May 20, 2008

Michelle Obama’s Thesis Underscores Barack Obama’s Black Identity Politics
by Bill Levinson

General Sun Tzu wrote 2500 years ago that if an opponent is oversensitive (e.g. to personal insults) you can goad and enrage him into doing something stupid. The Art of War cites a case in which a general sent his opponent a full chamber pot instead of the customary gift. The opponent let his temper get the better of him, and allowed his rage instead of his judgment to guide his decisions. The results were predictable. It seems like the way to stop Obama is to focus more attacks on Michelle Obama, as shown by the following.

If they [Republicans] think that they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful, because I find unacceptable the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family.

–Barack Obama

Michelle Obama is an issue in this campaign just as Hillary Clinton’s spouse is an issue. Some Democrats are attacking Cindy McCain just for being a multimillionaire, while Elizabeth Edwards (whose personal character makes her more suitable for public office than her husband) was a positive asset for John Edwards’ campaign. Anyone who participates materially in a political campaign is a legitimate target for campaign-related criticism so, if they can’t take the heat, they should stay out of the kitchen. Michelle Obama can’t express contempt for our country–a contempt that Barack Obama shares as shown by his refusal to respect our National Anthem–by saying she has never been proud of the United States until her husband ran for President, and then expect nothing to be said about it. She can’t write a senior thesis that reinforces a very comprehensive picture of Barack Hussein Obama as a Black Nationalist and very possibly a racist, and then expect it not to become an issue.

We see ourselves assembling a jigsaw puzzle to get a complete picture of Barack Obama, and the picture is a very ugly one. The pieces involve racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Catholics, contempt for the United States and its Armed Forces, denial of Israel’s right to exist, Black identity politics, and outright Black Nationalism. Here is a brief summary of the pieces.

A. Black identity politics, Black Nationalism, and outright racism
(1) Barack Hussein Obama’s Dreams From My Father, which discusses his “racial credentials”–a central element of RACISM
(2) Michelle Obama’s “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community”
(3) Obama’s promotion and endorsement of Al Sharpton and his National Action Network
(4) Obama’s 20 year membership in a racist church with a “non-negotiable commitment to Africa”
(5) Obama’s refusal to “reject” Louis Farrakhan until backed into a corner during a nationally televised debate
(6) Obama’s depiction of predominantly white working class Pennsylvanians as “bitter” people who “cling to guns and religion.”

B. Anti-Semitism
(1) Obama’s promotion and endorsement of Al Sharpton and his National Action Network
(2) Obama’s refusal to “reject” Louis Farrakhan until backed into a corner during a nationally televised debate
(3) Obama’s solicitation and acceptance of an endorsement from MoveOn.org, which welcomed anti-Semitic hate speech at its now disgraced Action Forum

C. Anti-Catholic bigotry
(1) Obama’s refusal to “reject” Louis Farrakhan until backed into a corner during a nationally televised debate
(2) Obama’s solicitation and acceptance of an endorsement from MoveOn.org, which published an anti-Catholic hate cartoon (derogatory photomanipulation of Pope Benedict waving a gavel in front of the U.S. Supreme Court) while welcoming anti-Catholic hate speech at its now disgraced Action Forum

D. Contempt for the United States and its Armed Forces
(1) Obama’s solicitation and acceptance of an endorsement from MoveOn.org, which published a defamatory insult to General David Petraeus. The spittle on General Petraeus’ uniform and service ribbons therefore belongs as much to Barack Hussein Obama as it does to MoveOn’s Eli Pariser.
(2) Obama’s refusal to reject an endorsement from Michael Moore, whose Web site calls the terrorists who are murdering our men and women in uniform “Minutemen”
(3) Obama’s refusal to reject the endorsement of Hanoi Jane Fonda, who posed in an enemy gun emplacement during wartime
(4) Obama’s unwillingness to display proper respect for our National Anthem while all around him were doing so
(5) Obama’s 20 year membership in a racist church whose hate-spewing pastor blood libels the United States by accusing it of inventing the AIDS virus while implying that the United States “deserved” 9/11.

E. Denial of Israel’s right to exist
(1) Obama’s 20 year membership in a racist church whose hate-spewing pastor publishes a guest piece that blood libels Israel (accusation that Israel developed an “ethnic bomb” to kill Negroes and Arabs), and another guest piece from a Hamas terrorist named Marzook. Jeremiah Wright also wrote “state” of Israel, as in “so-called state of Israel.”
(2) Obama’s solicitation and acceptance of an endorsement from MoveOn.org, whose official bulletins cite sources like the Electronic Intifada
(3) Obama’s own depiction of Israeli settlements as “a constant sore” that “infects” American foreign policy, which reminds us of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s depiction of Israel as a “rotten corpse.” Obama does not know, or more likely chooses not to remember, that the Arabs did not need settlements as an excuse to start or provoke three wars in less than 20 years (1948 to 1967), nor do the Hamas terrorists in settlement-free Gaza need them as an excuse to perpetrate mindless violence. In other words, Obama’s statement is 100 percent consistent with Jeremiah Wright’s and MoveOn.org’s positions on Israel and its right to exist.

F. Patronizing Sexism, with possibly racist overtones
(1) Barack Obama used the patronizing term “Sweetie” to a white female factory worker in Allentown PA, and also to a white female journalist. (Does Obama call Black women “Sweetie?”.)

When we put these pieces together, we get a very ugly big picture, and Michelle Obama’s “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community” is among the ugliest highlights. Politico.com has a .pdf copy of Michelle Robinson Obama’s thesis in sociology. Here is what it says, and this needs to be circulated as widely as possible.

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.

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.

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

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.