Sorry Black Folk, Obama is Not Your Friend

Black folks have drunk the Kool-Aid and are too far gone to realize the truth - that Barack Obama is a shrewd, political hack who could give a damn about the Black masses and is very much about the status quo -- and furthering his political career.

But JJ, he's not running for the president of Black America! He's running for the president of All America!

Right. So let me ask you this, when Regan had his "I'm running for president," coming out party in Philadelphia Mississippi, do you think he was sending the message that he was running for all America or just white America?

While you're readying your response to that quip, here is a response to an excellent piece over on Black Agenda Report, that fully and accurately breaks down Obamaism:

It seems to me that the biggest problem we face today is the myth of the two-party system.
As long as we all pretend that there is any difference whatsoever between the major political parties in this country, we will continue to be vulnerable to manipulation by those global corporate entities who are really in charge.
A wet-behind-the-ears, newly elected junior senator does not have the wherewithall to mount a successful, dragon-slaying campaign without some powerful mojo from outside interests.
Nearly one hundred million dollars on hand before he was barely introduced to the millions of small donors who supposedly funded his campaign?
A manipulative, Rovian primary strategy that gamed the process in a style mastered in a ridiculously short political career, one spent almost entirely running for office and winning not on merit, but on technicality?
This is not the campaign of a committed politician, this is a carefully orchestrated puppet show.
The man behind the podium is a self-admitted blank screen, a chameleon, a shape-shifter.
To black Americans, he is redemption, validation, the culmination of the struggle, fulfillment of the dream.
For white Americans he is vindication, exoneration, absolution.
To young America he is hope, the promise of the future, the sign of the times, the prospect of things to come.
He's a liberal, he's a conservative, he's a hawk, he's anti-war, he's progressive, he's right-wing, he's black, he's white.
You name it, he is it.
What could be better?
Yet that is who he is only because that is who he is scripted to be.
In reality he is none of those things.
He's a two-bit political hack who can't seem to form a coherent sentence without a TelePrompter, let alone formulate or even explain a comprehensive, complex position on any government policy.
He simply looks the part for which he was cast.
In the minds of the string pullers he's the preferred winner, his opponent an equally scripted and cast, acceptable alternative.
What's so sad for black people is that to be so emotionally invested in what amounts to little more than an elaborately produced made-for-tv-movie is a sure-fire prescription for heartbreak.
The tragedy of buying the hype is there is no return policy, no money back guarantee, no recourse whatsoever.
What happens after the heartbreak is what worries many of us older folks, can our people endure such large-scale disillusionment?
Because the bottom line is whether he succeeds or fails those who look to him to be the reality of a common destiny realized are bound to be devastated when they realize it ain't about you.
And it never was.

But JJ, he's just saying and doing what he's doing so white folks will vote for him. Once he gets in to Office he'll really be for us Black folks!

Right. As Ed over at Dream and Hustle points out:

Oh, please spare me the nod-wink-nod “when Barack Obama gets in the office, he will take care of Black people - he just can’t say it on the campaign trail”. That no different than an irresponsible Black male telling a female if he gets her pregnant, he will “do the right thing” without any explicit commitment.

And we all know how well that has worked out for the Black community. I do wonder though, after the debacle that was the Clinton presidency (NAFTA, Welfare Reform, expansion of the prison industrial complex) why are Black folk so willing to believe that any politician running for president will do anything for us outside of take out votes and then give us his ass to kiss? Y do we sell our vote for so little? Why don't we demand that folk give us concrete ways in which they plan on helping us before they get in office (or get the nomination) and if they don't, we let them know we will take our vote elsewhere or sit home?

I know. I know. I wasn't always this down on Obama. I admit I got caught in the Obama wave a bit. But that was largely because Hillary Clinton pissed me the hell off. And if being ra, ra for Obama was what it took to sing, "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead," then so be it.

But my reservations about him have always been the same: That he was a corporate hack who would throw Black folk under the bus at the first opportunity.

And boy he wasted no time in proving me right. First his pastor, then Black fathers, and then the rest of black America to boot. He's doing what I like to call the Corporate Shuffle: Wanna get promoted in Corporate America? Just hate on Black folks and you'll show "The Man" you're not like one of those Negros.

But JJ, Black people do need to do better! 70% out of wedlock births, high incarceration rates, illiteracy, unemployment, you're just an apologist for irresponsible behaviour.

Right. So all those unemployed, under employed white folks are that way 'cause the system is bad but Black folks are that way because of our innate pathological tendencies? Let me ask you this: When has Obama EVER given a lecture to those good, God-fearing, gun-toting, hardworking Americans that he's been pandering to so much as of late?

Name a time.

Find me some video.

Has he said to them that there lack of an education is part of the reason why they are in the economic situation they are in (contrary to popular belief anti-intellectualism in not just a Black thing)? How about their racial bias that kept them voting for a party that could give a damn about them but since it wasn't the party of Niggers and Spics then they gladly did so year in and year out? How about the living above their means that had them using their homes as ATM's and now has left them flat broke and in major debt? Anything on that? No? Yeah. I thought so.

When white people experience hard times, there's a systemic issue. When Black people experience experience hard times, it's because we don't take "personal responsibility, for our actions. Am I the only that sees something wrong with that?

And on one final note: Why is Obama doing all this lecturing to folks whose votes he needs if he wants to be elected. As Ed said:
What kind of politician would tell a group of potential voters to “take responsibility” and what kind of freaking mess is that? Politicians pander to voters to get their votes, they don’t tell them to do anything. Show me in political history a candidate telling potential voters to take care of their themselves…please show me.

Yeah. Show me too.