Allies Obama, Jackson have different approaches on race issues

[DeepModem Mom]

Boston Globe: Allies' approaches differ on race issue
By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Columnist
September 25, 2007

WASHINGTON - Of all political marriages of convenience, the union of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a fellow Chicagoan, is among the most freighted. The two men need each other's support, yet also need to keep their distance. Each serves as a standing critique of the other, yet they profess to share similar goals.

When Jackson, who endorsed Obama for president last spring, was quoted last week as saying that his favorite candidate was "acting like he's white," Jackson mostly hurt himself. Both blacks and whites could take offense, and the remark appeared to violate Jackson's own arguments against a racial litmus test. He quickly backtracked.

But the context for Jackson's comment - a rally to support black youths who were initially charged with attempted murder for assaulting white youths in a racially charged atmosphere in Jena, La. - probably wasn't comfortable for Obama, either. Obama, like other Democratic presidential candidates, condemned the "excessive charges in the case" but did not choose to march alongside Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose tactics are viewed with suspicion by many whites.

Obama's statement on the Jena 6 made clear that he saw the issue as fairness, not race. The case, he said, was "not just an offense to the people of Jena or the African-American community, it is an offense to the ideals we hold as Americans. . . . I will continue my decades-long fight against injustice and division as president." Jackson seemed to want a more forceful condemnation of racist double standards from the man who seeks to be the nation's first black president.

And there's no doubt that Obama's decision to avoid some of the rallying and protesting of cases like the Jena 6 is vexing to Jackson. But as a man who has based his whole career on being an advocate for the black community, Jackson can hardly turn his back on a black US senator running for president in Jackson's own party. Instead, his occasional potshots seem intended to persuade Obama that he owes something to the black community - and perhaps to Jackson himself....

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/25/allies_approaches_differ_on_race_issue/

[DURHAM D]

1. Obama would not get that "owing" thing.

He has repeatedly made it clear that he does not understand that the divide in this country is over right and wrong. When he tells the boomers to get over themselves, to turn the page, to stop fighting the fights of the 50s, 60s and 70s and move on it is insulting to those who fought those fights.

Further he does not seem to know that the citizens of that period who stood up against discrimination on all stripes are the political children of abolitionists, labor supporters, suffragettes and the founding fathers.

He doesn't seem to know that all of those fights over basic human and civil rights are why he is now running for President.