Barack Obama, African Americans, Clinton, and Black Fear Of Success

The way Rev. Al Sharpton's treated Senator Barack Obama earlier this year reminds me of something that happened to me in Oakland, and it's a sign of how we as African Americans fear social success and breaking the glass ceiling. Indeed, given that Barack could be our next President, you'd think there would be an automatic Black voting block.

Instead some of us are backing Hillary Clinton, but don't believe for a moment that it's because of Hillary Clinton -- it's because some of us are scared of seeing the reality of a Black person in charge of America. Let me explain.

In 1998, I worked for the City of Oakland, and then-Mayor Jerry Brown, fresh from his election victory, was moving into City Hall, I was to be transfered over from my office in the Mayor's Office, to ...somewhere.

Then-Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb personally asked me to talk with then-Economic Development Director Bill Claggett, with whom I did not entirely get along with at the time. But I did have lunch with him and he told me that he thought I talked like I knew everything. To which I said it wasn't that I did, but many people -- himself included -- were not used to hearing someone Black speak well.

At that point, I didn't want to go over to Economic Development

When I told Robert Robb what happened, his reaction was that he expected Glaggett to say that. "Oakland," he said, "Is a crabbarrel town. You know what I mean? You? Bright. Young. Articulate. Black. They can't stand that. They want to pull you down."

Because Bobb said that, I went to Economic Development -- simply because he knew what the problem was and how stupid some of the people were being. The same can be said for Reverend Al -- well the stupid part that is.

One big reason some of us African Americans have been slow to overcome the chains of the past and also willing to back Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is that people like Reverend Al won't let us take them off. That's certainly not my problem as I'm a stauch supporter of Senator Obama for President, but that's not what I'm writing about here. I'm writing about those Blacks who actually fear Barack's success. Those who think he can't win because he's Black -- like them.

And for every one of us who does overcome that mentality and the chains that come with it, like Barack Obama, there's someone like Reverend Al, right there to put them back on again -- or at least try to. According to an article in the New York Post , Sharpton doens't like Obama and is jealous of his success. Or he was at the time the article was written.



Now Sharpton knows that if anyone can help him achieve his agenda, it's Barack Obama, but the possibility of success was not desirable to him as long as he had to deal with someone who's able to be something that Sharpton doesn't see himself as: bright, smart, and attractive.

So, Sharpton says Barack's "not Black" knowing all the time that slavery is not a measure of Blackness and never was. There were "free" Blacks even during Slavery. He also knows that many of us have some measure of "White blood," -- whatever that means as I tend to think in terms that are more specific to region and not skin color -- and that's certainly true for Barack. Big deal. It's how society regards us, and everyone sees Barack Obama as Black, including himself.

I've gotten the same slings and arrows from not just Blacks, but people like Bill Claggett, who's White, that Barack Obama's getting today. Fortunately, America's waking-up to the stupidity of people like Claggett and Sharpton, and in such a way that Sharpton's childish attitude could wind up hurting his friend and presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. More and more people are responding to Senator Obama as an individual who's a born leader and one who's capable of bridging gaps in society. Barack can win the presidency.

But such an outcome seems to be an issue to a "Crabbarel" like Reverend Al. As long as Blacks remain second class citizens and there's room for his "victimization" approach, and he's on top, that's all. It's all about Reverend Al, no matter how much it hurts other Blacks like me or Senator Obama.

He's just trying to pull us down.

Havard Professor Derrick Bell has explained these problems well. Bell once said that he got into a cab on the way to the airport, when the cabbie, who's African American, asked him what he did. "I'm a professor at Harvard," he said. "Oh, " responded the cab driver, It's folks like you who make it harder for the rest of us."

What the cab driver meant, and Bell understood, was that his position as a professor at Harvard was a sign that other African Americans could achieve that status, and that Bell's success made it harder for the cab driver to see his Blackness as a block to achivement.

Some of us who are Black may look at Barack the same way as the cabbie looked at Professor Bell, but it's wrong. We should see Barack as a role model and someone who can win the nomination, should win the nomination, and in doing so break that glass ceiling. Indeed, you'd think intelligent African Americans like Stanley Crouch would know this, but even he can't help tugging that mental chain. Crouch stupidly -- that's what it is -- said that Barack wasn't Black because he didn't have the background of slavery.

That's just plain dumb. It is.

To be frank, if Barack were Italian or Asian, people who identify themselves as Italian or Asian would speak of him with pride, not fear. We're the only set of people with the tendency to express fear of success, and that should be a major concern to everyone in America, regardless of race, creed, or color.

If we as a major part of American Culture can't feel good about ourselves, then we harm the ability of the country itself to improve. We've got to take off our mental chains and follow Barack, without fear.