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The Obama Circus Begins
He has just won the election and has yet to be sworn into office, but already the bull-shitters of the world have started to attach themselves to Barack Obama's coat tails.
Just days after the election, Maya Angelou breathlessly told a MSNBC talking head, "I don't have to apologize for my country when I'm abroad."
Listen to this bit of pretension, if you can stomach it.
For someone who has lived under such oppression, Angelou has done pretty well. She knocks down $43,000 apiece for her lecture performances to audiences of other breathless limousine liberals.
I'm especially fond of the part where she mentions her European fans saying, "aren't you glad to be here in France where we don't have the racism you live under?"
Honestly! Other than having played a role in the careers of Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson and Jimi Hendrix, what have the Frogs done for blacks living there? It was within the past year that the French government raised the ire of Muslims by forbidding religious headwear in the schools. This was justified by the contention that France is a "secular" country. (I suppose Joan of Arc must be whirling in her grave.)
Politically, blacks in France possess next to zero power or representation. The Christian Science Monitor notes that among the 911 members of the French Parliament, only three are of minority background. The Monitor article quotes one Pap Nidaye of the School for Advanced Study of the Social Sciences, who thinks that the election of a French counterpart of Obama is not possible. Nidaye observes, "There's no grass-roots politics for Africans. ...What's missing is a thick layer of minority politicians in small towns; local officials just don't encourage this."
Perhaps "Doctor" [honorary] Angelou might ask some pointed questions of her European pals the next time she visits there. Better still, perhaps she ought to move to Paris and live out her life there.