Cry me a river, you know whos to blame for the illigetamicy rate, poor school preformance, and high incareration rate of black people? Black people.

When you have a culture that celebrate 'thug' life and tells young black people that working hard and taking responsibility is sellig out this mess is exactly what you get

Interestingly, the Augusta Chronicle, at least in the issues of Nov. 5th and 6th, published not one picture of a white person celebrating.

But, seperately, no election result can correct the common American's ignorance of the roles of Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court.

Some don't catch on even when those are pointed out directly, in blogs, for instance.

I overheard a woman telling someone about an encounter she had with a black cashier at a convenience store yesterday; apparently this cashier can't wait for Obama to take office, becaues then she'll "be able to stop working and collect checks" from the people who still are working. It seems there has been a severe communication breakdown in how this particular presidency is going to affect the masses (or not, as the case may be). Some of these people are so delusional as to believe they really will be getting reparations checks for the rest of their lives. Race riots, anyone? I hope to hell not, but with this kind of mentality, who the hell knows? o.O

If Obama is to have any effect on people, it will be the four minute mile effect. Before beamon broke the four minute mile, people thought it was impossible. After he did it, they thought, well if he could do it, I could do it, and it became commonplace.

Of course Colin Powel, Rice, and many many black business leaders should've had this effect, but they didn't, so I don't know.

I kind of feel bad for all the folks that actually believe a new president can magically change things.(or even unmagically for that matter). I read a poll recently that suggested most americans think the president can manipulate the price of gas.

Obama already has hinted at needing more than one term. If his public approval ratings drop, he is toast, as he has NO favors to pull in congress, so we'll have four years of ineffective bickering. Persuading voters with magical vague words of taking away their pain is one thing, but persuading congress is something else entirely.

I smell another Carter.

There's one little detail left out of this article; the effects of the election of Obama will have on the tactics of the Race Hustlers. How long could they claim that they are "Kept down by the White Man" when the said white man put a black man at the white house?

Moreover, I think the election of Obama will act as a "Memetic Vaccine" that will reduce the "White Guilt" factor the American Left seems to have against blacks. They would be less receptive to the demand for handouts.

Then, there's the whole "Black kids don't have role models" spiel. Can I safely assume that they are now served with an excellent one? The Idea that a poor, fatherless black kid can reach the white house seems the best success story ever. If they are not inspired, they have no excuses anymore.

As far as the actual voting went, I don't have data, only anecdotes, but I suspect it may have evened out: The number of people who voted for Obama because he's black equalled the number who didn't vote for him because he's black. I actually heard some white people say they agreed with everything he said, but they couldn't vote for a black man. (The word they used wasn't quite that nice.) And I live in NYC, a Dem mecca.

Usually, Black people don't vote. This time, they came out in droves. I don't think that would have happened for a white guy.

How many people think this is going to turn into the new "But I have black friends, so I can't be Racist" comment. Now it's going to be "But I voted for Obama, so I can't be Racist"?

Amy,
If you take a hard look at the final results theres something interesting that many are overlooking. Obama did not carry one state in the Deep South except for Florida which has a high transplant population.

Obama is not going to be able to wave a magic wand and fix everything. If we start down a path of "collecting check" a lot of people are going to be very,very annoyed.

We need real solutions to the problems this country faces. Obama is going to experience first hand exactly how difficult that is. When he doesnt start handing out the checks the black support he has enjoyed will evaporate because they will see him as an Uncle Tom. If he attempts to push thru legislation that starts those checks he will be seen by whites and pandering to the black voting bloc.

Either way he will be between a rock and a hard place.

I think maybe I'm doing OK on the racism thing, because when I saw the Washington Post photo of former White House butler Eugene Allen with a caption saying "...has a new reason to [carry himself with pride]" I had to read the article to figure out what they were talking about.

This is because:

1. I didn't particularly notice that Eugene Allen was black.

2. It didn't jump directly to my mind that sharing a racial heritage with the President -- or not -- was particularly significant.

Yes, we've made progress because we've elected our first African-American president. But we'll have made *real* progress when that sort of thing isn't newsworthy any more. ("In an historic first, we have just elected our first redheaded Scottish-American president!")

>>If Obama is to have any effect on people, it will be the four minute mile effect. Before beamon broke the four minute mile, people thought it was impossible.

Who is this "beamon"?

The 4 minute barrier was broken by British nice guy Roger Bannister - later a renowned cardiologist (in Oxford, in 1954).

(Perfectly true, though, about the fascinating effect...)

Well, I got called a racist.

I was not celebrating Obama's win because I don't agree with a lot of what he says. Yay that Palin isn't vice prez, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about Obama's administration either.

So when people said I was racist for not being happy that racism is over, I said its racist to think he couldn't have gotten into office right!? His skin color should have no bearing at all, rather than that being the focal point of why they were celebrating. True racism ends when a person who is not white runs for office and only their scandals, experience in office and policies are discussed.

And I had to point out that a black man in office is not the end to racism. There is still going to be people who hate him just because he's black.

And if I hear how its a "historic time" one more time, I'm going to scream. Get a new catch phrase!

Dennis Miller had the best line about Obama: "I don't care about the color of his skin, only the thinness of it."

I didn't support Obama because I inherently don't support socialism. But my sense is that his election has given great pride to the African American community. This is a good thing. The end effect of his election should support Bill Cosby's thesis that it's time to accept responsibility for their own circumstances rather than blaming 'whitey'.

The remarks of the cashier, mentioned by a fellow commenter, are beyond delusional. Her views reflect the Permanent Victim Mentality preached by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. If Obama is smart, he will insist that they forever shut-up, arguing that it's now time for the black community to strive to move upward through their own merits rather than being satisfied with remaining at the bottom of society.

One thing disturbs me though. It's a comment I heard from a black woman that Obama "only got elected because he's of mixed race". If this narrative is allowed to continue it will be the most significant lost opportunity for African Americans in recent memory.

can anyone provide a link that the blacks 'came out in droves' and voted?

As far as I've been reading, Obama's win was the near total shift of independents and moderates to the Obama camp.

Whoopi Goldberg says that although she's always felt like an American, it was only now that we have a black president that she feels she can finally set her suitcase down. What a stupid cow. I don't see Asians, Indians, or for that matter first-generation black immigrants fretting about the color of the president, or saying they can't "set their suitcases down" because they don't belong, or whatever. No, it takes a limousine liberal, and bazillionaire, like Whoopi Goldberg, to say something like that.

"...Obama 'only got elected because he's of mixed race'. If this narrative is allowed to continue it will be the most significant lost opportunity for African Americans in recent memory."

Getting 'beyond race' isn't the point. It never was. The obsession with race is a core feature of African American culture.

I work with a blond woman who is married to a very dark African American man. They have two kids together and he's still convinced that all white people have 'got it in' for him. There's nothing anyone can say or do to convince him otherwise.

And so, I've stopped trying.

I think there's a lot of projection going on. Lower class African-Americans see Obama as a symbol, but his agenda doesn't mesh with theirs or the government agencies that serve them. He's not going to go back to welfare before Clinton. While the service unions might have voted for him in droves, I don't think he's going to greatly enlarge their scope.

I think he wants a more intellectual legacy, not another Great Society one. All that domestic stuff is too piddly for him, as he wants the international stage.

"Who is this Beamon?"

Black American track & field athlete Bob Beamon, from Queens,NY.

Set a world record of 29 ft 2 1/2 inches in the long jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, which wasn't broken until 1991.

"How long could they claim that they are "kept down by the White Man" when said White Man put a black man in the White House?"

Forever.

They'll just call Obama an Uncle Tom and a house negro who abandoned his black brothers so that he could suck up to Massa.

As much as I would like to believe Obama's victory would make Jackson, Sharpton, & Wright shut up, I can't. Don't forget that all of these scumbags have gotten rich & famous from their race hustling. If anything, they'll probably shout louder.

I don't vote for someone based on race or sex. I vote issues. Obama was not my choice for Dem candidate, and there's part of McCain's personality (i.e., he has one) I prefer, but I voted for Obama because he *most closely* matched my views. Palin was so opposite my own views, I resented the media implying I should vote for her because we share a vagina (um, not the one and same vagina between us (ewww!), I mean that we're both women).

I agree voting FOR someone based on their race is the same as voting AGAINST someone based on their race. I would call both instances racism.

At the same time, up until now, the only candidate I could vote for for president was a white male; I can understand African Americans feeling relieved there finally was a non-white on the ballot. I think the ballots should more accurately reflect the makeup of our country. And presumably many of the people who voted for Obama would have voted for whoever the Dem candidate was, anyway.

At the same time, making a big deal of race in a positive way is still, "acting racially" not post-racially. Agreed.

(And if you want to get really, really technical, Obama is only half black and was raised by his white grandparents, i.e. in a white culture--to me, THAT discussion--what is race? How do we identify with who we are? How do we identify those different from us? IS worth having.)

(And if you want to get really, really technical, Obama is only half black and was raised by his white grandparents, i.e. in a white culture....)

Would that be the grandmother he called an unrepentant racist early in the campaign?

>"Who is this Beamon?"

>>Black American track & field athlete Bob Beamon, from Queens,NY.

Thanks, Martin!

Look at the city governments of Detroit, D.C., or East St. Louis. There's hardly a white face to be seen. Has that solved the problem in those cities? Just the opposite. As all of them will be happy to tell you, racism is worse then ever, and it's all whitey's fault.

Look at Haiti. It's been going on there for over a century now.

Blacks voting for Obama (whether they did or not) is acceptable, nay, encouraged in the U.S.

Women rallying around their vaginas, not so much.

I have been reading The Confluence, a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass - exiled Dem chicks) board, and it is interesting to meet people who are all about identity politics. In this case, feminism.

Being fluorescent white, that is not my style. But I find myself asking, why not? Why not vote for those that represent me the most closely? And quo vadis, democracy? I am afraid that we are as divided as ever. I am afraid that the demos has gone out the window.

"Why not vote for those that represent me the most closely? "

I know I did!

Ironically, I think Obama DOES represent me most closely, even though I'm a white woman and he's a black male...

We're both dual-culture upper-middle class Northern-dwelling people who travel in academic circles. I feel like, of the four, he's the most likely I'd run into at a dinner party.

That's not why I voted for him, though. Unless there was some subconcious effect.

Gog and Nicole,

Sure. But shouldn't we vote for the smartest, bestest, fastest people instead of clinging to our race and identity politics?

I'm from Alaska, and was thrilled when Sarah Palin was picked for VP candidate. However, I was really disappointed in her eventually. It really bummed me out when she made faux pas. Cause she deeply and truly represented me and my kin, more than I have ever seen in the last 30 years of politics.

So, I basically didn't vote. (I did vote early absentee for McCain, but did not turn in the official ballot due to his terrible campaign.) But I have a serious problem with identity politics. Especially in a so-called melting pot.

Liz, did you read the last 2 lines of my post? That isn't why I voted for Obama! Unless it is subconcious.

I voted for Obama because I think he will do a better job than McCain would have.

Do I think either of them was the best qualified person in the country? Nope. But those were my choices.

Of course Colin Powel, Rice, and many many black business leaders should've had this effect, but they didn't, so I don't know.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo - no fan of Dubya, to say the least - was recently hypothesizing that experiencing two black Secretaries of State back-to-back may have sped up the timetable for Americans being comfortable with a black president. I certainly don't think that's ALL that Obama had going for him, but I don't think that exactly hurt him, either. Anyway, just a random theory...

Marion -

Please remember that the fellow travelers of Josh Marshall (and maybe he himself) expended a great many pixels and barrels of ink deriding both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice as "Uncle Tom", "Oreo", "Race Traitor" and any of a number of horrid insults that would never be tolerated from the fingers or mouth of a conservative.

Only by accepting Obama Christ as his personal savior was Colin Powell saved, for he had seen the truth, the way, and the light. No more would he be criticized as George Bush's "House Negro" for his report to the United Nations on the WMDs in Iraq. No, now Colin Powell is enlightened.

Obama won for two reasons. First and foremost, the lies of the media on his behalf, disguising the true causes of the economic crash, and keeping the extent of his personal involvement therein from the public. Second, urban whites, wracked with guilt, voted for him in the hopes that they, too, would be saved from the sins of their fathers by the glory of Obama Christ.

Further to brian's comments above, I've thought at length about the reasons one might have voted for Obama in the past election, and have come up with the following:

1. He's black (at least partial ancestry).

2. People were voting for the completely abstract ideas of "hope" and "change"; in other words, voting their feelings rather than realistic specifics. This group would include the morons who expect to be living on Easy Street as soon as O is inaugurated. IOW, totally delusional and emotional.

3. People believed his demonstrable lie, repeated ad infinitum, that 95% of all making under $250K (or $200K or $150K or $125K or whatever) will get a tax cut. This is because around 40% of all in that group have no tax liability to start with. (In other words, he was banking on a good portion of the elecorate to not know or care about the difference between a tax cut and a welfare check.) Also because, there will be a tax INCREASE on just about everyone when Congress lets the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010.

4. People wanted to punish the Republicans for Bush, Iraq, the economy, or any other real or perceived slight. For these, I hope they like what they'll be getting instead.

If anyone has other reasons, I'd like to hear them. None of the above would have been valid reasons for me to support O. (BTW, I didn't vote for McCain either.)

"Gog and Nicole, Sure. But shouldn't we vote for the smartest, bestest, fastest people instead of clinging to our race and identity politics?"

So I agreed with your previous post and said I voted for the person who represented me the "most closely", and your response is to question whether I'm clinging to race and identity politics?

Nice. You don't even know how I cast my vote.

Scott writes:

How many people think this is going to turn into the new "But I have black friends, so I can't be Racist" comment. Now it's going to be "But I voted for Obama, so I can't be Racist"?

Quite forgetting that Obama himself is a racist. He attended the services of professional race-baiter Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, saw nothing wrong with his church, even to the point of bringing his children to this vile human being. He even regarded Wright as his mentor. My liberal "friends" on an AOL message board have all turned on me for saying so, but if a white candidate had attended a white revolutionist's church for twenty years, and only dropped it during his presidential campaign as a matter of political expediency, these same "friends" of mine would be bringing the rope.