I got this from my brother in an email this morning. The first thing I did was check Snopes and there is nothing about it on that site.

I went searching and I found the comments about this article very interesting and very provocative. Many Blacks feel the same way as she does. When you stop to really read what she is saying, it makes a lot of sense - and it's not only against Obama's deification, it's against the philosophy of racism present in all the races.

A very interesting look at a Black woman's view.


Media Credit: Mike Loekle
Anne Wortham, an associate professor of sociology, speaks about the time she spent in the Peace Corps and what the experience meant to her.

Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University 's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association. She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas. Dr. Wortham is author of The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.

She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality. Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004 she was awarded tenure.

This article by her is something else.

No He Can't

by Anne Wortham

Fellow Americans,

Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America ...

I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival – all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician.

I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America .

Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century.

I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them..

I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration – political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.

I would have to believe that "fairness" is the equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead – and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over – and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like.

The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. So, toast yourselves: 60s counter cultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Frank lin Roosevelt, promises to – Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine – what little there is left – for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.


No He Can't

With all due respect....If she feels that we have just elected a "token" black man, then why didn't she run? Why didn't she start a grass roots movement for a black person who would have been a good nominee? I'm tired of hearing people piss and moan. If you don't like the way things are....do something to change them.

__________________


<3 I love a warm pig belly for my aching feet <3

I would have voted for her, Tracy.

You have to remember that this was written only 10 days after the election and I believe that it was a reaction to that. Obama is working hard and I admire that in anyone. I do agree that much of the election was driven by that fact that he is [half] Black with Black features. I also believe that he was elected by anti-Bushites too. But what I found so interesting was her feeling like I do... the only reason that there is racism, is that [all] races tend to think of themselves in us-them terms. That's no reason to elect anyone and that will not change things. The article is very deep into Sociology but on the surface it looks like another anti-Obama rant. In the end Obama's job will determine what the world thinks of us. What a travesty if any failure is blamed on his race and not on the man and his administration. I think we have to start thinking out of the racist box.

So she is a black conservative. And her political leanings mean more to her than race.

Not that shocking.

Of course, her entire argument is based on a false premise. That people elected Obama simply because he is black. And that ALL black people did so.

Take a look at the percentage of blacks who have voted Democrat over the last 20 years. It's in the high 80's. So 94% means they voted for him because he's black, and not his politics? She can put politics above race, but everyone else can't?

And this whole, It's The End Of Capitalism tirade. Just stop it.

It has become apparent that capitalism can't and won't fix everything that needs fixing in this country. That doesn't mean it's not the best system going. But the idea that government can't assist with capitalism is ludicrous. It's been doing it for decades and decades.

As a black man, I am offended by her assertions.

I would be, too. I mean, 60 million people voted for John McCain because he is white. That's racist.

oh, I thought they voted for him because he is crotchety and old.

I voted for Obama because I didn't like what the other side
was selling. I would have voted for Ron Paul, but the thought
of receiving what the other side was selling was too much for me
to handle so I had to do what I had to do.

C'mon. You did the same thing I did.

You paid no attention at all to the debates or the speeches. You are a low information voter that bought into a catch phrase. You, being a black man, had no choice but to vote for another black man. And my inferior intellect and raging sense of white guilt forced me to pull the lever. If we had paid the slightest bit of attention, and realized that 4 more years of Bush style politics was the remedy this country needed, Obama never would have won.

REP +10 (my brother)

this lady is trying to sell a book......


/thread

__________________
Smile, God loves you

Sorry Chase one more:

Amazing how the back community all voted for Obama just because he was black.

Where were these voters in these elections?

A Look at Other Black Presidential Candidates Before Obama

Posted February 15, 2008

Shirley Chisholm. A New York teacher elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Chisholm unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 1972. She did get the most convention votes for a female candidate in U.S. history.

Jesse Jackson. Jackson campaigned for the Democratic nomination twice, in 1984 and 1988. These runs secured his place as the pre-eminent black American leader of the era.

Lenora Fulani. In 1988, Fulani—a psychologist—ran as an independent and was the first black woman to appear on presidential ballots in all 50 states. She also ran in 1992.

Alan Keyes. Having served in the Reagan administration, Keyes campaigned for the Republican nomination in 1996 and 2000 (and also lost to Barack Obama in their race for a Senate seat in 2004).

Moseley Braun, A U.S. senator, briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Al Sharpton. In 2004, this New York-based activist campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Who cares about platform, they were black, right, just like 'this time'.

Her point just because null and void.

__________________
The only way to bring about change is to actively strive to achieve it. - (7-24-09, Witchofthedogs)

clean up that post woman....i can't read with all those wingdings in there

edit, i see you did, spanks

How dare you post anything that may have a hint of criticism for Obama.

+1

My bad

"I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.."

This is not criticism of Obama. This is criticism of the people who voted for Obama.

She's smart. We're dopes because we only saw color. We had no other opinion about the man or his politics.

My comments were all addressing this assertion. I reject it. And none of my comments were addressed at Rusty. It's an interesting piece for discussion. This woman has an opinion about why I voted for Obama. I think I demonstrated how ridiculous her opinion is.

And my point was that if people supposedly only voted for Obama because he is black, then why didnt Alan Keys get elected, or Al Sharpton, or Jessee Jackson?

This woman is a fruitcake, and one of the worst types of black people around, influential AND wrong.

Never took it that way... only joking.
The article and it's reactions (not only on TD but on several other sites) show that most people want to get past racism and onto fixing the mess that we're in. Chase is right, she wants to sell a book but she is a thoroughly educated Sociologist and an educator that people respect. And she's been there - she did service in the Peace Corps during a time that she probably couldn't sit in the front of a city bus. I stop and listen to what she's saying as something more like Bill Cosby as opposed to Jesse Jackson. I doubt that her article was directed at people like Kid, Tracy, or Jessica, more like people who think that the race problem is now solved since we elected a Black man.

My 2 cents

oo ooo i have a race kinda question here....ok

i know this guy, black guy, he is real cool we talk a lot and all and get along and he is a cool dude in my book....

then this weekend i see him with a tshirt and on the back it reads something like

"Judge me not for the color of my skin, but by the inauguration i attended - Jan 20 '09"

now up till about 1 second ago i did not know that part of that is a quote by MLK....and im not a very good linguist but does that make sense as a statement?

original quote makes perfect sense though...

this didn't make me think differently of the guy, just the wording stumped me a bit.

Alan Keys is pretty much an unknown for many people plus he doesn't carry the confidence and speaking skills Obama has. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are amoung other things, race baiters/radical and the majority of white people wouldn't feel comfortable voting for them. Obama is an excellent speaker/bullshitter and the white voters feel comfortable with him and his BS. Democrat or Republican politicians, they all tell you what you want to hear. Obama's just was better at blowing sunshine up the ass of the average voter.

Worst types of black people? How many bad types are there? Good thing Obama was one of the good ones. I'm comfortable with that.

In other words, He chose to pay attention to this election because a black guy was running.