Above: That's President Obama being cordial with Mr. George Bush. Maybe, he'll punch a baby for you, tomorrow--wouldn't count on that, though.
I don't know about you, but, I am getting a little tired of all the speculation, criticism and, now, deconstruction of why, when and if President Barack Obama is capable of showing anger or strength in some spectacular, public way. I am getting tired of it, because the President has already addressed this issue in his book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, first published way, way back in 1995, ..when Eurodance duo La Bouche's "Be My Lover" was burning down clubs all over America.
Anybody here read the Jonathan Capehart article, Rage: Why Obama Won't And Can't Give You What You Want?
There seems to be this expectation that, at some point, President Obama MUST blow his top, like a black cop in an 80s action flick. He must! If President Obama doesn't turn into a Danny Glover or Mr. T character and kick over the podium in a press conference, he is a [gasp] tortured black man, strangled by the spectre of his own ethnic stereotypes! A victim. A broken, fragmented, caged and unrealized being, hopelessly lost in his private cultural assimilation nightmare. Mr. Capehart's piece doesn't go that far, but points in that direction.
One strategically placed, intellectual banana peel, and you'll find it.
At the core, isn't it more likely that President Obama is just as culturally and philosophically Asian, as African American--maybe, moreso? It's also mentioned, if you dig really, really hard, that President Barack Obama grew up between Indonesia and Hawaii, two predominantly Asian populations. With these factoids staring us red-blooded, race-obsessed Americans right in the face, why do we still seem confounded that our president doesn't express his anger in ways that are more acceptable and celebrated to the high-strung, over-caffeinated West?
I'm not deconstructing, here. Just asking.
Why are we looking for Mr. T here? Mr. T isn't showing up.
If you are old enough (and I am) to remember when Washington, D. C. was culturally and demographically a 'black town', with an African-American population of some sixty or so percent, ..take that number and replace the black people with Asian people--then, imagine you're a bi-racial youth with a Kenyan Father and an Irish/French-Canadian American mother, and you get some idea of what it must have been like to have been Barack Obama growing up in Hawaii. In his piece, Capehart says the President just isn't "wired that way", and I think he is probably right.
And I think some of us have been watching too much TV and reading too many Donald Goines novels!
Why do we keep looking for Mr. Obama's hot buttons? He was running against a guy, who was entertaining the idea of pre-emptive strikes on or invasion of Iran, and we didn't want that. We wanted cool and calm. We wanted a ninja, ..but keep looking for his samurai-switch. We have a president with a diverse cultural background and experiences with people from all over the world, who may see different ways of handling things than we are used--and so what? In the global economy, that's money in the bank. That's gold, and we ought to leave it the hell alone.
Anyway, have a look at this blurb, before you start deconstructing, ..and, for crying out loud, read the President's book!
You may also notice that this blog has a new marquee, and a new direction probably comes with it. Deconstruct that anyway you like.
Mel Dyer
[Edited, 3/11/15]
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