“… the new black hero must also captain a ship of tragic irony. Even as the nation congratulates itself for its historic contemplation of a black president, it mandates that the new black hero avoid strong advocacy for the black community. This is why the symptoms of the nation’s most urgent “race issues”—harrowing rates of African-American drug addiction, fratricide, incarceration and economic dereliction—cannot be central talking points in Obama’s campaign. The moment he begins to regularly address the unique litany of maladies facing African-Americans… he runs the risk of being seen as overly-attentive to his ethnic compatriots. However much he may want to, the new black hero cannot ignore the nation’s deep skepticism of those who are too closely associated with black community.”

While this is true, there is also a ‘unique litany of maladies’ that affect(some overlapping ) the Hispanic/Latino community. And while the media doesn’t report it regularly, the poor white community in rural America is not exempt from some of these problems either. Obama is being carefully being marketed to white America in a way that does make him palatable to them, as you brought out in the comparison to Will Smith and his universal appeal in the movies. But what is so wrong in that? I don’t think Obama is apathetic to the concerns of the Black community; he realizes that in this gigantic, cutthroat arena of politics, running for the highest office in the land, he HAS to
employ socio-cultural strategies that are more universal in scope. Now what this means for black people in general should he become the first black President is another story. He certainly is not a panacea for the injustices that will continue to plague us.  If anyone thinks we’re going to finally get our 40 acres and mule because a black man is in the ‘White’ House, he/she is in for a rude awakening!
Thank you for such a fascinating and extremely well written piece Mr. Smith.

Comment by NJamil Mtumbo from PA — February 25, 2008 @ 10:29 am