In response to “GATE musical mirrored jubilance of election” - letter to the editor
Ditto on the kudos to the GATE directors. My son has participated in several of these productions and has benefited greatly. The comparison between Obama’s election and the “Hairspray” theme (racial integration) is valid. That we judge “not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character” is a blossoming reality.
I say this as a White man married to a Black woman with children of varying skin hues and as one who knows discrimination. As a bi-racial couple living in the states, we were at times denied housing, threatened by the KKK, and often made to feel unwelcome.
However, my family and I do not share Mr. Hartz’ jubilation. Initially we were puzzled how a Black man who benefited from a redefinition of legal personhood which ended slavery in America could be so radically against the rights of another voiceless minority.
Obama’s promise to Planned Parenthood to sign the FOCA as “the first thing I’d do as president” puts Obama to the left of even Roe v. Wade, which at least had some restraint in killing the unborn. And his refusal to support a Born Alive law and criticism of the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban demonstrates his desire to extend this license to kill to the already born and the mostly born.
Our puzzle was soon solved. Other than his skin color Obama is not a “Black American”. “Black American” connotes a multi-generational struggle which began in the dark holds of slave ships. Obama shares none of that history. In fact, save for the Rev. Wright, whom Obama eventually eschewed, association with influential Blacks in Obama’s political rise is a rarity. The likes of Jesse Jackson and Alveda King were publicly suspicious of Obama’s hijacking of decades of Black struggle but were sidelined by the media.
But most ironic is Obama’s idol status with Planned Parenthood, an organization once openly allied with “The Negro Project”. And while PP today denies any ties to the culling of Negroes openly promoted by its founder, nearly 36% of all abortions in the U.S. are performed on Black Americans who account for just 13% of the population. Yes, Mr. Obama, you CAN be anything in America, but it appears you have to be born first.
