I'm Afraid. . .

Andre Bouey is program assistant for the Catalyst Program at Plainfield South High School. Catalyst works with at-risk youth to facilitate change in behaviors.

First of all, what I am about to write is going to be pretty deep. Some of the topics that I am going to address might offend some people, and for that I would like to say that I am sorry off the bat. I am not trying to make people mad, or even stir people up. These are things that I have been thinking about for a while – so much that I needed to write it down for my own good. Hopefully you, as the reader, could offer me some insight on my thoughts. Maybe I have it all wrong, maybe I have it all right; either way, if you feel the need to comment, give your honest opinion. I will push back on your thoughts... only because I feel so strongly about the topic. If we so happen to disagree, please know that I will not be upset or mad. I will respect all opinions no matter how you feel.

I'm speaking from the point of view of an Afro-American male, 26 years old, born in raised in the Midwest of the United States of America. I am afraid....

I am afraid that our focus has been dramatically shifted from success as a culture to be comfortable as a culture. I look at the battles that we have fought over the last ten years. We have the battle of electing a black president. A battle of affirmative action. Burying the "N" word. The equal housing battle. Equal schooling for our kids. Most importantly, the battle of being "REAL" and "acting black" despite our surroundings. Some we have won, some we are still fighting.

I love the ideal of a black president. I personally think he is doing a good job, going against the popular opinion that he is not. I saw all the energy that we put into supporting Obama to get elected to the highest office in the land. When it happened, I saw many people cry. I saw his T-shirts. I saw people running around as if we won some sort of battle. I'm afraid we didn't win anything.

My next example is affirmative action. If they would just give us a chance to get equal schools, equal jobs, live in better hoods, everything would be good. The definition of a minority can be Asian (South or Southeast), Native America, or any woman. Those groups have just as much of a right to jobs as any African American. Yet we focus so much of our attention on affirmative action as if it only affects black people.

Affirmative action has helped people. Yet at the end of the day, how do you employ more people? I have come up with an answer, and it's pretty simple. Ownership.... Ownership is the key to wealth. Ownership gives you the power of influence. Hell, it even controls our government (look at the bailouts!). It comes down to what do we own, and how much money we control due to ownership. Look at our nation’s CEOs.... Look at the owners of NBA teams. Owners of NFL teams. Owners of media corporations. If you own something, you dictate how things are run. You control information. Most importantly, you control who you employ.

Affirmative action is only a small step towards ownership... it is not the end towards our independence. Once you own, you control the flow of income. If you control the flow of income, you can put money in areas that are important to you, like the area your kids go to school in or your neighborhoods you live in. My problem with affirmative action and Al Sharpton protests in the streets is that we are asking for something to be done. If you own... you don't have to ask. You make things happen because you now have the independence and power to do it your way on your terms, not on anyone else's clock.

Our battles for the black community are not for ownership on a large scale. It's for renting and managing. We love to rent and manage. We rent jobs, housing, cars, from "owners." We also manage for "owners." Salaries have increased, opportunities have opened up, but at the end of the day, we are working for "owners" and using the money that we are making to give right back to the same owners we are working for. Barack in office is cool, but Barack on Wall Street or as CEO is better. The symbol is not as powerful, but the impact is greater.

We are being taught wrong. The battle is for wealth and power. Not taking it all for ourselves, but for equaling the playing field. Instead, we are fighting to rent or for our self-esteem (i.e., who can say the "N" word)! I'm saying that if you own more, we become the landlords. Our self-esteem automatically becomes something too important for people because they respect our power.

Obama and Terrorists

Ann Fisher is a senior political science student at North Central College and a multi-year participant in the college's Model United Nations program. Her research interests center on race and politics, as well as international relations.

It’s time to face it; Barack Obama was not just a skinny kid with a funny name. He was a skinny, black kid with a funny, African and Muslim name. These adjectives completely change the perspective with which we look at him. So when Sarah Palin claims that he is “palling around with terrorists,” she is not hoping to make one think of Bill Ayers, a former elementary school teacher and leader of the militant group Weather Underground. Instead she is hoping for a different picture.

It is not my intention to deny that the Weather Underground is considered a terrorist organization. The attacks committed by this group were horrific. Nor is it my intention defend Senator Obama’s interaction with this man. There may be a defense for why he would be involved with such a person, but more importantly I think we should look at the way in which her statements were framed. As the McCain campaign has fallen behind in the polls, they have attempted to turn the conversation to Senator Obama’s character. This should be no surprise to the Obama campaign, which has been defending his character from the beginning.

Obama has to deal with Reverend Wright, while no one is talking about the endorsement of John McCain by John Hagee, who even conservatives have called a bigot. As I said, I am not attempting to defend or condone some of Obama’s associations, but it seems to me that there was intention on Sarah Palin’s part not to make Americans think of William Ayers who in the past committed these acts (and is a school reformer in Illinois). Instead she wants us to put him in the same light as Osama Bin Laden. She is perpetuating this idea of difference.

Senator Obama is different in every way. It is true; Barack Obama is black, he has a father from Africa and attended a Muslim school in Indonesia. Barack did have a pastor who said things not often said by white pastors, and some of his past associates have committed horrible acts of violence. But John McCain has skeletons in his closet too. According to Paul Begala on Meet the Press (Oct. 6, 2008),

This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign…John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization. It was the U.S. Council for World Freedom. It was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. It was an ultraconservative right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981, when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, the parent organization, which ADL said, “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and Anti-Semites.”

The Obama campaign claims that they are going to stick to discussing the economy, a strategy that I believe will benefit them. But now that I know this about John McCain, I wonder if a discussion on “guilt by association” really would play against his favor. I don’t think it would. I believe that this has everything to do with the fact that he is white man named John McCain, and his opponent is a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. The images displayed by that name ultimately display fear in the American public.