Comments on: Obama’s Success: Must Have Been The Shoes Before Him

By: freepatriot

freepatriot — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:18:09 +0000

nobody mentioned Ray Charles Robinson either

until I saw the flik, I didn’t know Ray Charles WAS a country singer (and I grew up listening to him without knowing)

By: freepatriot

freepatriot — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:37:33 +0000

Wilma Rudolph

By: JohnLopresti

JohnLopresti — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:19:54 +0000

We have touched on this in other threads, and I admit to finding only some peripherally germane threads that are offsite, yet, at the time of my early and enduring engagement in the colloquies of academia some disenumerated quantity of years ago, the acrid prose of James Baldwin intellectual expatriate, repatriate represented a literary pinnacle, or, rather a recognition of a scar and an intellectual trying to face existence withal. Perhaps significantly, NYT seems to have a paywall around the reviews though has opted to put a potpourri of inchoate testimonials into an obit, and NYorker’s searchengine returns much chaff. As I recall, NYorker in an issue published in 1963-64 excerpted from the essayist’s writing about a freshly imaged visit he had made to MS; it seemed his strident prose was the first to coin goodOlBoys, which says much of those times, and perhaps the flames in his writing reflect as well the reason his voice was among those drawing interest of peacekeepers in DoJ who amassed a substantial dossier on his doings. He was from someplace other than MS, and a death from cancer at 63 was only a skewed statement of the enginess of thought which he launched, maybe some erratic, but among some intelectuals much of worth came of his perspective, however he managed to derive that. It was an eagle’s view.

Footnote to my above, it was RunNshoot for WM.

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:53:04 +0000

Good point about the “legal” issue of race. Perhaps the most racist society of the 20th century after Nazi Germany was South Africa’s Apartheid government of 1948-1990. Since racism was part of its apartheid policy, everyone HAD to be officially classified into one of the approved racial categories:

Apartheid legislation classified inhabitants and visitors into racial groups (black, white, coloured, and Indian or Asian). South African blacks were stripped of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based and nominally self-governing bantustans (tribal homelands), four of which became nominally independent states. The homelands occupied relatively small and economically unproductive areas of the country. The government based the homelands on the territory of Black Reserves founded during the British Empire period, akin to the US Indian Reservation, Canadian First Nations reserves, or Australian aboriginal reserves.

I remember reading periodically of the tragic and sometimes absurd consequences of this institutionalized racism. So this was a form of social construction that was legally sanctioned.

The racism that bmaz writes about is not legally sanctioned, but it remains a social construction in our country. I was surprised to learn, for example, that Alison Stewart identifies herself as “Black.” This is, no doubt, because she experienced being treated as “Black” by people seduced by the American social construction of race. Barack Obama, although raised in a primarily White household by a White mother and White grandparents, experienced being considered as Black even though his experience was very different from what Jesse Jackson and John Lewis experienced growing up Black.

Barack Obama’s candidacy succeeded for a number of reasons, and bmaz nips at the corner of one of them. Racial barriers of the mind are being overcome not just by “Blacks” doing well in a previously White-dominated sport, but by race becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Oh, BTW, has anyone mentioned Charlie Pride’s success as a “Country” singer yet?

He is one of the few African-American country musicians to have had considerable success in the largely white country music industry and the only one to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

Bob in HI

By: bmaz

bmaz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:05:22 +0000

I believe that Michael Schumacher either has, or soon will, beat him to it. Schuey was in the vicinity of 800 million back at he start of 2007, and his ownership interests in both Ferrari and Fiat, plus his personal services contracts should get him there before Tiger.

By: JohnLopresti

JohnLopresti — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:54:40 +0000

I steer clear of the kultcha issues, as much of the difficulty with addressing the complex of interethnic interaction exists in that nether zone of human relationships and mores. In the abstract, there is a tale about the difficult service at the buffalo fort in SV AZ, which might gloss the post’s themes. Regarding two other comments, I think it is coaching known fact that the shotgun offense is defeatable, if one has a healthy defense squad, and in an epoch when league rules allowed more than a meager 45 players total; that was what allowed shotgun to survive as long as it did when there were athletic Qs; defense rotations worked wonders with the formerly acceptable larger squadsize. In a more difficult realm, one need only listen to the depth of the bard’s own original recording of WatchtowerAllAlong to see where Hendrix strayed into some consumerism, but even Clapton can tell you the geniuses who wrote some of the material Eric has performed are way better on the fretboard and with the inspiration of those compositions, or he might have admitted as much at some historical juncture, except that all the best folks in some way recognized the fusion of genius and expression is somewhat of a gestalt, so likely he never had to frame the concept in interview.

By: RevBev

RevBev — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:52:45 +0000

I love this thread. I was a huge Tiger fan from day One. I worked with a very rich white guy who said after Tiger had won at the Colonial, I wish the kid would be more humble!! Yeah, right, as if he, the white guy, knew how to be. Amazing that with Tiger and Obama both we have someone head and shoulders above the crowd. Even the way W and current team have been such a bust is another element of this being truly the time for the change and transformation: All the stars were lined up. And hope and truth came on to center stage. I am so glad I am alive to see this part of the MLK, et al story. Right along with all the dignity and competence that Tiger has brought.

By: AitchD

AitchD — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:48:24 +0000

If you check out Tiger’s DNA, you’ll discover that he’s some new and advanced kind of life form. His (coughcough) peers and the on-air broadcasters long ago gave up trying to find words. Years ago they were saying “superhuman” in a normal tone of voice. Also on track to become the first billionaire athlete.

By: Petrocelli

Petrocelli — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:30:23 +0000

Tip, tip … and all that rot ! *g*

By: bmaz

bmaz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:30:07 +0000

As long as it is German silver instead of British Racing Green, it is German to me. I love the discussion though; it is a reminder of the F1 of old, which was hyper-nationalistic and cars carried the colors of their country, irrespective of the driver.