15. The ignorance I glimpse in some of the responses to the article on Barack coalescing with black Christian leaders is disturbing to say the very least. In particular, the comments by Cecil Jones and Wilena White are the most ignominious! How can we say that Barack does nothing for the race? Even more, how can we say that he is splitting the Democratic vote? Sometimes, I believe not only that COINTELPRO is alive and well, but that persons associated with its tactics to infiltrate and subvert black progress visit these sites just to place the sort of comments we see from Cecil and Wilena in order to deceive black people into thinking that there is something inherently wrong with Barack or that his candidacy should not be paid any level of deference.

Barack has done plenty for the race. One does not have to speak from a pulpit or podium with the media in attendence--typically an obvious sign that the individual craves visibility more than vitality--in order to be given credit for having done something for black America. In other words, he does not have to be Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson about his politics to avoid being accused of not having done anything for his race. Barack has long been a proponent of affirmative action. He has fought hard to insure that funds and resources are given to HBCUs to increase the engineering, science, and technology programs at these institutions. He is an advocate for increasing the pell grant, which would allow more minority students--who otherwise are entombed by poverty and privation--an opportunity to attend college and attain a degree. He has been vocal in the ongoing call for civil rights and has proven himself to be a person for the people, having tirelessly worked on the South Side of Chicago for BLACK PEOPLE! If you have not seen the South Side of Chicago, perhaps, you cannot conceive of the idea that he has sacrificed his entire career to help black people rather than pander to the popularity of working in corporate America.

I think that sometimes we as black people tend to get caught up in pigment politics. Barack is light-complexioned and so it is thought that he is not black enough. If anything, that divides the black community from coalescing with a brother like Barack moreso than Barack could ever divide up the votes in the Democratic party. Consider Clarence Thomas. He's dark-skinned but his politics are very white. His political posture reveals a rugged-individualist despite his complexion. Consider the controversial Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. He was light-skinned--some might even say passe blanc--but nevertheless did things to insure that blacks would no longer be treated as second class citizens. Here's a little known black history fact: the reason the N-word is no longer used in Congressional hearings and meetings is because Powell call for an end to the use of the denigrating racial epithet.

Here, in Thomas and Powell, we see the paradox of pigment: The more you have does not always equate to your politics being blacker, or, better said, more representative of the black constituency. And, make no mistake about it, when I say black constituency, I do not speak of this group as a unified whole. One of the things black people more realize is that we do not have to all be of one voice in order to coalesce. After all, unity is a mythological assumption based on absolutely nothing. There HAS never been one unified group in history. NEVER! I am a historian, I should know. That is why it is funny when you hear people say, "we need to go back to Africa" as if Africa is one monolithic place not made up of countries and tribes and forces that have different visions and virtues. That said, we can come together on those things we agree upon and lend support to a candidate who is honest and seems ready to help black people continue along the path of progress. And here's the irony. Barack does not have to scream this all the time in order to accomplish it. The mistake of an individual like Al Sharpton in running for President of the United States has been that he has forgotten that it is the "United" States. You don't have to say what you are going to do solely for black people when it is everyone's issue. In fact, you do better saying the opposite. Black people need better healthcare, education, jobs, etc. But so does everyone else in America. Why say that "as President, I will insure that black people get these things" if everyone needs them? You do more to delineate and demarcate black people as this iconic force separate from the tradition that produces all Americans by doing that even while you constantly campaign for blacks to be considered Americans, that is, equal in our social standing and citizenship to white Americans and other citizens.

Barack understands that by helping ALL Americans get better healthcare or educational resources, that black people will also get these things. And he's not dumb to the fact that America has conditioned a reality where blacks are given a poor distribution of the resources. Nevertheless, Barack's attempt is to get all of America agreeing on the problems that exist in our society and the ways to go about eradicating those problems, while sort of surreptitiously insuring that the most fractious issues facing blacks get included in that attempt. But when you speak as Sharpton has done, you divide people even when those people are in need of the same things black people are in need of.

In the final analysis, I cannot agree with anyone who says that Barack is dividing the Democratic vote. Barack is trying to win an election. Who is dividing the vote from? Hilary? Please! One of the biggest jokes in America right now is that Bill Clinton was a black President, along the same lines, Hilary, I suppose, is the second coming. This is the biggest farce that exist since the notion that John F. Kennedy was a great president for blacks. Simply not true! Lyndon Johnson did more to help blacks than Kennedy did but blacks seem to love Kennedy just as we do Abe Lincoln and now the Clintons. Bill Clinton ignored Rwanda while in office. There was more prisons built on his watch and he's infamous for helping to institute the Rockefeller drug laws that have been responsible for seeing more black men receive extended jail sentences for first time drug offenses. My suggestion here is NOT that the the proliferation of drugs through our community is okay. But when a black male gets dispproportionately more time for selling or smoking crack than a white person gets the same for selling or snorting cocaine, we have a problem. Clinton also dismantled the AFDC, which certainly did not do anything to aid blacks on welfare. While welfare should not be utilized as a lifelong resource, Clinton reneged on his promise to bring reform. And now blacks are clamoring for Hilary as if she has done something special for us? While it is easy to see that Bill Clinton is better than George Bush--of course, having a Democrat in office is always better than a Republican if we only recognize that when Dems are in office, there's a surplus and when Republicans are in office, this country is constantly in debt--we should not ignore the perfidies of the Clinton administration. On his final day in office, when he could have pardoned Assata Shakur (an African-American and former Black Paanther--if you don't know the story, look it up) and allowed her to return from her political asylum in Cuba, and when he could have also pardoned Leonard Peltier (a Native American--again, look the story up)--particularly given that both have been proveninnocent of the crimes charged against them--he instead chose to free known criminals like his brother. Yes, that's doing a lot for black America and now some of us seem to be drinking the Hilary koolaid when her only experience has been watching Bill sleep with other women right under her nostrils.

Do the right thing, stand up and vote for a man who can lead this country in the direction it needs to go! Vote for Barack!