Lecture 19 | African-American Freedom Struggle (Stanford)

[grunder20]

Black men are kind. Well, not all of them. Just a few.

[bapyou]

As a followup to this pre-2008 election discussion on Obama: the Obama campaign was awarded the 2008 advertising campaign of the year award by the Advertising Association of America. He was the "racy" new thoroughbred put forth by the American oligarcich structure to lend the campaign an "edgy" patina. The ruse worked.

As with all politicians, Obama is a magician: He occupies your attention with his left hand as he does something else with his right. He's continued all of Bush's policies.

[bapyou]

35:30 Identity was the major theme of 1990s Black literature?

All the better to market to you, my pretty.

[26blanco]

too much suffering humans cause to other humans.too sad.in usa it was like in hitlers time i see,people tend to follow ideas of others.why they killed martin luther king?a real pity so many people suffer so much.when will humans understand we are brothers,we come from the same place and go to the same place.i like these lessons,thanks for posting them free

[visualkei72]

i feel bad for a lot of these students and their inability to communicate their ideas effectively.

@27:00 a student is trying to put purpose behind Mark Obama's musical taste, tying it to the chaotic family environment. she gets those two points, but isn't able to go the next leg, and explain that his musical taste is product of looking for an escape, and searching for order in a state of disorder.

[germancavemonkey]

so dubois is biracial and Obama is biracial and somehow black people want to claim both of as great minds of the "Black" race?

[doIsoundlikeicare]

First, both men are brighter (and more moral) than 99.9% of white folk (some would probably argue that its an insult to to say they are just '1 in 1000'). Second, know your history: the KKK wouldn't have thought twice about hurting either. Third, President Obama calls himself black. Fouth, he got his intellect from father, not his mother (he got much much more from his mother).

[Naam19]

Sorry Monkey,I have to disagree with you.

I,you and everybody see a black man...

If you say this man is white people will laugh at you!!

[818poochie]

At one point there were actual laws that defined who was black, at least in the south. Some defined black as 1/8 black, an "octaroon" I think the term was. Some were far stricter and defined black as having 1 drop of black blood. Either way the historical definition of what is black was set a long time ago by a white society that wanted to ensure separation. I personally feel that biracial people should be able to embrace all aspects of their respective races and ethnicities.

[818poochie]

It would likely get cumbersome related to those who have more than two races represented between parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents. We would end up with a lot of terms that would likely need a lot of explanation. Seems impractical in practice.

[giaramos2010]

@818poochie Assimilation for all non-European emigrants or immigrants has always meant giving up culture and language. They literally become American and whether right or not are not respected as Americans by those same Europeans who expect them to assimilate. It is a damned if they do and damned if they don't. Afrikan American history has always been a sub-event in American history, which often means it is not worth taking seriously. Afrikan Americans have to narrate in their own voices!

[giaramos2010]

@germancavemonkey

Your question is really the problem. Race, that is the Black American is still defined by everyone but them. We of Afrikan descent are expected to forget that ancient history while all others emigrating or imigrated are not influenced to assimilate by ancestral negation. To me the matter must remain in self-identification.

[giaramos2010]

If president Obama looked white would he identify as white? That he looks Black to his way of thinking means he must identify as Black because it is what people see when looking at him. He is bi-racial -- his word -- a Mut, therefore, unlike Tiger Woods who looks Black to us he identifies as multi-racial. There is nothing wrong with that except our intense need to claim his look as more important than his self-identity. Jennifer Beals has a Black father and yet she looks white.