Ok, I admit, I still read XXL from time to time, started out with Right On Magazine and Black Beat as a teen, progressed to Vibe Magazine as a young adult, had a dual thing going with Vibe and The Source Magazine for a minute in the 90s, and finally became a fan of XXL Magazine in the early part of this decade…
I understand and appreciate the fact that XXL is probably the closest thing on the newsstands to the voice of Urban America, however, a discussion I read at XXL’s blog today made me realize that finally black America is beginning to see Obama as something other than one of it’s own. (Some language may be NSFW).
The discussion was about doing away with the the term “Nigga” as a form of endearment and replacing it with the term “Obama“. However the prevailing argument in the blog went thus:
The word “nigga” is a noun. It describes a person, place or a thing…
As much as I love Barack Obama so far, I don’t think it’s fair to uphold that one presidential negro as the standard for all blacks. “Nigga” may be a tougher seat for him to fill than the one in the Oval Office. It’s always dangerous to place any one individual on a pedestal whereas they are wholly representative of an entire culture.
If all Obama represented was a culture, he would have it easy. Obama is the messiah, he represents the hopes of the whole world, or so we are told. Anyway, it only gets better:
With that said, Barack likely isn’t even your kind of nigga. He’s half-black, but everyone forgets that the chocolate half is African–like, for realsies African. We’re talking the kind of African that shares very little culturally with “niggas” and has no trouble making one aware that they came to America of their own free will and have no intention of going on the welfare.
Here’s the forgotten side of the Obama penny. White people have just as much claim to him as we negroes do. Making Obama synonymous with “nigga” is to de facto concede exclusive rights to that n-word we hold so dear.
Well, it seems finally the discussion about Barack Obama’s “blackness” has started. Interesting to see how it plays out, one thing is certain if this sentiment persists, it won’t be long before Barack Obama is referred to as a sell-out, an oreo, a coconut or an Uncle Tom, and with that his hold on the imagination of the black community is significantly reduced.
For the record, I think Barack Obama has as much of a right to claim being black as anyone else, but that’s just my opinion…
Posted by PUMA Pundit
