When it came to selecting a Presidential candidate to vote for in 2008, Samuel Jackson said that Barack Obama's campaign message, "didn't mean sh*t to me." Jackson said he voted for Obama for one reason only.
"I voted for Barack because he was black," Jackson said in an interview with Ebony Magazine. "Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people - because they look like them."
Jackson went on:
"When it comes down to it, they wouldn't have elected a n----. Because what's a n----? A n---- is scary. Obama ain't scary at all. N--- don't have beers at the White House. N---- don't let some white dude, while you in the middle of a speech, call [him] a liar. A n---- would have stopped the meeting right there and said, 'Who the f*ck said that? I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years, 'cuz he ain't gotta worry about getting re-elected."
As I wrote last week, I'm glad when people honestly reveal their racial motivations, even when they aren't pretty, because it forces us to confront the ongoing racial divisions that we prefer to think no longer exist.
Jackson's comments open nearly all 31 flavors of racial cans of worms. We would say it's racist for a white person to vote against Obama (or to vote for a white candidate) simply because of race -- so does the same rule apply to Sam Jackson, a black man? We would never suffer to hear a white person cordon African Americans off into two groups: Black People or N*ggers. So why is it ok for black folks to do it?
When Obama was running for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton four years ago, a number of voters cast ballots for Clinton because she was a woman. Others voted for Obama because he was black. In the end, Obama won, despite the fact that there are many more women in this country than there are black people. But then of course, there are those who voted against Clinton for her gender, and against Obama for his race.
When it come to voting practices, there will always be extremists on either side of an issue -- be it racial, social or political -- who, like Jackson, cast a vote in response to what they suspect to be false motives on the other side. So Jackson votes for Obama to balance out the white bigots, many of whom vote for the white candidate in order to balance out Jackson's vote.
Does this, then, free the rest of us to vote our conscience, based on the issues, people and parties involved?
On May 1st, 2011, I was sitting in the Buckhorn Bar in Laramie, Wyo., listening to friends play music, and absent-mindedly watching a basketball game on the television screen over the bar. I noticed on the ESPN news crawl that the United States had announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Between songs, I announced the news to the rest of the bar. After a beat, then news sunk in and there were a couple celebratory exclamations, and a gruff retort from someone or another telling me that I had "never been in the service."
Despite his relative unpopularity in those parts, the bartender turned up the volume on the TV and the bar went silent as we listened to Barack Obama confirm the news with a speech to the American people. A friend and I decided to buy shots of whiskey for the entire bar. Seemed like the right thing to do.
When Obama's speech ended, one man in the bar said, loud enough for all to hear: "I haven't eaten watermelon since he was elected," then laughed a crass laugh.
I knew the guy. He was this enourmous mountain of a man that I'd shared many a drunken conversation with. He stood at least six and a half feet tall, smoked cigars and told dirty jokes in a voice so harsh and resonant that it could cut through the wind and carry across the entire high plain, even when he whispered.
He took his shot of whiskey with the rest of us, because he was an American, whether we liked it or not. And Obama was his President, whether he liked it or not.
Sam Jackson's comments will serve to ease the conscience of those who vote against Obama because they look at him and only see his race -- but we can't pretend those people don't exist. But if Sam Jackson and my watermelon man have one another balanced out, does that mean the rest of us are free to forget all the noise and simply vote our conscience?
--
Follow Bison Messink on Twitter: @BisonMessink
[Samuel L. Jackson -- I Voted for Barack Obama Because He's Black ]
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!