First Read:Toni Morrison endorses Barack Obama (Goodbye to the Big Dog)

[Colobo]

Author Toni Morrison, who famously labeled Bill Clinton "the first black president," has endorsed Obama. In a letter to the senator, she writes, "In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom."

Here's her full endorsement letter:

Dear Senator Obama,
This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/28/614795.aspx

[zabet]

1. Her assessment of Bill...

"In an October 1998 essay in The New Yorker, Morrison wrote: "Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime."

This makes me think that she thinks blacks
are the type to do dirty deals and get caught
having extra-marital affairs. Isn't that racist?

[Mike Daniels]

4. Bill was "black" according to Toni Morrison mostly because

he grew up poor, fatherless, played the saxophone and ate junk food.

The majority of her comparison was based mostly on negatives. Not exactly an positive endorsement.

[KittyWampus]

6. The only white president who really qualifies as being first 'black president' is Jimmy Carter

the man grew up working and eating with black families.

[zabet]

16. ...

If her comaparing Bill to blacks
was a negative endorsement, what does
that reflect about how she feels about
blacks?

[EFerrari]

17. She wasn't actually talking about blacks but of the situations that

poor black people struggle with -- much in the same way Mark Crispin Miller was talking when, commenting on the stolen 2004 election, he said, "we're all black now" because everyone's vote is subject to the same tactics that black people in this country have been fighting against forever.

[zabet]

20. All poor people face

struggles that are not
necessarily race defined
but are income defined.

[EFerrari]

22. Certainly and that isn't the point Morrison was making.

"Racism" is a form of class warfare and it has it's own attributes, mainly, it could be argued, those that are projected on it by the culture at large. Morrison wrote that at the height of the media's feeding frenzy on the Clinton White house.

[zabet]

24. Well i must be over simplifying it...

A black woman talks bad
about a President by refering
to him as black. :shrug:
Is this a case of only black
people can talk bad about others
using race as a clarifier? :shrug:

[EFerrari]

25. She wasn't "talking bad" about black people.

I think you can goggle "first black president" and "Morrison" and get the link to her original NYer essay. It's not long and then there'll be no one between you and what she actually said. It's mostly about how horrible the media was behaving. :)

[zabet]

26. Goggled it...

"African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us."

If a white person, even a poor white person
had written this type of comparison, I do believe
it would have had a totally different reception
by the public.

I suggest reading Larry G. Meeks column, Ethnically Speaking
http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/ethnically-speaking-larry-meeks/ethnically-speaking-2008-01-12.html
:)

[EFerrari]

27. That depends upon whether you accept the idea that a self

is constructed internally or externally and then, what you make of that. There is no doubt, though, that writers bring all of our selves, however we get those, to our work. :)

/oops

[zabet]

28. True..

LOL
I put Goggled!
:rofl:

[EFerrari]

30. Looked fine to me!

:rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

29. Obviously Toni Morrison hates black people.

It's the only logical conclusion.

[zabet]

31. ...

:crazy:

[Tatiana]

2. WOW. Powerful and another heartfelt endorsement. n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. superb, but,

why are the last several paragraphs stricken out? or is my machine playing mind games?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. I think it's a faulty underlining. I see the same thing, but part of the

'stricken out' passage is the very paragraph that is emphasized in the OP.

[WHAT]

7. here ya go...

Dear Senator Obama,
This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

[Clintonite]

8. Looks like they are all comming home! Sad. Is this racism?

[knowledgeispwr]

9. Who is they?

Care to explain?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. what is comming?

a reference to some act in the Oval office?

[wndycty]

11. Woah THEY?!?!?!

:kick:

[dionysus]

12. ...

[Debi]

15. ???

Do you mean Democrats?

[EFerrari]

18. Yes, it's human racism. n/t

[elixir]

13. I found this comment a little distressing - am I misreading it?!

" ..I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."'

It's too bad that Ms. Morrison makes a sweeping generalization that only conservative, new-centrist females have ruled in America. I have admiration and respect for the following women, just to name a few:

Barbara Boxer
Maria Cantwell
Nancy Pelosi
Jeanne Sheehan
Mary Landrieu
Hillary Clinton
Olympia Snow
Dianne Feinstein
Carol Mosley Braun..

The list goes on.

[burythehatchet]

14. Who woulda thought Toni Morrison was a Freeper troll ...

:scared:

[EFerrari]

19. LOL! Yeah, that Nobel was quid pro quo!

I heard her read once in Berkeley at Black Oak Books. What a great reader, on top of everthing else. :)

[DrFunkenstein]

21. "Wisdom is a gift - you can't train for it or inherit it"

People speak about Obama as if he were some new age guru spouting babble. The truth is that he clearly displays the intelligence and wisdom of someone able to think things out thoroughly. Although he inspires, he's not merely sounding off inspirational catchphrases. His policy vision is thoroughly progressive and he knows how to deliver it to make them commonsensical to the American people. We should applaud such a gift after spending years in the wildnerness searching for someone with such capabilities.

[goodhue]

23. excellent

[sandnsea]

32. woohoo

That's a pretty incredible statement.