Stephen Colbert & Obama's Non-Blackness

dharma69

Colbert strikes again.

A recent guest on Colbert's show (Debra Dickerson) who, if I didn't know better I kust might think is a Republican bent on discrediting the opposition by any means necessary! But who knows these things...?

But, this woman came on the show and said, "Barack's not black. He's an African-African-American, but not a black man." Wow. Stephen ran her around in lovely circles and just destroyed her whole foundation. He actually got her to say that something was actually a gross perversion of Dr. Martin Luther King's "Dream."

(For those of you keeping score at home, Barack Obama isn't actually a black man, because his father immigrated to the USA from Kenya; there's no history of slavery in the family, and hence Barack isn't black. HA!)

Obama's Not Black!

DISCLAIMER: Please do not eat or drink while watching.

sonicreducer

this is so fucking stupid

dharma69

So fucking brilliant.

norm

I'm . . . speechless. He's not black because he didn't descend from slaves yet his father came from Africa. :eek:

I can't believe someone paid her to write a book about this nonsense.

keeponrockin

That was awesome.

dharma69

keeponrockin wrote:

That was awesome.

Stephen Colbert...I think I love him.

DOSW

He's not black because he doesn't have "the burden of having enslaved ancestors?" To my knowledge not one black person in America today is a slave, and neither is Obama. Doesn't that make them equal?

I just don't get what she's trying to say. Sure, he's technically only half-black, but that wasn't her argument.

hippiemom

cutback wrote:

I'm . . . speechless. He's not black because he didn't descend from slaves yet his father came from Africa. :eek:

I can't believe someone paid her to write a book about this nonsense.

I am not descended from slave owners, so I guess that means I'm not white.

I'm having an identity crisis now.

he still stands

hippiemom wrote:

I am not descended from slave owners, so I guess that means I'm not white.

I'm having an identity crisis now.

hilarious...

seriously where does Colbert find these people? Is this a massive conspiracy from the right??? -- Do they hire these extremists to make the average neocon look LESS extreme???? (jk)

dharma69

Not having read this woman's book or knowing anything else about her points of view I can only vaguely stab at what I think she was saying:

The label *black* was given to those people of color in the US who were subjects of slavery or decendents of them (I'd never heard that theory before...don't know where she gets it from). So to call Obama or any other *real* African *black* is misrepresenting that person and their true cultural history as well as those that actually are decendents of slavery, thereby doing a diservice to both.

But this brings up sooo many other questions like these two:

*Who exactly are white people? Are they people who were slave owners and are decendents of slave owners?

*How pointless is the label "African American"?

hippiemom

I think we should embrace this woman's logic.

If the whole black/white paradigm revolves not around skin color, as most of us thought, but around the slavery experience, that means a good number of us are not who we thought we were.

Using the same logic, if you are descended from a Cuban family that became wealthy before the revolution, you are not really Hispanic! If you are a recent Japanese immigrant and your family never suffered from the rampant discrimination here during WWII, you are not really an Asian-American, because you don't share that experience.

What does all this mean? It means that you can't tell a goddamn thing about a person just by looking at the color of their skin!

melodious

ntsfl: not safe for life

insensitive party....annoyingj and disgusting, but u can be the scales, not me...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com:80/archive/years/2007/0130072clemson1.html?lin

norm

hippiemom wrote:

What does all this mean? It means that you can't tell a goddamn thing about a person just by looking at the color of their skin!

Don't tell that to Debbie. If people realize she's full of shit and a racist she may not be able to sell her books to the tragically stupid.

dharma69

melodious wrote:

ntsfl: not safe for life

insensitive party....annoyingj and disgusting, but u can be the scales, not me...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com:80/archive/years/2007/0130072clemson1.html?lin

I remember this story from when it first came out but I think it's a little harsh to lump all of white America along with those brats.

And if we can't tell a thing by looking at the color of a person's skin then why bother with any of the labels? Dickerson wasn't calling for being a label-free society; she's calling for widening the differences between us. You are *this*, I am *that*, you can't be *this* because you're not *that.....

And on it goes.

melodious

decided i didn't want to bring neg energy to board...sorry..

Ahnimus

Sweet, by her definition: I'm not white! I'm a Canadian of European Descent!

Because in order to be "White" I must decend from people that owned slaves.

So, let's say that "White" are decendents of slave owners and "Black" are decendents of slaves. We should hire geaneologists to determine who is "Black" and who is "White". Then maybe we can set up some kind of payback system. Like have the "Whites" enslaved by the "Blacks". Then we can finally put all this behind us.

dharma69

Ahnimus wrote:

Sweet, by her definition: I'm not white! I'm a Canadian of European Descent!

Because in order to be "White" I must decend from people that owned slaves.

So, let's say that "White" are decendents of slave owners and "Black" are decendents of slaves. We should hire geaneologists to determine who is "Black" and who is "White". Then maybe we can set up some kind of payback system. Like have the "Whites" enslaved by the "Blacks". Then we can finally put all this behind us.

Dear lord...I see a lot of paperwork ahead of us....

gossardstradlin

dharma69 wrote:

So fucking brilliant.

I agree!! I think he is a fucking genius. "I don't see color."

soulsinging

melodious wrote:

ntsfl: not safe for life

insensitive party....annoyingj and disgusting, but u can be the scales, not me...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com:80/archive/years/2007/0130072clemson1.html?lin

wow... those are some ugly women there. im glad i didn't go to clemson. in any case, ive got a feeling these people went to clemson straight from the trailer, so they're not a whole lot better off than the ghetto thugs they thought they were mocking. the only ones to look ridiculous here were them.

Abuskedti

dharma69 wrote:

Not having read this woman's book or knowing anything else about her points of view I can only vaguely stab at what I think she was saying:

The label *black* was given to those people of color in the US who were subjects of slavery or decendents of them (I'd never heard that theory before...don't know where she gets it from). So to call Obama or any other *real* African *black* is misrepresenting that person and their true cultural history as well as those that actually are decendents of slavery, thereby doing a diservice to both.

But this brings up sooo many other questions like these two:

*Who exactly are white people? Are they people who were slave owners and are decendents of slave owners?

*How pointless is the label "African American"?

I think her point is that the struggles of blacks in america stems from their history.. so success of others immigrants do not necessarily reflect advances of the community of those that have survived slavery..

but it is silly to say that Obama is not black
and Steven is awesome..

not sure which line I liked best - "That would be true if I were white"

Or maybe that we no longer judge blackness by the color of your skin, but by the quality of your charactor...

I give her credit for being honest and knowing when she was licked...

The following interview about the Christian right was equally or more awesome

with the incredible line "That's true if you were home schooled"

Pearl Jam and toast

dharma69 wrote:

So fucking brilliant.

Yeah Colbert is a genious - definetly the best interviewer I've ever seen.

The entire time I was thinking "holy shit this woman is a fucking moron.." and Stephen nailed her

gossardstradlin

melodious wrote:

ntsfl: not safe for life

insensitive party....annoyingj and disgusting, but u can be the scales, not me...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com:80/archive/years/2007/0130072clemson1.html?lin

Wow. Yeah, I heard about this when it first came out. I thought college was supposed to broaden your horizons not narrow your mind to stereo types.

Its sad because of what a great person and message Dr. King was and had.

mca47

Hahahaha...Colbert is great!

RavennaSeattle1911

im bored with boring posts here about obama-hes so damn boring

soulsinging

RavennaSeattle1911 wrote:

im bored with boring posts here about obama-hes so damn boring

yeah, what we need around here is another post about how the mexicans hate white people. i havent seen enough of those lately!

melodious

dharma69 wrote:

I remember this story from when it first came out but I think it's a little harsh to lump all of white America along with those brats.

And if we can't tell a thing by looking at the color of a person's skin then why bother with any of the labels? Dickerson wasn't calling for being a label-free society; she's calling for widening the differences between us. You are *this*, I am *that*, you can't be *this* because you're not *that.....

And on it goes.

it's all about perspective...and how we respond to certain stimulus...for instance, my knee jerk reaction generally get me into a whole slough of trouble within the SELF, however, if i stand back and breathe and think of how to play bridge instead of ignoring bridge...nice to see anhimus, as well...

lets not see color, let's see positvie humans as opposed to negative ones.....v

Pearl Jam and toast

soulsinging wrote:

yeah, what we need around here is another post about how the mexicans hate white people. i havent seen enough of those lately!

They've been pretty scarce since the presidential shit started to warm up haven't they?

hippiemom

soulsinging wrote:

yeah, what we need around here is another post about how the mexicans hate white people. i havent seen enough of those lately!

And they're soooooo much more interesting, too!

Westernsky

cutback wrote:

Don't tell that to Debbie. If people realize she's full of shit and a racist she may not be able to sell her books to the tragically stupid.

Brilliant. . . as brilliant as Steven Colbert.

YourBuddy

i hate stupid people, and that woman was one...i really dont understand what she is trying to say...I wish that MLK could see some of the shit that people come up with today...i never thought i would see interrace racism

floyd1975

gossardstradlin wrote:

I thought college was supposed to broaden your horizons not narrow your mind to stereo types.

This is one of the most common misconceptions I see today.