HERE'S SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER
or maybe worse.
One of the top stories on MSNBC.com this morning, a
1,026-word Associated Press piece headlined Hope, safety worries mix in Obama
candidacy, reports that many black Americans are revisiting old fears in
the light of bright new
hopes:
They watch with wonder as momentum builds for Barack Obama... And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe?
...
"You can't have lived through the civil rights movement and know something about the history of African-Americans in this country and not be a little concerned," said Edna Medford, a history professor at Washington's Howard University.
...
Clyde Barrett, 66, a longtime U.S. Labor Department employee now retired in Tampa, Florida, says he often hears expressions of concern for Obama's safety. One young acquaintance, Barrett said, declared he would not even vote for Obama for fear of exposing him to more danger.
Though it's been almost forty years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- surely a few things have changed since the?n -- the implication is clear: the more powerful and popular Senator Obama becomes, the closer her gets to winning the Democratic Party nomination and then the presidency, the more likely he is to be killed by some white psycho cracker of a racist.
I won't suggest they shouldn't be worried about that possibility -- at the risk of sounding like Ed Rendell, Lord knows there are plenty of white psycho cracker racists still hiding under the American rock, and chances are most of them have ready access to guns -- but I would suggest that these worriers can find at least a little solace in this statistic from the U.S. Department of Justice: over the past thirty years, 94% of black homicide victims were killed by blacks.
So as long as Senator Obama doesn't go to the gas station, the odds are clearly in his favor on this one.
They watch with wonder as momentum builds for Barack Obama... And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe?
...
"You can't have lived through the civil rights movement and know something about the history of African-Americans in this country and not be a little concerned," said Edna Medford, a history professor at Washington's Howard University.
...
Clyde Barrett, 66, a longtime U.S. Labor Department employee now retired in Tampa, Florida, says he often hears expressions of concern for Obama's safety. One young acquaintance, Barrett said, declared he would not even vote for Obama for fear of exposing him to more danger.
Though it's been almost forty years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- surely a few things have changed since the?n -- the implication is clear: the more powerful and popular Senator Obama becomes, the closer her gets to winning the Democratic Party nomination and then the presidency, the more likely he is to be killed by some white psycho cracker of a racist.
I won't suggest they shouldn't be worried about that possibility -- at the risk of sounding like Ed Rendell, Lord knows there are plenty of white psycho cracker racists still hiding under the American rock, and chances are most of them have ready access to guns -- but I would suggest that these worriers can find at least a little solace in this statistic from the U.S. Department of Justice: over the past thirty years, 94% of black homicide victims were killed by blacks.
So as long as Senator Obama doesn't go to the gas station, the odds are clearly in his favor on this one.
Posted: Sat - February 23, 2008 at 10:47 AM
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Published On: Feb 23, 2008 10:49 AM
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Published On: Feb 23, 2008 10:49 AM