May 17, 2008

by Bill Levinson

Politico.com has a .pdf copy of Michelle Robinson Obama’s thesis in sociology. The content is entirely consistent with Barack Obama’s Black identity politics, if not outright Black Nationalist politics, as described in Dreams From My Father, as well as Michelle Obama’s statement that she is proud of our country only when her husband, who can’t be bothered to show respect for our National Anthem, is running for President. It is no surprise that efforts were made to conceal this thesis from the public until after the election.

Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 2

“Would use all of my present and future resources to benefit [the Black] community first and foremost” are not the words of a person who should be First Lady for a multiracial and ethnically diverse nation like the United States. While many of us have probably written things in our early 20s that we might repudiate in our 40s and 50s, Michelle Obama’s lack of pride in our country indicates that she still stands by these words. More importantly, they are entirely consistent with Barack Obama’s Black identity politics and even Black Nationalism.

Obama’s thesis then continues to underscore her belief that she regards her integration into mainstream or “white” American society as a problem, just as her husband questioned his “racial credentials” during his college days. As far as we know, “racial credentials” are the central characteristic of RACISM.

These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society. [page 2]

It looks like Mrs. Obama’s complaint is not that Caucasian-majority society won’t allow her to integrate–which was of course the central complaint of the Civil Rights movement–but rather that she might find herself integrating and assimilating with this society. This is a typical attitude of Black self-segregationists who, for example, have all-Black living accomodations on campus. The Civil Rights Movement sent the “White” and “Colored” signs to the ash heap of history where they belong, but Black self-segregationists are more than willing to put up implicit albeit invisible “White” (to be avoided) and “Colored” (acceptable) signs of their own.

Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 54

Michelle Obama again suggests that integration is a problem, which underscores our perception that the Obamas are not the right people to lead a multiracial and ethnically diverse country. Ted Belman has used the phrase “not one of us” to describe Barack Obama, and it is eminently clear that Obama is not one of us: “Us” meaning mainstream American society and mainstream American values. Now let’s compare what Michelle Obama wrote to Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.

I would occasionally pick up the paper [Louis Farrakhan’s “The Final Call”] from these unfailingly polite men, in part out of sympathy to their heavy suits in the summer, their thin coats in winter; or sometimes because my attention was caught by the sensational, tabloid-style headlines (CAUCASIAN WOMAN ADMITS: WHITES ARE THE DEVIL). Inside the front cover, one found reprints of the minister’s [Farrakhan’s] speeches, as well as stories that could have been picked straight off the AP news wire were it not for certain editorial embelleshments (”Jewish Senator Metzenbaum announced today…”).

Dreams From My Father, p. 201

Barack Obama does not praise this hate speech, but he does not condemn it either. This is probably why he was so reluctant to “reject” Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement.

It contradicted the morality my mother had taught me, a morality of subtle distinctions–between individuals of goodwill and those who wished me ill, between active malice and ignorance or indifference. I had a personal stake in that moral framework; I’d discovered that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. And yet perhaps it was a framework that blacks in this country could no longer afford; perhaps it weakened black resolve, encouraged confusion within the ranks. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.

If nationalism could deliver. As it turned out, questions of effectiveness, and not sentiment, caused most of my quarrels with Rafiq.

–Dreams From My Father, pp. 199-200

Barack Obama’s only quarrel with outright Black Nationalism involved questions of its effectiveness as opposed to morality, right, or wrong–which is pretty typical of everything he does.

That was the problem with people like Joyce [a college classmate of Italian, African-American, Native American, and French ethnicity]. They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounced real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people. …The truth was that I understood [Joyce], her and all the other black kids who felt the way she did. In their mannerisms, their speech, their mixed-up hearts, I kept recognizing pieces of myself. And that’s exactly what scared me. Their confusion made me question my own racial credentials all over again. …To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

“Dreams From My Father,” pages 99-100

As we stated previously, “racial credentials” are the central characteristic of RACISM. Furthermore, this excerpt is entirely consistent with Michelle Obama’s statement,

Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 54

To this may be added:

(1) The Obamas’ membership in a racist church whose pastor consorts openly with Louis Farrakhan while publishing blood libels of the United States and Israel, calling upon God to damn America, publishing a guest opinion piece from a Hamas terrorist, and questioning Israel’s legitimacy
(2) The fact that Barack Obama cannot be bothered to show proper respect for our National Anthem when everyone around him is doing so
(3) Barack Obama’s endorsement and promotion of Al Sharpton and his National Action Network (April 2007), whose record of promoting hatred of white peopel and especially Jews is well known
(4) Barack Obama’s refusal to “reject” the endorsement of the racist, Catholic-hating bigot, and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan until Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton cornered him like a rat during a televised debate
(5) Barack Obama’s denunciation of small town Pennsylvanians (working and predominently white people) as “bitter” people who “cling to guns and religion”
(6) Barack Obama’s patronizing “Sweetie” to a white female factory worker in Allentown PA, and his use of the same patronizing term to a white female reporter

The President of the United States, or even a Senator, must be there for all Americans, not just Americans of a particular skin color or ethnicity. If the Obamas are here, to use Michelle Obama’s words, to “use all of my present and future resources to benefit [the Black] community first and foremost,” they are not the right people for any position of public trust or responsibility. They should instead seek leadership positions in Al Sharpton’s National Action Network or Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, just as a candidate whose goal is to serve the White community first and foremost is best suited to the Stormfront White Nationalist Community as opposed to the Congress of the United States.