What’s Really Eating Obama/Wright?
by Julia Gorin
[Subscribe online to Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Click here for details].
[The discomfort of light skin.]
Barack Obama has said that his mixed-race heritage would serve to make him a uniter. But the violently militant roots of Obama’s church of 20 years, which advocate “the destruction of the white enemy,” along with Obama’s well known associations with hate-mongers point to the opposite being true.
In fact, it is precisely Obama’s mixed-race heritage that handicaps him in the task of racial unifying. This is something that was explained to me several years ago in an email from a reader in Colorado, who seemed to be acquainted with the kinds of complexes that develop in “light-skinned” black people. He wrote, with my emphasis:
For those familiar with the Afro-American community in this country, black prejudice toward mixed race people is bitter, vitriolic, and in some cases homicidal . . . Blacks of lighter skin color, or who bear European features, are branded “chocolates,” and verbally and socially abused. Their racial and ideological purity is questioned . . . I am not a victim of a mixed race prejudice. But I have seen some of the consequences. I know the children of mixed race parents are subjected to school ground hazing. I know that some mixed race kids, especially those who are very light complexioned, over-identify with their “blackness.” . . . It’s as if they have to prove how “black” they are by repeating all the appropriate racial political mantras showing the proper amounts of disdain and anger and culture consciousness . . .
I grew up in a very bad home environment myself, so I recognize the symptoms of a life lived in fear…Anger is a survival emotion…Fear and shame are the main features of what emotional life these kids have left to them. A person who hates himself, hates others and lives on adrenaline…The great tragedy of the “successes” of the civil rights movement is that while they have achieved “rights and respect” they have bought their respect via anger and at the expense of intimacy. Nobody likes being around angry people…You can’t legislate intimacy, nor obtain it through political activism. And there’s the rub.
I’ve noted this over-identification with race myself, once in a light-skinned Guyanese man who as a baby had been adopted along with his twin brother by American Jews; he once told me casually that he was glad O.J. Simpson was acquitted, considering how many lynchings of blacks went unpunished earlier in the country’s history.
The racially over-identifying phenomenon also puts into perspective another product of a white mother and black father, actress Halle Berry. Recall the overstated emphasis on her blackness in her 2002 Oscar acceptance speech. As she repeatedly pointed out, it was the first Best Actress Oscar to go to a black woman (for Monster’s Ball). In the midst of laying the symbolism of herself on thickly, she thanked her family—her mother and “the only father I ever knew”, with the camera panning to a white woman sitting next to Berry’s white, Italian-American manager.
Children of mixed marriages often seem to choose their black half, invariably blaming “society” for “imposing” that choice on them. Another biracial child who made this choice is daughter of Color Purple author Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, whose father is a Jewish civil rights lawyer named Mel Leventhal (the more hands-on parent while Mom was out being famous). When Rebecca, who wrote a memoir in 2000 titled Black White and Jewish, grew up, she switched to her mother’s last name instead of her father’s, supposedly to preempt his rejection of her, which she always felt, rationally or not, was impending.
And now we have the case of Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, who recently told Blender magazine that, according to FoxNews.com, “‘Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other”:
Keys, 27, said she’s read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck “to symbolize strength, power and killing ‘em dead.” . . . Another of her theories: The bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.”
As if the Black Panthers weren’t an inspiration for gangsta rap. But reading this item and thinking it smacks of overcompensation for something—given Keys’ mainstream appeal and success—I looked her up on Wikipedia. Sure enough, Mom was white. After her parents divorced, she was raised by the white mother.
Jeremiah Wright, however, does not come from mixed parentage, so what’s eating Jeremiah? It so happens that the man hates his own skin, for he is lighter than all the half-white folks above, and is a case study of the “too-white” syndrome. According to a March op-ed by Mort Klein, who attended the same high school as Wright, Central High School of Philadelphia was an elite boy’s school and 95 percent white. Wright was brought up in white upper middle class “in a tree-lined neighborhood of large stone houses in the Germantown section… a lovely neighborhood to this day.” Here’s what likely happened: As a kid, Jeremiah was ragged on and resented by fellow blacks because of his “lightness”, accused of not really being a “brother” and resented for being able to sometimes even pass for white and get better treatment—or at least no scared looks—from white people. As difficult as race relations were, Jeremiah may have even had white girls checking him out, which really would have been too much for his black peers. Poor Jeremiah didn’t fit in with the brothers, or with Whitey. So what could he do? Light bulb: out-black and out-anti-white them all by peddling the darkest kind of dark and becoming the uber-black leader of the blacker blacks.
I would bet money that this is what formed the good reverend, whose resentments attracted, and helped form, Barack Obama. The mixed-race Obama is the ultimate racial divider.
[Subscribe online to Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Click here for details].
1 Comment by Phil on 28 July 2008:
Fantastic article.
May I also mention that virtually all of the black power movement is and was led by such light-skinned blacks as Elijah Mohammed, Malcolm X, Luis Farrakhan, Rev. Wright, etc.
Miscegination seems to create a cruel identity crisis for the offspring of such a union.
2 Comment by Daniel on 28 July 2008:
“Another of her theories: The bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.”
Sadly, this line of thinking is more widespread amongst the youth of this country than one might think, and that includes deluded white youth, especially of the liberal self-hating variety. As a young man who was forced to listen to these two crap musicians during warmups for basketball practice and games, I should know.
Interestingly enough, I could breathe a sigh of relief when black comedian Chris Rock shed a little light on the situation when he said something to the effect of…
“I hear people talking all the time about Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. and how they were involved in a government conspiracy and were assassinated. Actually, Malcolm X was assassinated. Martin Luther King was assassinated. As for Tupac and B.I.G., those two niggas just got shot.”
I think I would prefer to see Chris Rock as president of this country than Barak Obama.
Great article.
3 Comment by MAP on 29 July 2008:
Questions of race are out of our barbaric and ignorant past. We are all alike now with equality and diversity iluminating the way. I get all gidy and giggly just thinking about it.
4 Comment by PcH on 29 July 2008:
Is that the reason for our immigration policy?
5 Comment by Grumpy Old Man on 29 July 2008:
There’s an acute awareness of color gradations among blacks. Less so, recently, among whites (although terms like “quadroon” and “octoroon” come from somewhere).
Perhaps the author is correct, that light-skinned blacks, like peripheral Arabs, are “more Catholic than the Pope,” to mix metaphors. They are also all the rage –hence Obama, Hallie Berry, Jordin Sparks of “American Idol,” etc. Some sort of transition is in the works.
We are not, of course, supposed to speak openly about such matters. Nevertheless, as a nation we have overcome worse difficulties. Take a deep breath and wait a couple of generations.
6 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 29 July 2008:
News to me “actress Halle Berry. Recall the overstated emphasis on her blackness in her 2002 Oscar acceptance speech. As she repeatedly pointed out, it was the first Best Actress Oscar to go to a black woman (for Monster’s Ball).”
Long time ago, when I was in the NYU Tisch School of the Arts somebody must have lied to us telling us that Hattie McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Oscar for her role in Gone with the Wind (1939).
I guess the joke is on me. Halle Berry’s tirade escaped me.
7 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 29 July 2008:
Got it, it cuts both ways, Hattie McDaniel was best SUPPORTING actress, while Berry was just black actress (as in a leading role). Too bad that anybody has to impinge on Hattie McDaniel in any manner – me no like this kind of speech.
8 Comment by Don Guillermo on 29 July 2008:
Eloquent treatment of an important subject! Not harsh, just plain-spoken (written?). Well done! If this nation is to move forward on race, it will be because of honest and courageous people like Julia Gorin. Thank you!
9 Comment by Tony Bourdain on 30 July 2008:
This issue was first addressed by Steve Sailer at isteve.blogspot.com.
Ms. Gorin essentially regurgitates Steve Sailer’s presentation and analysis of the topic.
10 Comment by stephen on 30 July 2008:
I think it goes both ways. Perhaps most interracial children think of themselves as “black”; I don’t know. But if I see someone who has African ancestry, not matter how light, I think of them as black or African American. And I will admit that if it is an athlete, I’ll often note that many lighter skinned athletes speak better than darker athletes(obviously with exceptions). A school like Stanford or Duke, with strong academics and strong athletics(rare mixture) often has lighter skinned “African Americans”. These are observations, and without controlled psychological or behavior experiments or studies, I would not care to generalize.
One last note: Alicia Keyes, one of the few R&B singers who actually can sing a melody and play an instrument, and who has always seemed to me to be fairly literate and intelligent for an entertainer, appears to be an idiot in her quasi-political ramblings mentioned above. So who knows what skin color means in terms of common sense, if not in cognitive intelligence? Probably not much.
11 Comment by Joe F. on 30 July 2008:
I’ve been intrigued by the eagerness with which the popular media – television and film, primarily – has taken up the cause of black/white intermarriage (or dating – marriage doesn’t merit much shrift these days). Ten years ago, I can’t recall seeing a television show with a major character who was involved in an interracial arrangement; today, you almost have to avoid tripping on them.
I know we’re awash in multiculturalist babble-speak, and being undercut by the goals of its proponents, but it does seem to be something of a cause celebre with the entertainment industry – this, in full denial of the manner in which the progeny of these arrangements are treated by the black community.
Interesting article.
12 Comment by Doug Walters on 30 July 2008:
Africans will do anything possible to escape from Africa and get to Europe or N.A. They will hide in wheel-wells of airplanes, pay exorbitant fees to bribe customs officials, risk death in over-crowded, leaky boats — anything to escape to a White nation. Once in America, they will do anything they can to escape the “African-American” inner cities, and move to a safe, well-off white neighborhood, where they will spend the rest of their lives complaining about racism.
13 Comment by Irving Babbitt on 30 July 2008:
The House of Representatives just passed a resolution “apologizing” for slavery and “segregation.” The relevant part reads like it is aimed at laying the groundwork for so-called “reparations.” Here is a portion of the House resolution:
“African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow—long after both systems were formally abolished—through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity.”
And just this week Senator Obama spoke before a group of “minority” “journalists” and stated the following, which would appear to be an endorsement of “reparations”:
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,” Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY ‘08, a convention of four minority journalism associations.
“I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said.
14 Comment by TJF on 30 July 2008:
“This issue was first addressed by Steve Sailer at isteve.blogspot.com.
Ms. Gorin essentially regurgitates Steve Sailer’s presentation and analysis of the topic.”
The use of a word like “regurgitate” is a not-so-subtle accusation of plagiarism. Unfortunately, Mr. Bourdain does not say what the issue is or in what respect Mr. Sailer has made an original contribution nor does he even provide a link to the article. The argument that mixed-race blacks and indians have been more militant has been around for a long time, and Miss Gorin quite properly and effectively applies the argument to a current case.
15 Comment by Clyde Wilson on 30 July 2008:
The interesting thing here is that for the first time in history, claiming to be black is embraced rather than avoided.
16 Comment by saltine on 30 July 2008:
Irving Babbitt, in response 13, has the real key to what is going to be most important for America’s future if Obama is elected. He makes no secret that he believes that whites owe “reparations” to blacks. The “apology” of the House is only laying the groundwork for an effort to take money out the pockets of whites and deliver it to blacks in the name of “justice”. I hardly need to point out to anyone the multitude of problems here, but suffice it to say that such a move will do nothing to change attitudes among blacks. I don’t think there is a single African-American who would say, after an apology and a big cash hand out from whitey, that they have a good deal in this country. The psychological crutch of supposed victimhood, even among well-off beneficiaries of this system like Obama, Cosby, Jackson, et al, is just too essential to the African-American self-identity.
17 Comment by aldebaran on 31 July 2008:
I suppose this video says it all: Don’t talk about my mama!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2858353326933278684&q=dont+talk+about+my+mama&ei=77iRSO2uK4vmigKjwqivCg
18 Comment by Tom Jacobsen on 31 July 2008:
12- “Once in America, they will do anything they can to escape the “African-American” inner cities, and move to a safe, well-off white neighborhood, where they will spend the rest of their lives complaining about racism.”
But of course! Once a black family is firmly established in the middle class, the easiest way to climb even higher is to claim racism. This opens the doors for things like Affirmative Action, scholarships for the children, potential lawsuits against white employers, and the like.
19 Comment by tijana on 31 July 2008:
This article is a scholar example of propaganda and bias. It starts with a nonexistent “problem” such as “what’s really eating Obama/Wright” (is something eating them? how do we know if it is or isn’t?). Than, the author suggests an “answer to the problem” which consists of ramblings about people who are in no way connected to either Obama or Wright, except through their much emphasized racial origin (which, by the way, is a racist argument par excellence). The conclusion is particularly impressive in it’s foundation on facts, especially in the line “here’s what likely happened”.
And all this is based on someone’s “percentage” of blackness/whiteness?
This is not a talk ABOUT racism, this IS racism.
20 Comment by paul s. on 31 July 2008:
“The interesting thing here is that for the first time in history, claiming to be black is embraced rather than avoided.” Dr. Wilson
That’s the power of the media especially t.v. which carries with it enormous status. In downgrading or devaluing white folks and conversely elevating blacks in the media ’story’, it’s normal and natural given that we all are conceptual creatures and make the conceptual pause at that cultural level for info. – black would become symbolic status, with or without having Actually achieved it.
Of course actual achievement is case by case although now all blacks enjoy this symbolic status. Sort of like Jesus for example enjoys it in the Christian story whether merited or not is *not the point.
Case in point – we are such conceptual creatures that when we get info. like the above, at the ‘cultural’ level – even whites embrace it.
21 Comment by Californian on 31 July 2008:
Realistically speaking, if there had been no slavery then American blacks would be all living in such multultural rainbow nation paradises as Congo, Sudan, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Perhaps an apology ought to go to any black who will buy a one way ticket back to the African country of his or her anscestors. Better yet, why don’t we give the Congresscritters who voted for this “apology” a one way ticket to Darfur?
22 Comment by cipher on 2 August 2008:
Repatriation yes, reparations no – the price having been paid in full many times over.
Black aggression politically directed toward Whites is like a tyrannical child, backed-up by Marxist manipulations of the State, facing down a weak and confused parent. There’s another outlet for Black aggression directed toward Whites. Its consequences are chronicled in the annual publication of the FBI’s uniform crime statistics. The passage of time will not, in and of itself, change this. Decades of legislation favorable to raving Marxists and delinquent Blacks has not changed this.
The situation has instead worsened to the point that we see significant numbers of White females mating with males of color simply for the thrill of it with the expectation that society at large will gladly pick up the tab when babydaddy inevitably cuts and runs. In fact, significant numbers of White males and females are emulating this behavior amongst themselves. Few among either coupling’s offspring are Harvard bound.
Therefore Obama seems the perfect turd in this time of national sewerage.
23 Comment by MAR on 4 August 2008:
Although I agree with some of the points in this essay, it seems to imply that products of mixed-race reproduction have a choice in choosing their identity. I do not believe they do.
For better or worse, whites have mostly recessive genes. The product of white and black reproducing will look much more black than white. The genes of the black will be dominant. For example, I read once that the likelihood of a blue-eyed white and a black person to produce a child with blue eyes is almost 1 in 1,000. Similar statistics hold for hair type, lips, noses, facial structures, etc.
Although some blacks may have lighter skin, they still have predominantly black features. It would only be natural that they would gravitate towards the black standard, wishing they were more black.
Regarding Halle Berry et al., I find it interesting that so many black actors and actresses get nose jobs to acquire a European nose, but then insist on maintaining their black identity.
24 Comment by MAR on 4 August 2008:
To support what I say above, those mixed-race individuals who often do “pass for white” are those who do not have the alleles for certain black characteristics.
Frank Sweet has written:
“U.S. society has unwittingly applied selection pressure to the color line. The only American families accepted into the White endogamous group have been those whose African admixture just happened not to include the half-dozen alleles for dark skin (or the other physical traits associated with “race”). Since those particular alleles were sifted out of the portion of the White population that originated in biracial families, the relative percentage of the remaining, invisible, African alleles in this population cannot affect skin color. That skin-color does not vary with African genetic admixture among American Whites, despite their measureably recent African admixture, demonstrates and confirms that physical appearance has been an important endogamous group membership criterion throughout U.S. history. It has resulted in genetic selection of the White U.S. population for a European “racial” appearance, regardless of their underlying continent-of-ancestry admixture ratio.”
http://backintyme.com/essays/?p=5
25 Comment by The Bobster on 24 August 2008:
According to a March op-ed by Mort Klein, who attended the same high school as Wright, Central High School of Philadelphia was an elite boy’s school and 95 percent white. Wright was brought up in white upper middle class “in a tree-lined neighborhood of large stone houses in the Germantown section… a lovely neighborhood to this day.”
Obviously, Mort hasn’t been to Germantown recently.