A black, female, libertarian intellectual on Barack Obama
Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at StanfordUniversity 's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association.
She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas.
Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.
She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality.
Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was awarded tenure.
This article by her is something.
Fellow Americans,
Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to love the ideal of America.
I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician.
I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America.
Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that Blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.
I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
I would have to believe that "fairness" is the equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest.. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.
Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including, and, especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.
So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person.
So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America . Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected, not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good.
There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.
two thumbs up
thanks for this good read
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin - Mark Twain
Re: Amerianna
Those were all beautiful & eloquent replies to her final parting post. Very, very nice. I felt kind of bad for calling her out, but when I read everything that you all posted, it was all Really Good. I hope she reads them & decides she misses the true Liberty message.
Obama = O.ne B.ig A.ss M.istake A.merica
Obama = O.ne B.ig A.ss M.istake A.merica
Spoken by a true Patriot.
No one cares about race anymore. Except the bought and paid for Media.
There is no link. I would encourage Anne Wortham to run for office. I would vote for her in a minute.
My hat's off to Anne.
Isn't "bourgeois bohemians" an oxymoron?
Other than that I really love this woman!
I am working on my husband (who is black) to understand certain things about Obama, but also that it is not about Obama.
He is just a mouth piece.
I really love her writing and I am sure that more Black Americans will join the R3VOLUTION!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"God is at home, it's we who have gone out for a walk."
Meister Eckhart
Most of you have made it crystal clear that I'm not welcome here
Fine, I won't be bothering you again after today. There is just one more thought that I'll add to the mix here, before I take my leave. That is, you do not have to admire President Obama, you do not have to even like him. But it is absolutely non-thinking to say that he, in an effort to correct egregious harm to our nation, is destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth, when it is THEY who have created this shameful noose that will hang around the necks of our children for years to come. You, in your own arrogance and self-righteous snobbery choose to insult, scorn, ridicule and degrade every person who chooses to believe, not so much in the man, but in the HOPE that this country can be as great as it claims to be; that people, unlike you, will be able to get beyond the ME, I mentality, and realize that this country will only survive with a WE mentality. I can only hope that someday you will truly understand that "We" really are "One", and whatever you do to/for the least of humanity, you do to/for yourselves. Peace.
*******************
It is good and proper to respect the U.S. flag, perpetuated with the blood of American heroes. It is a fatal mistake not to recognize those who wrap themselves in the same flag to cover up their crimes against the American people.
~ Sherman H. Skolnick
. @ @ . Power to the People!
@ O @ -----> PEOPLE
. @ @ . NOT Corporate Entities!
The Obamabot returns
HOPE is for children. I want honesty and reality from my politicians. Very, very few will give me that. Ron Paul does. Ron Paul does not promise to pay for my food, car, mortgage, or health care. He knows the government can only do that by robbing other people. He simply promises limited, constitutional government, fiscal responsibility, and peace.
Now let's look at your man Obama. Eight months into his presidency and we're as mired in Iraq as ever. He's increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, and expanding the war into Pakistan. To be sure, he hasn't started a war yet with Iran, but the Senate has enough votes to pass a sanctions bill on Iran. The purpose of such a bill is to provoke Iran into carrying out some action that will provide a pretext for a full fledged war.
Obama has no objections to America as World Cop. He is happy to continue spending hundreds of billions a year keeping troops in Japan, South Korea, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and numerous other places. This is bankrupting us.
Obama has said that we will have trillion dollar deficits for years to come. This gives me no hope whatsoever. Obama wants us to be debt slaves to our government. I want freedom.
I have been wishing for the dark ages again
but just could not put it into words. Thank you, Thank you Amerianna. I look forward to sleeping in damp filth and eating dirt. Will obama be taking us to heaven or is our reward just to see those who care so much living in castles.
As far as I know, everyone
As far as I know, everyone is welcome here. We're glad to have You. Simply being here puts you rather far ahead of most on the road to enlightenment. But honestly, did You expect people here to lie through their teeth to make you feel more comfortable about holding and spouting obvious ignorance at every opportune moment? This site came together as a community of supporters of a presidential candidate who wanted America to once again be all that its founders intended for it to be. A free country, with limited, enumerated powers delegated to the Federal Government. And where only sound money, specifically gold and silver, were to be minted, so that there were no opportunity for those in charge of the printing presses to favor themselves or their backers over the rest of the country.
What has Obama done to move the country in that direction? Anything at all? All I have seen him do, is further erode our freedoms, as best as he can. Promising one federal intrusion into matters the founders left for the states or the people after another. I mean, do You really expect anyone here, or anyone anywhere even semi sentient for that matter, to admire someone who has championed handing hundreds of billions, even trillions, to a bunch of Wall Street welfare queens, fully aware that regular Americans and their children, even unborn ones, must spend months of their lives working in servitude just to pay the taxes required to pay for this? This is basically all Obama has done this far. Sure, he has given some nice kumbaya speeches, but what he has actually done, is simply force Americans and their offspring to work to keep his banking supporters in opulence. Nothing more.
And now he wants to force people to buy healthcare "insurance". At the point of a gun, whether they want to or not. And not just any insurance, but a policy he and whatever cronies he decides to consult with, decide You or I or anyone else should buy. And rest assured that said cronies will be from interest groups, whether corporation lobbies, trial lawyers or big labor, who have a vested interest in making even the healthiest and most careful spend as much as possible, as that is from where their own income is drawn. And, again, watch Obama go along, while yakking mindlessly about "we need change." One thing is for sure, I can guarantee You I won't be consulted about what kind of policy I "need" to buy. Never mind it's my health and my life. As long as it's not my money funding Obama's campaigns, I won't be allowed a seat at that table. Do You really think that was what Jefferson had in mind when he sat down to write the constitution?
And, exactly how does a wealth creator create a "shameful noose that will hang around the necks of our children for years to come"? Just think it over, and I'm sure you will realize how little sense that actually makes. Also, seriously, read and understand Marlow's comment below. Once, if ever, You do understand and recognize what he is saying, You will have become a more enlightened person, regardless of who You choose to support for President in the future.
Just one correction
Just one correction. Thomas Jefferson was the principle author the the Declaration of Independence. It was James Madison who was the principle author of the U.S. Constitution.
thumbs up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"God is at home, it's we who have gone out for a walk."
Meister Eckhart
I can't believe that all the time you have been on here
You could still stomach a man that wants to control your every thought, your every move, and your every dream. What have you learned all the time you have been here? Nothing? We are for liberties. Not serfdom. We are for individualism. Not collectivism. We are for the United States of America. Not the United Nations. We back the states rights. Not federal control. A village does not have to raise our children. We can raise them ourselves.
You were only on here to try to convert us into the controlled thought of the usurpers of our constitution. If you can't learn that you are a free person. Fall in line with the sheep and baah your way back to sleep.
***********Ron Paul for POTUS 2012***********
*************Obama Is A Communist!************
**********Repeal the 17th Amendment**********
Double the size of the House of Representatives
$$$$$$$$$AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE$$$$$$$$$$
***********Ron Paul for POTUS 2012***********
*************Obama Is A Communist!************
**********Repeal the 17th Amendment**********
Double the size of the House of Representatives
$$$$$$$$$AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE$$$$$$$$$$
Yes feel the burn.
We really don't like Obama s policies here. Can you tell.
Amerianna
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must. like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.-Thomas Paine
The R3volution requires action, not observation!!!!
We don't mind you here. We are just trying to tell you that all is not what it seems with Obama, you have to dig deeper. Obama has no intentions of taking from the top of the top, only the top of the top that are above the middle class. There is a group above them that you never hear about, a group that makes Bill Gates look like he is poor. The richest people in the world don't want to be on lists, they want to remain unknown. I hope we have enlightened you somewhat. I hope Obama does good things for America, but thus far he has proven to be bought and paid for, and has taken steps he cannot take back for any of us to trust him. All we can do now, is believe in eachother, not the politicians, you and me and the civilians of this country. Our government, most of them anyway, no longer work for us, I hope someday you will come back to join us, and understand we have to be stubborn and stearn because this is our country we are trying to save. We could use someone politically motivated like you on our side, real truth, hope, and change, is right here, not with any politician. Good luck, and God bless!!!
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must. like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.-Thomas Paine
The R3volution requires action, not observation!!!!
You know we're really not so different.
We all want Equality for all, Peace and Prosperity. Where we part ways, I think it is best that people be treated as adults and left to use their energies and imagination to produce and keep the fruits of their labor. When people have extra money or energy they give with a happy heart to those in need.
I may be wrong but I think you are saying that the government has to take and decide who gets what and when and how. Besides being inefficient and wasteful it dehumanizes individuals and make them feel inferior.
We DO work best when people come together WILLINGLY not by the threat of force by a tyrannical government. Obama to me is no different than McCain, they work towards Corporatism the very thing that you and I don't want. If Obama got everything pasted that is on the Agenda neither of us would be better off. If everything Obama and all the other officials want is SSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO great then WHY won't they participate and sacrifice with us? There is only one answer and that answer is they don't give a damn about any of us.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
Actually...
You are quite welcome here. You have nerve and ideals that you do not mind talking about. You are vocal and eloquent. You seem to practice what you preach.
You would be an asset to the libery movement, if you indeed wanted personal freedom and responsibility.
Do not give up, keep coming back. Who knows... you might eventually change your mind on some of your beliefs. If not, perhaps something you say will strike a chord with someone here.
:)
~Live life to its fullest, with an open heart, open arms and most important... an open mind~
If President Obama would
If President Obama would just follow the Constitution then my guess is that many of us would be following him. You shouldn't expect anyone here to be supportive of him until he begins honoring and abiding by his oath of office.
...
Best news I heard tonight!
Well, maybe not.
At any rate, you are not welcome here because you support Obama, and have not realized the FACT that Obama and Bush are the same, and so are the republican and democratic parties. At this point I will go as far to say Obama is turning out to be a lot worse and its only been nine months of a long four years.
Bye, bye...there are openings over at the democratic underground...there are a lot of ignorant sheeple over there...you will fit in just fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iERLtsBIqDg
Give me a break.O`bama and Bushwacker created the noose that
will choke our children with taxation for generations. They complied with the orders from their puppetmasters. Go back to your O`bama dream world ,and maybe you will wake up some day.
"We have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt"
Joseph Biden VP , USA
"Since 1789 the only government on Earth that has the power to crush the American people`s liberties across the board is the government of the United States"
Robert Higgs
Your distinction between the
Your distinction between the "Me" and "We" mentality illuminates the difference between you and us. What you refer to as "Me" is our upholding the ideal of personal liberty in all aspects of our lives, whereby social interaction occurs based upon mutual choice, that is, true cooperation. Your "We" mentality, much as you believe it stands for unifying people in a cooperative whole, cannot co-exist with liberty and is not a cooperative activity at all. All your communal aspirations require an iron fisted government to force people at the point of a gun to comply with its dictates. In pursuing ever greater power as all governments do, the Obama administration is no different than was Bush's or any of the preceding administrations.
marlow
marlow
myKeyboardIsscrewedup
youAreRightIdontwishTyrannyontheMeek
Explore Orthodox Christianity
Me = Truther..
and damn proud of it.
Obama = LIAR
Obama Kidnapped by Ruling Class
Obama Kidnapped by Ruling Class (an article from Black Agenda Report)
What else can explain the wild differences between common perceptions of Obama and the way he actually governs? This theory is put forward by a leading luminary of of Black progressive politics. “The military, the bankers, the oil barons, the drug profiteers – all of them ganging up together to snatch Obama.”
Going on seven months into the Obama presidency, with all the accumulated evidence that Barack Obama is a thoroughly corporate politician by nature as well as circumstance, much of the Black Left remains mesmerized – and that’s a kind way of putting it.
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/103184
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-kidnapped-...
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
cool article
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"God is at home, it's we who have gone out for a walk."
Meister Eckhart
Oh?
I'm supposed to be impressed? People on DP are 10 times smarter than some sociologist. What the heck kind of degree is "sociology" anyway?
Sociology
is a degree designed for people whose sole purpose in life is to go door to door and tell others to vote Democrat. Sometimes an occasional libertarian lunatic ventures into a sociology department and remains an associate professor until retirement as a token example of ideological diversity.
What's your problem? She's
What's your problem? She's been a libertarian scholar for decades working to advance liberty.
marlow
marlow
As a BLACK female
Knowing there are other black women out there with this frame of mind, makes my heart sing to a symphony of quiet. I knew there were more than 2 of us out there. I could not have said it better myself. Thanks for the post!
"Every generation needs a new r3VOLution"- Thomas Jefferson
I love that you're here.
I wish everyone understood like you.
That's so nice.
Black, female Ron Paul supporters must be a minority indeed! I'm glad you're not alone! Your post made me happy. I saved this woman's speech a long time ago, she is just brilliant.
what??????
what??????