--- citation502 <citation502@yahoo.com> wrote:
> of course not; just white Mississippians
>
> --- In Dems2008@yahoogroups.com, isabelle
> <isabelle_ms@...> wrote:
> >
> > Ci, how did they let their own country be overrun
> to
> > begin with? Why are there so many problems in
> Africa
> > with them killing each other now? I don't know
> what
> > the problem is, but I know you can't blame white
> > people for everything.
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Citation <citation502@...> wrote:
> >
> > > New York Times
> > > March 20, 2008
> > > Op-Ed Columnist
> > > Beyond America's Original Sin By ROGER COHEN
> > > There are things you come to believe and
> things
> > > you carry in your blood. In my case, having
> spent
> > > part of my childhood in apartheid South Africa,
> I
> > > bear my measure of shame.
> > > As a child, experience is wordless but no less
> > > powerful for that. How vast, how shimmering, was
> > > Muizenberg beach, near Cape Town, with all that
> > > glistening white skin spread across the golden
> sand!
> > > The scrawny blacks were elsewhere, swimming
> off
> > > the rocks in a filthy harbor, and I watched from
> my
> > > grandfather's house and I wondered.
> > > Once, a black nanny took me out across the
> road to
> > > a parapet above a rail track beside that harbor.
> > > "You wouldn't want me to drop you," she said.
> > > The fear I felt lingered. I returned recently
> to
> > > measure how far I would have fallen. In memory,
> the
> > > abyss plunged 100 feet. Reality revealed a drop
> of
> > > 10. That discrepancy measures a child's panic.
> > > A "For Sale" sign was up on what had been the
> > > family house. I inquired if I might visit and
> > > received a surly rebuff. But not before I
> glimpsed
> > > the mountain behind where my father hiked and
> where
> > > I feared the snakes among the thorn bushes.
> > > Fear, shadowy as the sharks beyond the nets at
> > > Muizenberg, was never quite absent from our
> sunlit
> > > African sojourns. My own was formed of
> > > disorientation: I was not quite of the system
> > > because my parents had emigrated from
> Johannesburg
> > > to London. So, on return visits, I wandered into
> > > blacks-only public toilet or sat on a
> blacks-only
> > > bench.
> > > Blacks only — and I was white. Apartheid
> entered
> > > my consciousness as a kind of self-humiliation.
> The
> > > black women who bathed me as an infant touched
> my
> > > skin, but their world was untouchable.
> > > Only later did a cruel system come into focus.
> I
> > > see white men, gin and tonics on their breath,
> red
> > > meat on their plates, beneath the jacarandas of
> > > Johannesburg, sneering at the impossibility of
> > > desiring a black woman.
> > > A racial divide, once lived, dwells in the
> deepest
> > > parts of the psyche. This is what was captured
> by
> > > Barack Obama's pitch-perfect speech on race.
> Slavery
> > > was indeed America's "original sin." Of course,
> "the
> > > brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow" lives on
> in
> > > forms of African-American humiliation and anger
> that
> > > smolder in ways incommunicable to whites.
> > > Segregation placed American blacks in the U.S.
> > > equivalent of that filthy African harbor.
> > > It takes bravery, and perhaps an unusual
> > > black-white vantage point, to navigate these
> places
> > > where hurt is profound, incomprehension the
> rule,
> > > just as it takes courage to say, as Obama did,
> that
> > > black "anger is real; it is powerful; and to
> simply
> > > wish it away, to condemn it without
> understanding
> > > its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of
> > > misunderstanding that exists between the races."
> > > Progress, since the Civil Rights Movement, or
> > > since apartheid, has assuaged the wounds of race
> but
> > > not closed them. To carry my part of shame is
> also
> > > to carry a clue to the vortexes of rancor for
> which
> > > Obama has uncovered words.
> > > I understand the rage of his former pastor,
> the
> > > Rev. Jeremiah Wright, however abhorrent its
> > > expression at times. I admire Obama for saying:
> "I
> > > can no more disown him than I can disown the
> black
> > > community."
> > > Honesty feels heady right now. For seven
> years, we
> > > have lived with the arid, us-against-them
> formulas
> > > of Bush's menial mind, with the result that the
> > > nuanced exploration of America's hardest subject
> is
> > > almost giddying. Can it be that a human being,
> like
> > > Wright, or like Obama's grandmother, is actually
> > > inhabited by ambiguities? Can an inquiring mind
> > > actually explore the half-shades of truth?
> > > Yes. It. Can.
> > > The unimaginable South African transition that
> > > Nelson Mandela made possible is a reminder that
> > > leadership matters. Words matter. The clamoring
> now
> > > in the United States for a presidency that
> uplifts
> > > rather than demeans is a reflection of the
> > > intellectual desert of the Bush years.
> > > Hillary Clinton said in January that: "You
> > > campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose."
> Wrong.
> > > America's had its fill of the prosaic.
> > > The unthinkable can come to pass. When I was a
> > > teenager, my relatives advised me to enjoy the
> > > swimming pools of Johannesburg because "next
> year
> > > they will be red with blood."
> > > But the inevitable bloodbath never came.
> Mandela
> > > walked out of prison and sought reconciliation,
> not
> > > revenge. Later Mandela would say: "It always
> seems
> > > impossible until it's done."
> > > Like countless others, I came to America
> because
> > > possibility is broader here than in Europe's
> > > narrower confines. Perhaps it's my African
> "original
> > > sin," but when Obama says he "will never forget
> that
> > > in no other country on earth is my story even
> > > possible," I feel fear slipping away, like a
> shadow
> > > receding before the still riveting idea that
> "out of
> > > many we are truly one."
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ---------------------------------
> > > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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> >
>
>
>
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