So the bigots WERE right, Harold Ford Jr.!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 6:18PM
You DID tell that woman to call you!
As Harold Ford Jr. preps for his upcoming marriage to Emily Threlkeld, he may want to also be thinking about how to appease some black voters in his home state of Tennesse — if, that is, he ultimately wants to be elected as governor there, as insiders have said.
In reaction to his proposal last month, several African-American voters have been asking in various Internet forums why he didn’t choose a black mate.
“Why is he doing this to his people?” one woman who claimed to have dated him in the past has asked Big Head DC. “I am hurt, and we should all be angry.”
Lawd, when Snob reader Kimberley sent me this nugget all I could do was laugh. I'm not one who thinks every interracial relationship is a personal rebuke of me, because, um ... it's not about me. But still, this is HILARIOUS! Naturally some people are pissed, but the IRONY!
Some of you may recall the attack ad that made Ford look like a white woman chasing playboy. Does he owe the RNC an apology now? I mean, the bigots probably would appreciate their apology considering the razzing they got for that moronic ad.
But oh wait? You lost your senate bid. Never mind.
Danielle Belton | 48 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Politics, bigots, black people, democrats, harold ford jr, racism 
Reader Comments (48)
I think I agree with the last anonymous post. I still don't see what the big deal is. what's more disturbing to me is all the people in here talking this "pure race" crap. The only people I hear that talk like that are the KKK and the nazis.
aulelia: Gay Talese is a very well known journalist and author, he wrote some pretty amazing pieces back in the late 60s and 70s. He's dead now, but he's very well known in literary circles.
Um, Gay Talese is not dead.
But excellent post anyway. Glad to see everyone is not cowed into being 100% PC about IR relationships. Harold Ford really isn't the point (I actually respect him more for marrying white instead of marrying some poor black woman for appearances sake) but the larger implications (especially on dark black women who are chosen dead last (if at all) by black men unless they have something the man needs (like money or position) is real.
I will disagree with anonymous on the "when we are all brown" sentiment. Racism is a mindset, and it can't be erased by merely "f*cking" and having a darker child over each generation.
No one is talking about "pure race" or pushing it. Intermingling is going to happen. Just the fact that it is a trend without warning of social ramifications is what is the problem in context to Dark Men existing.
How and why do you go to extremes to pull out what you want to hear? No one pushed any "pure race" theology.
What we have is a completely ignorant race of our own who are self-eliminating not understanding that eventhough the Disney-effect of mixing is positive feat, also the disparity of those who are of the negated race and color, they are further and marginalized and simply, fated as the Bigger Thomases of humanity because they didn't come out mixed.
The human experimentation to try to annihilate race by egocentric blending is as destructive as being racist. I think distinct races are more appealing because we as a human race have distinct cultures that make life interesting. I think as much as the White Man is and has the Imperial Colonizer, they do have fantastic contributions of their histories and cultures even as barbaric dominating people.
I think people want to hear certain things when they read of others contrasting and jarring statements and put thing out there that we are not saying.
I literally and figuratively LOVE a lot of White People I know and have known but that does not discount and exempt the finite science of the Dark Man's excruciatingly painful demise and that is US.
Nobody here is trippin' off Harold Ford in a personal way. It's all about a bigger picture of human existence pressing the halt of their preservation. We need to respect our heritage and fate that we were born brown and that it is not something that needs to be dealt with in assimilating us out of existence as if it is the only remedy the past and present ails of world society as if it is our fault and we must comply to get along. This is not what MLK was lobbying for.
All people should not have to socially engineer to eradicate themselves to deal with race superiority assailing them. Like Jill Scott says, "Sometimes you have to fight!" when you don't want to. "It's about principle".
kara: WHOOPS! I must have got him confused with another "new journalist" who died last year. I know one did, and it was one who was not Hunter S. Thompson or Joan Didion ... It'll come to me eventually.
Andrea,
you're making a lot of assumptions that simply don't add up. For one, you're assuming that Harold Ford's private life is somehow "ending the existence of Dark Man" or is representative of it. Harold Ford isn't exactly the "Darkest Man" himself, and regardless of who he dates/marries, what business is it of yours?
As far as "preservation of the dark man", I have heard others express this same belief. Except they were saying, "preserve the white race", and they had funny hats on.
I am not a fan of the "f*ck racism out of existence" way of thought either. mainly because it would never work, and that it works along the same lines of the bigots. "Let's just breed away the people we don't like instead of learning how to live in peace with them and have an understanding of them."
I'm still having trouble understanding what it is you are "fighting" for.....
Dewfish,
You're incapable at this point.
You are trying to make this more difficult than it is and that comes from cognitive disconnect. I can only but keep responding to take up time. Sometimes people don't want to understand what someone else is saying that does not marry their thought.
The issue is not about Harold being light or dark. You keep pulling stuff that requires extreme simplification. Just because Harold is light does not mean one or all of his babies will come out diluted. Genetics make some mixed bred children dark shades. But that is here nor there...or rather...I was not even thinking of that to use as an example to show you.
And as I said again, the issue is not about Harold Ford. The issue I was making about the trend in mixing. You assume that is a bigoted sentiment and I telling you that I am talking about the campaign to cease wild, interracial mixing promoted by Black Males when Black Females of a certain demographic are mateless.
Geesh!
How hard is that to understand? Or are you just wishing my perspective was less dominant in resistance to yours?
Oh...and I forget to rebuke this:
"Andrea,
you're making a lot of assumptions that simply don't add up. For one, you're assuming that Harold Ford's private life is somehow "ending the existence of Dark Man" or is representative of it. Harold Ford isn't exactly the "Darkest Man" himself, and regardless of who he dates/marries, what business is it of yours?"
You said all of this and you assume this counter assumption. I never said Harold Ford was representative of the issue to campaign against racial mixing. You said that. You assumed I think that.
Harold Ford is not even that social important as a posterchild of the issue because Harold Ford does not have a connection to the Black Community other than by default membership.
Harold is the issue of the ironic question about whether RNC was accurate and I commented on his behavior in DC that I would have measured on the same rule if he was White. It just happens to be that when he was cutting up and looking unprofessional in the city, it was of cause evidence: White Women. I was telling Black Snob she was right in her ironic question.
None of that is connected to Harold Ford being the Great Annihilator of the Dark Man. You assumed that to paint me to assert an assumption you could pounce on.
The underlying theme of the post is the perplexing irony of why people give a fuck about Harold Ford's personal life. Now if you read it again and read my comments you will see I am agreeing with Black Snob about that. We don't care! We care about a bigger anthropological and social science issue, politically incorrect as it may be.
Not to interrupt anything but for the record I confused Gay Talese with Norman Mailer who DID die last year.
In college I wrote a paper on him called "Mailer on the Couch" where he kept talking to himself in the third person, as he was wont to do.
Thank you again, Kara, for pointing that out!
That's alright Black Snob. I forgot about Norman Mailer and his crazy ass dying. He was a mess!
just so it dosen't look like i'm taking your words out of context:
The issue I was making about the trend in mixing. You assume that is a bigoted sentiment and I telling you that I am talking about the campaign to cease wild, interracial mixing promoted by Black Males when Black Females of a certain demographic are mateless.
you know, there is another group that looks down on "wild, interracial mixing". They used to wear these armbands with funny symbols on them, but nowadays I think they prefer shaved heads. You may need to re-think your views on some things. And why is this whole thing "promoted by Black Males". Are there not Black Females who date/marry white men? H*ll, in TV and movies, black woman/white man is practically a cottage industry. Monster's ball, Something New, the list goes on and on. I would think a movie shown in every theater in the country is more "promoting" than one man's choice of wife. are black women not responsible for this "wild, interracial mixing" as well?
Again...do some research and read. Social trends are a result of social trends.
If I only have to talk to you, I am not answering anymore. You obviously want me to talk to you and this is gamey and starting to to annoy. I really don't know how you consistently draw counter assumptions in 2008 like this and not consider it narcissistic trolling...or unless you are narcissistically baiting.
@The Black Snob, you wrote "Being married to a black woman while gathering black votes is a political reality. Ford Jr. knew that. All black Americans know that." -- I wholeheartedly agree with this line of thinking but find it absolutely FASCINATING because there is no sense of this "i-will-vote-for-you-because-you-have
-a-black-spouse" in England between black people who have lived here for more than a generation. Assimilation ensured that was crushed out.
Aime Cesaire died last week and he was anti-assimilation; the negritude he and Senghor created advocated exactly what so many black people want to avoid these days: unity. I do think that by purposefully choosing a non-black spouse, you are assimilating.
This conversation has intrigued me to learn more about black politicians in the United States besides the world's favourite man: Barack Obama lol.
I do have to say, one thing I have always liked about African-Americans/Black Americans is how proud you lot are of being black. As crazy as it sounds, finding black people like that here is like looking for an English person who doesn't know where the Queen lives.
exactly how am I trolling? I asked a very straightforawrd question, and it was based directly off of the things you said. Maybe you are the one that needs better research. Still waiting for an answer to the questions I asked.....
And aulelia,
sorry to hear that there is so much self-hatred in england.
Harold ford is gay.
Why exactly is it self-hate to marry someone who is not a part of your socially defined ethnic group?
As if your given "race" is encompasses your entire identity.
I think "interracial" marriage can be radical if it challenges the socially excepted notions of race.
The fact is our "race' was given to us by our parents and society and to interrogate it though acts of passion and love(along with set notions of gender, religion etc) can be heroic. I'm sorry but there is nothing courageous about accepting the status quo concerning race.
Andrea, you do realize that "whites" made us "black" just like they made themselves "white".
The black race is socially constructed. You can have near-black skinned people who aren't "black". I assure, many of our "African"(Africa was given to us by white folks too) ancestors didn't even see themselves as "black" let alone as black first.
As far as preserving particular skin colors, well thats non sense. Genetics is very much misunderstood on this board. Blending will not exterminate dark skinned people. Just look at Brazi or North Africa.
The gene expression for skin color is a gradient and a child can be come out any color between either parent. Two "mixed race" people can produce very "black" children and very "white children". Of course, the only way genes can be destroyed is through murder of the childless.
Intermixing does not eliminate genes.
And the idea of dilution is racist as hell.
And stop assuming a black man is with a white women(or vice versa) because he hates black women. Its borderline narcissistic. He's more likely with her because he likes HER, not because he dislikes YOU.
But I guess love between so-called "blacks" and "whites" isn't possible.
I agree with Aquarianbrass. The entire concept of race is a man-made social construct. What I find especially telling about andrea's posts are that "wild, interracial mixing" is only wrong when black men do it.
I don't think people are "outraged" that Harold is marrying a white woman. I think the "outrage" is the fact that when Harold was trying to get into political office be believed in "middle class values", "respectability" and "church" and "morals". The truth is Harold Ford Jr. is just a playboy he's an attractive young man that doesn't get it. In politics the "image" is just as important as the "message". The republicans dug up dirt about the playboy ad and that totally screwed Harold over. I think some African American voters are "upset" because they felt Harold had more "morals". And when I use the word "morals" I'm not talking about dating interracial dating. I am talking about being more in "tune" with black issues. And I think some blacks feel let down by Harold. I think Harold should just forget about a career in politics for now and just enjoy his life. I believe he has a right to date or marry whomever he chooses its his life right?
I was in Jack and Jill with Fords former fiancee, the Black one that is. I felt so sorry for her when Fords mother said that his wife (then a fiancee) was "...just the type of woman he should marry...". Ouch!
Honestly, and I know this'll sound strange, but for some reason I think hes into guys. Not that theres anything wrong with that.
Anonymous,
I read on another blog that Harold was into guys also. Someone posted that he has a jewish gay lover that he keeps in a hotel whenever he comes to town. They are stating that Emily is his beard and I've heard this many, many times from different people. You know what they say about a rumor when you hear it over and over again. There has to be some truth to it.
As far as the happy couple goes, I just think they make a very odd couple. They are both beautiful people but they don't necessarily look good together. She looks like she could be his little sister. From what I've read the two of them are hiding a secret.
You are exactly what Barack is fighting against. Why do you care who Harold marries. People should come together. If Harold dated someone on the down low that's her fault (she should have dumped him, unless she wanted to brag).
One more thing your grammar is horrible. Instead of worrying about Harold "learn to write".
Who is "you"?