After many months of having political conversations that eventually end up as racially charged arguments, I as an aware voter have developed for the first time a fear of voting for a presidential candidate.  This fear, no matter how bizarre it may seem is based on the real possibility that for the first time in America we may have a black president.  Why would I fear this?  I will explain.

 

All along I have thought -and quietly said- that if Obama were to be elected the possibility of his presidency ending abruptly (assassination) would increase 4 to 6 fold over that of your regular run of the mill white male.  Naturally, with Hillary it would have gone up as well.  But the facts still remain, that all presidential candidates and presidents receive hundreds of threats on their lives and the motivation level - though how sick this may seem - goes through the roof with an Obama presidency. 

 

I also am finding an ever increasing silencing of political thought and speech.  I have defined this as the Obama thought and speech cocoon. It is hard to fathom that this cocoon that already exists for Obama could become even more restrictive and choke off all real political thought, debate, and rhetoric if he were to be elected. 

 

Which lead me to pose two questions to blacks; what would happen if Obama would be assassinated by a white person, and do you believed that political speech had been truncated by the Obama candidacy.  Too a person I receive the same response in one way or another about the first question.  I had one of them sum it up for me…  "We will not just burn our own, we will burn yours" if Obama is assassinated by a white. This is to say, cities won’t just burn the country will.  As to the latter it was split down the middle but all agreed that there had been some form or another of squelching political rhetoric.

I am guessing that the security agencies that see to the candidates safety are becoming aware of the increased level of hostility in the event that Obama is elected and contingency’s have been made or at least thought about if something were to happen.  And with regards to this, I do believe that we are seeing this all new governmental problem comes into focus with a part and partial response that has the thought police creeping into our day to day political and social lives.  This new level of racial political protectionism mentality has racially charged the political atmosphere.

This also calls into question why “American” ideals have not attached their great hope and promise to the so called black leaders of today and a majority of black culture.  When you see that Obama shares this perception - as he has adopted the one word catch phase of Hope to define his message- you can only ask, why does this condition persist in the black community?  Further, this perception has been demonstrated by the recent phone video of Josh Howard disrespecting the national anthem and this recent news piece that placates to an Obama presidency.  We are expected to vote for Obama for reasons other than his overall qualifications or because some black guy –Josh Howard- who makes 8mil a year can’t see what this country have given him for his hard work.   

 

There underlying feeling among blacks that if they were to buy into the ideals of America, then this would be a validation of white America… not America, but white America.  I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Rev. Manning recently said…  something that finally made some sense and if this guy can get it right, even once, something is amiss.

 

What most black do not know is that white European slave importation came from all over the world, but here is the twist.  None had as deep a skin pigment as the African slaves, thus color was the easy way to define or identify these slave.  Racism and color go hand in hand in America not slavery and racism.  This is why we do not hear calls of oppression and racism from the Irish, Scottish, English and German slaves. African slaves were more easily controlled by their color alone.  What started as color segregation developed into racism over time there were not racist ideas that brought the slaves here.  Think of it like this.  If you were trying to separate socks in your laundry you would start with darker colors first, not because you held some kind of evil oppressive felling for colored socks, it would just be easier.  This is how the African slaves became the overwhelming choice for slave owners.  It was just easier, nothing more.  I’m not trying to over simplify or make little of slavery, but we first must understand the cause and effects.

 

To understand this you have to understand that blacks are just as guilty when it comes to perceptions of color of their own, more so than whites and it is acceptable because it is about their race. 

 

To blacks there are Four (4) major classifications of their race.  The first two deal only with the classification in color alone that would be derivations of darker and lighter skinned blacks and their particular stereotypes.  The other two, (2) being that of interracial marriage.

 

When it involves color alone not by interracial marriage it is believed that the lighter skinned blacks are ones that came from the big house or their ancestors were the spawn of the slaves masters and thus the term “high yellow” is used.  This group of blacks is looked down upon and are considered to be “pretenders” too the race.  Blacks that are dark skinned are seen as the “for real” people of the race. 

 

As to the interracial divide… it’s a mess.  Black women that marry white men are seen as trying to marry into the "corporate" side of life.  It would be akin to the example above for the big house.  Black men that marry white women are more commonly accepted and the astigmatism of lighter skinned offspring does not apply.

 

Barack Obama is the product of an interracial relationship and was born out of wedlock.  With this in mind, I have asked blacks if this matters to them when judging how he will represent their causes.  The answers that I receive speak loud and clear.  The overwhelming acknowledgment is that Obama is not their Messiah, they know that he will not be able to deliver them or any other minority group to the promises lands… and what blacks are looking for in their leader is person that is not only going to cater to them but have equal treatment for the Human Race. They see Obama only as a color not as a leader. 

What I also found interesting is the number one example they have for believing this about Obama, is the way Obama treated his 20 years of devotion to his church.  In their words “he –Obama- does not know what it really means to be black”. My conversations with many black people have both of us scratching our heads afterwards.

 

For years blacks have tried to access the fruits of America by using their African American identity and still have not achieved the total package.  What we continue to have is blacks gaining access through the back door -Affirmative Action- while other minorities are seeing real prosperity using the front door.  The problem is this… Blacks and their overwhelming desire for equality have had them build their foundation on a bed of false empowerment that gives the same kind of value as they as blacks have about white appreciation for the work of black slaves.  If black leaders were smart they would take Affirmative Action off the books and get behind the E.R.A.  The idea is EQUAL, or so I thought and it is time to make that next step.  This brings me to the Latinos.

 

Latino Americans have most blacks feeling troubled. Black perception is that Latinos are surpassing blacks in accessing America’s abundance and in achieving uniform acceptability.  They site their ability to stick together as a family and as a group as their strengths. The reasoning for this is that images of blacks eating their own make there way to the air waves on a daily basis.  Blacks see this as a huge point of weakness within the group. Because of this, black perception is that Latinos are seeing real prosperity for the group as a whole and not just segments like black have experienced. Where you have the constant race baiting tactics of so called black leaders and presidential hopefuls… in the Latino community your can hear a pin drop.  It is easy to see, at least from where I’m standing that blacks call negative attention to their problems and its only been exacerbated by every other minority groups silence.

What all this boils down to is this.  America is not ready for a black president if we were his race would be one of the last things we would have to resort too for a reason to cast a vote for him.  White, black, yellow, green, whatever will get in the voting both this November 4th, and in private we have to make a decision for this country.  Not for a race, not for a way to even a score, not for black Hope… For all Americans.  I’m not sure McCain is the man for the job, but I do know this… I have no fear of him.