Why are Barack Obama's biggest critics black?

When Jeff and I decided to start a blog, it was the result of an in-depth conversation about the state of hip-hop. I was sure my first post would be about the hottest new song, the redskins upcoming season or who was the baddest chick in the game. Ultimately, it was the comments made by three supposed "intellectuals" that prompted me to make my Inaugural post. On Thursday evening, August 28th, 2008, I watched (along with millions of other people) the historic, powerful, and poignant speech by Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Still high off the power and conviction of Obama's words, I turned to PBS because a friend of mine told me Tavis Smiley was interviewing Dr. Cornell West and Dr. Julianne Malveaux about the speech. I was already aware of Smiley's dislike of Obama over a forum he hosted that Obama declined to attend. However, I figured that West and Malveaux would provide a more objective and rational analysis of the speech.



To my dismay, they didn't. They only furthered my thinking that there is a serious generation gap in the black community and a conflict of interests as well. Dr. Malveaux said that the speech "broke her hart". Dr. West was displeased that he didn't devote part of the speech to the people that fought to get him to that stage. WTF?!?!

It's pretty common knowledge that Barack Obama is Black. It's also pretty common knowledge that there are still serious issues regarding race and equality in this country. If Barack Obama runs his campaign focusing on his race and it's history, he'll lose, period. Prospective voters, especially those not sold on a minority being the president, are interested in hearing what he can do for America. He addressed that specifically in his speech.

It's beyond my comprehension how they could criticize Obama when his candidacy is the culmination of the work Martin Luther King, Dr. Malveaux and Dr. West put in during the civil rights era. Maybe they feel slighted for not being acknowledged. They wanted him to refer to Martin Luther King by name in his speech. They should take MLK's advice and practice a little selflessness and shut up before they cost him the presidency. He's already had to deal with Rev. Wright's hatin ass and now this. I'm sure he was expecting some harsh criticism, but not from his own kind. It's time for these old heads(yea, you too, Jesse Nutcracker Jackson) to fall back and let history take its course. And I know alot of young people are weary of the voting process, but our ancestors died for the opportunity for us to have a voice, so that "my vote doesn't count" shit doesn't fly around here.

That'll all for today. Oh yea, No one on the corner got swagger like us lol (had to throw in the hottest current catch phrase to be trendy)

- J. Todd