Save ourselves

I think Bill Clinton may have been on point.  This may be the biggest fairy tale America has ever known.Each time I hear someone use this language, I feel the pain of being called the "N" word. These are the same men I am supposed to believe really love and support Obama.  I am certain when they are in the intimate company of their beer guzzling buddies they slip up and use the "N" word to describe Obama.  And now with the surfacing of the new image of him in traditional Kenyan attire, they may even refer to him as a"towel head," a "sand niggah."

At a reading the other evening, with the legendary poet Sonia Sanchez, held at Simmons College, the atmosphere was fertile and the room at Simmons College packed with people of color and a bevy of White liberals. Like mice to glue traps they made their way over to me, the vocalist who honored poet extraordinaire Sonia Sanchez, and proceeded to articulate their loathing contempt for Hillary and their love for Obama. They spoke the typical litany of sound bites: "Obama is bringing the country together", "Obama is a uniting force"," Obama is a man sent by God", "I just love Obama".

This overnight love for my brotha makes me very nervous, when in the next breath the same people utter the most hateful language to describe someone who looks like their mother, sister or wife.   Hillary remains the "Bitch", demonic, evil, divisive.  "She acts just like Bill.".

Survival for Black people in America demands that we do a daily decoding of White folks language That is when it hit me.  "She acts like Bill!" That was code for what I knew but could not voice my suspicion. Survival for Black people in America demands that we do a daily decoding of White folks language and commentary about us and themselves. Of course they hate Hillary! They hate Hillary because she acts like a white man. She is assertive, she is confrontational, she is smart, she is aggressive, she knows how to fight, she has an alfa male personality. White men and "uncle" white women are punishing Hillary because she has stepped out of the prescribed role designated for women. She has dared to have the personality of a Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, Rudolph Guliani. 

American white women never forgave her for distancing herself from those house wives, sitting around listening to Tammy Wynette sing that self-effacing lyric,"Stand by your man". Hillary early in building her relationship with the American public made it clear she would not be the sweet little blond in the White House baking cookies.

In contrast America has fallen in love with Obama.  He warms the hearts of White Americans because his public personae is that of a "White woman."  He is the nurturer, he makes people feel good, he is polite, he is non-aggressive, he inspires us to want to be helpers, he wants to fix things. His speeches are generally neutral and he is always willing to adjust his tone to accommodate White sensibilities. He has a smaller waistline, he wears the appropriate uniform, unlike Hillary with those pants.

Once again the fate of Black people will rest in the hands of young white men and women under forty.Hillary and Obama are both being victimized by long standing, deep seated social constructions about the appropriate ways women and Black men must behave and carry themselves if they are to be affirmed by white men. Once again the fate of Black people will rest in the hands of young white men and women under forty.  They will choose the presidential candidate they find most palatable.

 

White Americans are feeling depressed about the murder of so many in the Middle East and the loss of young American soldiers, living in economically depressed rural communities and urban cities throughout America, they joined the reserves,the arm forces and have become causalities of someone else's civil war. In the midst of this madness, media types try to recreate Camelot in an effort to capture an America we have lost.  

 

Barack Hussein Obama is being compared to John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Michelle "O"is being compared to Jackie "O". The comparisons are absurd, haunting and frightening. Many of us remember how that fantasy ended. Jackie would raise two children by herself.

By the end of next week we will know whether White men and women under forty have decided to vote for the candidate with the larger cohones or mammary glands.By the end of next week we will know whether White men and women under forty have decided to vote for the candidate with the larger cohones or mammary glands. Will they vote for the nurturer as they reminisce, trying to return to the "good ole days" when black house slaves were required to act as "bed warmers" rolling around in a cold bed, getting it warm before their white master retired?  Or is America prepared for the leadership of an "ice queen", "man eater" Cruella DeVille type ready at the drop of a dime to eat her young?

I think Bill Clinton may have been on point.  This may be the biggest fairy tale America has ever known.

 

Lawrence "Larry" Watson