Rev. Manning - sad, vile, and trying to influence your vote - 3.28.2008.1
Some things in life are just too wrong. It’s not enough that Rev. Wright has made wrong and questionable comments, creating a furor that can be encapsulated in the thought that ‘Obama is too black.’
Because of 10 second clips from a mere handful (5 or 6) sermons out of perhaps 1000 or more in 35 years, made by someone other than Senator Obama, the Senator is now considered radical. His actual voting record is ignored, as are the comments and speeches he has made. I don’t agree with many of his policies and I still think he is being railroaded. Because one pastor said that crack in the 80’s was fought by the government with a campaign slogan of the First Lady. Because he said Senator Clinton was never called the most ugly, denigrating, evil word in the English language that has no equivalent and that is exclusive to one race. Because he said some truthful comments that are not beneficial or conciliatory to Whites. [Let me note that not all comments are ones that I agree with or think are correct, but 90% of what I have found are.]
Because of that, Senator Obama is finally being seen in the manner that all the emails, rumors, allegations and direct slaps in the face that the Clinton campaign could muster. How proud Hillary must be. Having failed with the use of Barack Obama’s middle name and pictures of him in the native garb of African Elders while in Africa (which is common for traveling politicians).And with that pride must be the pride of the majority of Americans at seeing what it takes to win a nomination to become President. Imagine what would happen to become President.
But there are some that have opinions far too the other side. That Senator Obama is not Black enough. As if such a comment is possible or credible.
One such proponent is Rev. James David Manning. And in watching him live on Fox News, at 9:15pm on Hannity & Colmes, I must say he is a racist and bigot in the worst manner.
Rev. Manning stated that his objection to Senator Obama is because he is the union of an African and White parents. He admitted that he has never met the Senator, nor his parents. Yet that gave him no pause in calling the parents whores and trash. He cited Obama’s lie (or misspoken statement) about his parents meeting as the source of Obama’s first wrong doing. In total his only complaint were these to points.
It’s a harsh thing to see a man, especially one of a religious faith, so obsessed with false values. He was so bad as to cause Sean Hannity, a Republican and admitted non-Obama supporter, to directly and clearly defend Obama. He correctly stated that this was a personal attack and had nothing to do with politics. He questioned how any man of faith could blanket anyone as evil solely because of their birthright. And he was visibly disturbed by this message Rev. Manning is trying to spread.
But in checking around I see that Rev. Manning does not feel Obama is alone in being not Black enough. [And Manning believes that if you are not the result of 2 African American parents you are not Black, but some other thing which he implied is evil. Thus I and most African Americans would falter – I suspect that if he is the offspring of slaves he would not qualify either, but I’m sure that he has an excuse for that as do most bigots when faces with a schism in their warped logic.] The NAACP is not Black enough. Any African American that was able, through the efforts of their parents lives, to not be born poor does not understand being Black and implies they are not Black.
Rev. Manning believes there is an identity crisis in the Black community. Because many Blacks supported Bill Clinton. Because many African Americans support Obama. He feels that Blacks are being paid off to rig the Democratic nomination so that Hillary gets the nomination and Senator Obama gets the Vice-Presidential nomination, all arranged by Whites in Hollywood – as stated to John Gibson of Fox News Talk on March 20, 2008. In that same interview he proclaims how the Civil Rights Movement of the last 50 years was “terribly destructive since the death of Dr. King”. This can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygWExq7g2F0&feature=related
But to really understand the anger and bile of Rev. Manning you need to see the following video.
Now perhaps it is me, a man that Manning would call a “good Negro”, but I think Manning is a racist ass. He fears any man with an education, that believe in things that he does not, that is not as dark as him, nor fits his view of the world. In fact he sounds an awful lot like various White supremacists and a certain Nazi leader.
But I am not a “good Negro”. I am proud to be an educated successful Black Puerto Rican. I have never been in jail [which I would like to know why Manning was - and Malcolm X was incarcerated because he was a criminal at the time. A fact he admitted and never tried to glorify] nor do I feel a need to be. I don’t kiss anyone’s ass, least of all his. And I don’t think that living beyond his limited view is the only way to be African American.
If not being Black enough means not living up to the stereotypes of BET, the music industry, and dim-witted fools fearful of any change since 1865, I’m ok with that and glad Obama doesn’t qualify either. If not being Black enough means not fitting into the Rev. Manning’s of the world view on parentage, need for poverty, lack of education, need for incarceration, and lack of a strong will I will do without.
Manning may have the right to say whatever he wishes, but thankfully we have the right not to listen now that we know what he thinks. We have the right to vote (which Manning may no longer have depending on his conviction) and if it is based in the actions, records and apparent capabilities of a candidate then we should vote for them. We should not let racist, mindless babbling wrapped in a cloak of religion dictate our choices for us.
I reject the vile comments of any person, especially those of religious leaders interjecting themselves as politicians. I dispute and reject the comments of Rev. Manning. I find him vile and reprehensible. I find nothing in his own words, found in my own research, that I agree with. I can only hope that his particular brand of poison does not lend itself to the problems in the Democratic nomination process.
Religious leaders may be essential for spiritual direction, but few have ever shown themselves to be effective leaders of anyone. In America we elect our leaders because of what we believe they will do. Don’t give up that right to anyone else. Learn the facts for yourself. Make a choice. Be involved because the result will involve and affect you regardless or age, race, religion or gender.
Labels: African Americans, Black community, Fox News, Hannity and Colmes, racism, Rev. Manning, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton
posted by M. Vass @ Friday, March 28, 2008
8 Comments
Links to this post
8 Comments:
The following are 2 posts by an unknown contributors that attack the race of Senator Obama. While I do not agree with this, it is an opinion. But the really interesting point is that both posts (that I have combined) were placed under a post on Duane Dog Chapman on my Black Entertainment USA.
It seems that the writer of the comments was too afraid to post this where it would be more appropriate and visible. So I will help them by placing this where it belongs, with other racists (in my opinion) – Rev. Manning.
My response will follow.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman to return to cable television ...":
Why is the fact that Mr. Obama is only 6.25% African Negro not reported?
Because to acknowledge it is to report this devastating truth about him: Mr. Obama is not legally African-American. It is impossible for him to be, in truth, America's first African-American president.
Federal law requires that to claim a minority status, you must be at least 1/8 of the descriptor, but for the sake of this article, I've converted it to a decimal fraction for easier comprehension. You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status. Mr. Obama, claiming to be African-American, is half the legal threshold.
Again, to let it sink in: Mr. Obama is not legally African-American. It is impossible for him to be, in truth, America's first African-American president.
Yet claiming to be African-American is the soul and substance of his claim to fame. It is what he has used throughout his adult life to distinguish himself from other competitors. It is the ethnic identity he proclaims, and it is the ethnic identity he craves. Without it, he is just another mixed race Caucasian Arab with an African influence playing on his skin’s pigmentation.
But no matter what he craves, no matter what he has used to propel himself through life, no matter the racist presumption of seeing his skin and without question calling him black, the hard, cold, genetically inarguable reality remains: he is not an African-American.
Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian, that from his mother. What those who want Mr. Obama to write history by becoming "America's first African-American president" ignore is that his father was ethnically Arabic, with only 1 relative ethnically African Negro - a maternal great-grandparent (Sen. Obama's great-great grandparent, thus the 6.25% ethnic contribution to the senator's ethnic composition.).
That means that Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side.
.................fwiw
[and]
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman to return to cable television ...":
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html
link for above
I must say that I find anonymous posts that are placed out of context as a comment on a completely separate post as cowardly. This one went to a completely separate blog, which I own, to make the comment. I suppose the thought was I wouldn’t notice. Surprise, I notice everything on my sites.
That said let me deal with a fallacy that is behind this whole issue. First, Senator Obama is more directly an African American than most Black Americans can claim to be. His lineage is recent, direct and accurate.
Second, everyone that places anything before American has been a description of their country of origin. Thus Italian-American is prefacing Italy, Chinese-American is China, and so on. Only in the case of African American is a continent used in place of a nation. That is directly linked to…
Third, African American is synonymous in America with Black. You can as easily say person of color. In America there is little distinction between where a Black person is from, or when they or their parents arrived. All people of color are separated from the mass of Whites in America, and prejudice is applied based on color first. Thus if you walk down a street and have black hair, that is curly at all, and dark skin you will be identified as Black and treated as such.
If you open your mouth and have a Spanish accent you will either be a Mexican or Puerto Rican depending where in the nation you are. Neither further classification will improve your treatment in the eyes of the legal system or those of whatever varying degree of racial prejudice. Similarly if you where a turban, or have an Indian accent you will be classified as an Arab, or Muslim, and in America that is slightly worse than any other group right now.
Fourth, and this is really basic here. All Black people are Negroid. That is one of the 4 classes of human beings. It is part of where the term Negro came from and why all Black Americans are classified as one group without regard to their ancestry.
Fifth, all African Americans that can trace their lineage back to slavery (as mine can on my mothers side) are diluted in their ancestry. There are no pure African Americans in America, if your family is descended from slave. My own ancestry includes Irish, Native American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards, Taino Indians, Africans and more. Yet the Government and the average American (of any color) will walk up to me with the thought that I am Black – or African American – everyday.
So in looking at the real facts, Senator Obama is more African than most African Americans. He is as Black as any African American, and has been addressed and surmounted the same trial and tribulations as every other Black in America. Money and education does not change minds or affect racist policies, even if some would like to claim such. In fact, some problems that Senator Obama has lived through thankfully are not as consistent as they once were, like fights between high schools over race or being called the N-word.
Now, since the question of what color is the proper one to be a Black American has been answered, here is the real question.
At what point did any of that (the comment or the reply) comment on what kind of President Senator Obama could be? What political question does the color of skin impede or support in being a good President?
To say that Senator Obama cannot be a Black President is stupid in my opinion. Anyone that would be swayed by such comments needs to read a dictionary and educational books. I find the comment, those of Rev. Manning, and all others of that ilk are narrow-minded, racist, foolish, morons.
well, I posted the racial lineage of Obama
which you call an attack?
why is reminding you that Obama has only one grandparent that is African
an attack?
the reason I posted that article and link in the
http://www.blackentertainmentblog.com/labels/Fox%20News.html
site,
is because that I never knew either of these blogs existed
and why would I?
and your 'black' this and 'black' that
how would and do you react to and orginization that called itself White?
why do you perpetuate the need to keep defining yourself by the color of your skin?
me again:
I must say that I find anonymous posts that are placed out of context as a comment on a completely separate post as cowardly. This one went to a completely separate blog, which I own, to make the comment. I suppose the thought was I wouldn’t notice. Surprise, I notice everything on my sites.
do something about your paranoia and shoulder chip..splinters in your head must be uncomfortable
Africa and muslims in Arabia are the only people who still own slaves
ask any African who was unfirtunate enough to spend some time in an arab country
besides, Black Africans bought a sold slaves to everyone
you just want to blame whitey
whatever
look at the community YOU create by whining about the past, instead of taking advantage of the present and WORING toard the future
Please seem my response at Anonymous questions Michael Vass - 3.29.2008.1
I’m not exactly sure what the issue of slavery has to do with Rev. Wright. But let’s take this point by point.
I am unaware of slavery being an accepted, legal practice anywhere in the world today. I could be wrong, and if you are aware of any credible source on the matter please do post the link to it. I’m sure I would not be the only person reading this that would oppose such acts.
Blame belongs where it lies. Virtually every nation and culture throughout history has had slaves at some point in its history. That is not the point. It is the nature of the actions and resulting effects that I have discussed in my posts. I suggest you read my posts on Reparations and Slavery – found here and at Black Entertainment USA.
I do not whine, I make point based on fact and discuss events as I perceive them. It is through discussion of these events and facts that I hope to create intelligent and informative discussions. It is that conversation, on subjects and from viewpoints that America prefers to stick its collective head in the sand on, that I hope to foster a better future on.
I will add that my blogs are just one aspect of what I do. I constantly work toward improving race relations and the Black community. The fact I am not famous does not prevent me from taking action. If that action is not public enough or effective enough for some, I can’t help that.
Also, if you do not learn from the past you cannot avoid repeating the mistakes in the future. It’s a saying that is known and old for a reason. If America cannot take responsibility for its past it can never get beyond it.
I understand that discussing the past is uncomfortable for some. And many may want to refuse to see the direct connection of that past to the present. But I do see it and I will speak on it, even if it does not make some have a warm fuzzy feeling about their lives. Pushing off my posts on volatile issues as whining will not resolve the issues they discuss.
But I invite you to read all my thoughts on these things and then come to your own conclusion. I may or may not be right, but it is a point to start from. And I always invite comments that create an informed decision and discussion. But a dismissal based on nothing but a dislike of the subject does nothing for anyone.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home