MESSAGE TO BLACK PEOPLE ON OBAMA: STOP HATIN'!!!!

Here is an excerpt from CNN's Jack Cafferty's segment today:

Obama is black, but experts believe his win in Iowa, which is almost all white and rural, shattered what many people think about black Americans in national politics.

Conservative commentator George Will suggested that the two big losers are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who Will says have an investment in the “traditional and… utterly exhausted narrative about race relations in the United States.” He says Americans are tired of so-called “identity politics”, where people are defined by things like their ethnicity and gender.

Another sign that Obama’s candidacy is something more: Fox News reports a lot of big-time black celebrities haven’t announced their support of Obama yet, people like Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Quincy Jones, BET Chairman and founder Robert Johnson, Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., authors Maya Angelou [she's endorsed Hillary Clinton] and Toni Morrison, and rappers “Diddy” and “Jay Z.”

Here’s my question to you: How does Barack Obama’s success so far in the campaign change the debate about race in this country?

While I encourage you to go to CNN for what I consider to be some great answers, the issue of race and Obama can be a complex one. However, allow me the opportunity to try and break it down.

The very first presidential candidate I ever voted for was Jesse Jackson in 1988. I was proud that I had an opportunity to vote for a Black candidate who cared about issues as it related to me.

As I have grown and matured, I cannot say either Jesse or Rev. Al Sharpton represent most of my issues. However, I have to acknowledge that more often than not, Jesse and Al have served as the moral conscious of America when it came to many of the injustices enacted not just upon Black Americans, but many Americans who were not Black. I am all for giving credit where credit is due.

As it relates to Obama, there are those who are quick to say that Obama is both Black and white and that the white portion of his heritage is being discounted. These well-intentioned, but ill-informed individuals fail to realize is that we have a country with a very recent history that says with one drop of Black blood, you are Black. In other words, when a cab in New York has passed Obama, more than likely they did it because they saw a Black man. They didn't stop to ask if his Daddy was Kenyan or if his mama was of Irish descent. Black is black in this country. That's the way it's been and that is how we as a society have been socialized - especially if you have any connection to the south.

With all this said, I must admit, I have been a bit curious as to why more African Americans have not come out and publicly supported Obama. We've seen the reports about how Black people don't want to get their hopes up because they don't want to be disappointed. Or, if we vote for him, he may get shot (this coming from mostly Black women). Also, if we appear to like him too much, white Americans might not like him. We have an extremely peculiar history as Black Americans resulting from years of legalized and institutional racism.

It's almost as if we are afraid to believe, trust and hope again in what is possible. We, as a race are so psychologically beaten down, Obama being elected can be the beginning of our healing.

We want to believe in the manifestation of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream more than anything, but we just don't want to be lulled in to a false sense of hope (I wonder if this is what Hillary means?).

What disturbs me is how some of the well-known African American voices within America are out right dismissing Obama's progress. In particular, a friend told me of an event he went to this weekend where a very well-known African American was the keynote speaker and he merely mentioned Obama's Iowa win in passing as if it weren't significant or a big deal representative of the progress of African Americans. The whole room had been buzzing all night about the momentum being built by Obama, but this speaker was dismissive - almost behaving jealously (he and Obama are about the same age).

What many of the "establishment" (a.k.a. the Civil Rights Industrial Complex) are angry about is that Obama didn't go through them to get a blessing they would have not given. He did not "wait his turn." Many believed we owe it to the Clintons to be there for them one more time.

To the CRIC - stop the hate! Get over it. It's time for something new.

I heard on MSNBC from Chris Matthews that no candidate had ever won both Iowa and New Hampshire to not go on to win his party's nomination. Powerful stuff.

Now, keep in mind a little known secret; the same folk who want Obama to sit down somewhere are the same spirits who didn't want King to mobilize and organize in the fashion and with the swiftness in which he did in fear of "pissing off the white man."

I have learned it is, what it is. Someone is always going to find a reason to be pissed off about someone who is the embodiment of brilliance intended to empower others with their own individual right to be brilliant as well.

Be clear. Obama is not losing any sleep because he doesn't have the endorsement of Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley or Denzel Washington. Hell, he don't need them, he's got Oprah!!!!! It's just like none of the Republican candidates holding their breath waiting for an endorsement from President George W. Bush.

I do have to give it up to the Black dj's around the country such as Steve Harvey, Tom Joyner and Micheal Baisden who recognize a moment in history when they see it. They all have whole-heartily expressed their support for Obama.

I am not saying that every Black American has to vote for Obama because he is Black. I just think it's pretty damn sad - in this day in age - to not vote for him because he is.