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    KC Complains A LotMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 5:27pm

    ...so does Cory Booker not know that the fastest way to lose a Presidential election is by courting white votes at the expense of black ones? Did he just miss Bernie Sanders’ entire 2016 run?

    I’m trying not to get to up or down on any candidates this far ahead of the primaries, but FUCK MAN, Booker is so corny. He’s clearly trying to ape from the Obama playbook while 1.) Not having Obama’s oratory skills, 2.) Not having Obama’s charisma, and 3.) Not realizing that 2008 was 11 fucking years ago and you can’t win an election by talking about reconciliation and loving your neighbor or whatever.

    The majority of black people show the majority of white people unearned grace every day just by *not screaming at them every fucking day*. The fact that we work with, collab with, watch movies by, enjoy music by, and generally pay attention to white people who’s ancestors either actively oppressed us or did nothing to stop it is so, SOOOO much more grace than is warranted, in a world where in 20-gotdamn-19 we’re debating whether or not it’s okay to wear blackface.

    Booker is gonna stick with this lovey dovey bullshit and get crushed. I don't know what he thinks folks want, but this ain't it.

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      BlackKinjaKC Complains A Lot
      2/12/19 6:16pm

      FACTS, FACTS, FACTS, FACTS!!!

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      FlamingFeministaKC Complains A Lot
      2/12/19 6:48pm

      “He’s clearly trying to ape from the Obama playbook while 1.) Not having Obama’s oratory skills, 2.) Not having Obama’s charisma...”

      I didn’t like Obama early on because I felt he was too whitebread (my same thoughts about Booker) and vacillated between his warm feelings for his white grandparents and the full knowledge that whites can be racists AND love ‘their boy’. It was only after I read that speech wherein he talked about the time his white grandma made a comment about “those niggers” and his eloquence in acknowledging the dualism inside them and his own hurt feelings, in such an even-handed way (yeah, it was masterful) that didn’t alienate them but won me over.

      But I knew, I KNEW, he just didn’t have it in him to assume a fighting stance and with some bass in his voice say,”What a minute, muhfukkas...” when they got too ridiculous (the birtherism), the situation called for it (Trayvon or others getting murdered in the street) or in the face of unabashed obstructionalism (HEALTHCARE!).

      Yeah, yeah dignity, restraint, never be a stereotype...If I couldn’t see Obama doing it with Michelle by his side, you KNOW ain’t nobody named Corey with an undisclosed will!

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    JamieMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 4:51pm

    I know the black candidates are going to try to walk the line...I know they are...but why don’t they walk the line that leans toward us. Why don’t they explain to the “good” white why POC don’t have to explain anything to them? Why don’t they explain that it’s not our responsibility to educate them so they will see us as equal human beings? I do not want to hear or read any of these black candidates pandering to white people. And really if a white candidate walks the line in fave of POC they will get my vote before the black candidate. I’m tired. With all that’s happened in this country the past 2 years there is absolutely a right side...completely. Not a meet in a middle....there is a right side and I need the candidate to be FIRMLY on that side 

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      CousinPamJamie
      2/12/19 4:55pm

      Why don’t they explain that it’s not our responsibility to educate them so they will see us as equal human beings?

      Yeah. If the starting point of a conversation about race with a white person is “convince me that you, Black person, are a whole, worthwhile person,” that’s not a conversation I’m going to have. It’s a waste of my time. 

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      Bushido--BrownCousinPam
      2/12/19 5:20pm

      PREACH

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    SheeshTheseNamesMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 4:54pm

    While they are free to give us zero grace and negative empathy, if that’s even a thing. No grace and empathy for Ms. Omar, right? No grace and empathy for the Black people beaten, murdered, and raped by police. Grace and empathy for white people who claim not to know that blackface is wrong in 1988, 1994, 2007, and 2019. They seem to never learn this basic thing.

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      FlamingFeministaSheeshTheseNames
      2/12/19 6:25pm

      “While they are free to give us zero grace and negative empathy...”

      This is the assumed posture of every white...and their greatest fear: that Blacks and other oppressed minorities WON’T CONTINUE to give them grace but exact a devastating revenge when they least expect it! There has to be a reckoning; it’s been too long coming and they know it. EVERYONE is tired...them of waiting on it (hence the election, the rise of the right, etc.) to force a once-and-for-all fight which they think they will win.

      Corey really thinks he’s slicker-than-your-average and that he can regain the momentum and hopes and dreams of white America by aping Obama but this speech might resonate much more negatively with Blacks than positively with them!

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      Flamingo83 pt2SheeshTheseNames
      2/12/19 7:32pm

      I WAS excited about Booker, now nah I heard enough. 

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    Nunna Yorz (Greys get dismissed with prejudice)Michael Harriot
    2/12/19 5:03pm

    In before the inevitable flood of comments from white people claiming how they had no concept of racism well into their adulthood until one day a random encounter with a magical negro opened their eyes.

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      The SovereignNunna Yorz (Greys get dismissed with prejudice)
      2/12/19 5:10pm

      I met a magical negro once. Cured me off gonorrhea; spirited it right out of my body!

      No. Wait. That was a movie.

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      My KinjaNunna Yorz (Greys get dismissed with prejudice)
      2/12/19 5:18pm

      Or the Black person MADE them racist. (see Liam Neeson)

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    whatamithinkingMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 6:26pm

    The moment I heard about Corey Booker being his usual authentic fake self (yes), I knew immediately you’d have fun with it. And i’m not disappointed. And the opening story about your uncle James & Duchess & Rex is so appropriate to what followed.

    My thing is that from day one we’ve shown too much grace and empathy to the colonizers, yet they remain colonizers - may be our charity has only served to strengthen and make them take us for granted. Enough.

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      KC Complains A Lotwhatamithinking
      2/12/19 6:36pm

      What I don’t understand is...does he not know he sounds corny? Does he lack self-awareness?

      Even speaking cynically, did he not focus group this kinda shit before saying it? I feel like every candidate needs an analytics department so they avoid shit exactly like this.

      I wasn't feeling it in 2016 when he talked about love at the DNC, and I for damn sure am not feeling that shit now. Surely he has to know how bad this messaging comes across. Right? Right???

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      whatamithinkingKC Complains A Lot
      2/12/19 7:21pm

      “does he not know he sounds corny? Does he lack self-awareness?”

      I’m tempted to answer yes on both counts but... but it seems to work for him - many are buying into that personality.. maybe the racial calculus from his “analytics department” says something along the lines of ‘get enough white votes by any means necessary, and the black vote will follow’.. who knows?

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    Downton FlabbyMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 5:42pm

    The senator claimed he has friends who came to him and asked why blackface is bad.

    Corey, go get yourself some new friends. Any white person asking that question in 2019 is clearly not acting in good faith, and should be dismissed with extreme prejudice.

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      SistayogaDownton Flabby
      2/13/19 3:40pm

      Right? Who the hell is he hanging out with? They’re being willfully ignorant.

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    cdwag14Michael Harriot
    2/12/19 5:11pm

    Dear Corey:

    Uh No. Thanks.

    Signed,

    Catch These Hands 2020

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    Jaguar1024Michael Harriot
    2/12/19 4:48pm

    That is a trip. Isn’t Cory Booker vegan? They always say shit like that.

    Also my cat ate half a sweet potato pie, I caught him midway through. He even tried to circle back around to take another bite as I chased him out of the kitchen.

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    Mud's Not Yer Buddy, PalMichael Harriot
    2/12/19 11:23pm

    In case white feelings on racism weren't obvious allow me to share our inner monologue.

    “We’re becoming a minority. Please don’t treat us as badly as we treated all of you.”

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    Tb2125Michael Harriot
    2/12/19 5:03pm

    Booker is just doing what Booker has always done. Nothing shocking here. 

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