Reminds me of Singa****e's Lee Kwan Yew's insight in Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,369128,00.html
"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your
economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with
race and religion. Supposing I'd run their system here, Malays would
vote for Muslims, Indians would vote for Indians, Chinese would vote
for Chinese....."
Besides, what do we see round the world today?
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-an=
d-them.html
Quote from the abstract: "Once ethnic nationalism has captured the
imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation
or partition is often the least bad answer."
Here's a perfect example on how blacks vote Obama regardless of party.
Party affiliation only goes so far. Racial identity politics goes way
way deeper. As the author writes, "Most black Republicans who sup****t
John McCain won't tell you this =97 but if Barack Obama is the nominee
for the Democratic ticket, they will go into the voting booth in
November and vote for Obama."....and "Most blacks won't admit this to
the average white person, but Obama's fight, we feel, is our fight.
Proving his worthiness on a daily basis has become our fight to prove
our worthiness."
That is, war is politics by other means, just as politics is war by
other means.
* * * *
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5769231.html
May 10, 2008, 1:55PM
Black, Republican =97 and voting for Obama
A conversation made her mind up
By YVONNE R. DAVIS
Hartford Courant
I am a black Republican. I have a confession to make. I am an Obama
"girl." Most black Republicans who sup****t John McCain won't tell you
this =97 but if Barack Obama is the nominee for the Democratic ticket,
they will go into the voting booth in November and vote for Obama.
In 2005, when I was in Chicago on business, I attended NFL Hall of
Famer Richard Dent's annual foundation fundraiser. My business
associate, also a Republican and former executive director of the
Massachusetts Republican Party, said he wanted me to meet a friend of
his who was going places.
His friend was Sen. Barack Obama. All I knew about this light-skinned,
cute boyish face-looking, kind of tall, lanky man was his great speech
at the Democratic national convention and his position against the war
in Iraq.
When we met, I identified myself as a Republican and began to discuss
with him the work I did around the world on behalf of our government.
I also told him I served President Bush as an appointee and had known
him since 1998.
Obama nodded, taking it all in. He asked a few questions about my
international experience. He asked me to be in touch with his office.
When we finished talking, I walked away like a fan who met her
favorite rock star after a concert. Giggly, I said to myself: "Yes, he
is in the wrong party, but wouldn't that be great if he ran for
president someday?"
Watching Obama run for the presidency from the other side has been
hard for me. I sup****t most of the Republican platform. However, the
most difficult thing for me has been to watch this black man fight to
prove his legitimacy to become president of the United States.
It is often very emotional for me. When he is attacked racially, I
think of the times my father, grandfather and other close black men
have been attacked, and I take it personally. When he first struggled
through his explanation about his relation****p with the Rev. Jeremiah
A. Wright Jr., I felt the emotion. I knew this would not be good
enough for white America. He always has to balance his blackness, and
this is hard. Obama, like many of us, still has to go above and beyond
to prove himself.
Most blacks won't admit this to the average white person, but Obama's
fight, we feel, is our fight. Proving his worthiness on a daily basis
has become our fight to prove our worthiness.
When Wright pulled the old "crab in the barrel" tactic that most black
folks know all too well, many of us felt righteous indignation because
we knew he knew better than to play that "pull down another black man"
game.
We also felt worried: Could this be the end of the dream Martin Luther
King never talked about in his speech =97 the first black president?
Nearly all blacks knew that when Wright went "gangsta" on Obama, the
senator had to retaliate, showing us, white and brown America, that he
was not soft.
Ironically, while many of us were quite satisfied in what Obama had to
do denouncing his former pastor, we still felt the embarrassment that
the attack by Wright and the Obama response was a symbolic form of
black-on-black crime =97 something I'm sure Wright has spoken out
vehemently against during his liberation ministry.
Obama's run for the White House is redefining the image of the black
man globally. He is changing past stereotypes that have haunted them.
When I mentor young black males, I now tell them to "Baracratize."
They can do this without losing their identity. Obama's run might
signify the end of the old-guard leader****p of the Revs. Jesse Jackson
and Al Sharpton, who have championed the cause of blacks while making
lots of money for doing so.
Jackson and Sharpton have been quiet as church mice during Obama's
trials and tribulations. It is probably for the better.
Davis is president and chief executive of DAVISCommunications in
Windsor, Conn. This article originally appeared in the Hartford
Courant.
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