Comments on: Will The Right Make This Obama’s “Wise Latina” Moment?

By: Schiele85

Schiele85 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:24:18 +0000

I think it’s clear that he’s referring to African Americans being more fundamentally rooted in the American experience, over an African experience. As a Ghanaian with African-American friends, I have had this conversation a few times, and for most of my friends, their American identities / background IS, and will always be the primary experience that they draw on.

By: libra blue

libra blue — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:57:19 +0000

The problem I had wih this comment by Obama is that he has lumped all African Americans into one group and everyone else into another. Of course some African Americans will be more “rooted in the American experience” than people of other cultures, but not every non-African person came over on Ellis Island.

Except for the first question about the stimulus package, Anderson did not challenge Obama on a single topic, this was not an interview in the true sense, it was just another way for CNN to give Obama a platform to say whatever he wanted without opposition.

Also, when is Anderson going to acknowledge that Obama is not African American, but multiracial? I wonder if Obama intends to educate his children on their white heritage as he did their black heritage.

By: mantis

mantis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:25:40 +0000

So did Mr. Obama mean that African Americans are more rooted in American experience than other Americans, or more rooted in American experience than the African experience?

Obviously, he meant that African-Americans are more rooted in the American experience than African immigrants to America, as they “don’t have a recent immigrant experience to draw on.” One would think a reporter would know how to consider context, or at least read all the way to the end of the sentence.

Whether the line becomes a conduit for a larger discussion on race in this country, or a talking point for the Obama detractors remains to be seen.

Well, it likely would have become neither, as it was a perfectly banal comment. However, you’re possibly deliberate misreading will of course provide plenty of fodder for the reality-challenged right wing. Good work!