Obama Notes ‘Tragic’ US Past
| More news stories on Liberal Myths |
|---|
Laurie Au, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 28, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama, speaking to a gathering of minority journalists yesterday, stopped short of endorsing an official U.S. apology to American Indians but said the country should acknowledge its history of poor treatment of certain ethnic groups.
“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,” Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY ‘08, a convention of four minority journalism associations.
{snip}
“I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said.
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
Obama, who appeared tired in his first major appearance since returning Saturday from a 10-day trip abroad, met with a receptive audience at the Chicago convention. Some journalists had waited three hours for the 40-minute appearance.
{snip}
When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so. {snip}
{snip}
Obama, who acknowledged that he needed a nap, stood up to say farewell to the audience of journalists, many of whom gave him another standing ovation.
Email Laurie Au at lau@starbulletin.com.
(Posted on July 30, 2008)
Comments
I studied American history in grade school, junior high, high school, and college. I came away with the impression that our history is pretty effing great. I’m not sure where Obama got the idea that our history is “tragic.” Maybe he went to different schools than I did.
Posted by at 6:18 PM on July 30
There is nothing in our past that wasn’t done by ALL peoples of the world prior to the onset of the modern era. Are the romans going to appologize for enslaving the Franks? Obama is judging
the past by our modern standards. The US paid many Indians for their land including Manhattan. We they to pay for Manhattan in 2008 dollars?
Posted by Tim at 6:30 PM on July 30
As I said in a post just yesterday, blacks are stuck in the past looking backward. It’s part of their emotional pathology.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 6:34 PM on July 30
“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of White Americans as well as other persons of northern european ancestry in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,”
Thats what he should have said…. white european stock made this country, and is slaughtered like sheep by the lesser races…
and nobody cares.
Posted by at 6:45 PM on July 30
“Not just offer words, but offer deeds”? We all know what that means, don’t we? All God’s chillun ‘titled to reparations, that’s what. Why is it that not even the more conservative organs like Fox News and National Review will seriously, aggressively pursue that issue? “Sen. Obama, do you support reparations for slavery?” “Sen. Obama, if you DO support them, would the money come only from Caucasian tax revenues, or would everyone have to chip in? And if the latter, wouldn’t African Americans be helping to pay reparations to themselves?”
But no, even the right wing apparently is not willing to be the one that pops Obama’s balloon. If the Great One Himself is certain that he’ll be elected president, as he seems to be, who are they to disagree? But there may be a big surprise coming in November. Sen. Obama, meet Gov. Dewey.
Posted by Wayne Engle at 6:58 PM on July 30
“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country,…”
This is in keeping with the usual practice of the “Blacks” and their apologists.
Because their deplorable behavioral habits cannot stand justification on their own, they drag other groups into the equation as a means to conceal what they are really talking about.
Whether its “Blacks and Hispanics”, “Blacks” and Indians”, “Women and people of color and Blacks” or just plain old “No dogs or Irish allowed”, they all have the same intent - to conceal what they are really talking about.
Ascribing “Black” behavior to other groups by dragging them in into their specious arguments fools no one.
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 7:25 PM on July 30
There now…the traitor needs a nap….will they photograph his nap time????? He talks out of both sides of his mouth and lies like a rug…I think maybe those stupid liberals just might get their fill of him before election time, I certainly hope they come out of their coma’s before November. This guy is dangerous!!
Posted by lydia at 7:55 PM on July 30
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
And that is proof positive that if Obama is elected we will see a bill for black reparations.
Posted by Eric at 8:08 PM on July 30
I find it hard to believe America hasn’t apologized to, well, everyone, already before.
Posted by at 8:17 PM on July 30
Every country in the world has a “tragic” past. What happened to Germany in the Thirty-years war was tragic. What happened to the Highlander Gaels after Culloden was tragic. The Irish potato famine was tragic. Enduring 500 years of muslim Turkish conquest and enslavement was a tragedy to the peoples of the Balkans. Only America has to keep harping on its “tragic” past because of the presence of a professional race industry and the desire for a shakedown.
Posted by at 8:20 PM on July 30
“…blah blah…we’ve got some sad and difficult things to account for.”
I don’t have anything to account for and I doubt if any of my ancestors ever did anything to the so-called “Native Americans,” not that it really matters as far as I’m concerned. If I found out that my great-great-etc grandfather was involved in the Indian wars, I’d be proud of him, too tell you the truth.
“…blah blah I personally would want to see our tragic history…acknowledged…blah blah…”
He makes it sound like we’ve been keeping all this history a deep, dark secret. What does “acknowledge” mean in this context, anyway? A formal apology from the Federal government opening the way to another flood of lawsuits? Reparations?
”..blah blah…Native Americans…African-American issues…reparations…not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
It’s kind of telling that Obama’s talking about reparations to a convention of “minority journalists.” If he’s saying this in public, what do you think he’s promising them in private? Your tax money, perhaps?
“Some journalists had waited three hours for the 40-minute appearance…blah blah…When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so.”
So much for the objectivity of minority journalists. Mencken said the only way for a reporter to look at a politician was down. How times have changed.
On a related note, Obama just appeared in my home town today. Small town. Pop. 20,000 or so. He drew a crowd of about 2000 mostly-white Midwestern lemmings who waited in line for hours to see the messiah. The local paper carried a huge story about it, several columns of local color and gushing, not a word of substance that I could see. A local mother coached her five-year-old to say that Obama “gave him hope.” Meanwhile, Obama’s signing bills to bring in more H1B workers to take this kid’s future job. Our arch-conservative newspaper just endorsed him.
Why anyone would wait in line for hours to see Barack Husein Obama is beyond me, but people are giddy about this guy. My family are all liberals and they just love him. As far as I can tell, supporting a black makes them feel deeply righteous. It doesn’t go any deeper than that because none of them know squat about the issues. They’re liberal Christians, social workers and big West Wing fans, which pretty much says it all.
I used to think the election was going to be pretty close, but now I’m starting to wonder. My own exposure has been limited, granted, but from the reaction I’ve seen, I’d say Obama could easily crush the doddering neocon Bush clone “Bomb Bomb” John McCain. I mean, just compare the two of them. After eight years of Bush, the Republicans are going to get slaughtered and nobody deserves it more. The only question now is whether Obama’s another Mugabe or just a darker version of Tony Blair. As for an Obama presidency “waking up whites,” forget about it. Maybe I’m stuck in the wrong crowd, but most of the whites I see are beyond salvage.
Posted by at 8:20 PM on July 30
Well, excuuuuuuuuuuse me, for living. Let’s all stop whatever we’re doing and just stand around apologizing to each other for the rest of our country’s blighted life.
“It’s time for everyone to quit playing the victim and get busy working and living in the here and now,” is what all the “leaders” should say, to all these people.
Blacks demand reparations for the past, and for the present. And soon for the future also, I’m sure—a princely sum to be paid every black mother (and father, if he can be found) to relieve their being presently tortured by the vision of a future in which their children must inevitably be ground under the heel of white racism.
Posted by H. Dumpty at 8:43 PM on July 30
Nice to see yet another gathering of unbiased journalists. Continue to look forward to more of their “fair and impartial” reporting in tomorrow’s newspapers, magazines, TV news programs, etc.
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 8:51 PM on July 30
>>>American “sad” history requires action, Obama tells cheering journalists
Hold on to your wallets…
REPARATIONS
WELFARE
MORE GOVERNMENT “GIFTS”
That’s what the Obama Presidency would work out to…
Is this clown really SERIOUS? All ethnic groups the world over have held, or have served as slaves at one or more time-points in their history. So WHY IN HELL are Afro-Americans supposed to get so much extra sympathy? The Jews labored for the Egyptians. Chinese held other Chinese as slaves. European serfs were slaves and treated many times more harshly than America’s Black African slaves. So PULEEZE tell me what this crackpot is blathering about.
I am sick and tired of that perpetual whine about slavery and post-slavery discrimination. Time to grow up, kiddies, and GET OVER IT! It’s a NEW WORLD and up to all African Americans to get off their lazy backsides and make something worthwhile of themselves!
If holding this view makes me a racist in YOUR eyes… so be it. Call me PROUD TO BE A RACIST!
Posted by Fed Up at 9:14 PM on July 30
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
Reparations by whom and to whom and for what? Keeping this idea alive is a BIG mistake, not only because it’s stupid and unfounded, but because support for the idea is being picked up and embraced by a group of people who have the mentality of children and a mental balance that is so far out of kilter they’re always on the verge of a full-blown attack of paranoia.
Look at how they pick up and run with the claim that whites introduced drugs in their neighborhoods to eliminate them. How about their idiotic belief that the government blew up the levees to eliminate blacks?
No matter how stupid, childish, and just plain ignorant a complaint is it is readily adopted by blacks as being 100% true if it depicts them as victims some way.
These ludicrous statements are what this leftist, fanatical pro-black geek is all about. These radical views tell more about who this guy is than anything else he says and does and allows us to see that his idea of change translates to whites being the whipping boys to every kooky racial claim in the country.
Right now he is careful about issuing statements that reveal too much of his insane leftist philosophy, but what little that does leak out is enough to understand that it is a chilling harbinger of the dangerous climate that will be created if he is elected, because he will unquestionably force battle lines between whites and blacks with his inane views that show blacks to be victims, rather than recognizing their incompetence.
This country is degenerating badly and the prognosis indicates an even more rapid drop if and when this dangerous demagogue gets in.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 9:19 PM on July 30
Reparations?
We owe you NOTHING!
Oh, and not one word about the Intellectual Tradition that made his discussion possible - The Democratic Principles of Free Speech and Assembly. Which of course, he and those Affirmative Action Journalists are all for removing from Whites who gave it to them.
It’s as simple as that.
And not one word about the Moral Tradition that highlited things like accountability - Judeo-Christian Principles. Principles that are conspicuously lacking in the “minority” groups present at the Obama Rally. Oh, I mean, Obama Press Reception.
Pathetic. Not only do I feel zero guilt and owe them NOTHING, but I want them to put up or shut up. I want Whites, who are entirely innocent of ANY wrong doing, and who don’t believe in this Guilt-trip nonsense for one second, to be able to practice their rights to Free Speech and Assembly, or I want it taken from them as well.
Posted by Dedalus at 9:38 PM on July 30
This “tragic history” is what has given you and countless other non-whites food & shelter, among other things.
Posted by at 9:38 PM on July 30
Does anyone else think that Obama gives a female perspective via his continuous victimhood pronouncements?
Posted by at 9:59 PM on July 30
“…the country should acknowledge it’s history of poor treatment of certain ethnic groups…”
God heavens!! This country never STOPS “acknowledging” this very thing. Our very national identity anymore is founded on perpetual self-flagellation for all our past white wickedness!
Posted by HH at 10:07 PM on July 30
Well, we have an Obama in Jesse/Al clothing. He wants reparations. Is anyone surprised? What’s next?
Posted by June at 10:13 PM on July 30
Oh God here it comes. Imagine what will happen if he becomes president?
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 11:10 PM on July 30
With crazed racist as the Reveran Write daming America and saying whites invented AIDS to kill off the black race. Put that with his line after line racist remarks in both of his books. I would say he knows first hand about racist and playing the race card. Now if he just knew how the government ran. The only thing he is proven to do well is writing books about his favort person, HIMSELF.
Posted by at 11:27 PM on July 30
“Sen. Barack Obama, speaking to a gathering of minority journalists yesterday, stopped short of endorsing an official U.S. apology ….”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hold on a minute! Back up the tape! A gathering of minority journalists?
I’d like to know what he said to a gathering of majority journalists.
But all this gets just so complicated! Who are the “minority” in Hawaii anyway? Indeed, who are the current minority/majority in the USA?
I could even ask: who are the minority in the world?
Posted by at 11:45 PM on July 30
Id like for journalists to press obama as to what exactly is meant by ‘deeds’ with respect to the reparation comment.
Posted by toonces at 12:00 AM on July 31
If Senator Obama feels guilt of any sort, he can apologize for himself.
I don’t believe in collective guilt neither do I believe guilt being transfered to the next generation.
I will never apologize for something I didn’t do.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 12:17 AM on July 31
Jeez, the press aren’t even trying to conceal their bias for Obama.
What tragedy, anyway? The only thing that distinguishes America from the rest of the entire globe in that whole slavery/oppression/genocide topic is that white Westerners—such as Americans and British men—fought and died by the hundreds of thousands to END such practices in this hemisphere. Other countries still practice those things, practices that were at the time of our country’s founding merely the way of the entire world.
Why doesn’t Obama and his ilk give America proper credit, instead of accusing us of some characteristic evil?
Posted by VigilantAmerican at 1:26 AM on July 31
Probably preaching to the choir…
From Wikipcedia:
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr., a Black Kenyan of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a White American from Wichita, Kansas.
Why isn’t there a constitutional requirement that all candidates for Federal offices MUST have two US citizen parents? This should be a concern to all Americans in this age of “anchor babies”.
Posted by at 3:14 AM on July 31
just tow things to say:
1. the American Indian: was not the myth created of peoples tied intimately to nature and peaceful; most were the worst sort of barbarians in a constant state of war with other tribes; they tortured their victims in very imaginative ways, including of course the whites, men, woman and children, that they captured. They had no more “right” to the land than did the pioneers. So enough please of painting the spread of the white man on this continent as a historical cause for shame, it was a cause for progress in the most positive sense of the term.
2. African slavery in America: black slaves were treated better in the South than they were ever treated in their native Africa; they were rounded up by other blacks to be sold to the europeans; blacks as a group have benefited enormously from their former status as slaves in America in nearly every respect imaginable; simply compare the average standard of living of current American blacks with their contemporaries in Africa; any know the current inflation rate in Zimbabwe or its current standard of living under black rule? Black should get down on their knees every day and thank the slave traders for bringing their ancestors to this country—which is something they would do if any had the least bit of objectivity, rational ability or a sense of gratitude(they have none); so much for this other “shameful episode in American history”
If you look at the facts, and not at the PC version of history, any rational person is forced to come to this conclusion; of course we are not dealing with rational human beings or with real history here
Obama must endorse the mythical history of the evil America in order to prove both to himself and others that he is black; a simple case of severe overcompensation in a mulatto; modern history is full of such examples.
Posted by at 7:50 AM on July 31
There is a great article by Matthew Richer on VDARE that indicates what we can expect in the way of affirmative action from a president Obama. Simply by following the career of Obama’s friend the first black governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, we can see the cul-de-sac the country is heading into at top speed.
http://www.vdare.com/
Posted by Sardonicus at 8:10 AM on July 31
“There is a great article by Matthew Richer on VDARE…(on) the first black governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick” (Posted by Sardonicus at 8:10 AM on July 31)
That really is a great article, and with fantastic links. It’s an entire education on race in America today—thanks very much!
But, for me it assessed hardly at all the risk that Obama would nominate him or anyone like him for attorney general. Is there any info on Obama having hustled race in as cynical and discriminatory a fashion as that rascal has?
Posted by H. Dumpty at 10:24 AM on July 31
Foreigners, including many blacks, want to come to America. They want to come because of the American dream, which exists because of our history. This has got to be one of the most offensive things Obama has stated. Of course, it will also be under reported.
Posted by at 10:24 AM on July 31
Didn’t Obama’s ancestors own slaves?
Posted by ex-liberal at 10:46 AM on July 31
Government is getting ready for Obama. The House apologized for slavery and Jim Crow.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25921453/
Posted by at 10:52 AM on July 31
Previous poster wrote:
Does anyone else think that Obama gives a female perspective via his continuous victimhood pronouncements?
Posted by at 9:59 PM on July 30
I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but yes, this constant hand-wringing and belly-aching about victimhood and the like, is not what we expect from traditional, manly men. This kind of moist-eyed crybaby whining may not be “feminine” per se — and I certainly don’t mean to insult AR’s female readers here — but it sure isn’t what I’d call “masculine”!
And if “minority journalists” (read: affirmative-action semi-literate anti-white racial partisans with some typing skills) won’t ask Obama if he supports Reparations, then SOMEBODY in the press ought to. And they’d better do it BEFORE the election, because after will be too late.
Otherwise, Reparations is exactly where all these mush-brained “apologies” are headed. You’ve heard of “40 acres and a mule”? Get ready for “40 acres and an Escalade.”
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 12:24 PM on July 31
You know what?
He can talk about this nonsense all he wants. If Power Elite is going to march him right into the White House, which is obviously what is happening, he is STILL going to inherit the largest National Debt in the History of the United States.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/28/georgebush.usa
There are moments when one is tempted to scratch their head or pull their beard, if they have a beard, and ask themself whether THIS is the reason they are so eager to get him into Office.
Sure, he can blame it on Bush and the Neocons, but no matter what, all eyes will still be one him, including those of us who have no use for him. In fact, especially us. Of course, he will fail miserably and the Press will do everything to cover his tracks. But, although Obama and the Press and his legions of lemmings seem pretty much unstoppable now, they are not invincible. Not by a long shot. Just the opposite in fact.
Fanaticism is a condition where everything is seen exactly as it is NOT.
This realization has begun to calm my soul and release me from the grip of anxiety I’ve been in since this whole thing started.
Posted by Dedalus at 1:46 PM on July 31
The following is somewhat sarcastic.
One must not assume that reparations alone will be sufficient atonement for whitey’s abuse. The noble American Indian must also have his land RETURNED TO HIM IMMEDIATELY!
The white man, the yellow man, and black man must immediately return to their original homelands. All of these races have benefited at the expense of the noble red man. All of the above have usurped the red man’s homeland. All have destroyed the red man’s environment which is now full of pavement, concrete, and pollution.
Suppose, if you will, that the white man never came, there would be no automobile, no plane, no plastic, no dependency on foreign oil. The land would still be pristine. There would still be the buffalo and carrier pigeon. Wild geese would fill the skies. The forests would be full of game. We would not have to account for global warming.
The white, the yellow, and the black have all taken and destroyed this land; and now all must leave including, most of all, President Obama himself!
MoMo
Posted by MoMo at 1:47 PM on July 31
The tragic past Obama refers to is going to become a tragic future if he is elected.
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 3:29 PM on July 31
If a man weighs his country in the scales and finds that it is unworthy why would that man want to be president of that country? To punish it! that’s why.
Posted by ricpic at 4:01 PM on July 31
Beside the many reasons given by David Horowitz as to why reparations for slavery is ridiculous, it should be pointed out that African Americans are major beneficiaries of that slavery – would they rather live in West Africa? Their ancestors were sold into slavery by other Africans who probably would have killed them otherwise. The Americas got the losers of West African tribal wars and slavery was (and still is) practiced in Africa.
Minorities everywhere have pegged Whites as suckers, and are usually amazed how much Whites give in to ridiculous demands and try to game them as much as possible. You don’t see Blacks going for reparations from the Arab nations who took even more black slaves East. They wouldn’t dream of pulling such stunts on any other race. Why White people are so sappy when it comes to blacks that generally hate them I can’t figure out.
Posted by FM at 4:19 PM on July 31
I think that this Obama madness is the result of the MLK holiday.
The worship of this man, MLK, opened the door to a new national religion and now we have the results. This is the real tragedy: our country is not on a sane path and has not been for decades.
Posted by Thrasymachus at 4:34 PM on July 31
How many long time Americans, in the sense of being third, fourth and fifth or more generation Amreicans are going to vote for Obama, even when they know his attitude—JUST BLOWS ME AWAY. I’d have never believed it, without seeing it with my own eyes. Voting for someone who essentially dislikes, possibly hates you, is a new phenomenon in my experience.
Posted by Bobby at 4:58 PM on July 31
“‘I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,’ the Democratic presidential hopeful said.”
Indeed, there are tragic elements to American history and they all begin in around 1946 and last to this day; it has nothing to do with the mistreatment of “persons of color,” but instead has everything to do with the calculated “deconstruction” and “dehumanization” of the white race and Western Civilization. However, is breaking with this insidious “historic” process the sort of “hope” and “change” that this presumptuous parvenu Obama is rambling on about incessantly.
Of course it is not!
From his code words like “economic justice,” to his prevaricated mentioning of “reparations” to a pack of adoring nonwhite propagandists in Chicago, he is simply indicating that he intendeds not just a pound of flesh from whitey, but his limbs as well. That is the “change” Obama seeks, a stiffening of audaciously “hopeful” nonwhite demands, and ever more craven white acquiescence to them. Or put another way, it is simply a dark and old Red wine in some rather new and transparent bottles.
As always, God help us all!
Posted by John PM at 5:36 PM on July 31
White Americans will put up with just about anything, even giving $20,000 to each detainee of WW II. But I am not sure that we will put up with giving money to blacks who have never suffered slavery or any form of discrimination. This is surely where Conyers and Obama are heading. They may wish they had not
Posted by Frank at 6:42 PM on July 31
A crucial story in the history of the African Slave Trade has been deliberately omitted by Black leaders (oxymoron) & PC Liberals. That story is the major role that some African tribes (kingdoms) played in founding & continuing the slave trade. As a matter of history, without their contribution there would have been no African Slave Trade. When the present day descendants of the Dahomey, Oyo, Ashanti & Swahili tribes, among others, come forth to apologize for their part in enslaving other African peoples then, and only then, should Arab & Euro-Med cultures consider such an act.
Posted by MadMax at 7:18 PM on July 31
The most tragic period in American history is certainly what has happened since Civil Rights. Blacks have killed over 250,000 whites since then, raped hundreds of thousands more, racial cleansed, enslave white middle class through welfare, inimidated us….. it is a type of black on white genocide. March white people march!! Get your freedom back by any means necessary!!!
Posted by Elrey Jones at 11:12 PM on August 1
The conference Jeremiah Obama attended is a racist anti-white group of haters. UNITY ‘08, is a convention of four racist minority journalism associations.
Posted by Elrey Jones at 3:11 PM on August 2
1) My ancestors on this continent were poor coal miners, factory workers, and laborers who never owned any slaves. Indeed, they WERE the industrial system’s true slaves.
2) Obama’s black ancestors never existed as slaves in America. Nor were they even in America at the time that slavery existed.
3) Obama’s white ancestors did own slaves.
Hence, Obama is the descendent of slave owners. He can apologize for himself, if he likes, and pay reparations too, but not for me.
Posted by at 11:35 AM on August 3
“Some journalists had waited three hours for the 40-minute appearance.
When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so. Obama, who acknowledged that he needed a nap, stood up to say farewell to the audience of journalists, many of whom gave him another standing ovation. “
———————————————————————
As someone who has worked around a lot of blacks, I find this to be so very typical. Regardless of what they’ve been told, regardless of what the rules are, they just ignore all instructions and rules, and then do whatever they want anyway.
Is it any wonder that black-run countries are chaotic, when nobody bothers to comply with any rules? They treat rules and laws as optional.
Posted by at 11:44 AM on August 3