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Obama The Oreo
for release 06-10-08
Dallas, Texas
by Lightning Rod
Oreos are smart cookies. They are black on the outside and white on the inside. And they dunk well.
Obama was born of a black African father and a white American mother. His upbringing was primarily in white society. He's the classic Oreo. Black on the outside, white on the inside.
I'm not talking from a racial point of view, I'm speaking from a cultural point of view. Barack Obama was not raised in the typical American black-slave mentality. His black ancestors weren't slaves. He didn't grow up with the legacy of slavery lurking somewhere in an ancestral closet.
When I went to prison, the first thing I did was to make friends with the biggest blackest guy I could find. His name was Roddy and he weighed about 230 pounds. He was a walking version of nighttime. He was serving 73 years for 73 armed robberies. We became cell mates.
Everybody thought I was his white punk and that was fine with me. Nobody messed with me. He never touched me. He was my friend. He had spent his entire adult life in the institution and he knew the ropes. He helped me through the first six months that I was there. He was also a solid Oreo. His family was middle class. He was raised in mostly white suburban culture.
One of the things that I learned in prison was that the black culture has a tragic flaw. This flaw consists of an attitude that I call the 'massa, please' attitude. Even in prison there was no solidarity among the black population because they would steal from each other, snitch on each other and had a fragmented sense of community. They were still working for the massa.
"Some of my best friends are black." This is probably the most gratuitous statement of all famous gratuitous statements. It contains an inner insult. It says, "even though they are black, I am so broad-minded that I can call them friends." It's insulting and condescending. But I'm going to say it anyway. Some of my best friends are black. Also many of my heroes are black. Sometimes I wish I was black. Sometimes maybe I am.
There is much to celebrate about what the African pigment has added to our culture in music and art and dance and oratory and athletics and moral direction. But there is a stain on the black culture as well. This stain is the continuing slave mentality that causes black people to see themselves as inferior or servile.
This is why we need more Oreos like Barack Obama. It's not about race, it's about culture. Hopefully the advances that we have made in American culture in the past 40 years will establish a new generation of black culture as well, and we can lose the slave mentality.
The Poet's Eye is glad to see a proud black man running for president. And I'm glad he's an Oreo.
The first time that I tried it
Got a big sugar buzz
Nothing gets me high as that sandwhich cookie does
But I love the filling most
I rub it on my roast
Mix it in with my coffee and spread it on my toast
I love the white stuff, baby
In the middle of an oreo
I love the white stuff, baby
Take some with me everywhere I go
---Weird Al Yankovic
