He heckled the 46-year-old about his seeming dis involvement in the Black Community. The heckling comes from a group of young black men, nameless, standing with others, holding a sign promoting a black organization during a Barack Obama town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The sign read. "What about the Black community, Obama?" or something to that effect.
The crowd subdued the men with rousing chants of "Yes We Can" lasting at least a minute. I wonder if the men felt outnumbered and alone in their journey to be heard by the Candidate.
Barack let the men talk as he listened.
He told the men they were misinformed about who he was because he had been speaking out on on the predatory lending situation since his days in the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate. However, if you are not literate or don't have a good handle on how U.S. government works or its different divisions, Obama's track record doesn't mean as much, compared to someone who truly has the most basic education. (I listened in my high school Poli Sci classes)
This young man said the predatory loans targeted African Americans and Latino populations; he said Obama was not involved with the Jena Six situation or Sean Bell.
Is is just a case of Obama as Messiah to a group of blacks in Florida who are oft abused and silent due to many of them being from areas outside of America? It's hard standing up for yourself when your whole life is based on a lie and you're paranoid of being deported every time you leave the neighborhood.
Obama reminded them he is a civil rights lawyer who has worked on and passed death penalty reform in Illinois as well as racial profiling legislation.
Sen. Obama even reminded them that they could run for office themselves to change where they live and work. The most shameful part is that Sen. Obama had to chide them on being disrespectful by shouting and interrupting his response.
If you are going to bother to stand up and heckle Obama, please be prepared. Lawyers argue points both large and small as a part of their skill set. Barack is married to a lawyer. Her name is Michelle.
So please have your facts straight, do your research on his voting record--accessible on the web--and think before you speak.
Lots of people in Florida have immigration issues. I lived in Florida for a while and was amazed at the groups of blacks. From time to time I'd run in to groups of non-English speaking Blacks but mostly they were quiet in the restaurant kitchens and shops of sunny South Florida. Many of these establishments were considered white by the frequency of clientele.
Whenever I would walk my black face in a nearby jazz club, I would see a group from the kitchen come out and watch the black woman unescorted in the white jazz club. No one else paid me any mind--the way I like it sometimes.
It was hot and I thought I'd get to hear a live band and relax.
Their stares made me uncomfortable. I didn't know why they were giving me the evil eye.
There is a culture disconnect between blacks (group b for BIA) and African Americans. I don't have to peek out from the back. I live in this country legally. My roots are from no where else but the good old Red White and Blue. (My roots aren't easily traceable and black folks descendant of slaves tend to be tight lipped about who has fathered whom.)
I am an orphan no one ever bothered to claim. I am a mutt no one wants. The only land I have is here in America, the state of Indiana. That is how it feels to be African American--I don't have all of Europe, Africa, Mexico, Jamaica or any other exotic island to run back to if I get fed up with the shenanigans in this country. I have no where to run so I stand up.
When you step on me, I holler and go tell and stick up for myself. I don't have to hide in the back anymore because the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said I didn't and then backed up his statement with his own blood. Malcolm X stood up and made sure I didn't have to hide in the back, and he paid. My black teachers in my black elementary, middle and high school said I didn't have to hide in the back.
The first black mayor of a major city, Richard Hatcher, said I didn't have to hide in the back. Rosa Parks said no, she doesn't have to hide in the back and said I didn't have to either--IF I WERE WILLING TO STAND WITH HER.
They told me they had paid enough of the price with their own blood and that all I had to do was go to school, learn to read well, speak and behave in public.
I was told I would pretty much be alright. They were right. But I have had to stand up and remind other people that Blacks don't have to hide in the back but they do have to be educated.
I told my children they don't have to hide in the back. Too many of us have stood up against real injustices to hide in the back or watch others, like that young man representing a Black group, hide in the back.
However, you must be educated if you are going to stand up.
He wanted to know why Obama had not did this or that for the black community (Where does this young man think the South Side of Chicago is?)--without ever looking up the information he was asking about. He didn't even know the man, Obama, the one who doesn't have to hide in the back, in the kitchen or run from INS. He is a constitutional rights lawyer and that young man didn't even know that. I wonder how much else he doesn't know?
You have to stand up, you have to be educated.
A lack of education is the only thing that can legitimately sit you down.
St. Petersburg Times article
