It is with frustration that this blog is being written. I have been listening to the talk show pundits (if you can call them that) speaking swelling words on something they know little about. They claim to understand the plight of the African-Americans in America, do they? I seriously doubt it! Why does the message of Barrack Obama ring a bell within the African-American community? Why does the use of a simple word like hope resonate so well among the voting constituency across party lines? Perhaps the people of America are fed up with the same political diet foisted on them for notable periods of time. Many hope for change and that change is away from political hacks like the Clintons. Many hope for change away from the war mongering Bush family. People want to live in peace; people want to live with one another in harmony.   Yes; people in America have hope and if it takes a man of color to bring that change, then that is what they hope for. What is unknown about the plight of the African-American people is their continued plight even to this day. Let us review a historical brief. 

HISTORICAL INFORMATION:

“The majority of African Americans or blacks (we use the terms interchangeably) in the United States trace their roots to West Africa. They were torn from their cultures of origin between the 17th and 19th centuries when they were brought here as slaves. Blacks represent the only migrants to come to the Americas, North and South, against their will. Blacks from Africa were literally kidnap victims, kidnapped by Europeans, as well as purchased as captives by Yankee traders. This experience has made African Americans, as a group, very different from immigrants who chose to come to the United States to better their lives, and different from refugees who fled their homelands to escape religious or political persecution.

The very word slave carries the connotation of an “inferior” being; slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person during census-taking. Slave owners inwardly understood that treating people as animals to be owned, worked, and sold was immoral, but they wanted to think of themselves as good, religious, moral people. Hence they had to convince themselves that their slaves were not really human but a lower form of life. They focused on racial differences (skin color, hair texture, etc.) as “proof’ that black people were not really people, after all. Racism began, then, as an airtight alibi for a horrifying injustice. The notion of the slave (and by extension, any African American) as less than human has created great psychological and social problems for succeeding generations of both black and white citizens. Slavery led to a system of inferior housing, schools, health care, and jobs for black people, which persists to this day.

The institution of slavery formally ended in 1863, but the racist ideas born of slavery have persisted. These ideas continue even now to leave deep scars on many African Americans. Today, particularly in the lower-socioeconomic classes, many blacks continue to suffer from the psychological heritage of slavery as well as from active, current discrimination that still prevents them from equal opportunity in many realms of life.” (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, Harris, 2008: 170-71)

The people of color, the African-Americans in America, are still contending for equality under the law and in the eyes of the more populous white people. The black people are still treated as inferiors; they are still being treated as second class citizens. And; if you do not believe what I am telling you, all you have to do is listen to the words being spoken by the likes of Hillary and her ilk, condescending racist words and actions. Why else would she treat Barrack Obama as an inferior? Because that is exactly how she views him, still a slave, still an animal to be subjugated to her plantation master domination. She is the plantation master and Barrack Obama is the runaway slave. 

As a firm believer in the first amendment right of free speech, I think you are entitled to your say and I am to mine. Lately Limbaugh and Hannity (and others) are missing the point of Barrack Obama’s key center point and focus of his campaign. And that being hope, that being change! Personally; I cannot endure those criminals AKA Clintons; period. I cannot endure that sack of fecal matter called McCain either. So; where does that leave us, in a quandary? Not necessarily! A vote for Barrack Obama is not a vote for Clinton. A vote for Barrack Obama is not a vote for McCain. Or; you could refuse to vote for anyone, but; what would be the change in that? You could end with Clinton or McCain in the presidential role, then what? Or; you can p-imp yourself one time if you are a conservative and vote for Barrack Obama and give the parties time to adjust, time to select reputable candidates and not refuse for choices!  The bottom of the garbage can is not the choice of most Americans. And yes; I am one of those angry white people that has had enough!  We want change, now!