Is America Ready for a Black President?

Reply to #16 by echoboom:

"we are all guilty of this namak-slavery"

I would not go that far ... 'we all' ... but you got a solid point. I call it the 'mai-baap' syndrome.

Good read Gill sahib,

He [Bill Clinton] is so popular that many [among the blacks] call him the first black president of America.

He was immensly popular in gay community as well but no one calls him first gay president of America :)

Isn't Obama an Uncle Tom? More pertinently, wont he have to be a 'house nigger' (in the words of the great Malcolm X) to have any realistic chance of being elected POTUS?

I think Mrs. Clinton has more chance of winning the nomination this time round but Obama is still young enough to run again the next time round or the time after that...

Please fix the interacts format (to what it used to be).. rest of the changes seem well intentioned and may (eventually) work well. Give us a choice to go back to the old look and feel (as much as feasible). thanks.

Re: # 21

Dear Ana, it is the beauty of this system that anyone can ask such questions. Can you imagine asking if Pakistan is ready for an Ahmadi President (yes, Ahmadis are citizens of Pakistan). It even allows foreigners to poke fun of its ways. Imagine someone questioning Prophet Mohammad’s prophethood in some Islami countries?

With all due respect to Gill sahib, who has put together this article, and all the rest of you, I personally am tired of this question. Black people are citizens of this country and if one of them runs for president, more power to them. Regardless of whether America is ready or not, there are folks other than our white brothers and sisters who will be running for president, and maybe not Obama, but one day a change is going to come.

Also the insinuation that Obama is an Uncle Tom is insulting and quite ridiculous.

Re: # 23

Ana, It’s the question everyone and their mom is asking, and no one is really taking it in a racial context. It’s the same question that Time mag asked when Lieberman was running 8 years ago, and Jackson 12. Give Americans a little more credit than that. These are very legitimate questions to be pondering upon. Whether race is significant or not in a supposed “colorblind” society, it very most certainly is “important” and asking such questions does not make one racist. The point Gill Sahib made is not to question the intelligence of the Americans, but to view race/gender in a prevailing view.

Is America ready for a Gay President? Is American ready for a Native American President? The three top Dem contender are: A Black, a Woman, a Hispanic. Just because we are “ready”.

Masadi Sahib, I am sure you know a lot more about the world than I ever could. Perhaps you would also know that Ahmadis have a special form to sign to get even a friggin Shanakti card. Yes, they can be generals (and they were) but that was 300 BC just around the time Alexander fought with Porus near my village.

Kulharee,

Granted we are free to ask this question here in the USA, my question is why are we still asking this question about a woman or a black man? If we are still having to ask this question then let me tell you, this beautiful system as you so describe it, has not evolved much in the past how many years. I take it that you have either heard or read (or both) Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. This question only reinforces what some of us people of color are still painfully aware of. We are not being judged by the content of our character, but the color of our skin. So if you think this question is part of the "beauty" of our system, that is your opinion. Obama's experience should be the primary factor here. Not the fact that he is black. But of course it would not have made sense to have said Is America Ready For An Inexperienced President. After all we have had one for the past eight pinche years. Some of us already know the answer to that question.

Backgrounds and qualifications aside:

We have had eight years of Bill Clinton, eight years of Dubya, and how many years of George the father? Even with Hilary's experience and qualifications, do we want the passing back and forth of the dynastic torch?

I am still undecided on that. And has her stance on the Iraq war changed? I guess that is not a big enough factor.

(Enter the Presidential aspirants)

Obama (O): hum kale hai to kya hua dilwale hai
hum tere tere tere chahanewale hai
hum kale hai to kya hua dilwale hai
hum tere tere tere chahanewale hai
hum kale hai to kya hua dilwale hai

Hillary (H): yeh gore gala tandana
yeh reshmi bala tandana

(Bumps into Monica)

Bill Clinton (BC): hai solah salah tandana
hai tere khayala tandana
hum tere tere tere chahanewale hai......

Hillary (H): Allah!
tumhi kidher ko jate tandana
kyun paas na aate tandana
kya maar yeh baata tandana
dil tod yeh ghata tandana
hum tere tere tere chahanewale hai.....

McCain (M): hume mana garib hai tandana
surat se ajeeb hai tandana
phir bhi naseeb hai tandana
ke tere karib hai tandana
hum tere tere tere chahanewale hai.......

(Exit the Presidential aspirants)

Gill:
“Obama’s ancestors on his white mother’s side appear to have been slave owners.

It is no wonder, also well documented by William Domhoff "Minorities in the Power Elite", that those chosen from among minorities that make it into the ranks of the elite (disproportionately small) not only are more like their white counterparts in worldview they are also closer to them in looks and skin color than the ordinary run of the mill person. This was true of Colin Powell as it is of Obama- that said it will be no revolution if these vetted "uncle toms" become president

Blacks do not have equal rights with whites in the US, aggregate statistics reveal that quite clearly, those that say otherwise do not know sh** about US society, white, black or whatever....

That said, GILL, don't write articles just for the heck of it, put some more thought in what you write or you'll keep producing tape-recorderesque, moronic nonsense...(respectfully said)

Re: # 27
Asadi Sahib.. Instead of wasting your brilliance over US Elite, I suggest that you contact the Pakistani establishment to have the forms for public services redesigned. I recently got a NICOP card and if I had not signed that I consider Mohammad the “last Prophet” I would be getting a “different” card, as expected, I refused to sign it, so I was issued a “different” card. As I didn’t really think that Mohammad had anything to do with the color of my ID card, but apparently it did. You can by all means keep blaming America for all your backwardness and fukedupness, but the question is when will you wake up?

Kulharee writes "Can you imagine asking if Pakistan is ready for an Ahmadi President "

This tells me that Kulharee knows sh** about Pakistani political economy just as he knows sh** about the US system.
Let an Ahmadi become the top general in the Pak Army, and sure he can if he shows the right amount of deference to the US elite, and he can then become whatever he wants in Pakistan. By the way, skin color and religion are not the same. When Lieberman ran for VP big question marks arose about his being Jewish, similar to when Kennedy ran- religion is as much or more an issue in US elections than it is in Pakistan. Did the shiaism of Benazir become a big issue in a sunni country? or did her femaleness?

Gill,

The question is not "Is America Ready for a Black President?" but is a "Is Black American Ready to become the American President?"

That is the key issue here. Is the Black ready to reinforce American interests, its most primary interests, in the rest of the world or would he take his historical baggage to the world table and subvert American Interests? Historical Baggage which others could use to subvert american interests.

It is this non-PC question which you must answer. I am sure this question would raise the hackles of Ms Lemon, and Masada Complex (indeed MASADA Complex might even agree with my question but necessarily they way it is put)., nevertheless a question which must be confronted and Monsieur Obama must be able to answer and convince the people with it.

Democrats gonna win the White house, but its really difficult to say "a woman" or "African American" will be the Head of States,Unless Republican play correctly the card of Osama bin Laden at the end.
Think global ! Act local !

#28 a correction

(a)"Is ABlack American Ready to become the American President?"

(b)(indeed MASADA Complex might even agree with my question but not necessarily they way it is put).,