As far as the Obama pants thing goes… he’s right, assuming the term ‘brothers’ transcends race. If he or anyone else thinks someone who’s pants hang low is inconsiderate that person is a fool. Having said that, there are some who push the boundary so much that they are assholes (I’m not trying to see any dude’s ass regardless whether or not it’s covered by his boxer shorts… at the very least his shirt needs to cover that shit up). I personally think they look like idiots… This goes deeper than black people or black culture.

“”
Um, how would people have reacted if Obama had told white springbreaking co-eds to cover up their chests?”"

They’re not trying to get a job while on Spring Break. They can switch on the bourgeois values when they need to. Hell, that’s what everyone does. The problem is that many poor people (black, white, brown, or green) are growing up in broken homes and communities where they don’t get the chance to absorb the bourgeois values that’ll lead to success in life.

Despite our ongoing struggles, African-Americans have more political power in the U.S. than any other ethnic group, and seeing that power fully leveraged for a presidential candidate who doesn’t (and can’t) at the outset step outside of the center-right framework scares the shit out of people. Those tears from from black folks on election night in Grant Park, the screaming white, Latino, and Asian kids, the people dancing in the streets in Kenya — the latent symbolism scares people on the left because this is being framed as the progressive moment we’ve been waiting for. Interest groups on the left are scared that they are on the outside looking in. Give the man a chance before you erect the wall of oppostion. He’s the most progressive candidate we’ve fielded since Carter, maybe since Lyndon Johnson. And he fucking won! Take a moment to process that… There is a difference between sobriety and cynicism. One is helpful, the other is not. I maintain that the core weakness of the left is the inability to be constructive and/or pragmatic, or appreciative of progress. Obama is now arguably the most powerful man in the world, and I haven’t seen anyone even remotely progressive operating in that capacity in my lifetime. Stay sober, but get some god damn perspective.