Obama Warns of 'Quiet Riot' Among Blacks

[whopis01]

Source: Associated Press

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a "quiet riot" among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago.

Repeatedly, he referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured in several days of riots in the city's black neighborhoods.

Obama noted that during the riots, a bullet pierced the abdomen of a pregnant woman and lodged in the elbow of her fetus. The baby was delivered by caesarian section, the bullet was removed and the child, Jessica Glennis Evers-Jones, has only a small scar on her arm to show for it. Using the incident as a metaphor, Obama said society's problems are worsening because "in too many places across the country, we have not even bothered to take the bullet out."

"When we have more black men in prison than in college, then it's time to take the bullet out," he said.

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PIUO380&show_article=1

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Come on, feel the noise.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. heard the speech was amazing. Looking to see if on youtube yet

[ariesgem]

5. I can't find it on youtube but here's a link to the video of the speech

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_156171203.html

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. I love hearing him speak the words he wrote. And, what words.

No smiley icon could suffice. MKJ

[Doctor_J]

15. Just imagine a president who could write his own speeches

or even speak without an ear piece.

:cry:

[patrice]

3. Some of us want to help "take that bullet out", but . . . .

Politics works off of reciprocal relationships:

No Redeployment,
No Residual Forces,
No Nukes.

[jobycom]

4. Speeches like that keep me from ruling him out.

I'm not comfortable with his experience level (and no, state senator doesn't count), but every time I start to lean away from him as a candidate, he opens up with a candor and a perception that is rarely allowed in national politics. Conventional wisdom argues that highlighting race as an issue alienates too many white voters. I have a fear that's true, but I have a deeper fear that we will continue to ignore the gross human rights abuses this country perpetrates on its own citizens. Prisons, non-equal sentencing and convictions, an informal Apartheid that keeps too many African Americans in poverty, uneducated, in poor neighborhoods where crime is one of the few career paths available, are all too much the reality of this nation, despite it's ideals and the image it chooses to portray on its movie screens.

This nation has come a long way since the 60s, but not as far as we pretend we have. Racism is less violent, less overt, and less personal than it was back then, but it has become more subtle, more difficult to fight, and more entrenched. More corporatized and privatized. It's much harder to point out exactly who is doing the segregating, the discriminating, and the dehumanizing, but all we have to do is visit a prison, a predominantly African-American public school, or the "black" section of any town--or the "white" section, for that matter--to see that it is still being done.

[silverojo]

6. It's the economy, stupid.

Somebody needs to tell Obama the news...crime always gets worse when you cut down on funding for police, and then ruin the economy so that everyone is desperate and angry.

It's not just black men suffering, either. He needs to wake up and realize that ALL races are suffering from what Bush is doing.

It's this "blacks first" mentality that makes me a little nervous about Obama. Well, that and the fact that his universal health care "plan" is basically leaving things in the hands of the companies that are screwing us over in the first place....

[ariesgem]

7. It's this "blacks first" mentality

He was addressing a conference of black clergy. White politicians also attend black and other ethnic organization events. Do you say this about the other candidates who show up at these events? The people in these communities want to hear how they (the politicians) stand on issues concerning their communities. What did he say in this speech that said "blacks are the first" and the only people who are suffering?

[19jet54]

8. With all due respect...

... consider the audience he is speaking to & the subject matter of his speach? Black subjects for his black audience of voters ... I consider that "good politics"

[David__77]

10. So many people here don't want to here anything about ethnicity.

White chauvinism is alive and well. (Yes, there are other ethno-chauvinism among national minorities, but it's the whites who still after all these years rule the roost, so the consequences are not nearly the same.) Racism = prejuduce + power.

[jamesinca]

16. I am tired of White first

We need humans first. But you are right, crime does get worse when you ruin the economy and that needs to be fixed.

When George Bush says God bless America, he is really saying God damn the rest of the world to hell and the American poor. Humans first!

[goclark]

17. My ears heard him saying

that RACE is still a major problem in this country and that it needs to be addressed or WE as a nation will suffer.

This is something he has direct knowledge about because of his work in the urban area of Chicago.

This issue was front and center for the entire world to see when the lack of support for KATRINA from Bushco was crystal clear.

It doesn't take only African American eyes to see that the leadership in this country could care less about ALL people that have no voice ~ Democrats, White, Brown,Black, poor, no health insurance, no fancy cars and restaurants, no POWER to change anything.

The leadership of this nation has ALL of US in a KATRINA BOAT that has a hole in the bottom.

President Clinton spoke many times about this issue and he is not African American.

Obama has a world view like President Clinton. He is well aware that the poverty level for ALL people needs to be addressed.

Obama understands, like we do at DU, that NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND means just the opposite. It is designed to leave a lot of poor White children behind, as well as African American children.

Obama is not just concerned about African Americans but can speak, with wisdom, to this issue.


:patriot: and JUSTICE for ALL

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

25. That's true

Those who turn it into a race issue are no better than the pukes who try to divide us on religion.

[ecstatic]

33. I agree with everything up until your

self righteous "blacks first" comment. The quiet riot description seems a little bit off to me... More like quiet separation, at least in my opinion, as it becomes clear that neither party gives a flying f*ck.

It is about the economy--Bush's era is reminiscent of the Reagan era in which crime, poverty, homelessness and drug use soared. A good economy translates into less crime, safer times.

[19jet54]

9. He is not wrong...

... I worked as a white computer professional in a county courthouse in Missouri. A news reporter made an official request for data regarding sentencing by each judge, by race, per the freedom of information act. The information was only available per case at the front desk public computers, with names removed & his request was denied. Curious, I ran a query for myself and found that sentences for blacks were much, much longer than whites for the same crimes overall; with strong evidence statistically identifying possibly racist judges. A black security employee, that I was friends with, was fired for his EEO complaint; I left shortly thereafter - because I was friends with him, they had also targeted me. That was 10 years ago, but not much has changed? I will never again live below the Mason-Dixon line; life is different still today. And I thought it was bad in LA, Pomona, Oakland, North Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, North Las Vegas and many other metro cities where I have lived. While we have come far, the journey is just beginning.

Amen, brother Obama!

[loyalsister]

18. Not much has changed

A Street Divided
The intentional separation in 1935 between blacks and whites on Garth Avenue crept into Columbia’s economic and public policy. In 2007, the inequalities persist.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2007/05/19/street-divided/

It seems that Obama's work as a community organizer has really stuck with him. He gets people in the spirit of a true populist.

[19jet54]

26. Latino Americans...

... are just the "New" light skinned black man too - America needs a minority President!

[loyalsister]

31. Right on!

He understands the minority experience as an outsider and an insider. It gives him a unique understanding and vantage point from which to relate to other minorities.

You are absolutely right about Latino Americans.
I would suggest that "brown people" of any nationality have been targeted.

I think that part of the recent refocus on Illegal Immigration carries some relation to the fact that some people see similar physical characteristics to Arabic people. I have heard the argument that "one could sneak across as an illegal and you wouldn't know the difference."

It's all rooted in hate, and I think all people of color are feeling it.

I am with you- and Obama 100%

[Union Thug]

11. But, Obama, I fear nothing will change until the volume is turned up. n/t

[anotherdrew]

20. rich people are never going to vote to give free money to poor people, period

what exactly is the problem and what exactly is he proposing as a solution.

If there's one thing we're lead to believe people NEED to hear, it's specifics.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Poppy.

[Renew Deal]

13. I think Obama is trying to say:

Come on feel the noize! :headbang::headbang::headbang:

[lonestarnot]

14. The quiet riot is not strictly held by black people. It is stewing among other

ethnicities also, but maybe not for the same reasons.

[anotherdrew]

19. up next - Obama pushes for full metal health coverage for all americans n/t

[NorthernSpy]

21. C'mon feel the noise!

:silly:

[architect359]

22. Beat me to it! n/t

:evilgrin:

[Moochy]

30. We'll get wyld wyld wyld, wyld wyld wyld!!

:headbang: :kick: ... just because headbang smiley does not get around much anymore!

[dysfunctional press]

23. i didn't think that blacks went in much for heavy-metal hair bands...

who'd a-thunk it?

[B3Nut]

24. LOL!!!!!

First concert I ever went to as a kid was Quiet Riot, supporting their "Metal Health" record. The Headpins and Saga were the opening acts...great show!

But I was thinking of a Quiet Riot joke as well, but had refrained from posting one... ;)

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Manifestor_of_Light]

27. He's starting with blacks, and needs to expand it to everybody who is poor or struggling.

It's the economy, stupid!! Jobs, health care. Racism is part of the pocketbook issues.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was realizing that the problem of Black poverty was not just a Black thing, it was an economic problem that also applied to other races. When he was killed, he was organizing a Poor Peoples' March on Washington.

That would have been truly radical. And now there are millions more of us who have fallen out of the middle class. Our education and effort have done NOTHING for us -- it is a liability.


Some of you people who remember the Sixties (like I do) might remember the tent city protest called Resurrection City. It was jokingly called Insurrection City.

[Ethelk2044]

28. Paula Zahn is talking about it now

[Jed Dilligan]

29. Really... WHAT is he thinking?

He's 45, so he knows what Quiet Riot was (is?). As far as I know it's not a Shakespeare quotation or anything else that's commonly cited... It is just the name of a hair metal band from the 80s.

Why would he slip such a reference into such a discussion?

My only guess is that the band has sunken so far into his subconscious that he thinks it's just an interesting turn of phrase that he heard somewhere.

[Kingstree]

32. What was he thinking

These are the quite Riots he was talking about.

1. He was thinking about schools falling down. Teachers unable to educate children because of over crowding. Classes not having enough books. Schools not having enough computers.

2. People in the inner city neighborhood who would like to work, however they do not have the transportation to get to and from work. They have to quit the jobs. He is talking about providing public transportation in order to allow these people to be able to contribute to society.

3. Young Kids having kids. Someone to educate them on raising children. This will decrease children dieing. Educated them on the proper way to parent a child.

4. Providing all children with Health Care. Like the child in DC in the papers recently died because his mother could not afford for him to go to the dentist. His mother had to make a choice which child would get to go to the doctor. The son who went to the doctor lived. Sadly to say the other who was not able to go to the doctor died because his tooth was badly infected and it went to his brian and killed him.

5. Soldiers coming home with post-traumatic stress disorder. They are not getting the proper treatment. The government is cutting the funding. Giving the Veterans more money in order for them to be treated for this disorder. They went to Iraq to protect us and come home thinking we will not forget about them. However, the administration has cut the funding for soldiers in some areas instead of increasing it.

6. The General Public having the necessary money to be able to afford to go to the doctor for illness.

Further more, if you would have read his speech instead of listening to the media you would have found that he was talking about uplifting the poor, homeless and sick. Educating them in order for them not to have to depend on the government. Allow them to contribute to society.

[Jed Dilligan]

34. Doesn't answer my question, which only concerned

his choice of words. Which was completely distracting from everything you post here.

[Ethelk2044]

35. It is just people are trying to slant it

He was not talking about inciting a riot. He was talking about helping the needy. Yes, he did compare it to two riots. No, just because they are poor they had no right to riot. Those people were poor. Any educated person would know exactly what he meant. Anyone trying to use the message for political gain would careless about the poor and try to insinuate that he was trying to incite a riot.

[Jed Dilligan]

36. Not my point

My point is that Quiet Riot was an MTV hair band from the 80s that someone as young as Obama would clearly remember. It's a really absurd image to inject into a serious discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Riot

Was he thinking of the band when he used the phrase? Or was it just in his subconscious as a phrase? It's very, very weird and mysterious to me.