People News
Barack Obama: 'Quiet Riot' not just a bad eighties band
By Stone Martindale Jun 5, 2007, 17:46 GMT
Democratic presidential candidate and Senator of Illinois Barack Obama speaks at the Sojourners/ CNN Candidates Forum on Faith, Values, and Poverty in Washington, D.C., USA, on 04 June 2007. John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton participated in the forum. EPA/STEFAN ZAKLIN
We will make it a trifecta of political people stories today. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Hussein Obama said on Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a coming "quiet riot" among blacks that looms post-Katrina.
The first-term Illinois senator says there are many angry black people ready to erupt.
"This administration was colorblind in its incompetence," Obama said at a conference of black clergy, "but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane.
"All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see," he said, reported the AP.
Obama's words against Bush garnered him a standing ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University's Convocation Center.
Especially well-received were his anti-war comments.
Obama referenced the L.A. riots in 1991 over the trial results of the officers accused of beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase.
Looting, pillaging and mayhem defined the city for several days, as fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured in the city's black neighborhoods. reported the AP.
"Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better."
Obama, who is working his half-black, half-white lineage to his advantage in a calculated schedule of fundraising appearances, took the stage following black ministers who "repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet, singing, praying and swaying to music," reported the AP.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
They will make a huge (really huge) bonfire with welfare checks?
I actually liked Quiet Riot...
Ignorance is a disease. Chew on a bullet, make the world a brighter place.
the good news is that at least obama is alerting the american citizens to a fact that they would rather shelve and are surprised when reprisals in the form of violence erupts these same americans look up in shock and horror asking why all this attitude from the blacks
White people get pissed when they are asked to right wrongs they are not responsible for, Senator. Louisiana has a corrupt government. Go fix that, senator, and get right back to us white folks!
This is the first mistake he's made. I'm surprised he thinks this is useful.
Interesting. Only black people were displaced by Katrina? Only white people benefited from all the charitable donations collected from around the country? And where did all those millions (billions?) go to anyway? I sure hope the Senator takes the time to speak individually to the displaced black citizens from New Orleans. A number of them have stated in interviews that they don't Want to go back. They apparently prefer where they are now. Quiet Riot? Oh, I'm quite sure when Barack finishes stirring the pot the riots won't be quiet at all. And we'll all be expected to feel better when it's over. Right, Barack?
... One of the things we all need to start doing as a responsible citizenry is reading transcripts so that you're not so gullible and taken by the press. Hype sells papers and if you're too lazy to read, you'll fall to the Usery of the media (blogs and all). Here's what the Guy said, which was also said in the context of big government having created a 275,000,000.00 a day war that has brought back nothing but death on our troops (while our homeland falls apart):
Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths. They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better. You tell yourself, my school will always be second rate. You tell yourself, there will never be a good job waiting for me to excel at. You tell yourself, I will never be able to afford a place that I can be proud of and call my home. That despair quietly simmers and makes it impossible to build strong communities and neighborhoods. And then one afternoon a jury says, 'Not guilty' -- or a hurricane hits New Orleans -- and that despair is revealed for the world to see.
Much of what we saw on our television screens 15 years ago was Los Angeles expressing a lingering, ongoing, pervasive legacyâ€'a tragic legacy out of the tragic history this country has never fully come to terms with. This is not to excuse the violence of bashing in a man's head or destroying someone's store and their life's work. That kind of violence is inexcusable and self-defeating. It does, however, describe the reality of many communities around this country.
And it made me think about our cities and communities all around this country, how not only do we still have scars from that riot and the 'quiet riots' that happen every day but how in too many places we haven't even taken the bullet out.'
----------------------------
Now I admire the man for telling the unpopular view on this matter. Dispair IS taking hold on entire communities of youth, and that is the riot (destruction) he addresses in the rest of the speech.
The CA riots were mostly young hispanics youth of our country that had been socially maginalized, and were in constant disparagement before the groundswell that became the LA riots ever began.
...and speaking of public education,
we as citizens really should develop the habit of reading before we get on anyones bandwagon, agendas, etc. Then we can more intelligently comment on the topics presented. That's if you really even care...
HISPANICS mostly rioted? really? You were not here obviously.
Obama is selling himself to us as a candidate, and they all have agendas and angles, and if you think he will right all the wrongs of Bush's wrongful war and make our society all better, you are naive.
Nice condescending little lecture though.
Where, exactly in his remarks did Obama 'warn of a riot'? If you look at the text of his speech, he's obviously talking about a state of ongoing, daily despair that is having the effect of a riot every day, but is only noticed when an event makes that despair especially evident to the public at large. He's not warning that 'it will happen unless...', he's saying that it's happening every day. You may or may not agree, that's not the point. The point is that most of you have fallen right in line with the effect that the AP writer intended. His remarks were intentionally misinterpreted in order to force him into explaining himself over and over, with the result of him digging himself deeper every time, even if his explanation is accurate and reasonable.
This is what the AP writer wants to make happen:
- He/she twists Obama's words.
- People like the commenters here believe the twisted version.
- He explains what he meant.
- People like the commenters here pretend not to understand the explanation.
- He explains again.
- People like the commenters here....and so on.
- Before long, he will have sprouted a foot-tall afro and a clenched-fist medallion, and will be seen as wearing a daishiki, even if he's wearing a business suit.
He should definitely not 'explain'. Not even once. He should direct anyone who asks to his original remarks. I'm not even an Obama supporter, but I still think it's lowdown to try to set this kind of trap for him for no good reason.
SP4 showed his willful ignorance by saying:
'White people get pissed when they are asked to right wrongs they are not responsible for, Senator. Louisiana has a corrupt government. Go fix that, senator, and get right back to us white folks!'
'This is the first mistake he's made. I'm surprised he thinks this is useful.'
Direct us to where he says 'white people, right these wrongs'. It seems to me that you have probably been waiting with bated breath for 'the first mistake he's made'.
Many races have assimilated into the fabric of America. Blacks are disproportionately not assimilated...why? WHY?
Why do blacks continue to tear the this country apart?
I really would like an indepth answer...I am plagued by this question daily.
Do blacks want to be assimilated? By their own words and deeds it does not appear so...why?
I'm sick of the chip on the shoulder thing...many other races face the same dilemma and excel. I'm not saying the entire black race...but let's face it...MOST blacks hate America.
I wish the answer was simple. Before you judge me, know that I grew up in a checkerboard public housing community. I'm not prejudice...but I am perplexed.
First of all, assuming what you say is true, what makes you think you're owed an answer?
Politicians are savvy enough to know exactly Which keywords in any one of their speeches will be seized upon by the media. Trust & believe that Obama was well-aware that his words Quiet Riot would indeed become the Hot Topic Of The Day. No campaign can afford to buy that kind of coverage - not even his. We should not forget that in campaigns, as in many things, it all boils down to dollars and cents.
My argument is that the casual delivery of action-specific Keywords by a high-profile candidate can (and often do) affect individual and group behavior. Obama had to be aware that his words would probably be quoted out of context when he uttered them, and that the words could be used to lend legitimacy to unlawful and reckless behavior. It's obvious the decision was made that the reward would justify the risk. He and his (Quiet Riot) Keywords certainly got the lion's share of media exposure.
I have a problem with any politician who makes speeches using inflammatory words. They are supposed to demonstrate a desire to behave responsibly to the People. All the people - not just a segment.
I haven't yet witnessed a desire in Obama to represent all segments of the population of this country. That concerns me, and I wonder whether others feel the same concern.
Why do blacks continue to tear this country apart?
Africans where snatched from there homeland stripped of there culture
beaten into submission taught to hate one another and worship the white man in a world that was not there own they where completely surrounded by there enemy
made to witness the lynching beatings and auctioning off of there own family
waking in the night to find masta humping ya wife or your daughter being told that you are less than man for a very long time do u have any idea of the damage that would cause psychologically that kind of damage would transcend generations to forget your own language for fear of being hung if you were
caught speaking it or caught reading to educate your self and then being told
you are free now catch up with us you try to be successful in a society where
everyone hates you separate schools separate bathrooms ect it feels like the world hates you maybe I am less than man maybe there right that kind of thinking
will make u hate your own people will make you hate black people without even knowing it and then to have amazing black leaders spring up from the masses just to be assassinated it gives one a sense of hopelessness to have crack dumped into what communities we had was devastating I believe that marked the end of what was left of the black man what we have now are n-words and for these crimes we the black race have granted amnesty to our arch enemies
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Antique RiceJun 5th, 2007 - 18:36:34
Wow, black people are pissed off again big freakin suprise.
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