Guys - I'd like your help on something - regarding new racist attacks on Obama.

Dear DUer brothers and sisters -

An alert about some email shit that's now circulating, to smear Barack Obama:

The rise, and accellerating momentum, of Barack Obama initially made me feel GREAT about America. It had me convinced that large numbers of us are FINALLY ready to grow up. FINALLY ready to put an ugly, racist past behind us. That we really have grown up and evolved as a nation and gotten over ourselves a little. That we're REALLY ready to turn a page and start VERY fresh and VERY new, and give somebody else a chance rather than the same ol'-same ol'.

This arrived in my inbox on Iowa night, when it was clear who was pulling away on our side. Two days later, I got another one from someone in the Dem-CA groups - either to alert about the opposition, or to be oppositional because a different Dem didn't do as well - I'm not sure which.

The person who sent this particular (first) email to the person who forwarded it to me was from Oklahoma. The person who forwarded it to me, a member of my own extended family (who, frankly, should know better!!!) sent it to friends and relatives from Palm Springs to suburban Chicago to Napa. I don't know where it originated, how long it's been flushing through the pipes of the sewer that's obviously still flowing through the internet, or who wrote it.

I was pretty distressed to get this initially. I felt like I HAD to respond, and I did. And I sent my response with the attachment below to the person who forwarded it to me, and EVERYBODY ELSE on down the email chain - about three levels. And then I went through two days of agony, wondering if I'd been a jerk and an ass and jumped on people and gone overboard. I REALLY tried hard not to be too snarky and impolite, and I never flat out called anybody the racists I thought this email showed they were. I figured I might lose 'em straight out and they might not bother to read the other corrections. I've since sent this and my response to a couple of fellow writer friends of like mind to me, and haven't yet heard back, so I'd deeply appreciate the feedback. Did I overstep? Did I do the correct thing (I STILL think I did, and my guilt began to fade after the second day when I got the second version and I just plain started getting ANGRY).

So here goes. Here's the original email forwarded to me:

> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 8:51 PM
> Subject: FW: Obama's Church...........SCARY!
>
> Obama mentioned his church during his appearance with Oprah. It's the Trinity Church of Christ. I found this interesting.
>
> Obama's church:
> Please read and go to this church's website and read what is written there. It is very alarming.
> Barack Obama is a member of this church and is running for President of the U.S. If you look at the first page of their website, you will learn that this congregation has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa . No where is AMERICA even mentioned. Notice too, what color you will need to be if you should want to join Obama's church... B-L-A-C-K!!! Doesn't look like his choice of religion has improved much over his (former?) Muslim upbringing.

> Are you aware that Obama's middle name is Mohammed? Strip away his nice looks, the big smile and smooth talk and what do you get? Certainly a racist, as plainly defined by the stated position of his church! And possibly a covert worshiper of the Muslim faith, even today. This guy desires to rule over America while his loyalty is totally vested in a Black Africa !
> I cannot believe this has not been all over the TV and newspapers.
> This is why it is so important to pass this message along to all of our family & friends. To think that Obama has even the slightest chance in the run for the presidency, is really scary.
> Click on the link below:
> This is the web page for the church Barack Obama belongs to:
>
> www.tucc.org/about.htm
>
>
-------

Nice, huh? :sarcasm:

So... here's my response, written as diplomatically and dispassionately as I could, considering more than a dozen extended family-members would see it:


Esteemed ones and fellow voters,

I received this email making various inflammatory claims about Senator Barack Obama. It is vital that we all commit to being not merely voters but INFORMED voters, armed with facts and not half-truths or other disinformation or distortions.

First, the claim about Obama's middle name in this email is PATENTLY FALSE. Please see the attachment.

Second, the misrepresentation of his Chicago church is evidently based on some hysterics spawned by a quickie glance at the "About Us" page on the Trinity United Church of Christ website. It is clear that the original writer of this email didn't bother to look
any deeper. Again, please see the attachment.

Speaking as a retired journalist, who's thoroughly disgusted with the slapdash, reactionary, lazy excuse for mainstream "journalism" offered these days (it's one of my biggest complaints about the profession of which I used to be so proud), I'd like to offer my
research into these allegations, hopefully to set the record straight a little more dispassionately.

You are intelligent, and discerning, and loyal, patriotic Americans. You obviously care deeply about one of the most momentous decisions we make as citizens of a democracy: voting for our leaders. You deserve nothing less than unvarnished facts instead of
shrill, shrieking propaganda meant to only terrorize you and cloud your judgment.

BTW: in the interest of full disclosure, I have not made up my mind, since my faves, Biden and Dodd, have now pulled out, and Dennis Kucinich doesn't have a chance. Besides, I'm still an Al Gore woman, and he isn't even running. (NOTE: since then, I'm leaning HARD toward Obama, about whom I've always had way more favorable feelings than unfavorable. This makes me want to go all-out, maybe if for no other reason than to drive these assholes crazy!)

I try to stay plugged into these things since I do have some time on my hands, and I'm kind of a political junkie. I would be happy to research and debunk or further illuminate anything you hear or that comes across your screen, about which you may have questions.

Respectfully,

(me)

----------

And then I attached my research. Feel free to make use of it if it makes any sense to you.

HERE:


About the allegation that Barack Obama's middle name is Mohammed? FALSE.

Obama's middle name is Hussein. Surprisingly, not a single reference OR relation to some dead Iraqi guy known as Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti.

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Hussein - "good; small handsome one"

http://123-baby-names.com/origin_meaning_Hussein.html - "good-looking"



About Trinity UCC

400 West 95th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60628

Phone:773-962-5650

The first line in the "About Us" page on the Trinity UCC website says "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian." (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

The emphasis is, indeed, on the Black experience and history. Point one of its "10-point Vision" is a commitment to "Adoration." Point two is the preaching of "Salvation." Point three is the active seeking of "Reconciliation." They get around to mentioning "Commitment to Africa" in point four. Point seven brings the single other reference to Africa - "Historical Education of African People in Diaspora." (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

(BTW: The term diaspora (in Ancient Greek, d?asp??? – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers to any people or ethnic population who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture. The term is usually applied to the Jewish community, but the enslavement of blacks early in America's history would fit the definition as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora)

For the record, point five is "Biblical Education," and point six is "Cultural Education." Points eight, nine, and ten are "Liberation," "Restoration," and "Economic Parity" in that order. (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)


Evidently a local (Chicago) sub-sect of the UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST - a large and well-established faith community whose members include such American icons and role models (and Anglos) as John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Democratic Senators Daniel Akaka and Max Baucus, former Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Assistant UN Secretary-General Robert Orr, Republican Senator Judd Gregg, and former Senator Jim Jeffords, who switched from the GOP to independent status in 2001, New Jersey Governor John Corzine, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, United States Poet Laureate Donald Hall, Pulitzer prize winner Leonard Pitts, a slew of prominent 19th and 20th century theologians, and several prominent and highly-respected African Americans including Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and NAACP Chair Julian Bond. (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Church_of_Christ


Talking points from TUCC pastor the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.:

• To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African American people are superior to any one else. (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

• African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior. (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm


Discussion of the "Black Value System" - I looked for a reference to "Africa" and/or "African" - even "control-f'd" it to access the "find" option in the text. Not a single reference to either was found. I did, however, find references to the city of Chicago, which, last I looked, was located in the AMERICAN state of Illinois, not in the Republic of the Congo or elsewhere on the African continent.

The "Black Value System" as explained herein includes emphasis on education (for good citizenship, college preparation, jobs and economic growth), commitment to the Black community, strenghtening and affirming the Black family unit, self-discipline, a strong work ethic, productivity, love, loyalty, family, commitment, responsibility to oneself, one's children, one's neighborhood, city, and state. Plus, the first point listed is "Commitment to God" - that encourages activism toward "Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind." (AND THIS IS A BAD THING?)

http://www.tucc.org/black_value_system.html

----------------

I'm STILL pretty troubled by the whole thing. My hopes for our enlargement and evolution and maturity as a nation have faded a little, knowing this kind of shit is still out there, not to mention how quickly it erupted once Obama began making serious inroads.

Aren't we better than this? And how do we most effectively fight this and bring truth and genuine equality to the fore. I was feeling so great! But it sure doesn't look like America is anywhere close to that "shining city on a hill" - at least from the contingent that brought you emails like this.

What do you think? I'd really like your feedback. And I thank you deeply in advance.

Does Karl Rove have a part time job?

Why isn't there a McCain-like "Obama has not one, but TWO, black children" rant in there somewhere?

Maybe the best response to this is not outrage but a scoff and a sneer. Make a joke out of it rather than a federal case.

I went the other way and started getting worried and then mad. Your reaction would be far better on the blood pressure, perhaps.

what an ass he is!!!

It won't work.

Recommended.

These undercurrents are real. There have been several mentions of them on DU and more are sure to come. There seems to be true uneasiness about addressing the racial matter directly here; the first response seems to be to shoot the messenger.

An earlier thread today enclosed a similar chain email with outright misrepresentation of snopes.com's position. Like you, I have received such emails and tried to correct them back to the long, long mailing lists involved. So far--only one response, and it was apologetic. (!)

Keep up the good work--

Then again, it's still the weekend (as of this posting). They may all be out or too busy. Frankly, I've been kinda dreading opening my email for the past few days. I CAN be confrontational, but for some reason I felt like I should tread lightly here, especially since there was so damned much else to critique, and the simplest one about the middle name - you know how it is when one of those big-ass flashing red lights starts going off in your head?

And btw, thanks for the encouragement! Man, I've been nervous lately. :shrug: :crazy:

And I seem to attract them. Send this to 12 people or else/and or your fondest wish will come true, etc. Unfortunately, it's an open door to the most dangerous types of ignorance and misinformation. I see every reason for concern in this election.

If they were ignorant enough to send it to you in the first place without checking its veracity, they're probably not going to accept that they were wrong.

With Harold Ford, it was the Playboy stuff.
With Obama, it's going to be by smearing his church and making it seem like a radical anti-white organization.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

under the cloak of challenging Obama's electablity.

I refuse to let some guy hiding under a sheet make me reconsider my vote.

anyone stooping to that should be banned..
if not..it is a rather inflamatory accusation..
examples please?

But you have to had seen this crap around. It's an argument seen several times a day. "America will never elect a black man." "America will never elect a woman."

When someone mentions that we cannot nominate Obama because there are too many racists and he'd lose the general, that's giving in to racism.
When someone says we cannot nominate Clinton because there are too many sexists and she'd lose the general, that's giving in to sexism.

If that's inflammatory, so be it. I do not believe it is. I have not called any DUer personally or in a broad sense racist nor sexist. I said that considering the "sensibilities" of racists and sexists is giving in to them.

...EVERONE in the electorate need to be reminded of Article VI, Section 3 of the United States' Constitution, to wit:

"...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

It seems this needs to be repeated over and over again...

What IS required is an oath of allegiance to the Constitution.

And remember, that "shining city upon a hill" originally referred to the Puritan's hope to demonstrate denominational purity to the Church of England...we use that phrase to mean other things now, but it was originally associated with intolerance.

I'm with ya' on combating bad information and propaganda, from whatever side of the aisle.


:hi:

Edit for spelling :dunce:

to know what the smearmongers are up to. And to think, JFK, had to address being Catholic!

and I was infuriated then, as now, by the outrageous distortions that went around. :grr:

way since then only to find new fear issues thrown at us.

And been discussed ad infinitum on DU.

I have not seen a whole lot of discussion, and maybe that's MY problem because from time to time I have been known to avoid conversations or threads about this very subject. I SO wish it weren't true. I SO wish this kind of smear stopped coming up. So sometimes I hide from the evidence when it presents itself. I guess it wasn't discredited enough when bush flying monkeys started that crap against John McCain before the South Carolina primary. Pretty cowardly of me, really.

I agree with you that this stuff is offensive garbage. The problem is that if it's spreading via e-mail, there's pretty much nothing we can do about it. You can respond to the person or persons who sent it to you, of course, but that won't stop it any more than we could stop the thousands of other fact-challenged e-mails that have been floating around for years.

This kind of crap has become a way of life, and a lot of people just mindlessly forward anything they get that even loosely fits their own particular agendas. If you're getting it, chances are that thousands or millions of other people are, so I think it's probably just better to ignore it and hope that most people recognize it for the ridiculous crap that it is.

I did find, however, that there were two or three times back early in the anti-Iraq-war movement when I would get one of these, and I responded, hitting back pretty hard. I noticed after awhile that I wasn't getting any more of these from that person. Not every solution works with everybody aggravating the same problem, though.

I responded to a couple of similar e-mails with links from snopes.com debunking them, and it wasn't long before I wasn't receiving them anymore. I did manage to get a couple of friends and relatives into the habit of looking them up before forwarding them on. Every little bit may help!

a friendship with a fellow worker and spent the entire day emailing the ENTIRE Forwarding String. I've so far received apologies from two individuals (whom I dont know from Adam).. and from the "Mission Group" that evidently started the email on its rounds from SOUTH CAROLINA, and apologies for the person who originally sent it. All the apologies were signed: "May God Bless You"

Fuckers.

and is usually unpublished pretty quickly and the posters banned.

Have seen a couple linking Obama with David Duke.

I hope the guy can handle this stuff. The Repug hate machine is already in high gear.

THEY certainly don't have a single clown who is a serious candidate.

Not just getting the email, but getting it from an extended family member. Yeah, Ms. Naive here, but while I knew this person was pretty conservative, I didn't expect it to go to this extent. Or maybe it's more like I didn't WANT to see it go to this extent. Ugly little secrets and all that.

DAMN. Forcryingoutloud! Can't we get BEYOND this????

That's the Republican Party and as far as I'm concerned, that's all that needs to be said whenever this kind of shit surfaces.

I'm not a Hillary or Obama supporter, but Obama and his supporters better get used to this type of crap and be able to take it for more than just a few months.

Just Google "Hillary Feminazi" 19,400 hits, or "Shrillary" 32,200 hits, or "Hillary B*tch" 542,000 hits.

There are lots of assholes with keyboards, too stupid to debate issues, who will attack like this ad nauseum.

have persecuted her for what seems like FOREVER!!! Sometimes I just step back and marvel - MAN, what IS the deal here? How very THREATENED they must be!!! Which, I think, says more about them than about her. I think you're correct. This is probably just getting started. I guess I was just really taken aback that it came smashing straight into my face at this particular moment.

For the Love of God, GET. OVER. IT, AMERICA!!!!!!

I hadn't seen the other posts on this yet and am grateful to learn of it from your post. From what I know of Trinity here in the Chicago area - it is THE church to go to on the Southside. Very active congregation and the pastor there is very charismatic. It is UCC and of course anyone of any color skin can go there.

Obama will just have to address this as it comes up. It really is not surprising that this is a tactic. I am sure it will get more obvious as the campaign draws closer to the convention. Lots of race-based fears will be dredged up and looked at... those of us with our heads on straight will have to repetitively state the truths about him as it goes along.

I am right there with you being a Gore supporter. Was beginning to warm to Dodd and Biden and they pulled out. Not sure if I will find a camp to be truly comfortable in. (sigh)

you gotta already be a little bit soft in the head to believe that shit so I don't see big harm in it, actually. It's annoying, that's all. Not likely to influence anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together.

I really wanted to get your takes on this. GREATLY appreciated!

:yourock:

This lets me know what some of my Republican friends will be getting in their e-mail (they get these sorts of things all the time...they send me an odd obviously false e-mail occasionally...and I always have to point out to them how stupid the e-mail is, and how could they not know it's false, and then link them to where the truth is).

I wonder if this e-mail is on snopes.com? I'll check.

Read Skinner's take on this. Obama is the "Tiger Woods" of politics.
His talent, record, affability charisma and open nature are what draw people to him.

Our campaign is bringing people out who hear the message loud and clear , and Iowa demonstrated what I mean. This isn't republican/democrats, this is a wholly new phenomena of first time voters and "never had a reason before" voters.

These are people who believe in the message , and they outnumber closet racists ( who are probably also the 25% pro Bush) by significant numbers..

JOIN US!

If you've never accessed snopes.com, it is a website that keeps track of e-mails making the rounds, and other stories being circulated, and checks them out and reports the "truthiness" or falseness of them.

These Obama e-mails are listed there. Go to snopes site, click on Politics, then click on Obama.

These sorts of e-mails also made the rounds about Kerry and his wife Theresa, and were reported in Snopes.com.

Good to remember. They may have to work overtime at snopes.com in the near future.

the latest variety says, at the top, that the stories WERE checked on snopes.com and found to be true. Utterly malicious, but I've received several like that.

You did a fine piece of research and persuasive writing, and you did exactly the right thing by making sure it got to each and every one of the original recipients. Never thought I'd appreciate the laziness of forwarders who can't or won't get rid of old headers, but obviously it came in handy.

Regarding Obama's names -- I'm surprised the author of that email didn't use the current smear about "Hussein" instead of the outright lie about "Mohammed."

I myself have wondered if Barack could be the Muslim version of the Hebrew Baruch ("blessed"), so I just now looked it up and found this:

"His father, also named Barack (Swahili for "One who is blessed by God," and perhaps via Arabic and Semitic roots related to the Hebrew baruch, "blessed") ...."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1511

Barack Hussein Obama's mom and dad did what all new parents do: pick the loveliest and strongest name they can for their child.

Anyhow, :applause: for what you did, Calimary.

Hekate