The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Mister Bluebird on my shoulder
It’s the truth, it’s actch’ll
Ev’rything is satisfactch’ll
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

I’m still shaking my head over the 25 DVD collection Obama gave to British PM Gordon Brown (something that can be purchased at either your local Wal-Mart or Big Lots). Its also sad to me to see how folks who have plenty of common sense ditch that “sense” by rationalizing this flub away.

Moderate elements of the Taliban?

Anybody who follows world events even on the casual scale know that Obama’s consideration of reaching out to moderate members of the Taliban was just ridiculous. Look, if reaching out to “moderate” members of the Bloods, Crips, or 18th Street Gang has never worked, what gives him the idea that members of the Taliban are gonna put down their rocket launchers and join the global circle of love? Even the Taliban thought this was a complete joke.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban on Tuesday turned down as illogical U.S. President Barack Obama’s bid to reach out to moderate elements of the insurgents, saying the exit of foreign troops was the only solution for ending the war.

[...]

“This does not require any response or reaction for this is illogical,” Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a purported spokesman for the insurgent group, told Reuters when asked if its top leader Mullah Mohammad Omar would make any comment about Obama’s proposal.

“The Taliban are united, have one leader, one aim, one policy…I do not know why they are talking about moderate Taliban and what it means?,”

“If it means those who are not fighting and are sitting in their homes, then talking to them is meaningless. This really is surprising the Taliban.” (more…)

In the 1946 Disney film “Song of the South”, James Baskett played the role of the happy-go-lucky Black man who told funny tales to little White children. While audiences around the world were amused, Black folks in general saw this as just another way White folks avoided dealing with the institutional racism of that time. In fact, Baskett wasn’t even allowed to attend the premiere because of segregation.

Obama is quickly emerging as a modern-day Uncle Remus to his fan base. His fans have given him carte blanche privileges to flub as much as possible. Why? Because he is the first BLACK President. Never mind all the cries from the left during the Presidential campaign over how we need to repair our image in the international community and how just these two mistakes alone adds to that concern. Suddenly, US image repair isn’t that important to the left—trashing their own original standard set by them for our current President. Many of the harshest critics of the Bush administration who held him to a standard as high as the stratosphere are holding Obama to a standard as low as his kneecaps. Instead of talking about policy issues and the effectiveness of same policies when tried in the past by past Presidents, like Uncle Remus, entertainment and avoidance to the real issues has become more important. We much rather talk about Michelle O’s latest fashion choices, what the Obamas do in the bedroom,  and how Obama is more of a man because he chose a dark-skinned Black woman to be his wife.

When the saying “Give a brutha a chance” translates into “look the other way”, we don’t have to worry about anybody hoping he fails. We are failing him.