Obama tells black fathers to engage their kids

[Gamma]

as if we don't know! ok ... i don't know for SURE....

[Mosiah]

1. obama did not represent the typical angry black man to white america why? n.b. any hint of it (rev wright) threatened to derail his candidacy...

another example of black people doing as whitey wants us to do. whether or not he had to do it to get elected, it was the smart thing to do, he is just not your typical angry black man...does not matter! the fact of the matter is white people don't like to reminded about slavery and about their inhumane treatment of black people since. if you want to progress in their country, you better "walk this way"! HL has learnt to "walk this way" and now he is living the American dream. And many more of us better learn that "walk" if we want to "succeed" in that there alien land.

The truth is sometimes unpleasant. Deal with it!

[Lazie]

lazie...obama had a step-father and then he was raised by his grandparents .....

True, like many youngsters today in Jamaica and in the USA. The question is, where was his father? Where are the fathers? Nuh dat Obama a talk bout .... too many fathers MIA.

many times when mi and the family travel white americans have come up to me and said "you have a lovely family" and when i say "thank you and so do you", they are taken aback...some have seemed downright insulted. i don't remember ANY saying "thank you"

Wait ... yuh you made that response did you see their family?

[Gamma]

Gamma, not because you don't hold the view doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

MANY views exist, ergo? you raised it not me....again you have not appreciated what i have been saying.....

Yuh probably right .... however, I very much doubt I'm the one confusing excuse and facts. Man guh round and leff kids all over the place .. but when confronted dem either claim its because dem a African or dem blame slavery. Sound like excuse to me, irrespective of my head being buried in the sand. What it sound like to you? why is it that the probability of your children going to college increases if you have a college degree? if you want to deal in absolutes we will go around in circles.

Mi nuh know ... maybe him is as cool as me. What if him isn't an angry person? there you have it, he was not an angry person. youtalk about his absentee biological father what about the prominent father figures in his life?

goes to whether or not there was a need for affirmative action and the possible reasons for such a need. objection overruled answer the question!

[Lazie]

another example of black people doing as whitey wants us to do. whether or not he had to do it to get elected, it was the smart thing to do, he is just not your typical angry black man...does not matter! the fact of the matter is white people don't like to reminded about slavery and about their inhumane treatment of black people since. if you want to progress in their country, you better "walk this way"! HL has learnt to "walk this way" and now he is living the American dream. And many more of us better learn that "walk" if we want to "succeed" in that there alien land.

The truth is sometimes unpleasant. Deal with it!

This is the reason I threw the corn out there. If Obama was an "angry blackman" it would have come out in the debates.

Wait ... are all black men angry? Sound like you're doing the dance .. not Obama nor HL.

[Mosiah]

Lazie, while in college, a friend or mine sat the LSAT and missed the qualifying minimum by a few points. Instead of resitting the exam (after studying some more, of course) his attitude was, they have to let me into law school, I am black! NO, he was not Jamaican.

So, yes, I do realise that African Americans have used all sorts of excuses to justify certain behaviours and accept the barest minimum. Why strive for excellence when chez whitey owes me! Pity they don't know that chez whitey OWNS them with that sort of pathetic outlook.

Having said all that, let us not forget history and let us not understand our history. It's one thing to say black people were slaves for 400 years, but what effect did such a bondage have on us? Do we use that fact as a yoke to continue keeping down ourselves or do we arm ourselves with that knowledge to ensure, by what we do henceforth, that such bondage will never happen to us again, in any form?

[Gamma]

i did see their family because dem travelling on vacation...and if you really think about it, it is these people who are more likely to make than comment, and this has been the case. maybe it's a backhanded complement "they look like our family, a mother a father and children, going on vacation to (spain, france, italy, south africa, guadeloupe, st martin...wherever!)

lazie, grandfathers should not have to be playing the role of father AGAIN! that is the point and i agree with you. same with clarence thomas too.....my point is that it EASY for so many men to do it because it was done to them ad infinitum. no everyone has the will and intelligece to end the cycle otherwise we would not be having this discourse.

[Gamma]

lazie...some slaves bought their freedom, why didn't ALL slaves buy their freedom?

[Mosiah]

I am an angry black man, I have a right to be angry, and chez whitey will not label me such to engender a certain reaction from people, as some people do with the "liberal" label. They don't set my agenda.

BUT, I am not the angry black man that America wants to throw into that pot of angry negroes. Not all angry black men are the same!

[Mosiah]

Do we remember filling out those college applications? It's been a long time for some of us!

There is/use to be a section where they ask you if any of your relatives attended that college. Do you, Lazie, think they do that for light coffee table banter? It's affirmative action for whites taking place!

Yes, we are on the affirmative action tangent now, but it's all connected!

[Lazie]

lazie...some slaves bought their freedom, why didn't ALL slaves buy their freedom?

See, we're moving from irresponsible fathers ... better yet .. sperm doners to slavery. We can stay on topic? Cause tomorrow we ago hear say mi condone slavery as there is a propensity to misunderstand my posts.

[Lazie]

Do we remember filling out those college applications? It's been a long time for some of us!

There is/use to be a section where they ask you if any of your relatives attended that college. Do you, Lazie, think they do that for light coffee table banter? It's affirmative action for whites taking place!

Yes, we are on the affirmative action tangent now, but it's all connected!

Okay ... when unuh ready fi deal with the topic at hand mek mi know. Hope unuh realize that that the absent father is one of the major factors with the state Jamaica is in? Yuh when unuh stop play dogdeball .. mek mi know.

[Islandman]

Far too often though, i hear many of us who know better say things that I think sends or reinforces that very same view that your friend had about sitting the exam.

Here is what you said below :

"if you want to progress in their country, you better "walk this way"! HL has learnt to "walk this way" and now he is living the American dream. And many more of us better learn that "walk" if we want to "succeed" in that there alien land."

Now there are many ways to interpret what exactly "walk this way" means, but the subconscious message that is usually being sent by a statement like that is "if you see a black man doing well (thats not a rapper,athlete or some exceptional talent) its probably beause he kissed the white mans ass, and since I refuse to kiss thier ass, that is obviously why I am not and will NEVER do well, but its all good"

Its a very, very damaging view for a people to have. And blacks in America undoubtably have it.

[Gamma]

it is connected lazie.....yuh think it just happen to be so? do you?!! and furthermore do think i am HAPPY with this being the state of affairs? again yuh entirely ( maybe not entirely, but a significant protion) miss my point.


do you think black men inherently have a tendency to be a sperm donours since time immemorial? do you think that the cross-section teenage youth in jamaica we no not value life have always had no value for life, neither theirs nor anyone else's?

[Mosiah]

Nice one, Lazie. The argument has taken a turn because wi dun deal wid dat arready. If you didn't grasp it then, then I guess yuh gwine haffi wait till wi discuss race again in a year or two.

But may I suggest, two years from now don't come back wid di same ole lame arguments. Do yourself a favour and reread this entire thread in chrono order. That will put you on solid ground for when we next meet on the subject in 2010.

Cheers!