THERE IS absolutely nothing wrong with Michelle Obama saying that she has the “blood of Africa” running in her veins. She is proud of her heritage, and that’s normal and good.

But an Italian-American or Anglo-American could not say, “I have the blood of Europe running through my veins,” and still hold any public office or position of prominence. No, he has nothing running in his veins but guilt.

— Comments —

Kevin M. writes:

I was once a teacher in a majority black high school.

An interesting phenomena took place in the teachers’ lunchroom. The staff generally got along well, but the teachers mostly self-segregated in the lunchroom, with black tables and white tables. The white table had Italians, Irish, German, Polish, etc.. One of the Italian teachers, who was quite the jovial fellow, would sometimes greet the other white teachers with a hello and might say, “Good morning, Kevin, you crazy Irishman!” or “Here comes Stanley, our favorite Polish guy!”

Every time he did this,  the black teachers would glare at us. I guess we were “plain vanilla” or “generic humans” with no background, no culture.

It was telling.

Katheryn G. writes:

Kevin M.’s observation about black teachers glaring when the ethnicity of white teachers was alluded to might be due to the fact that few descendants of North American slaves know for sure which West African peoples they are descended from. Since they are obliged to be “just black,” without more details than that, why should whites have the privilege of being proud of their specific European ancestry? If black Americans do not know whether they are of Mandinka or Mende or Wolof descent, white Americans should not flaunt their Irish or Polish or Italian ancestry. (Of course, I think that this kind of thinking is mistaken, but I am trying to come up with some sort of justification.)

Does this sound plausible to you, I wonder?

Laura writes:

Blacks often refer to themselves as “African-Americans” so that’s not quite “just black.” Besides, if you didn’t know your ethnic roots, would you be envious of those who did? But I am not going to speculate on what their thinking was.

David J. writes:

As an American black, I find Katheryn G.’s comment about the unknown ancestral background of black Americans to be very insightful. Though I deeply struggle with the more severe misfortunes of my race (as you, Bill R., and I have discussed), I have long made peace with the reality that, unlike other Americans, I and my fellow blacks are almost wholly incognizant of our tribal and regional origins (beyond the elementary fact that our forebears hailed from western sub-Saharan Africa). I have always marveled that other Americans often know not only their forefathers’ particular homelands and histories, but even former villages and towns! It is a delight to hear them give details about their heritages.

Such a reality also makes fun of those particular white nationalists and race realists who occasionally call for the return of American blacks to Africa. To them, I ask: to where in Africa? To which tribe? To which village? In fact, no other American ethnic group is as disconnected from its land of origin than black Americans. Of all the peoples of the United States (save American Indians), blacks are the least feasible case to make such a return.

The truth is that black Americans have no other place to call home but the United States. Since a largely unknowable void exists between us and the land of our ancestors, it then must be filled by our presence and experience in this great country, for which I am grateful. Perhaps the neoconservative writer David Horowitz was right when he rhetorically asked, “Who is more American than the descendants of African slaves?”

I hope against hope that my fellow U.S. blacks will understand and magnanimously accept our collective fate and future in this nation without our falling into enticing, self-defeating temptations such as pseudo-scholastic Afrocentrism, vainglory over our African history, and anti-white resentment.

Laura writes:

I wonder, does Michelle Obama know anything about her ancestry in Africa?

As for Horowitz’s question, I think it is fair to say that blacks feel themselves to be part of a separate nation within America, with its own distinctive history that began in Africa.

Buck writes:

There is no question in my mind that many “blacks feel themselves to be a part of a separate nation.” Clearly many do, and they discuss it exactly in those terms.

Michelle and Barack Obama are community organizers, soup to nuts. That is what animates them. The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a co-community organization project between Africa and the United States. The Obamas are organizing it, and we’re paying for it.

 Laura writes:

I’m not sure that really qualifies as community organizing. The intention seems to be to help professionals in Africa.

Buck writes:

Help them to do what?

The White House “FACT SHEET” reads to me like coded community organizing, but without the open and explicit political language. “Civic organization,” “community-based organizations,” “to improve their communities,” “community service activities,” “social enterprises”…

I’m skeptical about their goals. What do they actually say are their goals?

Community organizing organizes people to act in common self-interest with a common agenda. Almost every statement of purpose includes either “activists”, “social enterprises”, or ends in “community”.

What is CO but power building, relationship building, leadership development, political education, strategy, mobilization, action, movement building, etc.?

Have Barrack and Michelle Obama ever demonstrated one ounce of business acumen? Have they ever led a capitalist enterprise or fellowship? Of course not. They’re Socialists and Alinskyites. Why would they be for pumping $350 million (to start) into this endeavor? I’m not smart enough to see the end game, but I don’t trust the Obamas to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on up-and-coming African youth – in Africa – as one of their ongoing dedicated efforts to improve America.

I re-read the “FACT SHEET” and I get nothing.

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