17 comments

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  rikyrah

  1 year ago

  YEAH JACK!!
  
  
  I really enjoyed it, and there's nothing wrong with what you wrote.
  
  
  
  I think nmp wrote after the Iowa Caucus that this was the first time she felt like an American - without any qualifiers or asterisks - just an American.
  
  
  
  I understood what she meant and had to agree.
  
  
  
  I look at my mother, and I don't even believe I can grasp what it means to her and her siblings.
  
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  jelana

  1 year ago

  Great article!
  I am so proud of Barack!
  
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  heartsandflowers

  1 year ago

  Way to go!!!
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  TruthSeeker

  1 year ago

  Ya know what, that was really good! ..particularly the voting machine story and the mistrust of America's mythology.
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  Nichelle

  1 year ago

  Despite our sacrifices – fighting in wars and paying taxes – we are constantly reminded we're not full members of the club. Yet, Barack Obama made me feel American. He has, and this is really quite annoying, made me care enough to get more involved.
  
  
  That's the Money Quote...
  
  
  
  That is my MAIN beef with the Patriotism Police that hypocritically hound Michelle Obama and conveniently forget the "elephant in the room" - that ever since we arrived in America despite our sacrifices – despite our elders being violently banished out of towns that we built - despite "sundown towns" - despite fighting and dying in wars - despite paying taxes from day one! - despite achieving against the odds educationally, professionally and financially over generations – we are constantly reminded we're not full members of the club. No matter what - to some people, black people will never be "real Americans" - hence the BS terms I've always hated like "All-American" which implies "white" first and foremost.
  
  
  
  I know I'm going off a bit here (it's 5am!) but I will just close with a salient point Andrew Sullivan made that struck me because I was in the middle of expressing the same thing in a post I am writing on Black First Ladies for next week.
  
  
  
  He highlights this quote (I think mentioned here the other day) from Condi Rice:
  
  
  
  "The United States of America is an extraordinary country. It is a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades, actually a couple of centuries, of trying to make good on its principles. And I think what we are seeing is an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'We the People' is beginning to mean to all of us," - Condi Rice.
  
  
  
  Sullivan's response: "Beginning to mean? Where's Hannity?
  
  
  
  http://tinyurl.com/6a3kk9
  
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  rikyrah

  1 year ago

  nichelle,
  
  
  be sure to drop a link for that Black First Ladies Post, after you write it.
  
  
  
  thanks.
  
  
  
  I saw that at Sullivan's blog, and it's funny about the SILENCE of the right on Condi's remarks. Though they pretty much left her Washington Times race remarks alone too, except for those who went crazy.
  
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  N. Mahana

  1 year ago

  Wonderful article, Jack!!!!
  
  
  I talked to a friend, from London, a couple of weeks ago . He is of Indian descent and I asked him if he could ever see a person of color becoming Prime Minister of England.
  
  
  
  He said, without hesitation, no. He does not ever see that happening. Frankly (maybe naively) I was shocked. I suppose I thought England was a bit more progressive in thought than us. Oh how I was wrong. I could hear it in his voice and it makes me even more thankful to be an American.
  
  
  
  There's a long way to go but at least the ceiling is glass and not Iron.
  
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  kitty

  1 year ago

  Good stuff, Jack.
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  Christopher Chambers

  1 year ago

  The world news what too many Americans refuse to accept.
  
  
  Jack, good piece!!!
  
  
  
  But may I throw this out: just as bizarre and tragic as Bill/Hill
  
  s fall is my boy old John McCain's embracing of his party's core. In 2000, this would not have been anything he'd consent to. I know reconciling w/Dubya was like being back in the POW camp having communists shove bamboo up his ass, but he seems to have become comfortable w/that crap, and the pointless, unethical campaign sprew it entails. Screw the Clintons. They spun the evil wheel and lost. My point has always been that the wheel is there and Barack needs to toughen up on it. But McCain always showed in word and deed some basic aversion to the wheel as well, albeit from another perspective. His eagerness to take his vitamins and ride disturbs me...
  
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  Adam

  1 year ago

  I loved it when you said how annoyed your are that Obama has made you believe again.
  
  
  I'm the same way. :) Damn that pretty mutha Obama, he done got me all hopeful and stuff.
  
  
  
  One of the things I was pondering was how in the world did he get the DNC to sign off on that no federal lobby money thing?
  
  
  
  I couldn't imagine that it was as simple as walking into Dean's office and saying "sign this"
  
  
  
  But then I remembered one of the things Obama talked about in his book.
  
  
  
  He mentioned how many politicians don't want to be in the back pocket of big corporations but that's where the cash is so that's where they go.
  
  
  
  So when he walked into Dean's office with no lobby money pledge, I'm sure Dean replied "so where is the cash coming from" and then Obama broke out a spreadsheet with hundreds of thousands of names of donors to his campaign.
  
  
  
  And then another spreadsheet with the names of another group that he planned on turning into register voters.
  
  
  
  And said . . . that's where the money is coming from.
  
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  s

  1 year ago

  Well said, Jack.
  
  
  Obama's ascendancy, along with Hillary's has only reinforced what I was always taught and truly believed was possible in this country.
  
  
  
  As a white female, I realize that my optimism was the product of the faith, hard work and perseverance of my parents and my immigrant grandparents. My optimism is a gift, an advantage that I realize I have taken for granted.
  
  
  
  Being immigrants, my ancestors had to combat and overcome bigotry and economic hardship unlike any I have ever known. But their own experiences encountering and overcoming prejudice and poverty made them examples and advocates for the ideals put forward in our founding documents and the opportunities available to this country. No doubt, being white, made it easier.
  
  
  
  Growing up with the dream of aspiring to be POTUS has always been an ideal held out to children in this country. "Yes, you can."
  
  I constantly tell my children that they can achieve anything they put their minds to. The freedom, equality and opportunity here in the US is greater than anywhere on Earth. Examples abound of men and women of all races and color succeeding to become CEOs of large corporations and successful entrepeneurs. And now with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama competeing along side John McCain to become POTUS, they can see this equality and opportunity is closer than ever before.
  
  
  
  Condi Rice is correct, in asserting that the ideal of a 'more perfect union' set out by our founders has made an important step forward with the elevation in our political history of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
  
  
  
  And my hope for all of us now is that no matter our differences, or the outcome of the election, that all Americans can embrace the gift of optimism, hard fought for by all those before us, with pride and confidence in this country.
  
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  marc

  1 year ago

  one great article!
  
  
  there's a laugh and a smile, especially for brits (dr who, cowell), and there is how you see america. you are telling your story, you make yourself understood, and you become an ambassador of your people and your country. better impossible.
  
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  Anderkoo

  1 year ago

  What a great piece. Especially that your spelling is British. I was trying to read it with an accent ;)
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  Jill Tubman

  1 year ago

  This is a great piece, Jack/Baratunde. Here's my favorite part:
  
  
  "People still ask, "Is America ready for a black president?" That's the wrong question. America has never been "ready" to extend its ideals to all of its citizens without being pushed. Was America "ready" for emancipation or women's suffrage or Simon Cowell? No, but we've got them now and in two of those three cases, we are much better for it."
  
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  Bronze Trinity

  1 year ago

  Wow, congratulations on the international readership opportunity!
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  Nichelle

  1 year ago

  Rikyrah,
  
  
  I'll definitely post a link for my Black First Ladies Post. And yes, Yes, YES the SILENCE of the right on Condi's remarks speaks volumes...
  
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  Martin Lindsey.

  1 year ago

  Way to go Baratunde. Good write and read. The Afrospear is going more global by the day!
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