Monday, July 14, 2008

Oreo, cracker and the ilk........

I first heard these terms from one of my sons. He used it to describe himself, being a child with mixed parentage - a white father and a black mother. The term cracker was directed to his friend, a white Jewish boy. My son was an adolescent at the time - Yes, I had taught him better and hope that he makes me prouder these days even when I am not around to correct his foibles.

Why on earth would this term Oreo be used on the McLaughlin Report to describe Barack Obama? Why shouldn't he benefit from all civil rights strides made on behalf of ALL blacks in this country, African American, Puerto Ricans, Brazilians, Cubans, Jamaicans and on and on......

Jesse Jackson seems to think that Obama has not earned the right to be where he is, not having the correct parentage and all.......should Jesse Jackson's illegitimate child be doomed to a life of welfare, simply because he or she was born out of wedlock?

Obama can't win for losing - he is too black for whites, not black enough for blacks, and his skin tone - well, that's another story....

Over the weekend, I attended a large gathering in the back garden of a former associate. Unfortunately, they had neglected to inform the neighbor that they were having a large group of friends over. The police were subsequently called, found nothing amiss and then the insults began to be hurled across the fence. This gathering was of people who were fairly well educated, professionals, and yet, some of them chose to use the term "cracker" to refer to the neighbors who it seemed always gave them grief about one thing or another.

Was this really about race, or was something else afoot? I don't know, and I don't particularly care to know. I do know that race relations have reached a boiling point in this country, which is why the New Yorker finds nothing wrong with their distasteful cover this week.

When will it end? Dr. King is turning over in his grave, methinks.

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