I’ll open by admitting some embarrassment over a thought that entered my mind – about Herman Cain’s wife Gloria. [Herman Cain: One of the eight GOP Lilliputians vying to oust Barack Obama.]
I remember having read, years ago, about a noteworthy phenomenon: Successful black men (especially of Herman Cain’s generation) tend to marry black women who are lighter-in-color than they. The photo accompanying that essay, indeed, showed a social gathering of high-end black couples and, sure enough, the husbands were darker than the wives.
So I googled to see if this was true of the Cain family. And, yes, she is lighter and quite a bit shorter than Herman (more on that in a moment).
Feeling a bit guilty for wondering about such a thing, I asked myself why it mattered enough to enter my mind in the first place. My answer? I tend to search for answers in unlikely places, especially in the case of public figures. They tend to be very guarded about their secret selves. Since Herman Cain wants to be our next president, we need to know as much about his secret self as possible. Believe me, if elected, his enemies (foreign and domestic) will leave no stone unturned to learn those very secrets.
Time Out: There are three very good reasons why Cain should not become our next president: He’s politically inexperienced, and he’s politically inexperienced, and he’s POLITICALLY INEXPERIENCED. The only reason I stray from those reasons, at least in this essay, is simply because too many people will fail to fully appreciate that inexperience. But they might consider other factors.
Does this make Herman Cain a racist?
Certainly not. And it’s entirely possible that Gloria’s lighter skin tone didn’t even enter his mind when he first met her. At least not consciously. But there are other factors which might mean he is a racist. Or what might be called a self-hating black man, the kind of black who looks down on his brothers the way a racist white man would. The kind of man who would claim, “Racism doesn’t hold back anybody in a big way.” [Yeah, Cain said that.]
If for no other reason, I’m glad Gloria’s lightness of tone occurred to me because it made me look more than skin deep at other facets of the Cain phenomenon.
Perhaps Herman Cain is nothing more than a man with a lot of unspoken-yet-character-defining resentments. He claims in his book – This is Herman Cain – that his father realized his own American dream by finally buying his own house. However, Cain also knew that his father didn’t realize that dream by himself. That his employer, the CEO of Coca-Cola, had generously gifted him with cash and shares of Coke stock. Otherwise, it’s entirely possible his father (who was that CEO’s chauffeur) wouldn’t have realized that dream at all.
I’m sure, somewhere in the back of his mind, Herman Cain had logged that in. Which makes interesting the fact that Cain would be the last to approve of the federal government in a similar “supporting role” for other poor blacks.
Herman Cain admits he didn’t participate in any of the Civil Rights protests when he was a young man. Perhaps he had even once felt a bit guilty that his own personal success was due in part to those brave (decidedly un-GOP) activists. However, maybe he rationalized, a long time ago, that he would have succeeded any way, especially by identifying with the interests of Whitey and, as a result, virtually becoming Whitey.
Herman Cain, ever since his young adulthood, must surely have noticed:
· If a black man says he’s a conservative, he’ll be more acceptable to White society (or at least its powerbrokers) simply because he (in effect) declares himself to be a “responsible black” – and not one of those troublemakers.
· If a black man joins the Republican Party, he won’t have as much competition from other blacks trying to find a niche for themselves. Even though that party might only wish to showcase token blacks for propaganda purposes – also something Cain must have been aware of. That, however, could easily be suppressed in his mind or called something else.
· If a black man becomes a lifelong member of a predominantly black church, that removes one possible source of controversy: A black man trying to fit into a predominantly white church – especially in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
· The realm of business is more likely to lead to success since, in that world, the color of your skin isn’t as important as your ability to make a profit for your employer.
· If you sing your oppressor’s praises and spout his party line, he’ll at least pretend to accept you.
· The oppressor isn’t monolithic; he is divided into major camps. So it must have been immensely satisfying (if not downright cathartic) to have been in a position to put down the most powerful white man in the land (President Clinton, during his attempt to pass health care reform), while other white men (from the other party) were cheering him on. Cain must surely have felt, at least for a moment they don’t see me as black. And since they don’t, why should I?
Back to bigger than Gloria
In my third paragraph, I said Gloria Cain was “quite a bit shorter than Herman.” What of that? Herman has said, on at least two occasions, that he believed certain things were true without any supporting evidence. I will now similarly indulge. Some men choose women who are smaller and much weaker than they out of a need to have total control over their home situations. That might explain why Gloria, for most of their 43 years of marriage, was exclusively a homemaker.
It might also explain why Herman does all of the talking when it comes to what his wife thinks and what role (a very minimal role, by the way) she’s to play in his campaign. It seems Herman is so worried about what his wife might have said during a scheduled TV interview, that that interview was cancelled. Though reports call that “her decision,” I have no doubt as to who did the deciding. I’m also sure this interview wouldn’t have even been considered in the first place had it not been for Herman looking for ways to damage-control the sexual harassment allegations swirling about him.
A need to come across as powerful
Herman Cain’s most dangerous characteristic is a need to come across as powerful, which is dangerous in a US President. That’s a lesson he had learned at a young age from his father, who (“jokingly”) had threatened a rich, white man with a gun. The father needed to feel powerful, and he passed on that need to young Herman. More on that here:
Cain doesn’t like to be challenged – as shown by his flashes of temper at being questioned about the sexual harassment issue. He shows a need to lash out and punish – as shown by Cain (through his chief of staff) saying “the campaign is considering suing Politico, the news organization that broke the story about sexual harassment claims…” – [source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/cain-campaign-considering-politico-lawsuit-20111104 ]
I highlighted the campaign in the quote above to suggest that Herman Cain doesn’t want to say, “[Only] I am considering suing Politico.” Because of a need to feel bigger than he is, he assumes the guise of something bigger (yet something he controls) – his campaign.
People who don’t like to be challenged don’t like to subject themselves to any kind of inquisition concerning their personal behavior. That would explain why Cain doesn’t want to field questions or hold a press conference concerning Politico’s allegations.
For the record? I think Herman Cain had been tempted to – and had tried to – seek “companionship” outside his marriage. However, he could lie like hell and deny everything with a straight face at a gathering of reporters dedicated to this one topic. He could even apologize for having agreed to an out-of-court settlement with these women. He could say, “I should not have listened to the lawyers who encouraged this as the easy way out.” [Everybody will nod at that line, knowing how evil lawyers are. That’s right, Herman, deflect the blame but it’s best to do so at a target considered universally loathsome.]
People who seek to appear powerful also tend to be put-downish. A good example of that is Herman Cain (in a pooh-poohing voice) saying (in effect): If anyone wants to know how the Federal Reserve System works, there’s no need for an external audit – simply pick up the phone and call your local Fed. Say, what? Did he think he was speaking to stupid children?
A final irony
I hereby dedicate the Coca-Cola Company as a fitting backdrop to our cultural decline in the context of the Cain candidacy.
Background: “Businessman Robert W. Woodruff (1889-1985) was the head of the Coca-Cola Company from 1923 until 1984, during which time sales increased from $31 million a year to $7.36 billion.” Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-w-woodruff#ixzz1cysnksMS
That’s worth repeating: “[Coke’s] sales increased from $31 million a year to $7.36 billion.” And that’s because, in a nutshell, Coke executives had managed to ingratiate their product into the fabric of our national life.
And that’s the source of some great comparisons between Herman Cain and that famous soft drink:
· Both seek/sought to ingratiate themselves as a product.
· Both are basically worthless in terms of contributing any value to our lives or well-being.
· While Coke is brown and fizzy, Herman Cain is (well) brown and effervescent. If you shake either too much, they’ll explode all over the place.
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Steven Searle for US President in 2012
Founder of the Independent Contractors’ Party
“Yeah, you can probably tell I don’t think too much of Herman Cain.”
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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