An Unwilling Suspension of Disbelief.

Sign me up: Obama protesters in St. Petersburg FL

“WHAT ABOUT THE BLACK COMMUNITY, OBAMA?” So asked members of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, or InPDUM, above, via a large white banner, identical to that in the photo, this past Friday, August 1, during an Obama campaign town hall meeting at the Gibbs High School gym in St Petersburg FL.

The group, according to CNN, consisted of “three young African-American protestors, and two white women.” (“White women,” not protesters? Why not “good white women of our fair city”? What is this: The Scottsboro Boys?)

As this MSNBC video documents, Obama called for the audience to respectfully listen as one protester, Diop Olugbulu, 31, posed the question, then Obama answered. As Daily Kos noted, citing conservative blogger Amanda Carpenter’s good, but compressed , TownHall.com report:

Diop Olugbulu asked Obama: “In the face of the numerous attacks that are made against the African community or the black community by the same US government that you aspire to lead – and we are talking about attacks like the sub prime mortgage that you spoke of – it wasn’t just a general ambiguous kind of [phenomenon], but a [phenomenon] that targeted the African community and Latino community, attacks like the killing of Sean Bell [right] by the New York police department and [Javon Dawson,] right here in St. Petersburg by the St. Petersburg police, and Jena 6 and Hurricane Katrina, and the list goes on. In the face of all these attacks that are clearly being made on the African community, why is it that you have not had the ability to not one time speak to the interests and even speak on the behalf of the oppressed and exploited African community or Black community in this country?”

Then, here’s the fascinating part to me:

Many members of the audience booed Olugbulu, but Obama asked them to “respect him” and said “he has a legitimate question.”

What? “They “booed” him? What were they booing?

I mean, beyond the fact that a question merely represents a void, with what did they disagree? That the speaker felt Obama hadn’t addressed these issues adequately? That Olugbulu was raising them?

Who are these Obama supporters?

Obama reminded Olugbulu he has made many statements about the issues raised by the activist. “I passed the first racial profiling legislation in Illinois,” Obama said.

He ended by telling Olugbulu “That doesn’t mean I’m always going to say what you want me to say, which gives you the option of voting for somebody else or run for office yourself.”

Oh, nice touch. I wish he had said that a year ago.

The Washington Post‘s political blog, The Trail, said that

The altercation comes as the issue of race resurfaces in the campaign for the White House. McCain’s campaign yesterday accused Obama of having “played the race card” when he warned supporters that people would bring up Obama’s “funny name” and the fact that “he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills” in order to scare voters. McCain aides have challenged the Obama campaign for specific examples, and are still waiting. …

At the dawn of Obama’s political ascent, he faced questions from some African Americans over whether he was “black enough.” But after he won the Iowa caucuses, such doubts gave way to overwhelming pride in a black community that mobilized — with some help from Obama organizers — in unprecedented numbers to help deliver him the nomination. Obama is counting on that enthusiasm to help deliver him the presidency, as well, but this morning’s altercation served as a reminder that the relationship is not without its complications. Just weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson accused Obama of “talking down” to black people.

As expected, InPDUM had a different take on Obama and his record, which they gladly shared on their web site, UhuruNews.com:

It is well known that he did make a statement after the acquittals of the police who pumped 50 bullets into Sean Bell’s car on his wedding day stating that the unjust verdict needed to be respected.

On the U.S. government’s leaving African people for days to die after Hurricane Katrina he stated on September 6, 2005, “I do not subscribe to the notion that the painfully slow response of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was racially-based. The ineptitude was colorblind.”

Obama was right that he had not spoken to these issues as would be desired. While he may have conceded that the subprime loans were predatory, he has failed to condemn Penny Pritzker, his national finance advisor, for having made a fortune through the subprime mortgage scheme at the expense of Africans and Latinos.

In fact, Obama’s painting the U.S. as some place on the verge of a “post-racial” society with “race problems” being “90 percent” solved, his opposition to reparations for African people and his liquidating the colonial relationship that African people in the U.S. are held in are disarming. His role as a pied piper — leading African people who are disenchanted with the inability of the U.S. electoral process to provide any solution for them right back to the Democratic Party — is problematic for African people.

In a series of YouTubes on their own channel, the group’s head, Omali Yeshitela, above, talks some more about the expected Democratic nominee. The title of the lecture: “Barack Obama: White Power in Black Face.”