Obama assails absent black dads in Father's Day speech

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 11:54 am

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... peech.html

Barack Obama has risked angering elements of the black community by urging fathers to take responsibility for their children.

The Democratic presidential candidate said too many African-American men were failing their offspring.

Speaking on Father's Day in Chicago, Mr Obama recalled how he was abandoned by his own father and said more than half of all black children in the US live in single-parent homes.

That means they are five times more likely to live in poverty and 20 times more likely to end up in jail, he added.

Mr Obama said of men who walk out on their families: 'They're acting like boys instead of men and the foundations of our families have suffered because of it.

'You and I know this is true, but nowhere is it more true than in the African-American community.

'Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father. We need fathers to realise that responsibility does not end at conception.

'Too many fathers are missing from too many lives and too many homes."

The last high profile African-American to voice such views, comedian Bill Cosby, suffered a backlash. He had said:''We are not parenting. We've got to take our neighbourhoods back.'

Although Cosby is one of America's most successful black entertainers, he was shunned within the African-American community after the remarks.

Mr Obama spoke passionately of the burden that single parenthood was on his mother, who raised him with the help of his maternal grandparents. His own father, a student from Kenya, left his mother when he was two.

'I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house,' he said.

'The hole in your heart when you don't have a male figure in the home who can guide you and lead you. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle - that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my children.'

Mr Obama made the speech Sunday at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.

His remarks, met with rapturous applause, were his first in a church since he left the Trinity United Church of Christ last month over contentious statements made by its pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright.

As Mr Obama's campaign gets into gear, a report has found a third of Americans are following speeches such as his one on fathers via the internet. That means three times as many are shunning traditional media as in 2004.

The Democratic nominee has announced plans to replace the White House's bowling alley with a basketball court. He made a disastrous televised attempt at bowling in Pennsylvania primary in April.

What a racist piece of shit. Oh, I keep forgetting, speaking the truth is okay if you're of that race. Sorry.

Post by **Sylvus** » June 16, 2008, 11:58 am

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:What a racist piece of shit. Oh, I keep forgetting, speaking the truth is okay if you're of that race. Sorry.

That's what you're taking from that speech? What an asshole.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » June 16, 2008, 12:02 pm

Yet another strength of Obama is shown. The ability to tell people what they don't want to hear, and get applause. America is going to be getting a reality check in the next 4 years and he is the perfect leader to tell us like it is as it is happening.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 12:05 pm

Bill Cosby said that years ago and the black race pretty much diswoned him and called him an Uncle Tom.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 12:14 pm

Love Bill Cosby and Debra Dickerson. Here is a good read.

http://www.slate.com/id/2103794/

Bill Cosby
America's granddad gets ornery.
By Debra Dickerson
Posted Tuesday, July 13, 2004, at 2:22 PM ET
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lately, Bill Cosby has been making a comeback—as Shelby Steele. The 67-year-old comedian—who became America's Dad in the 1980s and America's Granddad more recently—has launched a series of surprising assaults on the pathologies of low-income blacks. "They think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere," he said in Chicago at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference on July 1.

This followed an attack launched at the NAACP's Brown v. Board of Education 50th anniversary gala at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in May. No laugh tracks there. The Cos has chastised young black men for "beating up your women because you can't find a job," blasted poor parenting in the ghettoes, heaped scorn on Ebonics, and lambasted aimless blacks for squandering the hard-won gains of the civil rights movement. Symbolically, he made his comments in high-profile "public" (read: where whites could hear) venues.

Many critics expressed shock that the beloved figure of Americana—the genial observational humorist; the wise paterfamilias of the beloved The Cosby Show (1984-1992); the winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002—should offer such a pointed, and conservative, political message. Yet those who were fooled by Cosby's silliness into surprise at his newfound ferocity were just that—fooled. Cosby has long been a good "race" man on an all-too-serious mission. There was always darkness in the Cos' light.

From humble beginnings in the projects of Philadelphia, raised by a domestic and a laborer, Cosby parlayed his impish nature and keen insights into the transcendent in daily life into a successful comedy career during the early 1960s heyday of stand-up. In 1963, he was chosen as the first black guest host of The Tonight Show and in 1965 as the first black star on a white drama. On I Spy, he and Robert Culp played intelligence agents gone undercover as an international tennis player and coach. Overnight Cosby became the "Jackie Robinson of television," a crucial figure in bringing unapologetic but unconfrontational blackness into the mainstream.

It is almost impossible now to convey the watershed I Spy represented in American life. Those were the days when blacks called each other in wonderment to make sure that no one missed seeing one of their own in America's public square. That Cosby's "Scotty" was an abstemious, multilingual Rhodes Scholar and devoted family man while Culp's "Kelly" was a womanizing boozehound from the wrong side of the tracks was no accident. Cosby himself lobbied to make Scotty the brains of the outfit, the one who traveled the world and tended to national security matters.

Nonradical elements of the black community always embraced strategic racial inroads like this as exactly the type of gains they were trying to make—securing a place at the table instead of dismantling the table. Radicals like the Black Panthers, socialists, and Amiri Baraka, of course, considered Cosby a sell-out—a judgment for which his recent comments merely provide them the final proof.

Once Cosby found the upward path, he worked hard to stay there and to help bring the race along with him. His philosophy was always to play by the rules so as to beat the master at his own game—to be clearly black-identified, but not, you know, militant about it. Like that of Nat King Cole, Flip Wilson, and Diahann Carroll, television's other black pioneers, Cosby's appeal lay in presenting the universality of black life "apolitically," on its own terms (or, if you're Amiri Baraka, in the least discomforting way possible for whites). Their sudden presence in public life was all the rebuke that pre-Civil Rights Act America could face.

But Cosby's critics are wrong to say Cosby is either "incognegro" or an appeaser. The man always had a plan. While his humor is nonconfrontational, his attitude has been anything but; like Oprah Winfrey and Magic Johnson's inner-city focused business empire, Cosby sees the acquisition of power as a civil rights strategy. He's worked to be in the meetings where decisions are made rather than outside picketing them, though he was an ardent supporter of the civil rights movement and used his shows to pay homage to it.

And he succeeded. Once his star took off, Cosby was rarely without either a sitcom, a game show, an animated series, best selling non-fiction, or a comedy album riding the top of the charts. His power allowed him, among many other good deeds, to support black higher education by donating millions to schools, sending deserving, hardscrabble youngsters he'd read about in the newspaper to college, and challenging universities to ambitious fundraising goals by offering generous matching funds of his own—facts he's been advertising in a PR counteroffensive after the harsh reaction his recent comments provoked.

So why now? Why is Bill Cosby suddenly so sour, so publicly? Perhaps it was watching one of his four daughters struggle with a drug habit in the 1980s. Perhaps it was losing his only son, Ennis, to random violence in 1997. (Ghouls click here for a guide to the murder site.) Perhaps it was having to acknowledge having cheated on his wife of 40 years, Camille, who is nearly as beloved by blacks as he is. To make matters worse, the news of this infidelity broke when a young woman tried to extort hush money from him, and he helped the FBI send his (probable) love child to prison. But perhaps the final straw was watching Eddie Murphy reprise his history-making I Spy role on the big screen in 2002, not as a jet-setting, high-minded patriot but as a jive-talking, barely literate boxer who couldn't care less about national security; Cosby has long been vocal in his disgust with what he sees as the minstrelsy, vulgarity, and low artistic value of modern black comedy, film, and television. Don't even get him started on rap music.

"I'm a tired man," he said recently, but he wasn't talking about the energy required to defend himself. He was talking about still fighting battles his generation thought would have been long won by now, and he's talking about how draining it is to watch black complacency with its pockets of stagnation. But true acolytes will recognize the Cos' own personal progression through the stages of life, territory he just about owns. One of Cosby's standards bits was in ribbing his mother for coddling her grandchildren after having been so tough on her children. "That's not the same woman that raised me," he'd claim in mock confusion. Watching our beloved Cos take his people so publicly to the woodshed, it's our turn now to marvel at the evolution of the man we thought we knew so well.

Debra Dickerson is the author of The End of Blackness and An American Story.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2103794/

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 12:17 pm

also type in "bill cosby is an uncle tom" to see some of the hate out there.

I'm interested to see how Obama's rendition is received.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » June 16, 2008, 12:41 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:the black race

Fash · Post by **Fash** » June 16, 2008, 12:52 pm

It's one thing for a comedian to say it, along with 10 other things that are all pretty harsh and insulting... and another for a presidential nominee to mention a couple facts and try to engender a positive outcome.

Everything Cosby said might be right, too, but he'd attract more bees with honey as opposed to vinegar.

It's all in your tone... and yours really sucks sometimes.

There will be no shortage of people calling Obama an uncle tom but that would be true for almost any black man who seeks power, due to the continuing racial undercurrents that exist. It doesn't mean they are right or that their opinion is anything more than just that.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » June 16, 2008, 12:54 pm

hahaha - sometimes I don't mind actually having the misfortunate not to have been logged in, so I can notice some of the hilariously idiotic shit Midnyte still appears to be coming off with.

"The black race"

Oh no you di int!

Spang · Post by **Spang** » June 16, 2008, 1:48 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:What a racist piece of shit. Oh, I keep forgetting, speaking the truth is okay if you're of that race. Sorry.

Quit being so negative!

valryte · Post by **valryte** » June 16, 2008, 2:10 pm

What a racist piece of shit. Oh, I keep forgetting, speaking the truth is okay if you're of that race. Sorry.

What a stupid piece of shit. Oh, I keep forgetting, speaking idiotic statements is okay if you're mentally challenged. Sorry.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » June 16, 2008, 3:06 pm

I approve of this hatred.

Post by **Sylvus** » June 16, 2008, 3:17 pm

Siji wrote:I approve of this hatred.

You can't spell "thread" without "hatred".

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 16, 2008, 3:22 pm

Sylvus wrote:
Siji wrote:I approve of this hatred.
You can't spell "thread" without "hatred".

That is scary!

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 3:31 pm

Where do you see hatred? I love how you guys turn things around to suit your needs.

All I do is point something out.....*sigh*

Fash · Post by **Fash** » June 16, 2008, 3:38 pm

I guess it's the way in which you point it out...

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 16, 2008, 3:43 pm

Fash wrote:I guess it's the way in which you point it out...

*shrug*

Or the way in which people are pre-programmed to react to me. Either way, it doesn't matter much. No one is changing the world here.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » June 16, 2008, 4:09 pm

You're being negative again.

Bagar- · Post by **Bagar-** » June 16, 2008, 4:21 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:Where do you see hatred? I love how you guys turn things around to suit your needs.

All I do is point something out.....*sigh*

Always the victim.

You intentionally troll people and then play this bullshit "i'm so innocent, why you guise hatin' on me?" card. Are you so stupid that you can't see that tone and context affects people's disposition towards you (and yours sucks), and you (and you too, Funk, before you pop your ignorant head into this one) critisizing black people/minorities over and over and over and over is a bit different than a presidential nominee making a speach? Do you seriously think that highly of yourself?

It's all about your attitude. Yours blows.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 16, 2008, 8:56 pm

Your attitude is snottier than a toothin' toddler with a head cold!

Forthe · Post by **Forthe** » June 16, 2008, 9:37 pm

He has done this serveral times. I've posted previously about the different groups he has talked honestly to with some risk.

He gets away with it in this case partly because he is black, similar to how women can say things to other women that men could not. Mostly he gets away with it because of his position, his image and his delivery.

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » June 16, 2008, 10:36 pm

What a sad, pathetic attempt at trolling. This isn't even a new theme for Obama. He made a similar speech last year in another church on Father's Day (written about here). It's a very personal subject to him, having grown up in a single-parent household after his father left. If you're actually interested in seeing how Obama's message is received, look to history. However, if you're trolling, as I suspect, because you think you've happened upon some "big new thing", fucking try again.

Post by **Sylvus** » June 17, 2008, 11:42 am

Not to mention that the speech was aimed at fathers of all races, and that specific mention of African American fathers was simply a footnote.

You can't really fault Midnyte for it though, as the article he linked was the original title of this thread. Odd how the story no longer exists, and that link takes you to a story about Gore's endorsement of Obama.

If you want to see more of the speech, you can see it here.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » June 17, 2008, 11:50 am

Sylvus wrote:Not to mention that the speech was aimed at fathers of all races, and that specific mention of African American fathers was simply a footnote.

You can't really fault Midnyte for it though, as the article he linked was the original title of this thread. Odd how the story no longer exists, and that link takes you to a story about Gore's endorsement of Obama.

If you want to see more of the speech, you can see it here.

lol, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... Day-speech[/b].html does INDEED lead to an article entitled "Al Gore breaks his silence to give Obama his backing in race for the White House".

That's hysterical!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » June 17, 2008, 1:06 pm

Fucking Gore, I hate that cocksucker.

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » June 17, 2008, 2:06 pm

"I'm Al Gore, and I endorse someone after they win the nomination, making me even more useless than before."

Dickhead. I hate the politicians that come out after Obama won the nomination and started talking about his vision and his strengths. Where were you two months ago, dickheads? You could have ended the process sooner, but no, they've got to hedge their bets until it doesn't matter anymore.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » June 17, 2008, 2:40 pm

Party wonks who don't want to divide the party. The endorsement is of the official candidate, not a potential candidate. Had Clinton won, his endorsement would have gone to her.

MooZilla · Post by **MooZilla** » June 17, 2008, 3:42 pm

I don't see how you can be surprised, Midnyte, when you call the black, Democratic Presidential Nominee a "racist piece of shit" after talking about a problem in black households, and we call you out. No, you're not innocent. You're trolling and your comprehension of anything outside your boxed-in, conservative, white world are pathetic.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 17, 2008, 3:48 pm

I'm not innocent? Are you saying I knew exactly what kind of narrow-minded responses I would get from my post? Are you saying I knew I wouldn't get a responsable conversation on race and the many double standards from my post? Bah.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 17, 2008, 3:55 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:I'm not innocent? Are you saying I knew exactly what kind of narrow-minded responses I would get from my post? Are you saying I knew I wouldn't get a responsable conversation on race and the many double standards from my post? Bah.

If you're answering 'No' to both of those questions, you have officially proven that you are delusional.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 17, 2008, 4:04 pm

Boogahz wrote:
Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:I'm not innocent? Are you saying I knew exactly what kind of narrow-minded responses I would get from my post? Are you saying I knew I wouldn't get a responsable conversation on race and the many double standards from my post? Bah.
If you're answering 'No' to both of those questions, you have officially proven that you are delusional.

If my answer was no, you'd be right.

Forthe · Post by **Forthe** » June 17, 2008, 7:16 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:I'm not innocent? Are you saying I knew exactly what kind of narrow-minded responses I would get from my post? Are you saying I knew I wouldn't get a responsable conversation on race and the many double standards from my post? Bah.

It isn't a double standard, it is human nature. McCain speaking about white deadbeat dads would be recieved much more favorably than if Obama did so. It is simple tribalism, you may shit on your brother but an outsider using the same arguments against your brother may antagonize you.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 17, 2008, 11:38 pm

I agree it might matter to them(blacks). But, two white people discussing an apparent truth should be to do so without the bullshit false offense and indignation. It's insane that we cannot have a real, difficult conversation without being called racist all the time. It's pathetic.

I applaud Obama for speaking out on this issue, but I wish it could be had without fear of being called a racist by others. Many on this board have no idea what racism is because they have dilluted the term. Real true racism is dying and that's a very good thing. Racism now is a tool of the politically correct pushers. They wish to clense the earth of real discussions. Every conversation must be sanitary and fake. Real people still have real conversations everyday. People aren't who you force them to be. Do you really think Obama doesn't sit around with his friends saying..."nigga please!" ? He does.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » June 17, 2008, 11:41 pm

You started the discussion by calling Obama a "racist piece of shit"!

Go fuck yourself!

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 17, 2008, 11:52 pm

Spang wrote:You started the discussion by calling Obama a "racist piece of shit"!

Go fuck yourself!

Ever heard of sarcasm? The term "racist piece of shit" is thrown around a lot on this board. Where have you been?

Spang · Post by **Spang** » June 17, 2008, 11:55 pm

Oh...

Bojangels · Post by **Bojangels** » June 18, 2008, 4:44 am

Kaldaur wrote:"I'm Al Gore, and I endorse someone after they win the nomination, making me even more useless than before."

Dickhead. I hate the politicians that come out after Obama won the nomination and started talking about his vision and his strengths. Where were you two months ago, dickheads? You could have ended the process sooner, but no, they've got to hedge their bets until it doesn't matter anymore.

I actually prefer it when politicians do this. Besides uniting the party, it keeps them from unfairly influencing the race. I would rather have the potential nominees pander to the voters than pander to other politicians.

Forthe · Post by **Forthe** » June 18, 2008, 7:11 am

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:Do you really think Obama doesn't sit around with his friends saying..."nigga please!" ? He does.

Man you can say some stupid shit.

Fesuni Chopsui · Post by **Fesuni Chopsui** » June 18, 2008, 1:56 pm

Who wants to take bets?

Ten bucks says Midnyte's great grandmother was a black! Oh noes!1!!11!1!11

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 18, 2008, 2:12 pm

OMG hi Fesuni. I missed ya man. Playing any MMOs lately?

No, I do not have any black grandmothers. My heritage on one side is sicilian though and they have often been called black. I do not believe that counts though.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » June 18, 2008, 2:38 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:OMG hi Fesuni. I missed ya man. Playing any MMOs lately?

No, I do not have any black grandmothers. My heritage on one side is sicilian though and they have often been called black. I do not believe that counts though.

Clifford Worley: You're Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things... about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact I don't know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.
Coccotti: Come again?
Clifford Worley: It's a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin' through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don't believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.
Coccotti: Yes...
Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this...
[Coccotti busts out laughing]
Clifford Worley: No, I'm, no, I'm quoting... history. It's written. It's a fact, it's written.
Coccotti: [Laughing] I love this guy.
Clifford Worley: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.
[Starts laughing, too]
Clifford Worley: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid... now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.
[All laugh]

Fesuni Chopsui · Post by **Fesuni Chopsui** » June 18, 2008, 3:08 pm

Haha.

Hi Mid, still going strong in WoW (god it does get boring sometimes though) etc etc.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » June 18, 2008, 4:13 pm

Fesuni Chopsui wrote:Haha.

Hi Mid, still going strong in WoW (god it does get boring sometimes though) etc etc.

Bah. We'll, have fun. If you ever make the switch to EQ2, look me up on Permafrost as Daellyn.