At a certain point in Obama's life, he signed on to cultural blackness
I will not indulge the lazy pot shot of claiming that Carson himself is disqualified from authentic blackness by being a Republican. The idea that one is not meaningfully black if one’s politics fall rightward of, roughly, Cornel West’s is not only mean but 1) ahistorical and 2) inaccurate, unlikely from anyone who has spent real time with black Republicans.
Nor is the reason Obama qualifies as black simply because of the color of his skin. “Obama’s not black? What that all about?” many will ask, as if being a color simply settled the matter. That, too, is an oversimplified view. It stems from an idea that the essence of being black is the fact that whites’ view of you is colored by various degrees of racism. I reject the idea that we will define ourselves according to others’ contempt. A race that defines itself on the basis of the degree to which others have us wrong will never be spiritually whole.
Read the full article HERE.
Nor is the reason Obama qualifies as black simply because of the color of his skin. “Obama’s not black? What that all about?” many will ask, as if being a color simply settled the matter. That, too, is an oversimplified view. It stems from an idea that the essence of being black is the fact that whites’ view of you is colored by various degrees of racism. I reject the idea that we will define ourselves according to others’ contempt. A race that defines itself on the basis of the degree to which others have us wrong will never be spiritually whole.
Read the full article HERE.
