Barack Obama: The Waiter
Posted by Michelle Moquin on July 22nd, 2013
Good morning!
From the WSJ way back in 2008, 2 days before Barack Obama was elected President for his first term.
I don’t know if you remember that day, but just thinking about it…thinking about where I was, watching the election with friends…it was such a memorable moment. I was so elated for him and for our country. I was so optimistic (and naive) that great changes would happen easily (Boy, was I naive!) and quickly (Yeah right), and that our country would be forever changed. (Yes!)
The latter has definitely happened. Great changes (Yay!) have occurred because of Obama and his and our hard work. I am so grateful for president Obama.
And...racism and bigotry has reared its ugly head more than I could ever have imagined.
What a country.
Anyway, here’s today’s write:
Before He Was President, Mistaken for a Waiter: a 2003 Obama Meeting
By Susan Davis
Katherine Rosman reports on her encounter with President-elect Barack Obama.
On a warm weekday evening in 2003, a group that can fairly be described as representative of the media elite gathered at one if its favored venues: the garden behind the Manhattan apartment of journalists Tina Brown and Harold Evans.
The occasion was the publication of “The Clinton Wars,” by Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton. Editors from the New Yorker and the New York Times were in attendance along with media figures like Steven Brill and Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner. The guests mingled and sipped wine. Even Clinton showed up, instantly becoming the epicenter of attention.
I had not been invited but attended the event as the “plus one” of political columnistEric Alterman, who wrote about the party in The Guardian on Thursday. At the time, I was a freelance journalist not yet employed by The Wall Street Journal. Eager for an opportunity to find a good story or meet an editor who might give me work, I accepted Alterman’s invitation to join him at an event littered with literati.
Once there, though, I felt awkward and out of place.
Standing by myself I noticed, on the periphery of the party, a man looking as awkward and out-of-place as I felt. I approached him and introduced myself. He was an Illinois state senator who was running for the U.S. Senate. He was African American, one of a few black people in attendance.
We spoke at length about his campaign. He was charismatic in a quiet, solemn way. I told him I wanted to pitch a profile of him to a national magazine. (The magazine later rejected my proposal.)
The following year I watched as he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, and then won his Senate seat that fall. On Tuesday, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States.
But what I will always remember is as I was leaving that party in 2003, I was approached by another guest, an established author. He asked about the man I had been talking to. Sheepishly he told me he didn’t know that Obama was a guest at the party, and had asked him to fetch him a drink. In less than six years, Obama has gone from being mistaken for a waiter among the New York media elite, to the president-elect.
What a country.
*****
Readers: Did I say how nice it was to be back writing here again? If I didn’t, please let me say it now. “I am deeelighted to be here with all of you!” Blog this BABE.
Kevin: So true. I also get tired of people saying there is no racism “because a black man got elected president.”
Vivian: You are so right. And not just in this instance, but there have been so many other horrific things that have been said and done with respect to our president that would never have happened, nor would the public put up with, if he were white.
पद्म: Unbelievable. And probably very common coming from the mouths of racists.
LeTa0: Nicely stated. Makes sense to me. With respect to the video you posted – thank you. What a moving commentary from Don Lemon. I cannot imagine being a mother living in such fear for her son. I cannot imagine having to endure a life like so many black men have to on a daily basis because of the strong racism in this country. I have heard similar stories but they are only one incident in someone’s life. The reality is, is that it happens more often than we know or want to admit that it happens. I think more of these life stories need to be told. People need to understand that this is prevalent in America, and to do something. For some reason this has really hit home for me.
Peace & Love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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July 22nd, 2013 at 11:05 am
What black man hasn’t been put in that situation? It’s a white boy trick to make demean black men. It makes them feel superior.
July 22nd, 2013 at 11:09 am
Proof your shit nigger before you post your fucking complaints.
July 22nd, 2013 at 11:31 am
Hi Mischa! ‘Just noticing: observations of another blogger’ that you’re back to same old same old (which is awesome, don’t take that wrong!) though seriously, no stories from your 3 weeks away to share?!
I find THAT hard to believe, and I’m sure i’m not the only curious mind ; ) how ’bout some detes from the life of a gorgeous, sought after and globe trotting white hot mama?
& I luv Obama, too, and was naive as to how quickly or effectively the best pans can play out, too. Boo to the you-know-who’s that have been standing in the way of progress…
Carrie, this is basically the same plan, I think, I don’t have access to the archives so I cannot recall all of it actually but I’m winging it and doing my best this way…I think it was started in Sept 2010 but that’d be a whole lot of clicking back through each page : ) try to just start in this time which began shortly after Mischa took off so early July…
Today do your walking, stretches, ILY exercise in the mirror and all else to date, and add this: take your 5 lb weights and stand tall, shoulders rolled back and down, feet shoulder width apart, tummy held in and a weight in each hand, repeat your 3 sets of biceps curls fr last week and rest for 30 seconds and then do this: holding the weights in each hand, lift up to shoulder height, then with palms up holding weights, open your arms out to the sides so you feel the squeeze in your scapulas (shoulder blades) hold for a count of 2 and bring to center and down to waist level (elbows stay at sides at all times), do 3 sets of 8 reps, makes for nice back cleavage and strengthens and builds shoulders without any bulk, just nice tone ; )
…make sure you’re standing tall with squeezing that imaginary 1000 bill in your buns while you’re walking. Practice walking while visualizing an imaginary cord that goes through the top of your head, through your mid-section and out of your vaJay and it roots into the earth, deep into the earth, it’s a grounding effect and it will balance all that chakra energy that can go all over the place in the course of a day bc male or female (though women are more in touch with thought-feeling conversion) it feels centering to know that you are tethered to mother nature and earth via an energy cord and this knowledge can and will allow you (if you allow IT) to stay strong and centered no matter what emotions run through your mind/body, and learning to permit thoughts/feelings to come and flow on through without giving them so much time and attention all the time can be key to having mastery over your emotions. And when you do I’ll give you an example of what’s possible to allow for yourself…
I know I have had to let a few people go in my life lately and my one way of discerning when and how and why I needed to do was to allow this space (cord to earth energy) to let me see that it simply wasn’t serving my true self to allow them access to my ‘inner circle’ and as with any ZL posse member that means access to my intimate thoughts, feelings and actions, so when I told this person very openly that she’d violated my ‘woman code’ and I could not allow her access in that way anymore, she looked at me and said but you don’t even seem mad at me for what I did…and I said I’m not, though now that I know what you’re capable of doing/acting like, I no longer want you in my life in the same way, we can play tennis or discuss biz opps/q’s as they arise bc we are on the same page in those regards but I’m letting you go as a friend and I’m doing it with love. Know why? Bc I do the ILY exercise and I can be that gentle even when someone behaves in a manner you all would likely say ‘SHE DID WHAT?’ – lol…yes, and she also mentioned ‘but you’re usually so forgiving…’ uh-huh but do not abuse that knowledge and she did. Oh well, it’s live and learn time I guess…it made me sad until I realized that it was all part of the function of that relationship: growth. Which is always what I wish for all of you.
Luv, Zen Lill
July 22nd, 2013 at 11:59 am
Clean Pacifiers Increase Allergies and Asthma
We have become a very clean-conscious society, especially where our littlest ones are concerned—but a “germaphobic” approach to life could be doing kids more harm than good. In fact, many experts suspect that the too-clean lifestyle is behind the rising rate of allergies.
The hygiene hypothesis holds that, when babies’ exposure to germs is so limited, their immune systems are deprived of the opportunity to learn how to fend off pathogens properly…consequently their immune systems become so sensitive that the babies develop allergies.
That would also explain why people who grow up in large families or who have early contact with animals are less likely to develop allergies.
So what can you do to cut down on the risk of your child developing allergies, short of buying a pet pig or moving in with a crowd of relatives? Well, for one thing, you can suck on your child’s pacifier, according to recent research.
SALIVA SWAP
The new study included 184 healthy full-term babies, many of whom were at risk for allergies by virtue of having a parent with allergies.
When the babies were born, their parents answered questions about the pregnancy, delivery, their family structure and living conditions…and they were given diaries to record events in the babies’ lives, such as illnesses, food introduction, medication use, etc.
Then when the babies were six months old, the parents answered a series of questions, including one about pacifier use.
For the 74% of parents who indicated that their babies used pacifiers, the next question asked which method or methods parents used to clean the pacifiers—boiling (used by 54% of parents), rinsing in tap water (used by 83%) and/or the parent sucking on it before giving it back to the baby (used by 48% of parents).
Babies were examined by a pediatric allergist when they were 18 months old and also whenever symptoms suggesting a possible allergic reaction were noticed.
The allergist looked for signs of eczema and asthma, both of which can indicate an allergic response, and also checked the babies’ blood for markers that suggest specific food sensitivities.
Results:
25% of the babies had eczema…5% had asthma…and 15% had food sensitivities. Pacifier use itself did not affect allergy risk. However, among the pacifier-using babies, the cleaning method made a big difference—because babies whose parents cleaned the pacifier by sucking on it were 63% less likely to develop eczema or food sensitivities and 88% less likely to develop asthma than babies whose parents did not use this cleaning method.
Reassuring:
Though parents often worry about spreading respiratory infections to their infants by kissing them or otherwise “swapping spit,” babies in this study whose parents sucked their pacifiers had no increased risk for respiratory infections.
Explanation:
Researchers suspect that parents’ sucking on their children’s pacifiers introduces microbes to their children…and the early introduction of those microbes stimulates the infants’ immune systems into learning appropriate protective responses to germs.
Saliva contains a complex mix of microbiota, just as the gut does—and in fact, swallowing the microbes that wind up in the mouth may have beneficial effects on the balance of microbes in the small intestine.
Some questions remain.
For instance, would it be helpful for grandparents to suck their grandchildren’s pacifiers? Would the allergy-fighting benefits still accrue if a parent who felt squeamish about sucking a dirty pacifier first rinsed the pacifier in tap water, then sucked it before giving it to the baby?
Might licking your baby’s spoon or planting nice wet kisses on your baby’s mouth also stimulate the immune system? Should parents with communicable diseases (colds, flu, gum disease, etc.) refrain from sucking those pacifiers?
The researchers suspect that the answer to all these questions is yes, though more study is needed to say for sure.
Bottom line: We can be too clean, it seems.
July 22nd, 2013 at 12:11 pm
I agree with Zen Lill. Spill the beans Michelle. Did you fuck Anonz?
July 22nd, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Wow! I sure would like to hear too Michelle. I don’t know too much about “Anonz.” He seems to be the cat’s meow here though.
Is he all that? What’s he like in bed?
Thanks Zen Lill for answering me. I only started reading about a week ago. I didn’t know there were archives. How do I fine them?
July 22nd, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Just wanted to throw this in about the ‘Zimmerman Mindset’
George Zimmerman killed one boy, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Although a Florida jury found Zimmerman not guilty, his attitude — that a young black male is an object suspicion and contempt — not only cost Martin his life but has infected the entire United States criminal justice system.
Law Professor Michellle Alexander makes the point powerfully:
It is the Zimmerman mindset that must be found guilty – far more than the man himself. It is a mindset that views black men and boys as nothing but a threat, good for nothing, up to no good no matter who they are or what they are doing. It is the Zimmerman mindset that has birthed a penal system unprecedented in world history, and relegated millions to a permanent undercaste.
The statistics back up Alexander’s point. Minorities, especially the six million young black men in America, get much worse outcomes from the criminal justice system for the same conduct:
1. A black male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of spending some portion of his life in prison. A white male born the same year has just a 6% chance. [ Sentencing Project]
2. In major American cities, as many as 80% of young African-American men have criminal records. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
3. African-Americans who use drugs are more than four times as likely to be incarcerated than whites who use drugs. African Americans constitute 14% of the population and 14% of monthly drug users. But African-Americans respresent 34% of those arrested for a drug offense and 53% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. [ American Bar Association]
4. In seven states, African Americans constitute 80% or more of all drug offenders sent to prison. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
5. Black students are three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. One in five black boys recieve an out-of-school suspension. Education Secretary Arne Duncan who commissioned the study, said “The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.” [ New York Times]
6. Black youth who are referred to juvenile court are much more likely to be detained, referred to adult court or end up in adult prison than their white counterparts. Blacks represented 28% of juvenile arrests, 30% of referrals to juvenile court, 37% of the detained population, 35% of youth judicially waived to criminal court and 58% of youth admitted to state adult prison. [ National Council on Crime And Deliquency]
7. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.[Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
In 2004, the Amerian Bar Association created a commission which produced recommendation to address “ racial and ethnic bias in the criminal justice system.” Thus far, their recommendations have been largely ignored in much of the country.
Yes, John (and GeorgeWN wherever you are) it is widely known by whites who are not racists that the stats above are due to us white peeps w/rethug mindset (or Zimmerman mindset, wear whichever moniker suits you, they’re same same)…
- ZL
July 22nd, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Carrie, well welcome to MM blog and you’re welcome on the answer. The archives were shut down awhile back and for reasons like greed, etc…(see Mischa’s disclaimer at end of blog posts) they remain closed, too bad greed had to get the better of the loyal readers (bwahaha)…I wish I could access them just to grab the finer points I may be missing now bc I am busy a bit more now and am totally winging it!
- ZL
July 22nd, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Michelle, I live in Costa Del Azahar. It is beautiful here. You would absolutely love it here. I live in the province of Castellon. It has some of the most beautiful beaches in my country.
I would love it if you came and stayed with us here for however long you wish. We own a bunch of orange groves. They enable us to do quite well financially. I’m 23 and I have been a fan of yours for 5 years.
My sister, Sonja, works in the Consulate of Italy in Castellon De La Plana. She is one of your biggest fans. She wants to be a Girlz so bad, she prays to her patron Saint(who she keeps a secret) every day.
She literally worships you. So if you came she would feel like she died and went to Heaven. When she heard that you were in Europe she used her connections to discover that your entered Italy on a travel visa.
We were so excited that we went there( I will keep your secret) y oh, Dios, mi, we saw you. You were as beautiful as you are in your pictures on the blog.
You had your hat off and you reached to put it on. Sonja screamed “obtener la imagen, mientras que todavía podemos ver todo el rostro.
I snapped it without thinking. It came out great. We followed you and an two other men for a bit. It was fantastic! Oh, and I must confess that I took a few of you as you walked off into the sunset.
I couldn’t resist having a picture of you in those shorts those zippers sparkling in the Sun and your tight perfect ass making them dance in the Sunlight.
As nice as Italy is, my part of Spain is way better. Think about it. I bet Anonz was delighted if he got to see you in those shorts. No man could resist the urge to caress your gorgeous cheeks.
Le encanta Michelle
Zarita y Sonja
July 22nd, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Zen Lill that was beautiful.
July 22nd, 2013 at 4:14 pm
Zen Lill you are one cool white girl.
July 22nd, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Thanks Craig and Albert.
I wanted to post this even though the title sounds misleading here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/el-jones/women-cat-fights_b_3635922.html?
It’s really about men assuming women are catty, jealous or petty when we just disagree same as you people with penises do (made me laugh to write that : )
- ZL
July 22nd, 2013 at 10:46 pm
Zen Lill #3. I wish I could have your coolness in the face of that kind of disrespect. I would have slapped the bitch and told her to stay out of my life period.
July 22nd, 2013 at 10:49 pm
Avoid the hospital in July if you can.
Here’s why, from one of our expert sources Dr. David Sherer
July is upon us so you might want to avoid the hospital if at all possible.
Why? On or around July 1, newly graduated interns, residents, nurses and other new health care workers first report to work at many of the nation’s hospitals, eager to start practicing medicine — on you.
No surprise then, that quality of care in hospitals plummets, and medical errors increase, during the following month.
In July, many hospitals are staffed by new, inexperienced doctors and nurses.
In the most recent study on the so-called “July Effect” — published earlier this year in the Journal of Neurosurgery:
Spine — Mayo Clinic researchers analyzed outcomes of 1 million spinal surgery patients admitted to 1,700 hospitals across the country during July over an eight-year period.
Roughly half got surgery at a teaching hospital with newly minted medical students, while the others were treated at nonteaching facilities.
Their conclusion: Patients at teaching hospitals fared only slightly worse — a “negligible effect,” wrote the researchers — on criteria such as in-hospital death rates and negative reactions to implanted devices.
July 22nd, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Jamie, I know…and she knows it, too, there are occasions in life when it’s best to keep your friends close and your enemies (she’s not, I’m not that adversarial I just dig the gist of it though) even closer…I allow her certain access to watch her so it’s a diplo strategy. I rarely throw down absolutes unless I must, I make every attempt to stay master of my domain no matter what anyone does (and I did tell her exactly what you said, ‘another woman would just slap you silly and kick you to the curb’, she looked stunned and shocked, I just giggled and said ‘you get out much, do you?? (blame it on a lack of life clues ; )
- ZL
July 22nd, 2013 at 11:51 pm
sorry, that’s supposed to say ‘you DONT get out much, do you’?
July 23rd, 2013 at 7:32 am
I fear for this little girls life bc this video has gone viral, she’s adorable and standing up for herself and get ready to tear up….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7_TKgw1To 11 yr old Yemeni girl flees home to avoid being married off
Luv, Zen Lill