So Now He's Half African American?

So the perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader decided that he wanted to call out Barack Obama for "talking white." 

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate," Nader said. "He's half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that?" Nader asked. "Is it because he wants to talk white?" Nader said Obama wanted to sow that he was not "another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt," Nader said. "You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as 'black is beautiful, black is powerful.' Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they

 love it. Whites just eat it up." 

Ralph Nader is wrong on so many levels that it's actually even funny that he even said this. Here are the following problems with his comments: 

1. Nader says that the only thing different about Barack Obama is his race. There's plenty that's different about Barack Obama, the things that he's saying and the way he reaches people is something that hasn't been heard since the sixties. 

2. Obama is not "half African-American." Let's do the math- his mother is an American citizen from Kansas and his father is a native of Kenya. So one half of his ancestry is African (completely from Kenya) and the other half of him is American (from Kansas) which I'm thinking would mean that he's completely African-American. This is just another example of why Americans need serious history lessons. 

3. Nader said that Obama hasn't been focusing on issues that he'd expect a typical black candidate to talk about (payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, etc.) but doesn't point out the fact that neither he nor McCain has addressed those issues. Which leads me to wonder: Is Nader's complaint that Obama isn't acting like a "usual black candidate?" If indeed it is, then this would further prove my first point. 

4. If Nader paid attention, he'd realize that black issues aren't always that different from everyone else's issues. I mean, we're people too and not all of us live in the ghetto. By addressing the economy, healthcare, and education I think Obama has pretty much covered all of the most pertinent issues in the black community. 

It's funny because if Nader would open his mind just a little and pay attention to what's going on maybe he'd realize that there's a lesson in all of this: black people aren't all the same. A thought for Ralph Nader: could it be possible that Obama is actually being sincere?  

Of course, being that I'm only a lowly writer, Barack Obama was able to article and dead the situation a lot more concisely and quickly than I was. Barack's response: 

"First of all, what's clear is Ralph Nader hasn't been paying attention to my speeches," Obama said. "Ralph Nader is trying to get attention... It's a shame, because if you look at his legacy in terms of consumer protection, it's an extraordinary one. But at this point, he's somebody who's trying to get attention." 

Translation: "I'm rubber, you're glue!"