On the radio this morning my mom and I heard a news segment saying that Rod Blagojevich had been quoted as saying, "I'm blacker than Barack Obama". (Here's an article) First of all, no Rod Blagojevich you are not blacker than Obama. Unless Blagojevich carries the recessive gene and actually has ancestry from Africa this statement is false. But I think the more disturbing part of this is Blagojevich's definition of what it means to be black. He continues by saying, "I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived, I saw it all growing up." This is what truly makes me cringe. According to Blagojevich, in order to qualify as "black" you must#1: Have a job growing up
#2: Live in an apartment
#3: Have an employed father
#4: "See it all"
Really? I know that I have greatly simplified what Blagojevich was trying to say, but frankly I'm not really sure what exactly he was trying to say. What does it mean when you "saw it all growing up"? What do you think Blagojevich was really trying to say?
I think he is trying to appeal to the masses of minorities which are, whether youi want to admit it or not, living, on average, at lower income levels than Whittes, especially in America. One of the major criticisms of Obama during his campaign was that he wasn't "black" enoujgh for the black cvommuntity who (according to the news) identify themselves as hardworking, lower class, and certainely not graduated from Harvard and Columbia. I think the argument was really insignificant, as Obama clearly carried the black vote. I simply don't understand why Blagojevich would reopen a closed argument. I don't know the context, but it seems blagojevich was trying to appeal to blacks in Illinois by claiming that if they liked Obama, they are gonna love him. He is definately grasping at strands as he drowns in his own political storm.
ReplyDeleteObama may not be the true black that Blageovich may be idealizing, in the sense that he does have a black father, and a white mother. Aside from his father's genetics, Obama was raised by his white mother and her family as his father abandoned them. Growing up with a white mother and white grandparents really influenced Obama, as he experienced different experiences then he would have otherwise experienced with a black father, or in an African-American community. So, since he is not genetically 100% African-American, and was raised by a white family, Blageovich criticizes the legitimacy of Obama being the first black president.
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