Another Note on the Obama's Father's Day Speech.

A commenter over at TooSense put me on to this cartoon, which pretty much sums up all the reasons I was so ambivalent about the Obama speech on fatherhood Sunday.

The best part is that this obviously racist cartoon is presumably in support of Obama’s speech.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

Latest posts by G.D. (see all)

  • Big Word

    Even when you’re running or Presidentyou’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. That’s the essence of being black in this god-damned country.

  • Or…maybe he was wrong?

  • Big Word

    That’s a possiblity. However, in what forum would it be appropiate to chastize cats that don’t take care of their own? I think as a black politician having spent most of his career fighting for people in our community he’s earned the right to speak on issues that affect it without having his motives questioned. It may contain somethings that prejudiced white folks twist to their advantage, but what else should we expect from them?

  • You should check out the other threads where we wrestled with this.

  • Big Word

    Ahhhh, I never got around to checking out the Obama and Pookie thread. I really do see where folks are coming from, but I think given his history Obama deserves some leeway.

  • I think I agree with Big Word. Unlike Cosby, who came down to scold the poor, wasn’t Obama actually working within the community for years? (Not to say his speech wasn’t tailored to a specific audience.)

  • Shani- Hadn’t that long been the argument of Cosby apologists :that he was always generous in donating his money to educational causes for black people?

  • Donating money is different from being an active organizer in the community. Cosby could donate money all day long to ‘educational causes’ and still not know anything about the people who don’t think about education beyond a GED.

  • I have to say, Cosby’s obsession with the inability of young people to value educations has always struck me as a little strange.

    Cosby, who is from Philly, failed the tenth grade three times. He eventually went to Temple on a track scholarship. He left to go into comedy. After he’d become a star, he was awarded an honorary degree for life experience. He would eventually go on to get a master’s and a doctorate (his dissertation was on ‘Fat Albert’ and childhood education).

    Given that unorthodox path, his positioning on ‘black irresponsibility’ has always seemed a little off to me.

    Still. I don’t think Obama’s having worked in the community make his comments less dangerous or more knowing. In fact, I think him having worked in the community gives more weight to the stances of people who buy into the idea of black dysfunctionality and the stereotypes illustrated above.

    You know, “He knows what he’s talking about! He worked with those people!”

  • LOL … Demby, he DOES know what he’s talking about! He DID work with those people!

    But seriously. If working in the community doesn’t make him more knowing, then what does it do?

    And frankly, who cares about the people who buy into the idea of black dysfunctionality? They’re like the audience at home. They sit back and watch and don’t do much of anything, either way. Except, sometimes, they vote. I hate to admit this, but I think Obama was being just slightly disingenuous, at worst. He was saying what they wanted to hear.

  • And his work with ‘those people’ should have given his stance more nuance, right? He’s talking about better nutrition in the hood? If he lives there, he has to know how logistically challenging that actually is. He would have to know about the shitty sex education/health resources available to the people who have unplanned pregancies or father children.

    I think where we disagree is that I think the people to whom he was speaking directly buy into the idea of black dysfunctionality.

  • We don’t disagree on that. Well, not really.

  • What he said was uncomfortable – but still true. Too many men (and some women, too) aren’t stepping up to the plate.