Yeah, and Oprah gets more press than any other male talk show host due to sexism. Really. Like I said before, sexism is at play, but far less than other factors.

Heh, were my ancestors oppressed? Seriously, not far back in my line a white woman willingly had a child with a black man. It's really a silly question to ask to be quite honest. It doesn't matter who's "half" black and who isn't a descendant of slaves. First, it was this country that said one drop of black blood made you black. Second, just being black in this country is a problem not because of how your ancestors were oppressed but simply because black people were (and are) oppressed. We all get to enjoy the after effects of that shit, regardless of white parents.

Further, racism isn't exclusive to black people. So lets think about all of those other non-whites, whose ancestors were never slaves in this country, let alone for centuries, and ask them if they really feel connected to the struggles of their race.

No it wasn't. Racism has been around much longer than that.

Racial prejudice was never limited to skin color, you need to throw in cultural differences as well, especially religion. A different skin tone and facial features just made it easier to pick out the people you didn't like.

As far as the rest of what you said, racial prejudice in the past is what created the gap. Read this book and get back to me. You have some odd perceptions of what it means to be black in this country: Amazon.com: Race and Ethnicity in the United States (4th Edition): Richard T Schaefer: Books

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

Would love it if they both ran together- one as prez & one as vp running mate.

cheers to th entirety of fen99us's post. far too kind, IMHO, but still gets the point across.
more books to read
Amazon.com: Black Looks: Race and Representation: bell hooks: Books
Amazon.com: Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations: bell hooks,Bell Hooks: Books
Amazon.com: To Make Our World Anew: Volume II: A History of African Americans Since 1880: Robin D. G. Kelley,Earl Lewis: Books << they only have volume II out? both volumes are essential reading. i actually read it before the volume division, back in 02. absolutely essential if you want to understand the world scope of african american history

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicks off his general-election campaign trailing both potential Democratic nominees in hypothetical matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) leads McCain, who captured the delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination Tuesday night, by 12 percentage points among all adults in the poll; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) holds a six-point lead over the GOP nominee. Both Democrats are buoyed by moderates and independents when going head to head with McCain and benefit from sustained negative public assessments of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job and think the war was not worth fighting, and most hold those positions "strongly." A slim majority also doubt that the United States is making progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, even as McCain and others extol recent successes there.

These views are closely related to voters' choices: McCain does poorly against Clinton and Obama among those who disapprove of the president and those opposing the war.

Among independents, those who see improvements in Iraq prefer McCain to either Democrat, while six in 10 of those more skeptical of progress would go for a Democrat.

Another obstacle for McCain may be his age. More than a quarter of those polled said they are less inclined to support McCain because he would be the oldest person ever to become president. The percentage discouraged by McCain's age is more than double that of people who would be less enthusiastic about supporting Obama because he is African American or Clinton because she is a woman.

McCain, however, has eight months to overcome those perceptions, and when squared against Obama, who has amassed the most delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination, the senator from Arizona has key advantages on foreign policy.

The poll was conducted before Tuesday's contests, in which Clinton scored victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas while Obama prevailed in Vermont. The victories were Clinton's first in a month, and they further unsettled the Democratic contest.

One bright line in a campaign pitting Obama against McCain would be the one that continues to define the Democratic primary: "change" vs. "experience." Overall, Americans are evenly divided about the candidate qualities that are most important to them: 45 percent said strength and experience, 46 percent said a new direction and new ideas.

Eighty percent of those putting a priority on change opt for Obama, while 68 percent of those favoring a steady hand go for McCain. A similar but more muted dynamic also would apply to Clinton vs. McCain, with the Republican holding a wide lead among those seeking experience and Clinton winning two-thirds of change voters.

Overall, Obama topped McCain on five of eight attributes tested in the poll, but he faces a whopping experience deficit (just as he does against Clinton in the primary campaign) and trails by double digits on leadership and knowledge of world affairs.

Obama also leads McCain on four of the six top issues in the poll: health care, immigration, ethics in government and voters' No. 1 concern, the economy. McCain counters with a wide advantage as the one better suited to handle the U.S. campaign against terrorism, and the two are much more closely paired on the question of who is better on Iraq. Among independents, McCain has the edge on both concerns: He is up by 14 points on Iraq and 18 points on fighting terrorism.

But as for McCain's ability to bring needed change to Washington, 52 percent said he would not do enough in this area, while 41 percent said he would. Nearly as many of those polled said Obama does not have the kind of experience it takes to serve effectively as president, 45 percent, as said he does, 49 percent.

One undercurrent about Obama's historic run is some fear for his safety on the campaign trail. Nearly six in 10 expressed concern that someone might attempt to harm Obama if he were the Democratic nominee.

Concern for Obama peaks among African Americans: More than eight in 10 would be concerned about Obama's safety, including 55 percent who would be "very concerned" (20 percent of whites expressed the same level of fear).

A total of 1,126 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone Feb. 28 through March 2. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

A very probable eventuality.

That's a joke?

You need better material.

That's why he fits in so well at Fox noise.

Obama's New Strategy: Blame The Media! - Media on The Huffington Post


Oblame the media! In the wake of Tuesday's game-changing defeats in Texas and Ohio (and hey, Rhode Island), Barack Obama is clearly steamed that the media turned on him. Yesterday in a media avail on his plane, he accused the media of being complicit in Hillary Clinton's "kitchen sink" strategy and allowing themselves to be "persuaded that you had been too hard on her and too soft on me." This, Obama seemed to feel, was clearly an injustice and had resulted in the press' abdication of their duty: "Hopefully now people feel like everything's evened out and we can start actually covering the campaign properly." Oh, snap! Step up, media, you really dropped the ball this time. (See video below.)

This improper coverage he's referring to presumably includes Tuesday's press conference, which was variously described as "combative" and "contentious" during which he was "grilled"
in "the toughest news conference of his campaign." According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, Obama's initial smile upon greeting reporters was "quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog." But according to accounts of that press conference, the questions seemed legitimately driven by the news cycle, given the recent (and evolving) story of the report of an Obama staffer's backroom meeting with the Canadian embassy in Chicago to reassure them over NAFTA (which has since been dubbed "NAFTA-Gate" in some quarters, which can't thrill the Obama camp), and the kickoff of the Tony Rezko trial this past Monday. Also, according to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet, the toughness was helped along by the presence of some Chicago-area media who have covered Obama for longer and as such were not as "shy" about asking for specifics (she mentioned Sun-Times political columnist Carol Marin, who is cited in numerous reports on the press conference, along with Sweet, as being particularly inquisitive). The grilling sounds like it was more like a quick pan-searing, too — Obama cut off questioning with exasperation, saying (in the most-quoted line of the press conference), "Come on guys. I answered like eight questions. We're running late." Then he left. He didn't come back to talk to the press on his plane later, either.

Like, eight questions! Press, get your act together. You've got a campaign to cover .

Obama, the candidate almost always described as "cool," seems to be betraying more than a touch of annoyance lately. Now that the heat is being turned up, and another long slog looms ahead before Pennsylvania, it will be interesting to see not only how the press behaves with respect to both candidates, but also how Obama responds under the harsh new glare — and whether he submits himself to it willingly or continues his pattern of keeping the press carefully at arm's length.

In the meantime, chief campaign strategist David Axelrod clearly knows that the best defense is a good offense, brazenly turning the media-favoritism meme around and throwing it back: "The point we want to raise is that the vetting of Hillary Clinton has yet to start and that the hard questions haven't been asked of Sen. Clinton. And as I said yesterday, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. We think that there ought to be the same standard held to both candidates."

The same standard held to both candidates? Wow - dare to dream. In the next few weeks, we may just see it happen.

I didn't think it was possible to think Natalie Portman could be even more beautiful. But she is.


On Hillary Clinton:

A lot of the stuff people say about her, I hear it and my stomach falls because it's so sexist. You ask people why they don't like her and it's because her husband cheated on her! That was obviously not her choice. She's so much more polished and experienced than anyone else. Last night, a friend, a social worker in L.A. who works with underprivileged kids, was saying how these girls who have never been interested in politics before are so excited that a woman might be president. I mean, look how many women are in government...Hillary's one of, what, [a handful of] female senators?

I also like Obama. I even like McCain. I disagree with his war stance--which is a really big deal--but I think he's a very moral person. I met him and Hillary on the same day, actually, when I went to Washington with Finca [a nonprofit that gives loans to businesswomen in developing countries]. Hillary was by far the smartest person I met that day. Just totally focused, and knew more about the issues than anyone else, and was so able to go from one thing to the other.

Natalie Portman Defends Hillary Clinton - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

Personally, I think that thanks to all this primary bullshit the democrats are already well on their way to losing the general election.


I'm getting ready for 4 years of mccain.


edit: 1 and a half years of mccain 2 and a half of his vp

j/k on the internet can mean something different than stand up comedian joke...it simply menat I wasn't being serious duh!

My God, lighten up Veggiesaurus Rex.

I fail to see how this would be so successful after both camps have already dedicated so much time and effort into hating each other. If either candidate gave half a shit about the future of the democrats this nomination process wold not be dragging out this long.

You know, I like Natalie and all, but this is such a silly argument. Or rather, it could very easily be made for African-Americans yet I don't seem to see high profile people making these types of public statements.

This is why the gender v. race thing bothers the living fuck out of me. Lets look at history:

How many female Senators are there?
Fourteen. They are Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California), Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), Patty Murray (D-Washington), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York), Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina) Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and myself (Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California).

How many female senators through out history? Thirty-one.

Now, as for black senators:

Barack Obama, is currently the only Black senator. He is the third Black senator since Reconstruction - the other two being Carole Moseley Braun and Edward Brooke.

There were also two Black senators elected during the post civil war reconstruction. They were Hiram Rhoades Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both from Mississippi.

So total black senators through out history? Five.

So please don't tell me it's easier being a black man than it is being a white woman. This argument should be dead and buried now. I may be biased against Clinton (for legit reasons) but I am NOT biased toward my race or toward my gender. People should shut up about it if they can not address these issues accurately and equally.

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

hah there is still someone running the media does not cover and skews information. It's a shame too that Aljezeera covers what CNN does not and Aljezeera wanted their own channel in America but was not allowed.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=94737

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

Exactly.