Saturday Open Thread

Posted on January 7, 2017 by rikyrah

Hello Everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the weekend with friends and family.

Today, we’re going into the archives and pulled out a few of President Obama’s speeches.

This entry was posted in Civil Rights, Current Events, Democracy, Ferguson, Human Rights, Institutional Racism, Jim Crow laws, Media, Open Thread, Politics, POTUS, President Obama, Racism and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

26 Responses to Saturday Open Thread

  1. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 7, 2017 at 7:14 pm

    Cheer leader Pictures, Images and PhotosTexans win! We’re in this bish

    Reply
  2. rikyrah says:
    January 7, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    How Michelle Obama expanded the definition of a First Lady

    Margo Jefferson

    The rules imposed on her were constricting. So she expanded them and, in the process, won people over without betraying herself

    When Michelle Obama entered the White House, she had to contend with two onerous legacies.
    The first was a stale clutter of expectations and prohibitions about the proper role of the first lady. The second was a cluster of stereotypes deeming black women unfit for any such role.

    A first lady was expected to display gracious manners, wear tasteful
    clothes and support worthy, uncontroversial causes. Whatever was hers alone – education, expertise, passion – had to be adapted to the needs of her husband’s presidency. She was there to please and enhance. A black woman, by contrast, was the opposite of that. Or that is, at least, what we’d always been told.

    People were busily projecting negative stereotypes onto Michelle
    Obama from the moment her husband began campaigning. She was pushy and sullen. She didn’t smile enough. She undercut her husband’s extraordinary tact and diplomacy by airing her reservations about his running for office. And how dare she say out loud that she’d spent most of her adult life not being proud of her country?

    When Barack Obama won, her mandate as first lady was to win people over without betraying herself. And I wasn’t alone in worrying that she was too cautious and conciliatory at first. She called herself “mom-in chief”, applied herself to children’s health and the needs of military families. Appropriate womanly interests.

    I know you have to reassure much of the white public, I thought, but
    don’t pander; don’t tamp yourself down. And in fact, she didn’t. She
    took more, not fewer risks. In hindsight that “mom-in-chief” looks
    clever, even cheeky. She got rid of “lady”, which is too genteel. She
    turned “mother” – so formal and pious – into the more informal “mom”.
    Then claimed authority by seizing hold of “chief”.

    She reminded people of all the women – moms and otherwise – who work hard and efficiently every day wherever their work takes them. She was taking both legacies and divesting them of their constriction so as to compose and improvise a new model.

    Reply
  3. rikyrah says:
    January 7, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    Barack Obama forever changed black America
    Peniel E Joseph

    The president justified the faith of generations who persisted in loving America – even when the nation refused to love us back

    Black America’s conception of ourselves was forever changed by Barack Obama’s presidency. For African Americans, the first family helped to unlock the transformational potential that always existed in democracy’s beating heart, but which too often excluded black Americans. Today, that is no longer the case.

    Barack and Michelle Obama changed how black folks thought of themselves and the wider nation they lived in. Obama’s attainment of the nation’s highest office illuminated the depth and breadth of black genius in American society, helping to inspire millions of young people to dream bigger dreams.

    For black America, the euphoria of election day in 2008 did not elicit post-racial fantasies articulated by the mainstream press. Instead, the presence of the Obamas on the world stage confirmed deep-seated truths about black excellence, love and humanity that we’ve always taken for granted despite white denial of these very truths.
    How Michelle Obama expanded the definition of a first lady
    Margo Jefferson
    Read more

    Barack and Michelle Obama, along with their intelligent and energetic daughters Sasha and Malia, set a new standard for American society, normalizing the once unthinkable prospect of having a black president and first family in the White House. Together, they broke powerful barriers installed by the nation’s brutal history of slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism.

    For eight extraordinary years, Obama and his poised, elegant and brilliant family occupied the domestic and world stage in a way that offered new models of excellence for millions of black children living in a society that continues to marginalize their hopes and dreams, accentuate their mistakes and errors, and place too little values on their lives or deaths.

    One picture of Obama’s impact on black children remains especially poignant. A five-year-old African American boy visiting the White House asked to feel the president’s hair, as if to assure himself that the leader of the free world not only looked like him, but had similar hair as well. It’s one of the defining moments of Obama’s presidency. It illustrated how the very fact of having a black president unlocked new worlds of hope and possibility in millions of people – young and old –who never imagined that such a thing was possible.
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    Michelle Obama revealed a remarkable ability for grace when under pressure, even when faced with hurtful myths that she hated America. She responded to racist assaults, character assassination by rightwing pundits and blatant lies by conspiracy theorists and alt-right fanatics with a now legendary poise. And Michelle’s defiant black beauty in the face of online trolls – who compared her to animals and used racial slurs against her – helped make her time as first lady both inspiring and instructive.

    For millions of black girls and women, Michelle Obama became a role model both for her astonishing educational accomplishments and political achievements in the White House. Her public resilience in leading a charge to promote healthy eating across the nation, including providing nutritious foods for economically and racially segregated youth living in poverty, was illuminating – as was her willingness to speak truth to power at the Democratic national convention, where she acknowledged living in a house built by slaves. Moments like these cemented her soaring stature nationally and solidified the special place she holds within the hearts of black people everywhere.

    Reply
  7. rikyrah says:
    January 7, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    Inside the Obamas’ final star-studded party: White House bash goes on until 4am with Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and SJP on the dance floor and chicken and waffles for breakfast

    Kelly Rowland, Wale and Nick Jonas, Paul McCartney among stars to arrive to White House party on Friday
    Jill Scott, Terrence J, La La Anthony and Jordin Sparks also posted photos and selfies as they arrived
    Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry were in attendance
    Beyonce and Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, and Oprah Winfrey were invited to attend President Obama’s party
    Chance the Rapper confirmed his attendance, writing: ‘Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you @POTUS’
    Earlier Friday the First Lady gave final White House speech and Obama will give his farewell address Tuesday

    Reply
  11. rikyrah says:
    January 7, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    Jeff Sessions Confirmation Is ‘Rigged,’ Say Civil Rights Leaders
    January 6, 2017

    The confirmation process for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is “rigged” and should be delayed in order to thoroughly vet Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, a group of civil rights leaders said Friday.

    The confirmation process for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is “rigged” and should be delayed in order to thoroughly vet Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, a group of civil rights leaders said in a conference call with reporters Friday.

    Citing reports that Democrats will be allowed to call only four witnesses to testify at next week’s confirmation hearings, and noting that Sessions left hundreds of questions blank on a required questionnaire, the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP president Cornell William Brooks and five other civil rights leaders representing black, Hispanic and Asian-American groups called for a more “thorough vetting” of Sessions’ controversial career, which included a failed nomination to the federal bench in 1986 due to accusations of racial bias.

    “Rushing through this hearing…demonstrates a contempt for the need to probe Sen. Sessions’ record,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense And Education Fund. “The Senate Judiciary Committee cannot push this forward based on their friendship with Sen. Sessions.”

    Reply
  14. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 7, 2017 at 3:38 pm

    Lets go, Texans!

    Reply
  15. Liza says:
    January 7, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    Days before airport shooting, Florida lawmakers worked on bill to allow guns in airports https://t.co/ULX37SqGEn— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 7, 2017

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    January 7, 2017 at 7:06 am

    Good Morning, Everyone😐😐😐

    Reply

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