Obama: African Americans Are More Fundamentally Rooted in the American Experience

[TheErnie1942]

What would Jesus say about all the hate and attacks against Obama?

[ZodiacSystem]

President B. Obama is my President. That is all I know.

Thanks for sending me this video.

[scrapmetalspider]

I'm a European-American.. hate on that shit lol

[mixinrecrds]

I am hispanic and have dealt with racism. So fucking what. being american means overcoming obstacles in life. People of all color have obstacles and the AMERICAN way is ROOTED in not letting them become an excuse to not try.

[snappa52]

i'm not an obama fan, but he was comparing african americans identifying more with america than with africa

[historico69]

LOL are you kidding me? Anyone who hates Obama should spend less time posting here and MORE time posting dated checks to your regional representatives asking them to quit.

[bob1bob2bobbob]

that guy is white/black Kenyan trash..

[newBelGum]

To bad his WHITE mom and WHITE grandparents raised him, and black dad left them. He does know about "black culture" I guess

[newbeg2112]

African American culture=prison culture

[zzx2847]

How's the hopey changey thing working out for you?

[scarlett828]

It aint. But then again I did not vote for it or Obama. I knew what it/he would bring. Hope and Change was the wrapping.  What was inside the package is what those who voted for him should of looked more closely at. Some people are so easily fooled. Pathetic.

[lenny380]

Open ,friendly and welcoming -- wow why wouldn't you want to live there?? What the hell is he trying to say??

[NiteSkyLookr]

Well he just threw the true Americans, the Indians, under the bus. Of course his followers are clapping saying, "doesn't he speak so graceful"...despite it's garbage talk.

[MEpianist]

I think anyone who's upset at his comment is looking for problems. He said "IN SOME WAYS..."

If you are upset at this slight to your own petty ethnicity, then I feel nothing but pity towards you.

[djh40756]

Well the American indian came from Asia if you wanna get technical..There are no "true Americans". America dosent "belong" to anybody..

[cbrzyx]

They realize how American they are. Imagine that. Thats because they are American. This whole 'African-American' thing is really getting old. Unless you were born in Africa and emigrated here, you are just 'American'. I dont refer to myself as 'Scotch Irish Dutch English Native -American' even though I DO know where the old folks came from. Enough already, time to stop living in the past.

[TrueBloodTypeA]

It is not living in the past. It is to me respect for those living in the present. It often enrages me when some in the US state that there is no US culture, that there are only pockets of different cultures that came from other places inside the US, just because they themselves have always lived in one.

Well, it is not true. Even before the US was created a distinct new culture had been formed in the area by a blend that took hundreds of years to create.

[cbrzyx]

Wearing ones ancestry like a crown of thorns is most certainly living in the past. Are you on some kind of meds? Your comments are rambling and pointless.

[TrueBloodTypeA]

All people have a culture they belong to cbryx. If you cannot understand that then you are a complete moron or you need to go back to school from the point where you obviously dropped out.

Culture is about food, music, religion, literature, and art.

Most African Americans do belong to a unique US culture, and it has nothing to do with YOUR rambling crap.

[cbrzyx]

It sounds like you are the one in need of education. I just googled this, maybe it can help.

5 steps of the writing process

Prewriting

Drafting

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Remember, its ok to repeat the third step. It gives you a chance to rethink something obnoxious youve written.

[djh40756]

How does calling myself African-American hurt you? Remembering our lineage has nothing to do with living in the past..

[cbrzyx]

Pfeh, it doesnt hurt me at all. Its just a little irritating. Im not the least bit religious, but why do you suppose pride was one of the cardinal sins? How do you expect racism to go away when you insist on wearing a label? American is American is American. That should be enough.

[TrueBloodTypeA]

Most African Americans are descended from colonials, as are Native Americans and many white Americans. They formed a mixed culture over hundreds of years, long before anyone stepped off of Ellis Island.

Those that came in the Great Migration tend to still hold part of their identity with what their nation of origin was and even with still thinking of themselves as immigrants. (Founding people of a nation are not immigrants to the nation they created. Those who come later after formation are.)

[BeantownJim]

biggest affirmative action hype i havent heard since the 70's

[Silveracity]

What if I said: In some ways European Americans are more fundamentally rooted in the American experience.

[Hannitized]

If you were comparing it to being rooted in the European experience, no problem.

You are making things up. Obama did not compare African/American experience to European/American experience.

[TrueBloodTypeA]

Many descendants of colonials do not know until they do a genealogy where their European ancestors were from or what tribe their Native Ancestors belonged to as well as where their African ancestors were from.

Trying to say that other colonials did not share in the experience of forming the separate roots of US culture is like saying only Jews were killed in the Holocaust, because mentioning the others takes away from the experience.

And the topic is the American Experience, not the African.

[djh40756]

Some european are more fundementally rooted in the American experience, but most arent. Most of you came here a little over 100 years ago. To African-Americans thats like being an FOB.

[Silveracity]

I didnt arrive here a over a 100 years ago.

I was actually born in the USA.

[panthersno15]

I was about to get upset when i saw the title, but this time he didn't say anything wrong, bad title choice for this video.

[beauzackosta]

Gee, thanks, Obama - I hadn't noticed that there is absolutely zero migration of blacks from the U.S. to Africa.

[Bob543733465]

it must be depressing to feel connected to africa lol

[Hannitized]

Obama is simply saying that African Americans are more in touch with their Americanism more so than their roots from Africa, a distant land from where their ancestry came, which they have an unfamiliarity with because their ancestry came to America since before it's founding.

He is not saying they are more American than other immigrants of other ethnicity. He is simply comparing their familiarity and comfort with the American way of life over the African way of life, that they have never lived

[disgustingamerican]

americans are mutts with refuse rejects genes

[bigjstokes]

African Americans are more fundamentally rooted in the American experience than they are to their African roots. Duh.

[christmas254]

How did Gore get his money, slaves his family worked on there farms in Tenn. does he need to repay

[nandatebayo666]

What he is saying is that, Afrikaans had to leave their culture behind to serve there white masters.

white people on the other hand, came to America on their own will.

and still have a past culture to draw back from, as opposing to blacks who don't even know where they came from.

[voiceofintelligence]

Unless you were born in Africa and then moved to America, you are not an African American. If you were born in America, you are an American. Deal with it! Holding on to ancestral grievances will only serve to keep black Americans from experiencing the true American dream. We need to embrace each other as brothers, regardless of race or color.

[FortHardKnox]

What? Can somebody interpret what Obama is trying to say? ...preferable in plain English and not liberal weirdo talk.

[EncompassedRunner]

FortHardKnox, I have heard black nationalists use language similar to this, even living in the USA they self-describe as "African" (coincidentally the word used in the "Race" field of the purported Certification of Live Birth Obama had posted on his website) & consider our country to be "occupied." To learn about this mentality a book written by Obama's benefactor: Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour: "Betrayal by Any Other Name", here's a sample quote: ...

[EncompassedRunner]

"Would it not therefore be both culturally, racially and historically reasonable to re-link the descendants of the original Native Americans with their ancestral roots for purposes of defining the underpinings of their collective personalities?...I have invited the Indian masses to consider the following self-identity options: 1. Native Afro-Asians...Such a move would focus the pride of the Asian African natives ...on their ancient contributions...embodied in their Asia, Arabia and Africa roots"

[TrueBloodTypeA]

He is saying the colonials (which would include native/black/white) are more rooted in the American experience for the simple fact that their families were here for all of it, since before the creation of the United States. Hundreds of years has caused all of the colonials to lose touch with their origin nations and have only the mixed American culture as their own, that they are all a new type of native

in comparison to those descended from immigrants who came much later in US history.

[scarlett828]

LOL! "liberal weirdo talk"

Hey ya FHK! It's me velvethammer Just sent friend request and subbed you.

[skb7966]

ENTITLEMENT, opportunist  PROPAGANDA...

[MarkG45]

this is the best you got?

you better hope the libertarian party doesnt get its shit together because you mouth breathing racists are fucked when you bring down the republican party

[L8nitedave]

If you talk to a real African American (the PC term) they will tell you he does not represent the black American experience. His real experience is as white and mainstream as any yet not without the discrimination hangover all black Americans face, who are also as real mainstream America as any. So to those of you who say he should be this or that based only on what you see or what his heritage is, well you would be the racist. All of us have a prior heritage, some even American Indian heritage.

[BKyeah09]

most Americans do not realize the advantages of racism and the way in which is disadvantages one group and simultaneously makes others advantaged. Even whites faced racism, I cannot believe they forget and become the real Americans, the last I checked, the real Americans are living on under funded run down reservations....

Being an American is great, its awesome but we cannot become blind to facts and history, something that is unfortunately our present condition

[lenny380]

Why does he think other people can't live there?? Bizarrely hypocritical.

[countess1900]

lenny380, he's saying that African Americans can not live in Ghana nor any part of African. The American experience is the only heritage that African American's have.

[BKyeah09]

...And before anyone runs their mouth about his racism, talk about your own racism of not realizing these very facts, the "Congress buildings" built by slaves, slaves, cotton, rice, indigo, sugar cane---slaves

so slaves did in fact have a huge role in shaping this nation...while the rich white aristocracy developed their cultures, and communities and hunted witches and w/e, slavery was going on....

Being an immigrant myself i don't find this offensive but truthful as he is right....

[whatevermanwhocares]

Well said, BK.

[BKyeah09]

Pres. Obama is correct, before people forget that the United States was inhabited by Native Americans and other traditional cultures, this was followed by Spaniards and the began the slave trade and brought blacks who are not native to this land...

Long before the may flower, and the charters, and the colonies were colored people on this continent, including Africans who were enslaved and brought here....so he is right in that regard....

[lenny380]

Well his brother lives there -why can't anyone else?

[lenny380]

Christ - what did he just say?? I hope everyone is happy now. You just heard how he really feels-like it was a surprise.

[countess1900]

lenny380, Obama talked about the African American view point of a people with no land. Does it confuse your understanding because he's not talking about rap music and inner city problems? Since your statement started out by calling on Christ but had a weird sarcastic twist at the end I had trouble discerning your meaning.

[lenny380]

People with no land?? That is weird -what are you talking about? Sorry to swear by using Christ but it is not really weird. I just said his brother lives there -who is he trying to kid??

[Mixman77]

The guy is such a racist!

[TheWayISeeIt1982]

Great Post!!!!

[libertyplayground]

communism isn't american

[badgerdog6]

Whats a Kenyan marxist know about being American?

[Gregory4uNme]

I wonder how native Americans are taking this?

[scarlett828]

That's one helluva point!

[SCMtns66]

Obama knows absolutely NOTHING about the American experience.

He lives in a perverse world created by his bat-sh*t crazy mother and his communist mentors and family. This creation has no relation to the reality of being an American.

In a word, this doofus HATES the America creation he has been fed from birth by his crazy a** associates and he is too STUPID to know the truth. Great job, leftists, elected this ignorant man as President.

Idiots.

[Gregory4uNme]

Great posting!

[jlogsdo]

Stick to the Teleprompter

[kvin44]

African americans were shipped by your ancestors to north america long before USA was founded. Thr4, even though AA feel a kinship with africa, they are about as american as you can get and see africa as an alien land where they have no ties (relatives or land). This is unlike italian, greek, irish, chinese americans who are relatively newer immigrants and still know the location of their old home towns, still retain their names. Haters, find some other reason to hate the guy, this one is silly

[VirginianAmerican]

That is pretty F*&%$#@ insulting to me and my family who have been here for over 300 years!!!

Your Father was an Arab African so I can understand you know nothing about being an American!!!

[VirginianAmerican]

If Resident Obama had any idea about the American Experience and what America is really all about he would not be trying to turn this into a Marxist country!!!

[Gregory4uNme]

Sick em VA. Too true........too true.

[AboveAllNations]

You conservatives are complete hypocrites. When a white person says something ignorant, any negative reaction is just "politically correctness" run amok. But when a black man says something completely innocuous like this, he's automatically a racist.

Get the sand out of your collective vaginas and grow the f*ck up. Nobody cares about your grievances as white people.

[lenny380]

HE DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

[mctarmac10]

Nice perpetuating the dichotomy Einstein; man humanity has a long way to go.

[babygates44]

Fuck your fam dude. Nobody cares about that shit.

[rjd2633]

You'll have to excuse his lack of knowledge regarding American History, he's not from here.

[countess1900]

jlogsdo, the first African slaves were brought to America about 50 years after Columbus landed in the Caribiens (1492) and Marco Polo landed in Florida. The Constitution was drafted and signed in 1776. That makes African arrival in America approx. 284 years "before we actually founded the nation."

[whatevermanwhocares]

LOL you just got owned. Obviously more history classes than you've taken. Nice one, countess.

[rackt09]

Obama's an idiot

[shamelessplug]

you're both idiots.

[dbstooge]

Racist asshole and his fawning media prick

[jhtrico1850]

But was he born here?

[L8nitedave]

yes, deal with it!