gender. The guy writing about it in the NYT  
says "it was a relief to hear someone finally frame it in a way that  
celebrated what the Democratic Party has achieved â and then move  
beyond it".

^^^^^
CB: Most of Oprah's fans are white , I believe.  She's sort of pre-Obama Obama. 

        --ravi