Soul Power! For You and Your Crew!

The problem: You're Ralph Nader. Nobody's paying attention to you. Nobody, frankly, likes you. Sure, you're getting the occasional pity profile from The Washington Post, but it's chock-a-block with the usual groans and bleats from Eric "responsible liberal" Alterman and Todd "I was in SDS!" Gitlin.

What do you do? Try this:

There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson?

Here's a little more evidence of why Nader isn't taking off this year: He doesn't pay attention. Obama has talked about capping interest rates and "driving unscrupulous lenders" out of business. Ironically, he's bragged about removing asbestos from Chicago housing projects (got to milk those community organizer days!) to such a degree that some of his old allies think he's hogging credit. Hell, he did a town hall/PR performance about this stuff in Chicago two weeks ago.

Nader made this same critique in February, actually, but it didn't get attention, so he added the "talk white" stuff hoping that idiots like me would talk about it. Why pay any attention? Because Barack Obama talked to Rolling Stone about his iPod playlist.

Stevie Wonder shares room on Obama's iPod with "everything from Howlin' Wolf to Yo-Yo Ma to Sheryl Crow," he says. "And I have probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod." Though he's partial to 1975's Blood on the Tracks, "Maggie's Farm" is "one of my favorites during the political season," says Obama. "It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."

This blows the "talk white" issue wide open. For Obama's sake, I hope he doesn't have U2's cover of "Maggie's Farm." Ninety percent of Jeremiah Wright's rage could be justified by this song.

Comments

[Nigel Watt]

Guess the third-party vote is now clearly in Barr's pocket. If only that were more than 8%.

[Mister DNA]

What does John McCain have on his Victrola?

btw, I think it's kinda cool that Obama listens to Howlin' Wolf.

[Naga Sadow]

Finally!!! Ralph Nader's weirdness and total lack of touch with reality is revealed . . . this year anyway . . .

[Franklin Harris]

I used to know this black guy who went to Best Buy at midnight to be the first to buy a new Dave Matthews CD on its release date.

I think he had his "African American" certification revoked.

[Anthony]

When's that new guns-n-roses c.d. come out?

[NotThatDavid]

"You're black? 'Cause, last I checked, you had a nerdy white best friend, you enjoy Neil Diamond, and you damn sure act like a black guy. And these, my friend, are all characteristics of white guys."

[Chicago]

Really, at this point in the campaign he should be listening to Rage Against the Machine's cover of Maggie's Farm. I often use that to wake up to on my alarm in the morning. Gets the blood moving.

[Mister DNA]

I used to know this black guy who went to Best Buy at midnight to be the first to buy a new Dave Matthews CD on its release date.

Wow! You know Don "No Soul" Simmons?

[P Brooks]

No Woody Guthrie?

[Dog\'s New Clothes]

Franklin Harris,

Was his name Hootie?

[Kent]

I saw the Breeders a couple of weeks ago. There was a young black guy who was one of the first in the place. He immediately went to the middle right in front of the stage and did not budge for the entire show - his bladder must have been ready to burst by the end of the concert.

I noticed a couple of songs into the conceret that he was singing along to "Divine Hammer." I thought maybe he just knew the most popular stuff. I looked down at him from the balcony during each song. He knew not only all of the Breeders songs, but also the Amps songs. I thought, "WTF?"

I think every other non-white person at the concert was there with a white date. I think the black guy got to touch both of the Deal twins at some point, healing him of all his afflictions.

"I used to know this black guy who went to Best Buy at midnight to be the first to buy a new Dave Matthews CD on its release date.

"I think he had his "African American" certification revoked."

[Elemenope]

All that music was invented by black people anyway, so I'm not seeing the problem...

[joe]

The Specials' cover of Maggie's Farm makes that U2 version sound like Dylan in '67. Just absolutely awful, even if they did change "National Guard" to "National Front."

"Maggie's Farm" is "one of my favorites during the political season," says Obama.

Especially when you're running against Hillary.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's mother no more.
No I ain't gonna work for Maggie's mother no more.
She talks to all the servants about Man and God and Law.
Everybody says she's the brains behind Pa.
She's '68 but she says she's '54.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's mother no more.

Apostrophes added for obvious reasons.

[Mister DNA]

Really, at this point in the campaign he should be listening to Rage Against the Machine's cover of Maggie's Farm. I often use that to wake up to on my alarm in the morning. Gets the blood moving.

However, avoid RATM's cover of "Beautiful World" at all costs. Hell, Dev2.0's version of "Beautiful World" is better than Rage's.

[SugarFree]

Nader is so desperate for attention, I imagine he'll start taking shits in the living room just so someone will notice him.

[Naga Sadow]

If he wants attention, he should hold a press conference with that "Green Director" Andrea Robinson. She's so hot I would watch that just for a revealing glimpse of her.

[x,y]

Coming up next: 2 Girls, 1 Nader.

[Guy Montag]

Jeeez!

Back when I first began working around DC I knew this limo-Lefty lobbyist in Reston, VA who had a lot of criticism about Mr. Nader and all of the hoops people had to go through for him if they were dealing with one of his speaking engagements.

Thought she was over the top about it, especially since everything she described really did indicate that he practiced much of what he preached, which I do like.

His message, however, I can really do without. She, on the other hand, loved the message and hated the messenger. Was more abundantly clear with her habit of hauling her parents 'recycleables' from Genneseo(sp?), NY to Reston, VA, monthly, in the trunk of her every-possible-power-option Ford Crown Victoria.

[Gimme Back My Dog]

joe,

clever use of the apostrophes, but given all the plastic surgery it works without them as well.

[Alan Vanneman]

What can I say? What can anyone say? Ralph is the gift that keeps on giving.

[MikeP]

He's half African-American.

I'm no expert on Barack Obama's heritage, but wasn't his father Kenyan? That would make Obama half African.

Saying "half African-American" is not only clumsy, but wrong. What...? It was Ralph Nader who said that? Well, then... clumsy and wrong fits perfectly.

[joe]

MikeP,

Did you watch the 2002 Winter Olympics?

"He's the first African-American to win a skiing medal, from anywhere in the world."

[P Brooks]

B-HO; your half-African American President!

[Guy Montag]

That would make Obama half African.

Actually, half Kenyan. Kinda silly to use general continants when one is trying to catch this elusive 'race' thing. Well, if the American part is for the USA, not one or two whole continents.

Just look at some street pictures of Cairo, Egypt and you may see what I mean.

Anyway, seems the proper phrasing would be Kenyan-American, like Italian-American.

[SugarFree]

Would it not also be accurate to say Obama is half-gullible white chick?

[PC]

Now that I remember it, back in 2004, Teresa Heinz Kerry was acting quite white for an African American.

[PC]

"Would it not also be accurate to say Obama is half-gullible white chick?"

And I always thought that was Lindsey Graham.

[Guy Montag]

Now that I remember it, back in 2004, Teresa Heinz Kerry was acting quite white for an African American.

Yes, she sure was. But she had experienced living in an authoritarian regime! Her parents being part of that regime being a key factor in her experience.

[Naga Sadow]

Does anyone outside of the media still refer to black people as african american? I've been saying black people for over a decade and have yet to offend or get my ass kicked.

[Guy Montag]

Lindsey Graham Buckingham.

Fixed 😉

[Guy Montag]

I've been saying black people for over a decade and have yet to offend or get my ass kicked.

Me too, for much longer. But I capitalize Black when referring to race, even when I am speaking.

[Elemenope]

Does anyone outside of the media still refer to black people as african american? I've been saying black people for over a decade and have yet to offend or get my ass kicked.

"African-American" has always struck me as inordinately inelegant, nearly clumsy. I go for parsimony in my speech. 😉

[Neu Mejican]

I used to know this black guy who went to Best Buy at midnight to be the first to buy a new Dave Matthews CD on its release date.

I think he had his "African American" certification revoked.

But Dave Matthews is African-American.
Where's the conflict?

[Naga Sadow]

Elemenope,

I have much to learn from you in the ways of the weasel.

[Neu Mejican]

Dave Matthews is even super-duper doubly African-American.

His family was from America, he was born in South Africa, and he recently became a naturalized American living in the South.

[Neu Mejican]

But I capitalize Black when referring to race, even when I am speaking.

That practice was, actually, the motivation for the argument that African-American should be used instead...people didn't capitalize "white" but did capitalize "Black" indicting that for people with dark skin their identity was encompassed by their skin color while for others it was not.

The PC practice was to use "black" rather than "Black"...but then Black pride came along and things got confusing.

[SugarFree]

Neu Mejican,

South African. Didn't you learn anything from Steven Van Zandt?

[Elemenope]

But Dave Matthews is African-American.

You win, sir.

I have much to learn from you in the ways of the weasel.

You must bend like reed before Republican!

[Neu Mejican]

Sugarfree,

Yeah, sure, but Southern-South-African-American is so hard to type.

[M2]

What people forget, is that Ralph is still mourning the loss of his child in that firey Corvair accident. He's really no different than Cindy Sheehan, which is to say, he's perpetually stuck in the anger phase. It's actually a form of mental illness.

[TallDave]

The problem: You're Ralph Nader. Nobody's paying attention to you.

I don't know, his "evil corporations are ruining everything" mantra seems to catching on in Congress. Been hearing that one a lot lately.

[Ralph]

"btw, I think it's kinda cool that Obama listens to Howlin' Wolf."

Really, because I'm a fifty-year-old corporate whit guy and I listen to Howlin' Wolf too. Still think it's "kinda cool"?

But then Obama Is the Messiah.

[Stanley]

"What does John McCain have on his Victrola?"

Don't know, but I do wonder is what else does Obama have on that iPod he jacked from some cracker kid in Oak Park.

[SugarFree]

Neu Mejican,

How about shortening it to "SSAA" and be done with it?

Of course, someone might think you are referring to a Ophidian-American.

[Naga Sadow]

Elemenope,

LMAO!!! Where is the chick with one boob?

[Tonio]

The problem: You're Ralph Nader. Nobody's paying attention to you.

Except for your natural enemies at Reason who for reasons unfathomable decided to pay you some attention under the guise of reporting how everyone else is ignoring you.

LOLzer.

[Mister DNA]

Really, because I'm a fifty-year-old corporate whit guy and I listen to Howlin' Wolf too. Still think it's "kinda cool"?

Sure. I think it's cool when anyone listens to Howlin' Wolf. I'm guessing a lot of 50ish corporate white guys listen to Howlin' Wolf and also think Stevie Ray Vaughan was an awesome "bluesman", but that's something for another thread...

[Beth]

"The PC practice was to use "black" rather than "Black"...but then Black pride came along and things got confusing."

Coon still works for me.

[Ralph]

"and also think Stevie Ray Vaughan was an awesome "bluesman""

Melodically speaking, he was way too busy.

[Elemenope]

Of course, someone might think you are referring to a Ophidian-American.

Credit for me knowing this word goes to Star Trek:TNG. Let it not be said that sci-fi is *entirely* useless.

[joe]

I've been saying black people for over a decade and have yet to offend or get my ass kicked.

The two terms aren't the same; black is more general, African-American more specific. A Jamaican or a Ghanan who moves to Maryland is black, but not African-American.

"African-American," using the name of the continent, came into usage to refer to the population that was brought here during the slave trade. As a result of this history, it was impossible to know where their ancenstors were from with any greater specificity, and the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of their descendents ceased to refer back in any meaningful way to specific tribes or countries in Africa within a couple of generations, due to intermarriage and cultural isolation from the erstwhile homeland.

You could say that Barack Obama is "African-American" in the sense that he is an American of African ancestry (and, in this sense, that Jamaican could qualify, too), just as you could use the term "Native American" to refer to any American who was born here, but both of those terms have become proper nouns with a specific meaning beyond the dictionary definition of each word. You might as well insist that Bobby Jindal is an "American Indian," and then pull out a dictionary to show what "American" and "Indian" mean.

[R C Dean]

The problem: You're Ralph Nader.

Gawd, that would be a problem, right there.

Nobody's paying attention to you.

For the rest of us, that's the solution to the Nader Problem.

[Guy Montag]

I am glad Dave reads Nader so we don't have to.

[SugarFree]

The weird racial divide on skin color has a long history. The original three "races": Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid made little sense in that the first two described where the people came from and the last describes the people themselves (Negro is a corruption of the Latin niger.) If anything, "African-American" is an improvement over "black" even if a large portion of Africans are actually Semetic in race origin, and not "black" as such.

I personally like to divide the races of man into "bitches on-line all day" and "lives in the real world."

[Neu Mejican]

Sugarfree,

I think the Mesomorph, Endomorph, Ectomorph approach is amusing as well, as long as you include the combinations (ectomesomorphs, etc..).

It has the advantage of being objective, malleable, and inherently resulting from an interaction of genetics and environment.

And silly.

[Neu Mejican]

And the loons can still point to the out-of-date science to support their racial prejudice...

Cuz we all know it is their mesomorphy that makes all those muscle-bound criminals in prison, well, criminally inclined.

[SugarFree]

Neu Mejican,

Endo-Power!

[jtuf]

The ironic thing about this election cycle. Of all the candidates, McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin.

[Episiarch]

The racial designations of "human", "half-elf", "elf", "dwarf", "halfling", and "half-orc" are much more useful.

[Guy Montag]

jtuf,

The ironic thing about this election cycle. Of all the candidates, McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin.

Just the other day some loon was on here saying that Sen. McCain deserved his treatment for intentionally murdering babies. They went on about how the Senator became an Aviator (the commentor wrote "pilot") because his father was a Naval Officer, but never quite tossed that in for more reason to be abused in Hanoi. Could have been implied, but I did not catch it that way.

[Neu Mejican]

Epi,

I am beginning to think the kid from Foxtrot is actually based on you...

[Neu Mejican]

Of all the candidates, McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin.

Given that you have to be born in the US to run from president, I find this an odd claim.

But if you are talking about his being a white male, then I will simply trot out my standard reply:

Anyone who can't capitalize on their white-maleness is seriously lacking skills.

And McCain comes from money and married into more...

[Episiarch]

I am beginning to think the kid from Foxtrot is actually based on you...

So that's the way it's gonna be?

[Neu Mejican]

The racial designations of "human", "half-elf", "elf", "dwarf", "halfling", and "half-orc" are much more useful.

Where's the love for the full-blooded orcs and the Numenorians?

[SugarFree]

Where's the love for the full-blooded orcs and the Numenorians?

Because those are both fictional, dummy.

[Neu Mejican]

Fictional races?

Ohhhh...of course, like black, or reptilian.

I thought they were real since the hybrids were suggested by the real Jason Fox (aka Episiarch).

[Elemenope]

Because those are both fictional, dummy.

"So here we have a four-way intersection, in the center of which is place a nice crisp one hundred dollar bill. Over here we have the man friendly lesbian. Down here we have the man-hating dyke. Over here, Santa, and here's the Easter bunny. Which one gets the hundred dollar bill?"

[Episiarch]

Where's the love for the full-blooded orcs and the Numenorians?

You have strange sexual proclivities. I'll stick with the human, elf, and half-elf women. I know NutraSweet likes the tiny halfling girls (it makes him feel like his dick is normal-sized), and LMNOP loves them hairy dwarf chicks (assists the dick size and they're very masculine).

[SugarFree]

The man-hating dyke and the man-friendly dyke actually co-exist and are easily explained by the glaringly obvious fact that there are two-and-a-half types of lesbians. The lesbian who is attracted to women (the half is the casual college-lesbian) and the lesbian who hates men so much they date women as a form of revenge. (Visualize the kid in A Christmas Story closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out to lick a frozen pole on a dare.)

[SugarFree]

it makes him feel like his dick is normal-sized

If you projected any harder, you could work for a movie theater.

[Episiarch]

Don't fight it, dude. You'll just wind up unhappy.

[Timmy Mac]

Anyone willing to speak truth to power and pick Blood on the Tracks as their favorite Dylan record (instead of playing it safe and going with Blonde on Blonde) has my vote LOCKED UP.

[Tonio]

Thanks, Elemenope, for the "Chasing Amy" reference.

Epi, although very non-canon it's been speculated that Gimli was actually a she-dwarf since, well, you know...

[joe]

"Tangled Up in Blue" + "Crap" still works out a pretty solid album.

[Saddened]

That part of the song where Bono does an angry, "bluesy," "political" version of "O'le McDonald" is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I mean, HILLarious. You tell 'em, Bono.

[Neu Mejican]

If you projected any harder, you could work for a movie theater.

At least, Jason, he didn't call you limped dicked...assuming this is a suggestion that you work in porn.

Maybe not...the layers of innuendo are too deep for me here...as a struggling endomesomorph.

[Neu Mejican]

Timmy Mac,

Should I go into politics since I don't find any of Dylan's albums worth listening to carefully enough to pick a favorite?

I mean sure, he's better than John Cougar Mellencamp or Joan Baez, but he ain't no Leonard Cohen...

;^)

[R. Totale]

Anyone willing to speak truth to power and pick Blood on the Tracks as their favorite Dylan record (instead of playing it safe and going with Blonde on Blonde) has my vote LOCKED UP.

Eh, Blood on the Tracks is still pretty safe. If he wants my vote, he'll have to come out and affirm the genius of Street Legal.

[SugarFree]

OK, high school sex story. My friend Chris goes out with this girl and talks about the fact she has a clit the size of his pinkie. Chris' ex-girlfriend refers to him as "thumb-dick." I had independent confirmation on the pinkie-clit and the thumb-dick from other exes. So my question always was, which one had the over-developed clitoris and which had the underdeveloped penis? It could really break both ways...

[Episiarch]

It all depends on whose ovaries were on the outside.

[SugarFree]

I'm thinking neither.

Epi, a little late afternoon retardity:

"Geez, even my (male) partner shaves his underarms in the summer!"

Shouldn't that be "male" instead of (male)?

[M2]

"Of all the candidates, McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin.

Given that you have to be born in the US to run from president, I find this an odd claim."

I think they mean "McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin" at the hands of the Vietnamese.

[Neu Mejican]

"Geez, even my (male) partner shaves his underarms in the summer!"

Isn't the need for the "(male)" or "male" negated by the use of "his." ?

[Tonio]

Shouldn't that be "male" instead of (male)?

Er, no, the manhood of anyone partnered to one of the Feministing crowd is highly suspect.

[Neu Mejican]

I think they mean "McCain is the one who faced the most mistreatment on account of his nation of origin" at the hands of the Vietnamese.

Ah....of course.

Still, I don't see how this has anything to do with the election.

[M2]

"Still, I don't see how this has anything to do with the election."

I don't think anyone did. It was more like an aside.

[SugarFree]

Isn't the need for the "(male)" or "male" negated by the use of "his." ?

But isn't the "his" negated by the use of "partner"? Not to mention the shaved armpits?

Tonio,

I meant "male" as in [airquote]male[/airquote]. Typography of those type of jokes is difficult.

[Neu Mejican]

But isn't the "his" negated by the use of "partner"? Not to mention the shaved armpits?

I was imagining her MMA fighting business partner...

But, you are right, he's probably a submission specialist that puts up with the ground & pound until he can put a good triangle choke on his opponent.

Gayest.
Sport.
Ever.

[Neu Mejican]

A triangle choke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TriangleChoke.jpg

[Neu Mejican]

The best part about the triangle choke.

It is really the "BJ* triangle choke"

*Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Gayest.
Sport.
Ever.

[Neu Mejican]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Harley-Davidson customers need a sport too.

[joe]

*Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Gayest.
Sport.
Ever.

Damn, NM, it's a good thing you're in NORTH America.

Harley-Davidson customers need a sport too.

Uhhh...I hear Argentina's nice.

[Episiarch]

Whoa. That Feministing thread is about shaving your face...as a woman. Shaving causes hair to come back thicker. Plucking, waxing, etc., doesn't because it rips out the roots. Right? Is it possible that so many people on that thread think just exactly the opposite?

[R. Totale]

Shaving causes hair to come back thicker.

That's a myth.

[Neu Mejican]

Jason Fox,

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hair-removal/AN00638

I realize you have a thing for myths, but come on...

As for moving...why would I be scared of some Harley riding MMA fighter?

I mean if you ride a Harley and choke other men with your balls you have to know you are gay, right?

[Episiarch]

OK, good to know that it's a myth. The chicks at Feministing knew more about hair removal than a straight guy! They should be proud.

[Neu Mejican]

The chicks at Feministing knew more about hair removal than a straight guy! They should be proud.

AND they knew more about it than you...or is elf-fucking still part of straight?

[Episiarch]

Yes.

Indeed.

[Neu Mejican]

Oh,

I thought you meant elf:

http://www.iwantamonkey.com/images/12236__elf_l.jpg

[Neu Mejican]

or something more along the lines of this..

http://flyboyz.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/black-smurf.jpg

Not really sure trans-species sex is considered straight however you slice it.

[ed]

He's half African-American

Only half now? That's progress! When they start referring to Obama as that skinny, vacuous, first-term senator who has pulled the wool over the eyes of a gullible and star-struck electorate, we'll really be getting somewhere.

[Franklin Harris]

Good lord. I step out to run a few errands, and the whole thread degenerates into Tolkien porn.

[SugarFree]

The chicks at Feministing knew more about hair removal than a straight guy!

Unused knowledge is useless knowledge.

[SugarFree]

Neu Mejican,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TriangleChoke.jpg

It's considered polite to tags images like that with "NSFW".

For example:

The World of Whorecraft (NSFW)

[CR]

I used to be a big fan of RN but in his role as a consumer advocate which is what he knows best. As a politician, Nil! He is greatly responsible for the mess we find ourselves in as a result of the "Push in the Bush" Administration. The man was a determining force on Gore vs. Bush (a spoiler!). Once again, he has zero chance but it's going to draw enough votes from the "disgruntled consistency" that he may just turn the race backwards.

Why can't these people stick to what they know best and in which they can really make a contribution. I could say it's a mystery to me but it's not - it's the ego and seeing themselves in the limelight. It's an irrational obsession!

[MattXIV]

The racial designations of "human", "half-elf", "elf", "dwarf", "halfling", and "half-orc" are much more useful.

The best part is that like the current ones, these designations also come with a long history of occupational discrimination to be aggrieved about.

[christ]

wow
Im speechless about this "talking white" and "white guilt" bullshit.I USED to admire Nader but he is just like the rest of this country:under cover racist.He likes black people but only when they are in a subserviant role.For your info Nader:black people are not a monolithic race of aliens that all look,talk and think alike.Although,Obama was not my first choice as far as nominees he was millions of miles ahead of clinton and mccain.If this was about "white guilt"-which in my lifetime has NEVER existed Obama would have be some uneducated, child molesting drug dealer that white society decided to just give any black person a chance but the fact is that is guy graduated top of his class from Harvard-and you(Nader)are saying this guy is nothing but a tokin???
Nader is just as racist as we all found out the Clintons are and surprisingly how much middle america appearently is not.

[Geotpf]

Anthony | June 25, 2008, 1:23pm | #

When's that new guns-n-roses c.d. come out?

The same day Duke Nukem Forever is released.

[Miri]

Hey Ralph, hope Hillary payed in cash. Here she's issued a lot of rubber checks lately.
Don't know why everyone's picking on you. She said the same things & everyone made excuses for her.
Say can you find out how much she's paying Schumer, Feinstein & Rangel.

[The Real Issues]

Ralph Nader is a bigot who is getting attention by these statements. Interesting....and people want to know why Senator Obama would not take the Federal funding......this is why? However when it comes to the Real Issues, here it is: Ralph Nader is not going to win anything and this year Nader will not be a spoiler; Senator McCain's record indicates his voting for the Bush Administration policies 90-95% of the time...so he is a factor of: The Iraq War/ the economic policies/ the Afghanistan problems, the "No Child Left Behind" policies that have left 50% of the high school students not graduating in many major cities/mortgage crises/devalued homes/higher and higher gasoline and food prices/ higher and higher unemployment/ higher and higher foreclosures...Katrina response.....etc. etc. etc. etc.

[Dave2]

joe wrote:

The two terms aren't the same; black is more general, African-American more specific. A Jamaican or a Ghanan who moves to Maryland is black, but not African-American.

"African-American," using the name of the continent, came into usage to refer to the population that was brought here during the slave trade. As a result of this history, it was impossible to know where their ancenstors were from with any greater specificity, and the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of their descendents ceased to refer back in any meaningful way to specific tribes or countries in Africa within a couple of generations, due to intermarriage and cultural isolation from the erstwhile homeland.

I suspect it's more complicated than that. If someone had two grandparents from Kenya and two from Senegal, with both parents born and raised in America, and was raised in a black part of town, spoke African-American Vernacular English, was immersed in black American culture, etc., then it would be pretty odd to deny that this person is an African-American, despite their lacking slave ancestors.

[mtc]

Bono kinda sucks.

[joe]

Dave2,

True enough, but the point remains. While the people two generations later who are culturally indistinguishable from eight-generation black Americans would be considered "African-Americans," their parents and grandparents, who would presumably be more African culturally, would probably not consider themselves or be considered African-Americans, but Senegalese-Americans.

And while I don't think that's actually Christ upthread, I did like Nader is just as racist as we all found out the Clintons are and surprisingly how much middle america appearently is not. Well put. A whole lot of people who thought they could stampede the American electorate into a race panic...failed. I don't think that's ever happened before.

[Peter Lisbeth]

Ralph Nader's unpatriotic comment on Barack Obama

Mr. Ralph Nader's remark on Barack is very unfortunate and deeply flawed. I perceive that Ralph is envious of Obama's accomplishments. His voicing that sentiment is totally over the board. It's unthinkable for any patriotic American to hold such senseless and divisive ideology. His views are completely out of touch with the America of the 21st century. For God sake, Barack Obama is gunning for POTUS as a quintessential American, not as white, black or colored. He's remarkably appealing to all Americans, and indeed the whole world thinks highly of the Obama's brand of politics. It's completely out of place to pigeonhole him and nail him to a particular section of the American society, even though he has never for once denied his root and the deepest influences upon his life. Barack should be given an "A" for having a good understanding of the treasured diversity of the American folks. Honestly speaking, Obama has achieved what looks most impossible political legacy for the best of leaders - bringing all Americans together! It's an incredible feat and a class act, and the country will surely be better for it. The Naders of America should for the sake of the founding fathers give Obama a credit for his patriotism and courage in coming out to serve the most vibrant people on the planet.

Today, people all over the world are desperately looking for born statesmen and women. People everywhere are asking whether it is possible to have an Obama in their midst, and have praised Americans for building a system that is capable of producing special talents. It is unbelievable Ralph Nader has failed recognize the qualities in Senator Barack Obama. This is where most Americans are steps ahead of Ralph. He has the mindset of America of the 50s, and he should be pitied for failing to recognize the positive transformation that is currently sweeping across God's own country. He should be sincere enough to give Obama the credit that he well deserves.