Comments on: Barack Obama + Sidney Poitier In The Heat of the Night.

By: Maury

Maury — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:30:16 +0000

Know one who has a a website named “ThyBlackMan.com” really has any right to expect a reader to think it impartial. Change the name to “ThyEveryMan” and publish articles from an unbiased persepctive……..

By: Arthur Lewin

Arthur Lewin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:13:36 +0000

Brad,Victor and Festus, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I am happy to see that this article has stimulated debate and analysis by both those who support and those who criticize the president.

By: Festus

Festus — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:20:14 +0000

Arthur once again, an engaging article that reveals a dimension of the “race” idea that is often ignored by the syrupy politics of the American “left” and the bunga bunga clichés of the “right”. Obama basically plays both sides very well like most successful “democrats” basically because he is fundamentally a technocrat that is why he strangely reminds you of Poitier’s character….the infamous “tools and tyrants” analogy comes to mind. It is precisely this technocratic character that unpacks Obama’s devotion (some might say political calculus) to calculated populism. So if it “seems sometimes as if President Obama really does not have anything much to do with us”, it is mainly because he is pandering to the “number game” and “race” in the U.S (compared to the ironic Brazilian, “Latin” American or Hacienda “racial democracy” model) is mainly hidden in demographic numerals and dubious hyphenated oxymoron. What I am saying is that Obama is perhaps, the most glaring example of “racism without racists” that seems to be the preferred self-delusion of many Americans across the racial and political “aisle”

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:50:04 +0000

Brad’s comments illlustrate that despite both President Obama’s African American critics and his first-term progressive supporters who became disillusioned with him the symbolic significance of having an African American president is important to the psyche of the nation. Your article especially and Brad’s comments as well insightfully point out that this president has had to perform the duties of the presidency of the United States of America under particularly difficult circumstances made more difficult not only by partisan “haters” but by those who depise the change that his personal heritage enbodies as well. Your article does this site and its readers a service to point out that though many of this president’s would be GOP opponents are nothing more than “a string of white candidates bellowing against the president and whipping [people] up into an absolute frenzy . . . who, if elected [themselves], will rob these people blind.” That is what has happened to America’s Middle Class. They have been robbed blind by their own kind who are now trying to pass off the blame on the first African American president, as if he is the cause of the problems. Instinctively, many of us know otherwise. Your article brilliantly suggests that president is correctly realigning the national priorities. Like Poitier in “The Heat of the Night”, the president is pursuing the correct approach to solve the problem. He has not found an instant cure for of the nation’s recent ills, but he is methodically getting the necessary work done. God forbid we listen to his detractors who pretend to know so much but who had done so little to keep the country from being so upside down in debt in 2008, facing the precipice of a national financial collapse of historic proportion. McCain freaked out. Then candidate Obama showed calm, cool, and collected grace that stilled the troubled waters of fear that gripped the ship of state. Poitier eventually solved the crime. Relative to the problems the nation faced in 2009, three years have shown that this president has diagnosed the national problems and is guiding the economy in the proper direction for a balanced solution.

By: Brad Holway

Brad Holway — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:54:43 +0000

An interesting article! Oddly, it turned my mind away from Poitier & got me thinking about your comments re those who vote against their own interests out of racial/ethnic/cultural resentment. While they would probably not have voted for ANY Democrat or anyone even VAGUELY progressive, their Obamaphobia is spiteful, vitriolic and based in large part on his color; add the air of “foreignness” they have atttached to him, as evidenced by “Birthers” & people who have characterized him as a “Marxist”, a “homo”, a “Crypto-Muslim”, etc.

When Obama was elected I rejoiced that the national psyche had matured to the point that such an event was possible. Shortly afterward, I began scolding myself for having been naive. While the country HAS progressed in this regard, I came to realize that there is a hard core of some 20-25% of the electorate that is unabashedly racist. They are livid at the thought that this man is POTUS; I think they see him as a symbol of their growing irrelevance – observe the fact that Teabaggers talk about “taking the country back”. This begs the questions “from whom?” & “for whom?”; divining the answers is no great mental exercise. Coming from a rough working class background, I don’t shock easy, but have been taken aback by the mean, vulgar nature of the things said about him. To me, the spectacle of that pompous gasbag Rush singing that idiot song “Barack the Magic Negro” & being applauded for it by his yahoo followers is beyond obscene. I have never seen a chief exec subjected to such disrespect and villification.

The good news is that these people are indeed in decline, just as they fear. This type of attitude is rare among those under 40 – race, color & ethnicity seem to be non-issues for them. The demons of our national psyche are fading, but still strong enough to possess millions of souls. I guess the maturation I alluded to is moving ahead but still far from fruition.

By: Arthur Lewin

Arthur Lewin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:18:31 +0000

Maggie, thank you for your note. I hope that you are right that very few Americans are racist. However, the anger directed at him during the debates and in their speeches by Republican candidates in front of almost wholly white audiences gives off a discomforting vibe. Sherley, interesting point. Poitier was both African American and Caribbean. Though he was born in America, he was raised in the Bahamas. His films, like his heritage, were of two types, the accomdating and the rebellious. And, thank you. Victor.

By: Victor Langhorne

Victor Langhorne — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:34:15 +0000

What an aptly written piece. Thank you.

By: Sherley

Sherley — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:27:43 +0000

I took a history course on slavery in the New World and I learn that the group leask likely to rebel were slaves born in the New World, the uprisings and rebellions were initiated by newly arrived Africans. The moral of the story is that once the black person’s concept of self is as an AMERICAN and not an AFRICAN and his/her desire is to join the white status quo, he/she is doomed.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:35:51 +0000

The American citizens are NOT racist. Yes, there are whites AND blacks that are Racists but very few. Many Black men and women have reached their goal in life. Just watch the TV and you can see many of them. But all they say is they are not getting what the whites have, but there are many, many blacks that are doing great jobs, we see it every day. Everyone has to make their own success by learning. Some just won’t take the time to learn to do what they want. The president has done a Terrible job of taking that office. He knew he couldn’t lead us, but he let his puppeteer, Soros buy it for him anyway. HE definitely does NOT deserve to have that job again, ever. We need someone that can dig us out of the debt hole he has buried us in, and Please, do let us have someone that can Right the Wrongs he has done to us.