Invisible man: Pres. Obama

We Blacks only become visible as needed. The need maybe from efforts to protect a fantasy to satisfying a powerful emotional thirst.

I strongly agree with others that we only become visible long enough to advance negative stereotypes i.e., when going into a store to shop or being interviewed as ‘Man on the Street’ for a television news story.

However, there are contrasting efforts, great and mighty ones to be sure but they often pale in the shadow of opposing endeavors.

My first strong and conscience experiences with being invisible was seeing the late Black Journalist Carl Rowan on a Sunday Talk Show hosted by Chris Wallace. The other panelist, including Nina Tottenberg and Charles Krauthammer, would never acknowledge anything he had to say. After Mr. Rowan would make a contribution to the conversation, the conversation would continue as if he said nothing at all, as if he were not there; invisible, if you will.

I would bet there are journalist and political pundits who pride themselves in never addressing the President as President Obama or Mr. President.

Excerpt from commenter Hamden Rice to a diary written by ThePlainsman at DKos:

To understand why, you have to have read Ralph Ellison's classic of African American literature, "Invisible Man." If you haven't read it, this may not make much sense.

And
Invisible Man is a surreal novel about an unnamed black man who grows up in the south and comes to New York and has a series of adventures.

And
Ellison's main metaphor for being black in America is being invisible. It's not that white people can't see us; it's that they see whatever they want to see rather than the flesh and blood person standing in front of them.

And
Barack Obama is the Invisible Man of American politics, for both the right and the left. Few American politicians have sketched out their backgrounds and beliefs in greater detail than Obama has. Yet both the right and the left make up elaborate fantasies about him.
Read more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/17/976969/-Professor-Harris-Perry-DESTROYS-Cornel-West?via=siderec

Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB