Elite? Who? Me? Ha!

Jack and Jill Politics has a great post (by way of Aunt Jemima's Revenge) about the charge of elitism leveled against Sen. Obama and his wife.  I very much like the point that the majority of White America, and much of Black America, has no idea that there is this demi monde of true black elitists in society.  This is interesting; if you have the time, check out the links in the quote:

Unless the Obamas are leaving this information out of their personal biographies, the Obamas are not members of The Links, Jack and Jill of America, or The Divine Nine. The Obamas don't have a summer home on Martha's Vineyard....(Valerie Jarrett does) or Sag Harbor, where many of the real black elite are currently sipping mint juleps right now. I also don't believe that either Obama had a cotillion that "introduced" them to society.

[...]

Lawrence Otis Graham who wrote, Member of the Club and Our Kind of People, can tell you who and what makes one a member of the black elite. These are black folks that even the average black person maybe unaware of and most certainly the average white person is clueless about. Black generations of wealth, power, and prosperity, like the Kennedys, the Bushes, and the Vanderbilts. (You don't actually believe that CNN's Anderson Cooper has to work, with his mama being Gloria Vanderbilt?) The Johnsons of The Johnson Company and Ebony magazine are part of the Black Elite, three generations removed from their founding grandfather's humble beginnings.

Even as I read about the Black American upper crust and their self-reverence, my racial paranoia will remind me of the old old old joke:

What do you call a black man who is a doctor/lawyer/executive/politician/ThirdGen$$ with a thriving and successful practice/business/campaign/closed society who went to Harvard/Yale/Princeton?

I won't supply the punch line, but it's certainly not "elitist."

And I further don't think for a minute that conservative talking heads and politicians sit around lamenting how this "elitist" is snatching voters from their heretofore victorious jaws.  I think they save that term for the cameras and the public, some of whom are hungry for a reason to not vote for Sen. Obama.

To quote the Eagles:  I could be wrong, but I'm not.