Malcolm X was one of the naysayers to American possibility whose vision was permanently crushed beneath the heel of Obama's victory on Nov. 4. Though his ideas had nothing to do with the ultimate form of nonviolence - voting - those desperate to praise him will pretend now that he was actually a civil rights leader! This has been going on for an unforgivably long time, especially among black academics.

Malcolm X had nothing to do with Obama's accomplishment as did none of the other militants who preached their own version of separatism and gleefully attacked the civil rights movement as offering no more than pie in the sky and misleading black people.

Unforgivably long!!! Misleading black people!! Other Militants!!! Meddling kids!!!!

It may be true that "other militants" had nothing to do with Obama's win. It is certainly true that people who said Obama wasn't black (Stanley Crouch) had even less to do with Obama's win. But as Adam points out, what is literally and demonstrably false is Crouch's claim that Malcom X "had nothing to do with Obama's accomplishment. How do we know this? Because Barack Obama said it in his memoir:

In every page of every book, in Bigger Thomas and invisible men, I kept finding the same anguish, the same doubt; a self-contempt that neither irony nor intellect seemed able to deflect. Even Du Bois' learning and Baldwin's love and Langston's humor eventually succumbed to its corrosive force, each man finally forced to doubt art's redemptive power, each man finally forced to withdraw, one to Africa, one to Europe, one deeper into the bowels of Harlem, but all of them in the same weary flight, all of them exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels. Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me.

If you are writing columns on the president-elect of the greatest power in world history, who happens to be black and you can't even bother to crack his memoir, than you are more than Leeroy Jenkins. You do not simply fail in epic manner, but more like Palin, Couric and "all of them," like M.C. Hammer hounded by creditors. You are Plaxico at the bar, shooting yourself with your own gun. And in so doing, you ascend to the 37th chamber--the chamber of intergalactic fail. All bow before the master.

Last weekend, 18 days after Barack Obama decisively defeated their candidate for president, a mostly Republican crowd of self-described conservatives received their first introduction to someone many prominent members of the GOP think could be the party's own version of Obama.

...social conservatives like what they have heard about the public and private Jindal: his steadfast opposition to abortion without exceptions; his disapproval of embryonic stem cell research; his and his wife Supriya's decision in 1997 to enter into a Louisiana covenant marriage that prohibits no-fault divorce in the state; and his decision in June to sign into law the Louisiana Science Education Act, a bill heartily supported by creationists that permits public school teachers to educate students about both the theory of "scientific design" and criticisms of Darwinian evolutionary concepts.

He decided he belonged to the "community of humanity." I asked him whether that smacked of Tiger Woods' description of his biracial identity, which some blacks saw as a rejection of the black community.

"My view has always been that I'm African-American," he said. "African Americans by definition, we're a hybrid people. One of things I loved about my mother was not only did she not feel rejected by me defining myself as an African-American, but she recognized that I was a black man in the United States and my experiences were going to be different than hers."

At the same time, Obama says, when he takes his daughters to Hawaii to visit his grandmother--his mother is deceased--they visit a little old white lady from Kansas.

They also spend time with his pregnant half-sister, who's part Indonesian and married to a Chinese Canadian.

"My daughters will grow up with a cousin who looks entirely Asian but who carries my blood in him. It's pretty hard not to claim that larger community."

I haven't seen a thread here on interracial marriage/dating. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.

I know a couple of black men who are honestly in love with white women. They've dated black women before, but this is who they fell for. But those who manage to shake off the cultural conditioning are rare indeed. I stick with black women, not because of any aversion to white women, not because of any "Nubian princess" mythology, and not because I think crossing the line would necessarily conflict with my politics. I stick with black women because I wonder, in this climate, if an honest relationship with anybody else is possible. I stick with black women because I know how men (black and white) routinely use them for toilet stools. I stick with black women because I know to do anything else, whether I meant to or not, would be to become an accomplice to that crime.

Oh but the longing is terrible
Gentle heart under attack
I wanna love you all the way off
I wanna break your back.

To me, as to increasing numbers of mixed-race people, Barack Obama is not our first black president. He is our first biracial, bicultural president. He is more than the personification of African American achievement. He is a bridge between races, a living symbol of tolerance, a signal that strict racial categories must go.

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve plans for a new "urban" television network that would cater to a multicultural audience interested in health, lifestyle, education and other issues, a spokeswoman for Johnson told Journal-isms on Tuesday.

Here's a story of the Thanksgiving spirit, forgiving and forgetting senatorial style.

When Democrats gathered last week to decide the fate of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a pair of senators-elect, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, stepped up to offer symbolically important speeches.

Having ridden the wave of support for President-elect Barack Obama, Udall and Merkley spoke out in favor of the spirit of reconciliation and moving on from the campaign, in which Lieberman was one of the highest profile supporters of the Republican presidential ticket.

But no one in the room knew, as Merkley spoke, that Lieberman had supported Merkley's opponent, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). Lieberman, through his Reuniting Our Country PAC, gave Smith's reelection bid $5,000 on Oct. 10, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Now I ask you--maybe they're a bit too clean, but Steve Young and Jerry Rice or Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin?

Barack Obama is the first CELEBRITY President. I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean it in a factual way. He's the first President of the Modern Celebrity Culture that we live in today.

To be honest, that realization frightened me. I mean, look at the magazine racks. Obama isn't just on magazines like Time and Newsweek, the Obamas, or some combination of them are on People, US, Life & Style, OK, The Star.

Look at that list.

Within days of the election, what did we hear about the WeeMichelles? Some offer from Hanna Montana?

Then there was the article in the Wall Street Journal about Malia, her dress from Election Night, how it sold out, and maybe she's going to be a trendsetter for the ' tween' set.

I turn on the tv and see Inside Edition doing a piece on Sasha's Dress - yes, SASHA, and how it's become a sellout too.

Meh, I knew it was over when I saw the tabs trading rumors about the First Couple's various affairs. It's pretty crazy.