nouveau black

Here's a clip from The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. If you've seen Colbert before then you know what your about to get. For those who aren't familiar with him Colbert is a satirist who acts like a conservative journalist (think of Bill O'Reilly). Colbert can often go overboard in his satire and critique of individuals. This got him into trouble last year when he roasted George W. Bush (who was sitting two feet away) at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The thing I appreciate about Colbert (and his cohort Jon Stewart) is that he critiques everyone. Left, Right, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Atheist. No one is safe in his presence.

Anyway, this clip is from an interview last Thursday with Debra Dickerson, author of "The End of Blackness." At the beginning of the interview Colbert seems to be playing nicely but by the end he completely strips away all the layers of political correctness and reveals how predjudice Dickerson's position really is. Check it out for yourself:



Before I say anything more let me point out that I don't know anything about Debra Dickerson. You can find an interesting interview with her at this link: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12273
From the interview it sounds like she does make some very valid points in her book. I haven't read the book yet but I think I may. This is all to say that I'm not trying to attack her but I do think that the position she expounds on the Colbert Report is ridiculous. To Dickerson's credit she does handle the "interview" well and with a good sense of humor. She also seems to understand some of the weaknesses of her position.

Barack Obama may not have descended from black slaves but this doesn't make him less black. He has grown up in the U.S. as a man of color and has been subjected to the ugly predjudice and latent racism present in our country. It's not like the average bigot is going to walk by Obama on the street and go, "Wait a minute. Is he really black? Should I or shouldn't I discriminate against him?" The phrase African-American should be broad enough to cover a wide variety of folks. To be African or of African descent could literally mean hundreds of different things due to the diversity of culture and ethnicity on the African continent. Barack Obama's mother is American and he was born in America. Therefore, he's American. Obama's father is from Kenya and therefore Barack is an African descendant. Does this not make him African-American or at least American-African. To my eyes the color of his skin seems to be the same color as that which is usually called "black" so why all the fuss.

If you know me then you know that the last thing I'm trying to do is come across as racist. However, it seems to that there is an inherent reverse-racism within the black community. For starters my guess is that if a white pundit made the statement "Barack Obama is not black." he would have been lambasted and many within the black community would have been shouting "Racism!" When this statement is made from within the black community it is then acceptable. This seems backward and counter-intuitive to me. The other problem is that this type of labeling excludes blacks within the black community. The definition of what is "black" is becoming narrower and narrower and in some cases just as exclusive and derogatory as any white predjudice. I know people who have been told they're "acting white" or that they're Oreos (Black on the outside but White on the inside) because they dress a certain way, talk in a specific manner or whatever else. Is this not exclusion based on racist notions of blackness? I think I agree with Colbert on this one, for many people Dr. King's dream has been realized in a very "special" way.