"No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election - The Firearms Forum

4EvrLearning · 03-07-2009, 11:37 PM

“No He Can’t” by Prof. Anne Wortham
Introduction to her article by Michael Eden

http://startthinkingright.wordpress....-anne-wortham/

Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’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 Afro-centricism 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.

No He Can’t by Anne Wortham

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 the 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 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.

RunningOnMT · 03-08-2009, 12:01 AM

Wow. Very good article. I hate being labled a racist because I can't stand Obama. As we both know, race has nothing to do with it. It's the mans mind that turns me off, not the color of his skin. I'd have no problem at all giving my enthusiastic support to a black president, if he stood for the right things.

artabr · 03-08-2009, 01:02 AM

Great read. Thanks. I really hope that the puplic will wake up but I doubt that they will. At least not before it's too late.

We had a Rally today. About 500 people showed up. No media coverage at all. But they'll cover a peace protest consisting of 7 nut cases on a street corner. True story.
I'm so pissed I could choke someone.

There was a letter to the editor in the Baton Rouge news paper yesterday. It was about Black on Black crime. It's the White Man's fault.

How the hell do you get that kind of mentality. How do you try to work as a country with people with this thought pattern. I'm at a fing loss.

Art

glocknut · 03-08-2009, 04:49 AM

I was having a conversation with a black guy a few years back about jesse jackson and al sharpton... and he flat out told me that those ***holes did not speak for him, not one little bit!...in a fairly angry tone.

I wasn't expecting that....

mike
gn

jacksonco · 03-08-2009, 06:42 AM

I liked the article a lot. It shows that the author is capable of independent thought and is not corrupted by fanatisim that so many were during the election. It is a shame that so many others were drawn into the illusion that Obama would make all things right again. It now looks like the best that could be hoped for with Obama is that he does not do any more harm to our nation.

Insulation Tim · 03-08-2009, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glocknut

I was having a conversation with a black guy a few years back about jesse jackson and al sharpton... and he flat out told me that those ***holes did not speak for him, not one little bit!...in a fairly angry tone.

I wasn't expecting that....

mike
gn

I think that many blacks feel that way....just no coverage by the media. I wonder what it is that turned the media into such "white Christian hating people"?

bcj1755 · 03-08-2009, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningOnMT

Wow. Very good article. I hate being labled a racist because I can't stand Obama. As we both know, race has nothing to do with it. It's the mans mind that turns me off, not the color of his skin. I'd have no problem at all giving my enthusiastic support to a black president, if he stood for the right things.

I agree with you 100%. I"ve told Obamites that I voted against Barry not because he's black, but because I WILL NOT vote for a socialistic closet-commie that wants to take my money and my guns. They don't what to say to that at all and just give me the "deer caught in headlights expression" because a retort would require thought on their part.

If Colin Powell had run, I'd have voted for him in a heartbeat, but he didn't, and instead we got Barry

To put it in perspective, Sneaky Joe is white, and I wouldn't have voted for him either. But I'm a racist because I didn't vote for Barry. I'm a racist because I don't believe is his socialism. I'm a racist because I believe in working for what I own and not sitting on my ass and taking a gov't welfare check handout. Pffft!
*makes rude noise and goes and fondles my firearms*

SaddleSarge · 03-08-2009, 11:53 AM

Excellent article. It's reassuring to read that intellectuals can have an independent opinion that is patriotic. (not to mention, correct.)

ponycar17 · 03-08-2009, 11:58 AM

Quote:

There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

I think this last statement speaks for the whole article, as it should.

Obliviousness, apathy, ignorance (both inherent and willful), blind hate, self-righteousness, jealousy, entitlement mentality...

All those terms seem to describe how Barack Obama was elected by the masses.

Mjolnir · 03-08-2009, 01:42 PM

I always appreciate seeing that there are free thinking people still out there, and working to make others free thinking as well.

03-07-2009, 11:37 PM	#1
4EvrLearning Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Left Coast Posts: 1,449	"No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election “No He Can’t” by Prof. Anne Wortham Introduction to her article by Michael Eden http://startthinkingright.wordpress....-anne-wortham/ Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’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 Afro-centricism 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. No He Can’t by Anne Wortham 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 the 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 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. __________________ *"Until God is finished with me, I am immortal." Jonathan Edwards, American Theologian (1703-1758)* -->

03-08-2009, 12:01 AM	#2
RunningOnMT Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Akron, Ohio Contributor Posts: 4,720	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election Wow. Very good article. I hate being labled a racist because I can't stand Obama. As we both know, race has nothing to do with it. It's the mans mind that turns me off, not the color of his skin. I'd have no problem at all giving my enthusiastic support to a black president, if he stood for the right things.

03-08-2009, 01:02 AM	#3
artabr Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: New Iberia, Louisiana Contributor Posts: 7,859	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election Great read. Thanks. I really hope that the puplic will wake up but I doubt that they will. At least not before it's too late. We had a Rally today. About 500 people showed up. No media coverage at all. But they'll cover a peace protest consisting of 7 nut cases on a street corner. True story. I'm so pissed I could choke someone. There was a letter to the editor in the Baton Rouge news paper yesterday. It was about Black on Black crime. It's the White Man's fault. How the hell do you get that kind of mentality. How do you try to work as a country with people with this thought pattern. I'm at a fing loss. Art __________________ God and the soldier we like adore, In times of trouble, not before. When troubles ended and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier is slighted. Francis Quarles 1592 - 1644 __________________ When asked for my race, I answer CauCajun. Hope is not a plan, and not all change is good. The resistance is here; the resistance is now. RESIST! These hands are neither cold nor are they dead!! Last edited by artabr; 03-08-2009 at 01:14 AM..

03-08-2009, 04:49 AM	#4
glocknut Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: THE FORUM MASCOTT... Posts: 12,482	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election I was having a conversation with a black guy a few years back about jesse jackson and al sharpton... and he flat out told me that those ***holes did not speak for him, not one little bit!...in a fairly angry tone. I wasn't expecting that.... mike gn __________________ Where O where are you tonight? Why have you gone and left me alone? I searched to world over and a thought i found true love... You met another and PTThhh you were gone....

03-08-2009, 06:42 AM	#5
jacksonco Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Jackson County West Virginia Posts: 2,237	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election I liked the article a lot. It shows that the author is capable of independent thought and is not corrupted by fanatisim that so many were during the election. It is a shame that so many others were drawn into the illusion that Obama would make all things right again. It now looks like the best that could be hoped for with Obama is that he does not do any more harm to our nation.

03-08-2009, 11:53 AM	#8
SaddleSarge Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 1,025	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election Excellent article. It's reassuring to read that intellectuals can have an independent opinion that is patriotic. (not to mention, correct.)

03-08-2009, 01:42 PM	#10
Mjolnir V.I.P. Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Greeley, Colorado Posts: 228	Re: "No He Can't" -- A Black Professor's Response to the Election I always appreciate seeing that there are free thinking people still out there, and working to make others free thinking as well.