Un-Liberaled Woman

Why is it human nature that non-verbals play such a part in our ability to not only retain but accept information or messages? I for one have been so confused by the shunning of people like Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell, but yet blind acceptance of Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton, by the black community (and the media) over the years.  Bill Cosby years ago wrote a book Come On People where he (and Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint M.D.) outline why and how black communities can work together to turn their hardships around. I’ve read about half the book, but I remember back when Cosby was making speeches based on his work and people were lining up to the camera to chastise him for saying “controversial” things. The same has been true for Clarence Thomas.

I totally get what these guys have said for years – respect the significance of the role of family, raise your children to do right and stay focused, continue to get educated, watch out and defend your community, and then once you are grown into a success turn around to give back to the community. Common sense, non?

To me, I cannot fathom why a lower-class, blue-collar white girl from a large town can get that message (from black leaders like Thomas and Cosby) more than the very people that message is meant to inspire for the better.  But then I think it’s the human nature of being stubborn as all get out that prevents us from understanding the really hard lessons in life the first, second, third, and most likely fourth time around.

Because what has Barack Obama said that’s so different than what Thomas, Cosby and Sowell have been saying FOR YEARS, even before Obama entered college????

I don’t get it other than perhaps McLuhan was spot on:

The medium is the message is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.

Came across this video with Clarence Thomas from last year during the election, and he provides some insight. I love how he questions why what he and Cosby were saying was deemed “controversial” in the first place. I totally understand him questioning that, although I bet it has more with people’s inability to accept responsibility for their choices/behaviors and how easy it is for us to blame someone else. It’s easier for people to blame a non-tangible theory of conspiracy with victimhood than it is for them to look in the mirror and admit they are related to the root of the problem.

And to arguments of Barack Obama “being one of us” or able to relate to the community because he’s come from there. May I remind you that:

• Cosby grew up in the projects in Philly
• Thomas was abandoned by his father at 2; and grew up in the South during the 40s and 50s; the only black kid in his high school during the civil rights era where he still managed to be an honor student
• Sowell grew up in Harlem, didn’t have a father and dropped out of high school

None of these men went to a private school in Hawaii or were given the opportunities to travel the world to understand different cultures OR sat in a church for 20+ years listening to their “spiritual leader” preach hate for America and other races from the pulpit (just sayin’).

So the idea that Obama is more qualified to deliver this message than any of these three great men above is not only a farce but the people arguing from that perspective means they haven’t done any research and would rather live in a world of fragmented puzzle pieces than in reality.