Read Belmont Club and Hugh Hewitt's interview with Mark Steyn. They're talking about you-know-who and his autobiography
One observation--people who are afraid of be called "sell-out" are those who don't know who they are in the first place. Their 'self' is built on sand.
One more observation--Mark Steyn says the following:
Colin Powell and Barack Obama are both the children of British subjects. In Colin Powell’s case from the West Indies, in Obama’s case, from Kenya. And the advantage of that is that they’re not part, they’re not part of what we call now the African-American experience. They’re not part of the Jesse Jackson-Al Sharpton narrative.I've read and heard several white people make statements like this--people whose opinions I normally respect--regarding the who is and isn't "legally"(????) an "African-American"* or who has and hasn't taken part in the "African-American experience." While I love Mark Steyn, he doesn't know what the heck he's talking about in this case, to put it politely as possible. Both men grew up black in America and, in General Powell's case, before the Civil Rights Era. And I'm sure that no one inclined to discriminate against either of them because of their race cared that one or both parents were born in some other country.
Back to the 'self' issue. Steyn says that Obama and Powell come from similar backgrounds. They only seem to. Steyn observes that the general is
very secure in his sense of himself. And clearly, Barack Obama isn’t. There’s a big hole. That hole, in part, was left by, I think, that hole inside him is in many ways the fault of his father.And his mother. This is one of the myriad coping mechanisms that people use when they don't know who they are. And the only persons who can build that self are one's parents. Powell always had his. Obama's mother dragged him to a foreign country--where he was forever an outsider--and then abandoned him when he was old enough to know what was happening. Big difference. Crucial, even.
Okay enough hair-splitting. Go read.
*Here's the reason that I don't use the term "African-American" except with quotation marks/sneer quotes.
AFTERTHOUGHT: Barack Obama and his shape-shifting nature make him the perfect candidate for those who believe in the unconstrained vision of what humanity can become; who believe that humanity is perfectible instead of innately flawed.
