Obama's speech

I've had a few thoughts spinning around about the Obama speech last week and they generally reduce themselves to the maxim that it was very good, although it does not ease my cynicism about him being nothing more than a very new, very slick model of a "genuine" politician who is still a politician; however, another blog I glanced at earlier today compels me to put this foot forward:

A blog by an African American woman commenting on interracial dating zeroed in on the notion of Caucasian men dating black women. One of the more outrageous points she made was that white men date black women because they want to go out with women who they once "enslaved" because they either (a) like to feel like they're in control or (b) they feel inadequate around their own and because of their low self-esteem, fall back on someone "beneath" them.

She who is new to the Brahmin's life happens to be a woman of color. As of now, she doesn't know about this blog, as I suspect I don't know skillions of things about her life...including the possibility that she might have her own blog. And as our fledgling relationship goes forward, I reflect privately about what aspects of my life I choose to "unpeel" for her as a means of extending trust and sharing soul -- telling her I have this blog really isn't high on the list.

One of the things I liked about Obama's speech was his pointing out both the roots of black "anger" as well as the sources of white "resentment" - specifically citing the fact that so many whites feel that they should not be made to atone for the sins of people who have a common skin color but absolutely no ancestry.

So exactly who have I "enslaved"? I'm the descendant of Jewish Ukranian serfs and Irish peasants. And you bet, there are statements relatives on both sides made about African Americans that would make Mr. Obama (and no doubt, my current better half) "cringe." But my "slave" is a college graduate who works in corporate management. I think I could have done better living out that supposed fantasy...beginning with having bloodlines to the Thurmond family that nature denied me.

The last "significant" significant other I had was white as the driven snow with piercing blue eyes to match--if you pressed your ear to the dens of certain factions within her family, you'd hear whispers of anti-Semitism. And there was no urging for jungle fever when that ended. Actually, from a professional standpoint, my current one is doing better than the last one.

Lastly, why does a black woman need to categorize herself as "beneath" another class of people? Professional victimization. Something I saw all too well at my alma mater. Kudos to Obama for calling it out. And shame on those who seem, perhaps, to have so much emptiness in their own love lives so as to spew shallow pablum about the love lives of others.

The Brahmin