Acting White: Friends Close…Enemies Closer…Part II

President-elect Obama has offered the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton, and it looks like she will accept – this is a good thing in my view, but why? During the campaign on matters of foreign policy, Clinton and Obama seemed the farthest apart, she as traditionalist and he looking for new approaches to a dangerous world.

As irritated as the Clinton's must be with up-start Obama, their cooler heads must tell them that he took everything they and McCain had to throw and still came out on top. This counts for something, even in Clintonian politics. As gestures go, Obama’s offer is as good as it gets in showing respect, which is the most Clinton could expect to collect.

From Hillary’s view, returning to the Senate puts her in the company of other senate long-shot losers, Kerry for one, and is not going to get her any closer to the White House (if she gets another chance). The high-profile Sec. State job keeps her in the thick of things, recognizes her skill set, and gives potential and significant accomplishments to put on her resume. It’s also a good place to shine, separate from any stumble Obama might make on the home-front.

From Obama’s view, it is more difficult for her to undermine him, if she is on the team with her hands full negotiating around the world. Also, any meddling she might attempt will be more obvious than if she is in the senate, looking out for her constituents on issues of domestic interest. All in all, I think it’s a good trade.

As a sidebar, I am not a big fan of the Larry Summers selection to run the National Economic Council, and not because of his foot-in-mouth about women in science, while at Harvard, or his falling out with Black Studies professor Cornell West. Rather, his view of Africa as a best-practice dumping ground for G-7 industrial waste, while chief economist of the World Bank, was abominable. His statement that the resulting increases in cancer in Africans from toxic waste were mitigated by their inherent shorter life spans, showed him to be a true low-life. Obama could definitely regret having a guy with such a high IQ and low emotional intelligence on the team. On one side he helps you, then he kills you.

On balance, I think Obama’s setting up the table nicely, but he’s got a very tough row to hoe – indeed.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: House Negro vs. Field Negro

So Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 guy to Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, thinks President-elect Obama is a House Negro (slave). Interesting. Barely in the starting blocks, but he is already in the ‘house’. I guess the entire world is not an Obama fan after all. Nevertheless, it is an interesting choice of words and line of attack that this sworn enemy of the US now takes – and worthy of note.

As quick background, the pejorative label, historically applied by blacks to other blacks, generally designates un-challenged submission to white authority, and resignation to the pursuit of individual interest, to the detriment of one’s ethnic affiliation.

It is bold, but not unprecedented, for a non-African-American, to take such a familiar name-calling position. Recall that Ralph Nader did a similar thing when he questioned whether Obama was going to be an Uncle Tom, if he succeeded in getting to the White House. As with Nader, al-Zawahiri is attempting to stir an old racial pot to a present-day boil. I think he will fail, as did the irrelevant Ralph.

Neither Nader nor al-Zawahiri has standing to use the term. In fact, the nuance of its use is beyond most people, as assimilation of the factors of power and influence becomes more widely understood and accepted for advancement. See The Field Negro blog. Those who remain wedded to simple labels and tired strategies are tragically stuck. While this group rains violence, drop-outs, drugs, gangs, guilt and absolution onto themselves and the rest of the country, they take a pass on opportunity which immigrants, especially from Africa, leap upon to free themselves.

Now I too have been labeled a House Negro, by some, for having the audacity to call into question some black behaviors, or due to other associations with my country’s majority whiteness, including my time at Harvard. But it is these very associations that allow me and others leverage to reach both out and back. For instance, one of my company’s projects is developing a 400 megawatt power utility for the government of Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – real black power.

Perhaps al-Zawahiri expects Obama to back down, or that blacks will not support the President-elect cast in this unflattering manner. He is wrong. One America.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Church vs. State Confusion

Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in California, won in a closely contested battle…and then the fight started. So why did progressive Californians uphold such a plainly biased measure? Church-going whites and blacks, that’s why. Now, everyone knew that the Mormon Church was leading the fight for the ban, but what about Black Church organizations?

The cost of gay rights supporters being no-shows to this battle front is that we will have to live with gays as second-class families a bit longer. Perhaps the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Trans-gender leadership was sure that black voters for Obama would just fall in line and ignore the stated objection to gay marriage presented each Sunday by black clergy. And if you buy this, John McCain wants you to know that Sarah Palin is much more intelligent than she sounds.

Anyway, for this grand screw-up of politics, America gets treated to angry gays tossing around the N-word as if it were the Q-word, rather than placing blame where is rightfully belongs. True colors? Perhaps, or maybe just some serious frustration when you know that your own people eff’d-up big time. For sure, the gay community has its issue with racism, but the black community is hecka-homophobic, as well. Let’s call the blame game a draw.

In a country where church and state are suppose to be separate, the state has no business confusing a religious rite with a legal right. There should be marriage in the eyes of the state (what is called domestic partnership), separate and apart from marriage in the eyes of whatever religion one chooses. What a church believes and does should have no bearing on what the state does. If a couple meets the legal requirement of the state, you're hitched. End of story.

Name-calling between blacks and gays needs to stop, so that each side can be reminded what it means to have the religious doctrine of others, rather than our constitution, control our lives.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Blacks Must Get On The Bus

First there was anticipation, then euphoria, and now the sobering reality. Yes, little black boys can grow up to be president, too, but will they? Or will Obama be another story of the lone wolf?

Some red-state faithful claim that blacks voted for Obama in record numbers based merely on his race. I don’t doubt this claim, nor am I swayed by it. What may seem trivial to some is everything to others. Those black voters grabbed a chance to option their skin color into the fabric, the culture, of America - something desperately needed. It may seem too racial, but for so many blacks lugging around two-century-old battle wounds, it was necessary in their struggle to feel like they belong. On the other hand, many non-blacks voted for Obama precisely because of the opposite. They see and hear beyond his complexion and their own, to realize someone who inspires them. This too is good.

Now here’s the rub. With Obama’s election, the day of reckoning for blacks is close-at-hand. At that time, counter, or oppositional behaviors either get the boot or my worse fear is realized, the black underclass becomes a permanent fixture in America. With Obama, blacks are witnessing a role model for the ages. Call it acting white, acting right, or simply taking care of business, he has given himself no choice but to slug his way through the problems of this country, with every available tool at his disposal. He asked for it. Voters gave it to him. Obama is now the man.

He will undoubtedly approach his tasks the way he was taught at Harvard, but more so the way he learned at his white grandmother’s kitchen table. He will not point to the past. He will not look for concessions of preparation, performance, or result. There will be no executive order excusing lateness or blaming whites. Call it Night at the Apollo, or the White House, there is no difference. Screw-up, get the hook.

Obama can do no more than hope that blacks get on the bus, through the 'yes we can' door he’s opened, while he mounts an attack on the weightier problems of hundreds of millions of Americans - getting the Dream off life-support.

James C. Collier

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Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008

I came to know more about New Zealander Hillary in 1996 when I worked on a NOVA special. The project captured the work of famed IMAX movie producer David Brashear on Mt. Everest, multi-casting it live on the experimental Mbone (multi-cast internet backbone). At my end, at WGBH studios in Boston, I took a live feed of Brashear talking (administering a hypoxia/mental acuity test) from Everest base camp with climbers on the summit. In preparation for this I learned just how deadly the adventure could be, as climbers in the previous days/weeks had died on the mountain. Hillary, while noted as the first to summit in 1953, rightfully shared the accomplishment with his Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who died in 1986. Furthermore, he dedicated much of his later life to trying to improve the lives of that region to which his fame probably brought more bad than good.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Acting Gangsta'

Popular black culture, epitomized by the late Notorious B.I.G. and gangsta’ rap, is the leading-edge of black discontent that rejects education for getting ahead in America. President-elect Barack Obama, through his landmark success this political season, is a lighthouse in the search for the prize that the classroom brings, even for the lowest of the low. Obama, whose mother once fed him with the aid of food stamps, shows just how far a schooled black person can go these days–all the way to the White House – if that’s what they want.

It is a tragedy for black progress that the popularized bad-boy behavior, or what social scientists call oppositional culture, has taken root in black communities across this land. As misguided as it is, living dangerously has become a hollow means to stand against assumed white dominators spouting white directives for how to behave. Many African-Americans feel these dictations, on the value of diplomas and degrees, even when touted by successful blacks, are nothing more than a ‘bait and switch’ tactic to keep blacks on the bottom. There is the in-house belief that an educated black man is still just a ‘nigger’ in the eyes of America, waiting to be disrespected. Obama’s political mistreatment at the hands of some whites bears vague witness to these beliefs.

Nevertheless, it is precisely this twisted outlook of the role of books and learning, that has ten million blacks stuck on the bottom rungs of this country’s economic ladder. Aspiring to an education is not acting white. Rather it is doing right, by preparing to go forward on infinite pathways to self-determination and the American Dream, however challenged that dream might be in these difficult economic times.

What African-Americans need is an understanding about emotion-packed labels, and how to ‘keep the beat’ through their repeated stings. We need this so that when Rev. Jesse Jackson accuses then Senator Obama of acting white, or Republican Congressman Westmoreland, of Georgia, labels the Ivy League-educated Michele and Barack Obama as uppity, or when a black kid reading a book anywhere is accused of acting white by his friends, we will understand that these accusations are nothing more than distractions designed to throw a despondent black community - a desperate black community - off the trail of change for the better.

James C. Collier

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Obama Landslide!

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Lewis Hamilton Wins Formula One Championship

Today the 23 year old Briton became the youngest person to win the racing world's most coveted prize, the Formula One Championship. He entered today's Sao Paulo, Brazil race leading the field and needing to finish fifth or better to clench the championship. He was in sixth place on the last lap of the 70 lap race, but, with a thrill, passed the fifth place driver (Glock) on the last turn, to put himself into the history books.

Hamilton, who drives for the McLaren-Mercedes team under a $75M(US) 10 year contract, has been in and out of the headlines this season, as his presence has incited some, particularly the Spanish, to racist displays. See my earlier post on this. The F1 governing body stepped in to warn Spanish racing officials that they would lose their opportunity to host F1 events if their fans continued their harassing antics, such as dressing in blackface, making monkey chants, and racist name-calling. The Spaniards do not care for the young Hamilton up-staging seasoned Spanish drivers, and have focused their angst on his part African heritage to make their point.

The most recent flap was a Spanish web site that invited visitors to place a sharp object on a picture of the Sao Paulo track to 'puncture Hamilton's tyres'. While the site was in bad taste, it also allowed visitors to leave comments as well, and this is where it got ugly. 'Half-breed, kill yourself in your car", went one of the more tame of thousands of comments. The classy Hamilton took it all in stride, including the boos from the Brazilian crowd at the end of today's race.

For those who are unfamiliar, the typical F1 race has 55 million world-wide viewers, the most of any sport. It is the planet's most expensive sport, with races held all over the world, except N.America and Africa, and team budgets as high as $400M. The cars reach speeds of 225 MPH, pull 5G's (gravitational force) in the corners, and can accelerate from 0-100 MPH in 2.5 seconds.

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the kid can drive, and thankfully the 19,000 rpm engines drown-out a lot of stupidity in the process.

James C. Collier

P.S. Read this for the inside scoop on how Team McLaren guided Hamilton to snatch a last minute victory from the jaws of defeat.

P.P.S. Check out the last lap before YouTube pulls it down.

Too late...they pulled it.

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