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Obama's grandmother just died
03 Nov 2008 04:47 pm
What a tragedy. He can be glad that she must have died in little doubt of the outcome. But while it's awful to lose someone you love at any time, it must be even worse to have it happen when you should be filled with the thrill of victory. At least his victory is secure enough that he doesn't need to have divided attention at a horrible moment.
And the first thing I thought was, "Does this help or hurt his chances?" I am a horrible person.
(And I think it helps.)
Terrible news, for sure. Just wondering, if she cast an absentee ballot, does her vote count? Do they go through absentee ballots to determine if the person is alive on election day?
I don't mean to be insensitive, but an eighty-six year old woman dying isn't a "tragedy" by any stretch. It's certainly a personal loss to Obama but I couldn't care less. :-S
Of course, my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
But it is a shame that Obama's grandmother will be remembered as the grandparent who raised Obama and who held the typical racist attitudes of her day. And it's 100% Obama's fault that she will be remembered that way. Not only in the election did he express those views, but also in his 1995 autobiography.
I know that Obama wanted "Dreams from my Father" to focus on race. But I found it more than off-putting that Obama doesn't express his gratitude towards his grandparents, but instead shines the light on an isolated racist remark.
From what I've read about Obama family, she was the by far the best of the bunch: steady, responsible, hard working, unlike her husband, daughter, and son in law.
Obama equated her to the Reverend God Damn America. He smeared her name before a national audience. That was an extremely slimy thing to do for political expediency.
"I know that Obama wanted "Dreams from my Father" to focus on race."
Gee, what was the first clue? The subtitle is "A story of race and inheritance".
"But I found it more than off-putting that Obama doesn't express his gratitude towards his grandparents, but instead shines the light on an isolated racist remark."
I guess his grandmother being scared of a particular black person makes her a racist She didn't make any remarks, her husband ascribed racism to her because she dared to be afraid of a black person. I guess if she were mugged / raped / murdered that would have been better because her soul would have been clean. So if any black person ever does anything untoward and someone calls them on it, the person doing the pointing out is a racist. Right.
This is going to be an interesting 8 years.
"He can be glad that she must have died in little doubt of the outcome."
Having just gone through this with my mother, I'd say he can be gladder that he had the opportunity to see her again and spend some time with her, in spite of a rather busy schedule, before she passed.
Somehow, I think that the outcome of the election is not the first item on Sen Obama's mind when he thinks of his grandmother, and I think the uncharitable comments expressed here by both columnist and reader are a perfect expression of the total lack of human sympathy brought to American politics by conservatives for the last twenty years.
To conservatives: good riddance!
wow - excellent comments all round. Real nice. I particularly like Steve Johnson's sensitive and lucid commentary on the complexity of losing a relative, with whom you've had a difficult relationship, just before what may be the pinnacle of your career. Really feeling the empathy.
But I found it more than off-putting that Obama doesn't express his gratitude towards his grandparents, but instead shines the light on an isolated racist remark.
Admitting that his grandmother held some attitudes wholly typical of people of her day (and our day) is hardly the kind of horrible smear you're implying it is here. The point of remarks about his grandmother's "racism" was not to smear her but to make the opposite point, to emphasize extent to which race is an uncomfortable topic even for unquestionably good people. And if you really think that Barack Obama has expressed no gratitude to his grandparents, then, well, you've seen what you've wanted to see.
"The point of remarks about his grandmother's "racism" was not to smear her but to make the opposite point, to emphasize extent to which race is an uncomfortable topic even for unquestionably good people."
That might be appropriate if Obama's grandmother did something questionable. She didn't. She expressed fear of a specific threatening person. That person was black.
Here's a clue. If someone gets mugged by a black person, it's not "racist" to say "I was mugged by a black person". It's a statement of fact. Obama's grandmother was threatened by a black person. Obama's grandfather felt so uncomfortable with the situation that he ascribed a bad motive to his wife in having felt threatened. Dipping into speculation if he believed she was threatened it brings up all sorts of bad primal emotions and leaves him with no good alternatives.
- Some dude threatened his wife
- This is a challenge to him as her husband
- He should defend her
- To do so, he'd have to confront a black man
- That makes him like those evil white people who oppress black people
- Can't have that
- Wife must be crazy
- Nah, that won't work
- Wife is a bad person for feeling threatened because there must have been no real threat
- Crisis averted
The problem with the example isn't that his grandmother did something unquestionably racist and that makes her a bad person, yadda yadda. It's that everyone involved in the situation has to jump through hoops and ignore reality to avoid ever ascribing bad motives to any black person.
This is a serious problem simply because by any measure, black people frequently cause problems. Obama clearly endorses a worldview that states that black people behaving in uncivilized ways is to be ignored but at the same time, if someone points out that a particular black person behaved in an inappropriate way that person is to be condemned for noticing. That's just sick.
Steve:
Take a look around the net. 90% of the people out there, no matter their party affiliation don't think there's anything in the least wrong with Obama's grandmother. People who've read his book, listened to his speeches and interviews - they all think she's a remarkable person who might have been uncomfortable around black people but also brought up an amazing biracial grandson.
As your own words convey, there is a problem with race in this country. What Obama did was acknowledge it rather than ignore it or try to brush it under the carpet as so many politicians do.
The only people this threatens or saw it as a "smear" are people like you who know in their heart of hearts that they have a problem but are unwilling to deal with it.
Reality is a lot more complex than you're willing to give it credit - as a lot of Americans know because they live it every day. The Jeremiah Wright who yelled "God damn America" is the same Jeremiah Wright who was in the Marines. If you can't deal with that, life is just gonna get more difficult for you in this century, not just the next 8 years.
Interesting that Obama has numerous half-siblings, but his grandmother was his last living ancestor.
I'm glad he had a chance to visit and say goodbye to the lady who raised him so succesfully. What an emotional tumult for him this week must be.
I had no idea his grandmother had cancer. I feel even worse about him throwing her under the bus in that Rev. Wright speech now, knowing she was wracked with cancer too. Obama was an asshole to the one person in his life who took care of him and stood by him through thick and thin -- not his biological father who abandoned him, or his mother who abandoned him for long stretches so she could go native in Indonesia to work on her thesis.
Let's hope that if Obama wins, his hardworking, responsible grandmother is more of an influence on her than his two lefty, flaky biological parents.
Fred, Steve Johnson, you guys are idiots giving conservatives a bad name. Can't you be gracious, sympathetic or human for even ONE SECOND? Jeez! Learn from Senator McCain for goodness sake, his was a classy response.
To steve johnson for being a fine example of ignorance in this country, and for emphasizing the reason why we need CHANGE:
what makes you so certain that his grandmother was simply making a remark of feeling threatened by just a random man who happened to be black? you act as if everything is so random...was the rodney king scandal RANDOM? how about the assisnation of MArtin luther king? or the lynching of thousands of slaves? or the beatings of the slaves? or how bout slavery??? yes, yes thats all quite random. Its also very random how we forgot that our country was based on the founding principles of racism, deeming an African-American THREE-FIFTHS of a man.
I think we forget that this idea, of blacks being not even a MAN, in the eyes of the ideals and principles, and forefathers of this country, is still pervasive in our society. which is what obama is referring to. He is not saying that his grandmother feared some random man who HAPPENED to be black. You clearly arent a bright man if thats why you imagined Obama's statement to mean. No, my ignorant friend, he is saying that because of the innate racist nature of our society, particularly in his grandmas generation, people such AS his grandmother still maintain racist ideaologies, whether they realize it or not. Was there a reason given to why the grandma fealt threatened by this man? was he carrying a weapon? etc. NO because chances are, its because hes black, and the media, and history, and everything else in this country and society frame black people as dangerous, scary, sexually charged beings and so many other things. Every other show on tv has the black man as a gangster, drug dealer, some kind of threat, and this image of the black man has been perpetuated through our news and other media outlets. This mentality was ESPECIALLY pervasive in his grandmas generation. i mean, HELLO??? civil rights was only 40 yrs ago!! blacks were getting hosed down 40 YRS AGo!! is you think thats old news, you must be living in a box somwhere...black people barely just receieved the right to vote, and you're saying that his grandma wasnt racist but was feeling threatened by a random black person. No, im sure shes a nice kind person. No doubt, but NICE PEOPLE CAN BE RACIST. not all racists are horrible people who want to lynch every black person they see. In OBAMAs case, i believe his grandma was a great woman who had the same mentality others have, holding onto stereotypes of blacks that have been carried on through the years since the creation of this country. Like someone mentioned above.. obamas goal is to point out the truths about race and the innate racist mentality, even good people can have.
Dudes - Obama had her euthanized once her utility for his amitions was gone.
Of course, it was done "at family request" to put her out of her misery.
Just like some day you'll all be euthanized if the Progressives have their way.