posted November 08, 2008 04:18 PM         

1, i did not say that all black or brown people voted for him and
2 i think it would be a mistake to say that just because they have been on the losing end of racism there are not a lot of black and brown racists. i DO think it was a factor in the massive turnout. not just because of his colour but don't tell me it had NOTHING to with him winning. i personally KNOW people who felt that yes, finally they had a candidate to identify with.

if sarah palin had been a great candidate who supported "women's issues" she would have had a lot more of the women's vote. the fact that she is a woman who is against what a lot of people think to be womens rights worked AGAINST her. a lot of women would have voted for hillary PARTLY because she is a trailblazer for women. and i think a fair number of white people voted for the first EXCELLENT candidate of colour we have seen. because it is time. this is not a white country any more.

there were also plenty on the other side of the divide, who were willing to believe every bit of slander because he is not white though they might not admit it.

posted November 08, 2008 05:33 PM         

Racial tug-a-war, that's what I have been in.

I voted for Obama,and it had nothing to do with sharing interracial black/white parentage as him. I voted for him because I thought he was the best for the job regardless of his racial background.

I also didn't vote in the Democratic primaries because I didn't want to pick sides. My exgirlfriend(who I still love with all my heart) was rooting for Hillary,and I wanted to be supportive. I didn't want to be against her. I was also afraid that if I even mentioned any preference for Obama,I would be misunderstood as wanting him to be president because he's part black. I already felt like there was racial tension between me and her reflected by a white woman(like her) running against a black/white man(like myself). I don't really give a damn about some first black president. I don't even see him as black because I don't believe in the one drop rule. Frankly, I am sick and tired of the one drop rule which seems to stick even though it was a rule created to prevent anybody with any black ancestry to have intimate relationships with whites. We don't have antimiscegenation laws since all of them were struck down in 1967,and so why in the hell do we still have people embracing this rule? It makes no sense to me. I and many other people who are multiracial like to acknowledge all of our heritages and not just the black. Why can't we have multiracial pride and not just black pride?

any ways...I start liking Obama until around middle of February this year. I was completely over the fence on his side in March after the race relations speech and watching the full video sermons on Reverend Wright's speech and not just the little soundbites. I was angry with the selfrighteousness indignation that many whites have against Wright for pointing out race relations issues and bad foreign policies. A lot of blacks and others mixed with black would agree with this stuff. There is strong divide between blacks and whites in how much racism blacks deal with. That's why I did research on race relations issues and posted. There was a lot of things that confirmed and supported Wright's argument about racism here in USA. I also donated hundreds of dollars to his campaign. I identified with Obama in regards to his idealism and inspiration which I felt I easily learned from my own multiracial,multiethnic background. I wrote poetry about Unity and Universal Love before I even got into Astrology/knew that I had Moon in Pisces square Neptune. I hated when Obama got accused of throwing his white maternal grandmother under the bus because he talked about some racist issues that his maternal grandmother had. I know from personal experience, my white maternal grandfather made me uncomfortable with some racist issues. In spite of that,he loved me very much and I loved him very much. Therefore,I can personally understand what Obama was talking about.

If Hillary won the Democratic nomination, I would have voted for her any way because I am a liberal democrat.

I also voted NO on the proposition 8.
Therefore,I voted for Obama,and I voted NO on proposition 8.

Why don't we wrap up this thread. Racism is a very sensitive subject to talk about.

I'd rather focus on the brotherhood,sisterhood that we have as human beings,homosapiens,earthlings,terrans.

posted November 08, 2008 05:57 PM         

I don't see what's so difficult to understand. Homophobia runs across all races. What you call "The complete success of antigay measures across the country" is due to the fact that people of all races tend to be bigoted when it comes to gays. There is prejudice regarding color, and there is also prejudice regarding sexual orientation. Seems like people may be letting go of one type, but holding on to the other for dear life.

posted November 08, 2008 09:08 PM         

And it's not just about Prop 8. All over the USA there were states with similar measures regarding abortion and gays. The abortion ones failed, the antigay ones passed, just like in CA. And undeniably, many who voted Democrat and for Obama voted in favor of bigotry against gays, all across the USA.

posted November 14, 2008 09:23 PM         

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into "The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool," saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. "Let's hope we have a winner," said the sign, since taken down.

In the security world, anything "new" can trigger hostility, said Joseph Funk, a former Secret Service agent-turned security consultant who oversaw a private protection detail for Obama before the Secret Service began guarding the candidate in early 2007.

Obama, of course, will be the country's first black president, and Funk said that new element, not just race itself, is probably responsible for a spike in anti-Obama postings and activity. "Anytime you're going to have something that's new, you're going to have increased chatter," he said.

The Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.

The service investigates threats in a wide range. There are "stated threats" and equally dangerous or lesser incidents considered of "unusual interest" — such as people motivated by obsessions or infatuations or lower-level gestures such as effigies of a candidate or an elected president. The service has said it does not have the luxury of discounting anything until agents have investigated the potential danger.

Racially tinged graffiti — not necessarily directed at Obama — also has emerged in numerous reports across the nation since Election Day, prompting at least one news conference by a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Georgia.

A law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that during the campaign there was a spike in anti-Obama rhetoric on the Internet — "a lot of ranting and raving with no capability, credibility or specificity to it."

There were two threatening cases with racial overtones:

• In Denver, a group of men with guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Obama and sparked fears of an assassination plot during the Democratic National Convention in August.

• Just before the election, two skinheads in Tennessee were charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedos.

In both cases, authorities determined the men were not capable of carrying out their plots.

In Milwaukee, police officials found a poster of Obama with a bullet going toward his head — discovered on a table in a police station.

Chatter among white supremacists on the Internet has increased throughout the campaign and since Election Day.

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day. On Saturday, one Stormfront poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, "I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how 'messiahs' come to rest. God has abandoned us, this country is doomed."

It is not surprising that a black president would galvanize the white supremacist movement, said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement.

"The overwhelming flavor of the white supremacist world is a mix of desperation, confusion and hoping that this will somehow turn into a good thing for them," Potok said. He said hate groups have been on the rise in the past seven years because of a common concern about immigration.

___

posted November 15, 2008 01:06 AM         

yeahhh right.

man.....

I knew that his election would increase white supremacist,racist enrollment

just imagine how much the Klu Klux Klan will increase! The Klu Klux Klan grand wizard already predicted that he would be shot dead shortly after being elected http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2510FPPUprI

I hope nothing happens to Obama

posted November 15, 2008 01:57 PM         

there truly is as much fear around obama's so-called socialist (read RED) leanings as there is around his offwhite colour. it has been pretty obvious from the start that high feelings run for and against him. let's hope his guardian angel is in full action mode!!

posted November 16, 2008 12:28 AM         

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.

"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."

"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."

If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

Other incidents include:

_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_re_us/obama_racial

It's really bad.

sheesh

well...we got Sun,Mercury,and Mars in Scorpio disposited by Pluto in
Sagittarius. this seems to reflect the extreme intense emotions
connected racial matters

the dispositor of Pluto in Sagittarius, Jupiter is squaring Eris with
1 1/2 degree orb applying right now
this would indicate judgment matters in conflict with diversity
matters ...as well as hypocritical self righteous bigotry connected
to ideological judgments.

posted November 16, 2008 12:56 PM         

before you can heal a festering wound you have to open it up, expose the infection so you can clean it out. a boil has to erupt or be lanced before it will heal. things will probably get worse before they get better.

posted November 17, 2008 02:41 AM         

I agree. I think for black people, the waters weren't muddied for the most part. Racism didn't play a part in our decision over reason, which is why we voted for Obama in masse. We would've done the same for Hilary if she would've won. Edwards. Any Democrat. Especially those that are my age and younger. I have too much at stake to make a vote based on race. And I think tons of Latino, White, Indian, and other ethnic groups felt the same. I mean, McCain and Sarah Palin. I laughed all through the Biden/Palin debate--especially when she evaded questions and decided to answer them her way...I'm chuckling remembering it... And I mean the McCain and Obama debates, it was so clear McCain was playing politics always chaniging his platform to try to woo voters. Oh, and I just laughed when Palin gave the Republicans an education plaftorm. LOL. I was like, when did the Republicans add education to their campaign???? Geesh. She was all over the place. Please let her run in 2012--she's too old to get it right at this point. (And how disrespectul for the media to be talking about 2012 after Obama just won 2008, as if Americans won't choose him again.)

But Obama wasn't my initial candidate. I of course liked Hilary because she said what I wanted to hear. She made no qualms about 100 percent covered healthcare for each citizens. Obama kept and keeps saying affordable. Heck, I don't want to pay!!! :-)And Edwards was like, "We are going to regulate those rich fat *******" And I was like YES regulate them. Starting with the Studio conglomerates, who control what we see on TV and see in the theaters. They are fat. And they even control distribution, thanks to Regean. There used to be rules on how many stations they could own, what kind of stations they can own, and not owning distribution and production. Not anymore. Oh, and then the synfin. Now those greedy ***** are buying cable stations and syndicating their CBS produced programs on a CBS owned cable station. More like NBC and ABC, the biggest offenders. There was time when they can only syndicate on a non owned station. They used cable to get over that rule. Sigh...Basically, only a few are controling it all.And they're selling some bad messages to young people... Believe me. It borderlines something evil. Anyway...as you can see, I would be an Edward's supporter :-)And I don't care if he can't keep his thing in his pants. But one thing about Obama he's been consistent from beginning to end and still even now. And he's not tough on what I want my president to be tough on. BIG BUSINESS. NO MERCY.

But I hate this fear I feel.

But I think the fear comes from not really knowing how to live under a truly healthy government. I mean, we had Clinton. But that was 8 years of prosperity and then Bush came in and dismantled it all in 3 months. It was such a SHOCK to us all... It's sort of like, every 8 years were subject to some self serving *** who manipulates people emotionally, take office and forget they're supposed to be seeing to the needs and concerns of the people. I think, my fear and many others (those who feel optimistic about Obama's victory) is sort of akin to the abuse syndrome in a way. We only know bad, we can't really believe good can come to us and stay. Because for the last 8 years, we've been so helpless to change anything. The shock. They stole the last election, and even that made us feel powerless. I think, we're still in that powerless mode...The inaguration...a few years with Obama, I think we'll regain our empowerment again. I mean, I have friends that have been severely abused and they don't know how to embrace happiness. I think that's where are fear of something can happen to change our fortune. And it is our fortune. Because we did it. I think, for the first time Americans said, it's not about a person's color, it's about changing the way things have been done and letting those people who continue to do things those ways know, we don't want them around. GET OUT!

But I do think the security on Obama should be beefed up. AND they need to be realistic. There are one too many loonies out their who want to wipe him out on the one reason that he's black. But I think the biggest fear, will be big business, the forces behind the top 1%, and not to mention the Washington mongers doing it and then blaming it on a white supermacist. That's how they operate. Because A, the average assassin can't close that close to the president, and begin to know his schedule. And B, there was never one assination in history that wasn't an inside job--really--time usally expose the insiders who were behind it--though they can't be proven to have done it and it's always chalked up to "conspiracy theory". But we know....And the Generation X'er in me gets it. When these government people are evil, they're EVIL. Anyway, I don't think they want Obama, out. Though they would liked McCain in. Or maybe not. Maybe they've learned that when they run amuck, we all lose in the end, and even their greed needs to regulated.

We'll see....

....Going to bed...