The Audacity of Hopelessness
Posted by colinresponse on April 30, 2008
I AM SO SICK OF TALKING ABOUT THE ELECTIONS, but after watching Democracy Now today, I need to vent before I kill myself.
Barack Obama had to distance himself further from Rev. Jeremiah Wright again the other day…
On Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama said he was “outraged” and “saddened” by “divisive and destructive” comments by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Since the weekend, Reverend Wright has publicly defended himself after weeks of being lambasted by politicians and pundits for his sermons.
[A clip of Rev. Wright's C-SPAN talk]
Top 10 list of why I feel naseous and just threw up in my mouth a little:
1. Wright (in my own opinion) is hitting the nail right on the head in almost everything he is saying, and is having his words miscontrued (over and over again) by the scrurry-ass/white/mainstream/Amerikan media. “You reap what you sew,” (taken from the BIBLE) is turned into: “I hate white people/I want them to die/I am Barack Obama’s closest advisor.” WTF is that sh*t?!?
2. If he wants ANY shot at all at the Whitehouse, Obama has NO choice but to cater to the media & white voters, and distance himself from a spiritual leader he once called “family.”
3. The closer we get to election day, the more Amerikans seem to be desperately looking for reasons unrelated to race, to NOT vote for a Black candidate.
4. Hillary & McCain are a multimillionaire tag-teaming duo, ganging up on a man who has spent the majority of his political life organizing in the working-class streets of Chicago.
5. Everytime a Black person is given a platform to speak and tells the truth, they are labeled “anti-American.” Mahf*cka, THE TRUTH IS ANTI-AMERIKAN!
6. I have never in my got-dam life, heard of a f*cking “super-delegate,” until a Black man actually had a chance at winning the Presidency. “I just recently discovered that some white people count as 9 votes!!!” (Chris Rock)
7. White Amerika has been given the chance (on a silver f*cking platter) to work towards (touching the surface of) healing racial divides for the first time since the 1960’s, and seem to be so scared, they’re pissing it away.
8. Gun ownership rights, wearing an Amerikan flag lapel pin, Gay marriage, Islamophobia, and Obama’s pastor are at the forefront of these elections.
9. The “War” in Iraq, healthcare, the economic recession and what Bush is doing right now, this very second is “lost in the sauce.”
10. I was actually hopeful enough to believe the Amerikan public was ready for HOPE.
I usually try to end on a positive note, but not today. Sorry y’all. This is some utter bullsh*t and I’m so f*cking sick, tired and done with the hypocrisy of our “democracy.”
C
April 30, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Man i feel you 2,ooo,000 percent. I go back and forth day by day saying people in this country are ready for a change and “people are shit” like my uncle Nate used to say, and my uncle Nate had a day in San Francisco named after him so you know he’s the shit. People are so fuckin’ stupid, and the reason that this is true is because the media can completely dictate what the public and believe as true and begins to argue about. Dominant belief = HEGEMONY, and that’s some bull ass shit!!!! Fuck this muhfuckin’ shit. uggggghhhh.
G.
ps- i realized that i began SOO not thinkin that barack obama meant anything to me or this country, then i thought that wow he COULD mean so much and got swept up (lightweight) into the thought that it would be so great to see him be president, and now i’m at a point where, yea it would be tight to see barack win- i dont believe in people enough to believe that they wont buy into what the media is pushing onto them right now and as a result vote for someone else- but even if he wins this country is really not even close to looking at shit esp. RACE in a productive/constructive way.
BUT!!!
We also ain’t ever supposed to get caught up into what we think “people” are ready for. “The people” ain’t never ready for nothing and simultaneously always ready for anything, because they never know what they are ready for until it is pushed on them and everyone begins to either loves it or hate it and then they just go along with the crowd…CASE IN POINT: the movements of the 1960s.
May 1, 2008 at 10:19 am
Yo, as long as the two-party duopoly (which is really just the corporations controlling everything) remains in place, the elections ain’t really gonna be about shit. I’m so over these elections because real progressive change ain’t happening in our elections man, it’s happening on the ground, in the community, in the schools, etc. I feel your frustrations, G & C, let’s use that shit to make our own communities better.
And can we please get some “Rev. Wright Speaks For Me!” buttons/tshirts/whatever up in this piece?!
Peace,
KC
May 1, 2008 at 10:32 am
First of all, who is your uncle Nate and how did he get a day named for him in SF? Secondly, I agree with you fully in my feelings for what Obama could mean to the US. I go back a forth, feeling hopeful and then hopeless, mostly because of the Amerikan medias’ lies and propoganda. The scurriest part of their racist ways, is that aren’t even aware of their racist ways. I’ve always believed personally, that racism in the form of people with power having ignorance/stupidity is much worse and more hurtful to people of color than some crazy redneck klansman with ZERO power/$/influence who has made it a priority to practice white supremacy.
I think we grew up in the wrong era. You shoulda been a panther and I shoulda been a long-haired hippie in the API power movement. The question is: Is it too late to make that happen still?
Time will tell. Let’s just pray that Barack and his Rev. have enough audacity to outlast these fascist bastards.
C
p.s.
My homie Adriel said the craziest thing yesterday that actually makes sense the more I think about it. “If Hillary wins, I might vote for McCain because at least he aint lying to me about anything he’s gonna do.” WOW. I aint with it, cause Nader is my plan B but he made a goodass point right thurr. McCain has consistently let Amerikans know: “If yall elect me, youll get 4 more years of Bush.” Shiiiiiiiiiet.
p.p.s. Lupe Fiasco says he’s for Hillary. This confuses me.
May 1, 2008 at 10:37 am
KC, u are always the voice of reason. Chen Guevarra like Yee. I wonder what it will take to beat these f*ckers. They have so much $$$! Capitalism will fall someday, but Im not sure if Ill be alive for that one. I hope someone is (nuclear war, global warming, etc. might have something to say about our survival)!
Stay grindin (feat. Pharell Williams) brothers,
C
May 1, 2008 at 11:28 am
Okay, much love to the homie Adriel…but that’s the worst suggestion I’ve ever heard. Better to just not vote than vote for McCain. Seriously. If Hilary wins I hope Adriel seriously just doesn’t vote. Colin, please don’t vote for McCain if Hilary wins. By not voting, at least you contribute to the abysmally low US voter turnout which makes our “deMOCKracy” a laughing stock to other truly democratic countries that have almost 90% voter turnout, and could at least shame the politicians into thinking they have to do something different to encourage the American people to not feel so alienated by our fucked up political system.
May 1, 2008 at 11:41 am
Did u read my post? I said “I aint with it, my plan B is to vote for Nader if Hillary gets the ticket.” I am positive he was jus talking out his arse. I dont forsee him doing that for real. Ill talk to him tho jus to make sure. LOL.
When he first said it, I was taken aback but I felt his frustration at the Democratic party claiming to have working people’s interests at heart and then destroying themselves because they play into every capitalist shaft the GOP invites them into.
Dont worry tho, Ill eat a c*ckmeat sandwich before I vote for John McCain (not really, I’d prolly vote for him if those were my ONLY options). =P
May 1, 2008 at 10:45 pm
haha. Fuck the McDumb shit, if Hillary wins i’m voting for myself for prez.
May 2, 2008 at 8:21 am
G-Mitch for Prez? I dont think Amerika is ready for that one, but I sure am.
TGI(mahf*ckin)F,
C