tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post5460274282525056211..comments2024-03-18T00:15:29.547-07:00Comments on The Fourth World: Obama’s Denial: The fear of a Black Messiah / Part Two of Barack Obama and the “End” of RacismJUAN RAFAEL SANTOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01879890481260089196noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-18203441226385070132019-10-17T23:28:26.923-07:002019-10-17T23:28:26.923-07:00Keep up the excellent work,osg777 I read few artic...Keep up the excellent work,<a href="http://www1.play1628games.com/" rel="nofollow">osg777</a> I read few articles on this site and I think that your web blog is real interesting and Power to the People of excellent information.jonethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15911560923291919347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-82796941024826551122008-05-06T02:35:00.000-07:002008-05-06T02:35:00.000-07:00Dear Juan Santos both we know every candidates for...Dear Juan Santos both we know every candidates for President of USA are important to your country but also to the world. <BR/>But Hillary Clinton will be worst.Read pls this important notice<BR/>http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/GMO/Monsanto/monsanto.html<BR/>and linkages to GMO and Terminator plans.<BR/>In terms of environment, Obama pursues a very innovative campaign and where and how to make USA again as model for modern world.<BR/><BR/>Your writings are profound anyway and i was link your superb blog to my Dossier Planificando a Paz (Dossier Planning Peace).<BR/>All the bestJoão Soareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231398342414182116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-89192527793159239472008-04-03T16:46:00.000-07:002008-04-03T16:46:00.000-07:00Dear Juan,I'm back (after commenting before on par...Dear Juan,<BR/><BR/>I'm back (after commenting before on part 1 of this), still thinking. I'm reading Barack Obama's book Dreams From My Father. Only partway through and who knows where he is headed with this -- he seems to be someone who learns as he goes, dynamic process that doesn't stop/rigidify. But even so I am finding his discussion of black nationalism really really interesting.<BR/><BR/>I can't reproduce or do credit to it. His analysis/ reflection starts on page 195 and runs through page 204. The context is his experiences as a community organizer in Chicago. It is nuanced for such a short section. I can't even begin to describe it so hope you and others will read it.<BR/><BR/>Toward the end (starting page 203), he writes {I typed this in, any typos are totally my responsibility, and I excerpted it specifically to focus on why I feel this as relevant -- again I encourage people to read the whole thing themselves}:<BR/><BR/><I> ... What in the hands of Malcom had once seemed a call to arms, a declaration that we would no longer tolerate the intolerable, came to be the very thing Malcolm had sought to root out: one more feeder of fantasy, one more mask for hypocrisy, one more excuse for inaction...<BR/><BR/>...[What concerned me] ... was the distance between our talk and our action, the effect it was having on us as individuals and as a people. That gap corrupted both language and thought; it made us forgetful and encouraged fabrication; it eventually eroded our ability to hold either ourselves or each other accountable. And while none of this was unique to black politicians or to black nationalists -- Ronald Reagan was doing quite well with his brand of verbal legerdemain, and white America seemed ever willing to spend vast sums of money on suburban parcels and private security forces to deny the indissoluble link between black and white -- it was blacks who could least afford such make-believe. Black survival in this country has always been premised on a minimum of delusions; it was an absence of delusions that continued to operate in the daily lives of most black people I met. Instead of adopting such unwavering honesty in our public business, we seemed to be loosening its grip, letting our collective psyche go where it pleased, even as we sank into further despair.<BR/><BR/>The continuing struggle to align word and action, our heartfelt desires with a workable plan -- didn't self-esteem finally depend on just this? It was that belief which had led me to conclude, perhaps for the final time, that notions of purity -- of race or of culture -- could no more serve as the basis for the typical black American's self-esteem than it could for mine. Our sense of wholeness would have to arise from something more fine than the bloodlines we'd inherited. It would have to find root in Mrs. Crenshaw's story and Mr. Marshall's story, in Ruby's and Rafiq's; in all the messy, contradictory details of our experience.</I><BR/><BR/>I don't necessarily understand or agree with everything he says in this excerpt or the overall discussion it comes from. But what is notable to me is his sensitivity to the relationship between word and action, and to the traps that come with ideas and perspectives that do not integrate with people's actual experiences and day to day realities in the now.<BR/><BR/>I read your blog, Juan, and I wonder -- where are the lived connections between the day to day work life you experience, the life that you only briefly describe in your first essay on Obama, and the beautiful perspectives and words you write here in this blog?<BR/><BR/>One thing about Senator Obama that gets to me is the fact that he visibly is what he is and does -- his perspective and his actions match up in a specific way that is not usual. <BR/><BR/>I may not understand where he is coming from and I may not agree with all (or even most) of it. But what I see is: this person is doing what he says he is about. It is not "someday we will make this happen if in the future our plans work out." It is not "In some future scenario this is what I will do." It is not "here is a grand sweeping plan for revolution that words will claim must occur." <BR/><BR/>It is that he is DOING what he SAYS (and there are contradictions and messiness there for sure) <B>as he goes along</B> -- each and every step of it, in the now <BR/><BR/>Example: by running for president, his participation in this has already shifted existing patterns of power via funding for campaigns. This is not revolutionary, of course. In fact, it might well be pointless in the bigger picture. But what is notable to me about this is that he DOES what he SAYS as he goes. His stated claims and beliefs are visible to me in his actions and their effects. Now. Not later. Not in poetic mythic claims about fighting the monster and someday it will come down and when it does this is what we will do (future promise not reflected in present experience). But doing as he says as he goes along. <BR/><BR/>That is why he has my respect, that is a big part of why I can't accept your analysis as I want to. Overall, as much as I appreciate the truths in what you write here and elsewhere, my gut knows that there is a place in all of it where it is not exactly about truth. Where you are standing is not entirely solid or grounded in the now, leaving a chasm between the overall sweep of your analysis and what you (and others) actually do in the now every day. It is a chasm so pervasive for so many of us that it usually is unremarkable and accepted.<BR/><BR/>I know the categories that a discussion on this stuff could flow into. Accepting-realism versus vision-truth. Etc. Those categories gloss over things and change the subject.<BR/><BR/>The thing is, if this chasm is real and pervasive, if that is actually true, then it will have effects whether anyone admits it or not, it will have effects no matter who is most eloquent or wins arguments or gets agreement or disagreement on any context. <BR/><BR/>If I am wrong on all this, and I may be, I am wrong in relation to what is actually going on. Nothing I say will change that. Nothing anyone else would agree to or otherwise say would change that. Same goes for everything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-55301655932485220762008-03-30T13:26:00.000-07:002008-03-30T13:26:00.000-07:00Clear, precise and on the mark.Bravo.It is often a...Clear, precise and on the mark.<BR/><BR/>Bravo.<BR/><BR/>It is often a trial trying to explain these things to folks who are entranced by Obama but it is a necessary task.<BR/><BR/>Hats off to Juan Santos.chlamorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00783184417383892144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-65048186383841495312008-03-28T13:32:00.000-07:002008-03-28T13:32:00.000-07:00I dig it, dig it, dig it. Always refreshing when ...I dig it, dig it, dig it. Always refreshing when someone lays out the truth about Barack Obama and his charade. <BR/><BR/>This post was full of outstanding passionate writing, and you're hitting nails right on the head, time after time. Keep building, keep hammering.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052086.post-36786982089094439732008-03-25T08:59:00.000-07:002008-03-25T08:59:00.000-07:00You make me proud hermano!Thank you for your words...You make me proud hermano!<BR/><BR/>Thank you for your words!Max Maciashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09793680019483683005noreply@blogger.com