{"id":5368,"date":"2008-11-06T07:10:52","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T14:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5368"},"modified":"2008-11-06T07:10:52","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T14:30:40","slug":"obama-moving-from-symbol-to-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5368","title":{"rendered":"Obama: Moving from Symbol to Substance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have my own views on Obama and election day (bittersweat as I&#8217;m a Californian) but for now I want to highlight some things about Obama and the election from other blogs.<\/p>\n<p>Please watch this video of Dr. Cornel West that I found on <a href=\"http:\/\/eliacin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Eliacin&#8217;s blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/cnn\/.element\/js\/2.0\/video\/evp\/module.js?loc=dom&#038;vid=\/video\/politics\/2008\/11\/05\/vassileva.cornel.west.intv.cnn\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><noscript>Embedded video from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/video\">CNN Video<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, when it comes to Black faces in high places, America has undergone extrodanary change.\u00a0 When it comes to the suffering of Black poor people, the suffering of Black working people the verdict is not yet in, in terms from shifting from symbol to substance.&#8221;<br \/>\n-Cornel West<\/p>\n<p><strong>[update: for some dumb reason the video isn&#8217;t working.  All you need to do is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> and search under &#8220;Cornel West on Obama Win&#8221; and you will find the video]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brownfemipower <a href=\"http:\/\/brownfemipower.com\/archives\/3249\" target=\"_blank\">blogs on the suffering <\/a>of people of color as well:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I woke up far too early this morning, and thus was incredibly beyond cranky at all the white folks speculating if racism is\u2026could it be\u2026DEAD???? Because, you know, if one black man could make it as a president, Katrina didn\u2019t *really* happen just years ago. And racism only exists in the form of some ancient by-gone problem of the black community not being able to vote, right?<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Does the U.S. realize what it\u2019s done? Does it recognize the blood it has on it\u2019s hands? Does it acknowledge that electing a black president doesn\u2019t make it *safe* to love? Doesn\u2019t remove the threat against hope it has held over the black community for centuries?<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>And so while we can all congratulate each other and honor the accomplishment and smile and hug and scream in the streets\u2013we can not look away from that very real fucking truth. We are all a part of inflicting the pain that makes this accomplishment so huge, so important, so tender and delicate\u2013that this is the first time since the creation of the United States that we as a nation have found as much value in the body and mind of a black man as the black community does.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And there is also the suffering the U.S. has cuased internationally (and many folks in the Third World see Obama as the inheriter of U.S. imperialism).<\/p>\n<p>Brian Walsh <a href=\"http:\/\/empireremixed.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/05\/barack-obama-a-post-imperial-presidency\/\" target=\"_blank\">blogs<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Like many of my neighbours to the south, like many of my neighbours in Toronto, especially in the black community, and like many of my neighbours around the world, I had tears in my eyes last night. My heart is also filled with gratitude that the American people rejected the legacy of George W. Bush in such overwhelming numbers. And I am enthused by the hope that Obama brings to America and, indeed, to the world.<\/p>\n<p>So here\u2019s the question. How will an Obama presidency break with the imperial pretense of not just the Bush\/Reagan dynasty, but with the imperial pretense of America herself. Can you be a President of the United States of America and not be imperial? Or to put the question in terms of this website, <em>can Obama remix the American empire<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Obama stands in the tradition of King by appealing to the founding vision of America and calling America to fulfill that vision. And he is right to believe that there can only be a vision for the future if that vision is rooted in memories that can engender and sustain such a vision. And he was politically wise to argue that we must reject the Bush legacy because it departs from the best of American traditions, the best of American promise. But what is that promise? What, beyond those three foundational words, is the heart of that tradition? If vision is rooted in memory, are some memories better than others? Might there be some memories that need to be re-evaluated if we are to proceed with hope and an alternative vision?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Finally, on imperialism, the view from Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/T7a-Dy-iW50&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/T7a-Dy-iW50&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have my own views on Obama and election day (bittersweat as I&#8217;m a Californian) but for now I want to highlight some things about Obama and the election from other blogs. Please watch this video of Dr. Cornel West &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5368\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,40,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics","category-international-issues","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}