(Repost) Putting Jesse into a larger context

I think we can all agree that what Jesse said about Obama was reprehensible and beyond reproach. I've read a lot over the past two days about how Jesse and by association, Al Sharpton, et al, are relics of the past and to a very large degree, I agree with that.

This is a new century and despite all of the things that have been given to us legislatively, we still have a long way to go. The tactics of the 60's and 70's were of value back then because they addressed the moral wrong that was visited upon us as a people. But, since then, what have we done with those gains when a great many of the roadblocks have been cleared away?

Do we still suffer from a slave mentality that prohibits us from advancing further and taking our rightful place as equal citizens in this society? Do we still need for the majority to "give" us something/anything?

• We have our HBCU's. Do we support them? Do we make them world-class?
• We have our own communities because with fair housing, that's where we have chosen to live? Do we keep them clean and neat and worthy of residence?
• We have our churches--still. But do we still consider them as our moral center?

I have been in lively debates with Black people about the candidacy of Barak Obama. Let me say, I am not a Democrat. But, I see myself in him because I feel the attacks by the right and the Republicans acutely. Why? Because they question his capacity as a Black man, no matter how they want to couch it. They play to the fears that Whites have always had about us. I want to see that overcome and with Barak Obama, I see a chance for that to happen. It does not mean that I will agree with him politically but I see him being a better "opportunity" for change than I do with John McCain who is publicly calling for the status quo to remain.

So, when I see people defend Jesse Jackson as if we still owe him largess, I say no...not when he does something dick-headed like he just did. "Talking down to Black America?" Was Obama wrong with ANYTHING he said on Father's Day (the one day where if we as a community wanted to feel shame, this was it. 70% of all Black children are in non-nuclear households)? Was Bill Cosby incorrect? Why do we need our spokespeople to be in flowing robes and floating in on clouds? We all fall short of the Glory, right?

I find it so amusing when people criticize the messenger but do not offer ANY alternatives to the message.

Barak Obama has 90% of the Black vote because he is a viable Black candidate. But, I think the reason we bristle at Jesse's comments are akin to the reaction we had when Denzel and Halle won their Oscars. We were upset because of the roles they played. It didn't matter that their performances were world-class; it was that Black people were being shown in a negative light. What Jesse did was reprehensible...even Tom Joyner was declaring him the Bama of the Week before Huggy Low Down even came on today.

What I have a hard time understanding, and I can appreciate one's skepticism as that is their right, but we have a man (no matter his ethnicity) who can cobble together a coalition to create change when he gets into office. I'm not quite sure what Obama's Democratic critics are looking for him to do or if he has to come out of the mold of the old-line civil rights people, but when you see someone (given the choice between him and McCain) who is in a position to create something different where McCain seems to advocate the status quo, what do YOU want him to say/demonstrate will be for Black America exclusively?

He cannot be for Black America no more than we could ask The White Candidate running for president to be for only one group. We see where that has gotten Bush with his and Cheney's advocacy of the oil industry.

When you see a man who looks like us with a very real opportunity to be in power for the first time, knowing full well that he cannot be for any one group over another because it would be political suicide, I must respectfully ask all of you what do you want him to do? What agenda do you need to see from him?

It reminds me of the joke where the man says, "I have three PHd's. They're all sitting in the other room." Does Barak Obama or any presidential candidate NEED to be the smartest person in the world? Given Biblical prophecy, that will be the Anti-Christ.

So, to the question of Jesse/Barak in the broader context, I would really like to know what do Black People want done...