Bring It On! Election 2008

Today’s speech on race by Senator Barack Obama was noteworthy. The media is abuzz with glowing proclamations. Some have said that the Obama speech was the most important speech on race in the forty years since the death of Martin Luther King.

While pondering the many positive observations, what struck me most was the fact that forty years have passed…but not the racial divide…regardless of the words Dr. King spoke then and despite the words Senator Obama uttered today. That left me wondering what was to be gained by stating the obvious to those who have never been intended to appreciate it or to those who aren’t interested in changing it.

Let me attempt an explanation by first asking a question. What is the concept of race? Is it really anything more than a human construct that allows us to identify and isolate others in a classic “we versus they” dynamic? The answer to my question is no. In so noting, the issue of race is a human invention used to either elevate one group or to denigrate another group. It is the means by which many of us can avoid our unique human ability…and the responsibility it brings…to employ informed observations and reasoned judgments.

Our capacity to discern color or country of origin has often been the justification for the wholesale condemnations that frequently precede the waging of wars. It serves as the mechanism by which we dehumanize our enemies and excuse our transgressions. Race has become the means by which we have circumvented our obligation to judge others by what lies within. Instead, it allows us to slay others for that which sits upon the surface.

Today, many of the pundits have argued that we avoid discussions of race because it is a difficult topic. I reject much of that argument. I contend we don’t address racism because its elimination requires us to grant our fellow humans a degree of fairness we aren’t willing to afford. In this world of limited resources, the concept of equality is apt to be perceived as the brake being applied to the unencumbered pursuit of more than one’s share of the spoils.

When pundits speak of forty years of seeming silence, they are simply exposing the swamp wherein still lurks a willingness to inflict more of the same on those who can be easily identified as different. What the passage of time has brought is the goal to do so through subtler methods and without speaking words that could subsequently serve as the evidence that we may still reject equal opportunity and equitable justice. All too often, it is far easier to assert that one’s child didn’t get into the school of his or her choice as a result of affirmative action than it is to admit our lengthy history of denying equal opportunities to the underprivileged. Perhaps we also seek to avoid an admission that the goal remains the same?

What most Americans don’t realize is that the powers that be have little interest in establishing an equitable order. This includes measures like the Bush tax cuts; but there is a better example that also allows me to focus on race. Simply look at the refusal of our government to enforce our existing immigration laws for the last two decades and you will begin to understand how the efforts to amass wealth have been transformed in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. The current clamor to close our border isn’t a sudden admission of exploitation; it is a recognition that the unchecked increase in the number of Mexicans has the potential to skew the political power such that those who have more may not be able to maintain their unchallenged hold on the power that assures more.

Look, the greed of those who govern hasn’t suddenly subsided. They have simply recognized that in their rush to expand their enrichment, they may have forgotten to police the portal. Hence we now have the calls for a temporary guest worker program…the modern means by which the underclass can be employed without enslavement…and prevented from circumventing the all-important political status quo.

At the same time, the powers that be prefer that this easily identifiable underclass be pitted against those Americans who are known as the “have-nots”. The approach isn’t unfamiliar. When the slaves were freed, they were quickly portrayed and perceived as an economic threat to southerners struggling to make ends meet. The same strategy has been embraced with Mexican immigrants.

Both efforts have been relatively successful because the battle for fewer dollars was intensified by an increase in those competing to obtain them. Thus the animosities of austere Americans have been artfully aimed at those who are different (black or brown)…and not at those who look the same but hoard the lion’s share of the wealth.

In the end, race is the rail upon which the wizards of wealth have sought to separate one segment of society from another. When they succeed, they incite the insolence they intend.

Barack Obama deserves recognition for revisiting our racial rancor. However, unless and until each individual looks beyond the veil of vitriol that has been designed to divide us, we will forever overlook the power of the present to unite us. We’re engaged in the kind of race that can only be won when everyone refuses to participate. Our humanity needn’t be a hologram on the horizon. Healing must be achieved in the here and now.

Cross-posted at Thought Theater

Race. Like it or not, race is still an issue in America. Generations after the civil rights marches, and more than a century since the Civil War, race is still an issue in America. And no matter how far we push the conflicts of race to the corners of our minds and to the fringes of our society, race is still an issue in America. You may not think this is true. In every coffee shop and in every mall and in every schoolhouse you will find whites and blacks and Asians and Hispanics. People of all color hold positions of prominence and authority just as they all occupy the lower rungs of our society. It is true that in many areas of our lives, the matter of ones racial identity has become almost moot. But this is only the surface, the part that we expose in public or polite company. Yet the racial inequality that lies at the heart of the American experience can’t be swept away so easily, for it lies buried in the generational experiences of our elders, it perpetuates itself in familial memories, and it is always an underlying scapegoat for each races misfortunes. Humanity is always cruelest to its own members.

White Americans descend from persecuted pilgrims or poor immigrants. Their roots began in flight from religious oppression or corrupted Old World governments. But in their determination to improve their own lot and secure their own freedoms, they exerted the same negative aspects on other races they encountered. Native Americans were slaughtered and impoverished. Blacks were held in slavery and beaten down. Even white women were burdened under the yolk of white male supremecy. As years passed on, the idea of America, and it’s quest for perfect individual freedom and respect has helped liberate these groups and others from racially motivated discrimination. But the memories remain, and the policies of the past still touch and color the lives of the historically oppressed.

Race issues are still among us. They made us who we are today. They have historically divided us and made many America’s where there should be but one.

That race has become an issue in this presidential election is no surprise given the history of America and the fact that the leading Democratic candidate is a half black-half white American. That it is being used to denigrate that candidate by his opponent, a white woman, is a little more than unfortunate. In trying to paint Barack Obama as a covert racist (or as someone who would deingrate the potential of White America in favor of righting the historical wrongs done to Black America), Hillary Clinton proves the dictum laid earlier: Humanity is always cruelest to its own members. The quest for the presidency takes all sorts. Hillary Clinton has proven to me at least that her quest for the presidency is not to make America a markedly better and different place, but rather is an effort to make her own personal history complete, at least as she sees it to be. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has shown me time and again that his quest is not for personal destiny or pride but for a better America for us all-white, black, yellow, green, or purple.

Today in Philadelphia, Obama gave a speech to address the race issue. Comments made by his former church pastor have been foisted into the media spotlight by Clinton campaign supporters, comments that exude the angst and historical anger blacks have towards the policies of white America. The media bandwagon had whipped this pastor’s comments into a front page issue, and for those who only follow politics tangentially, the idea could be drawn that Obama not only agrees with the divisive comments of his former minister, but that if elected he would somehow work to reverse all the historical wrongs in one fell swoop.

In his speech today, titles “A More Perfect Union,” Barack Obama not only dispelled those fears and false claims, but he showed himself to be an honorable man and a “more perfect presidential candidate” than anyone else in the field. With eloquence and humility, Obama explained why he can vigorously disagree with his former pastor’s comments without throwing the man under the proverbial bus.

Some excerpts may help for those who didn’t get to hear the speech:

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America…

Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

We all of us hear coments from people we respect or trust or love that rub us the wrong way. But we do not disown these people or banish them from our own lives. Why should Obama do any different? Instead, his is a position of realism-he knows there are racial divides that lie under the surface and sometimes rear their ugly heads at inopportune or embarrassing times. People are imperfect, even as they strive not to be.

Yet I am confounded. Why is it okay for the GOP to be ensconced with religiously motivated hatred towards homosexuality and this not be cause for general alarm or cries of discrimination? Why can a GOP candidate receive the blessing of a Bob Jones University and not be held in disdain? The easy answer is because America still is not equal for everyone. The harder answer is that America still subtly condons discrimination against other Americans, that humanity is still trapped by her historical racial and religious divides. Barack Obama won’t be able to change these facts overnight if elected, but he certainly recognizes them, understands their roots, and realizes that the path ahead comes not from pretending these problems are solved, but in admitting that these problems of the past have brought us ALL to where we are today. While our differences may have divided us in the past to brought us to our problems today, only by working together can we solve the immense problems that affect us all right now.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This speech today, perhaps more than any other he has given, shows that Barack Obama is the right leader for America today. It was the kind of speech that filled my heart with hope and my mind with pride. “This is my candidate speaking,” I thought as I drove through traffic listening on the radio. “This is why I support Obama.”

There is much more in the body of the speech that you need to read if you didn’t get a chance to hear it live. Indeed, it is a speech that every voting American should take the time to read. You should read it because of what it says about America’s racial history. You should read it because of what it says about Barack Obama and his own views on race in America. You should read it because of what it says about who we are, where we are going if we don’t change course, and where we can be if we do.

The economy, health care, the environment, and the future of our children and our neighbors children demand that we change how we live, work, and play in this coming century. Different solutions to todays problems must be found. Our way of life may well have to change dramatically if we are to push forward towards more freedom and equality for all. We cannot do this with politicians who exploit of divisions to gain self importance or power. We can only move forward if we move forward together. Who better to guide us along this path right now than Barack Obama?

(cross posted at Common Sense)

The bold-faced audacity of Obama to think for one minute that he is where he is because of his intellect, his education and his hard work..its(slaps forehead) because he is a black man! Why the fuck didn’t I think of that!..Geraldine did howevav..I hate that I have to even consider taking sides in this fight. Who is more put-upon..a Woman or an African-American? I have said from the get-go that between the two Democratic candidates, I do not have a horse in this race. Neither of these candidates are progressive my dear reader.
I feel that there is very little difference between the programs offered up by HRC and Obama. What differs is the person behind the campaign and the message.

What changed for me is Geraldine Ferraro’s comments the last two days. WTF is she trying to say? Is she saying women are less discriminated against than African-Americans or the opposite because at this point..its hard to say. Is she saying that because Obama is both an African-American and a male, he has no idea what it’s like to be discriminated against just as a woman? Because if the truth be told..

Both women and people of color are discriminated against here in these United States of America. It’s a fucking fact jack. Both are held to a different standard and both are treated as second-class citizens. But back to Geraldine and her sick point of view..

For Ms. Ferraro, a former female candidate for the office of Vice President, to say Obama was getting a ‘gimme’ based solely on his color and sex.. I am fucking pissed beyond recognition my dear reader. As a brown bitch I know both types of bigotry and discrimination..that as a woman and a minority. Lets, just to be clear, revisit what Ms. Ferraro said:

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

There it is..one can not pretend what was said..there it is in black and fucking white..ironically so my dear reader.

What pisses me off beyond words is that Ms. Ferraro makes color and sex an issue all by herself.. Her words are divisive in an important contest where we do not need to do that to ourselves..the Republican’s will do it to us all by themselves when both parties choose their candidates and the final race for President starts in earnest. The Republicans will fling the dirt and make race or sex an issue..you can take that to the fucking bank my dear reader.

In essence..Ms. Ferraro did the heavy lifting for the Republicans. And Hillary isn’t discrediting her words. Hillary isn’t disavowing her bullshit and bravado. And I am so fucking pissed.I could spit nails.

Ms. Ferraro didn’t make this about qualifications..she made it about something that shouldn’t matter in this day and age..she made it about the color of someone’s skin or their gender..or as she so eloquently put it..both.

What pisses me off is that women and minorities are fighting against each other in her world. In my world we all stand together to fight this narrow-minded bullshit. As a woman of color, the color brown, I know what the hell it’s like to fight both of these friggin battles..make no mistake about that my dear reader.

Geraldine Ferraro does not. Lets not make any mistake about that. She is a privileged white woman. Instead of making this a campaign about issues and how each candidate will deal with them..for whatever reason and perhaps on purpose, she changed the subject and made it about something that really doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the job of running our nation.

So when Geraldine Ferraro says that people are discriminating against her and her fuckwitted statement because she is a women..I call bullshit on that crap here and now. She is using the tried and true battle cry of the Republicans..reverse discrimination. Kiss my brown female ass Geraldine. Twice even. This campaign does not need any more divisiveness..no bitch, it does not, especially from the inside of the Democratic party.

If her candidate is so weak that she needs to make the case for gender bias coupled with racial bias..then bitch..we got a problem. But she is not contributing to the ‘conversation’ by pointing her tired-ass finger at Obama for being a Black Male as the reason that her candidate is sucking pond scum at this point and using all types of dirty tricks to turn the tide.

I am sicker by the minute of the methods Hillary and her minions, which of course include Geraldine Ferraro, are using to attempt to turn the tide in her favor. Ms. Ferraro is so full of shit at this point, her eyes better be brown. She is making statements that will only harm the Democratic candidate in the fall…because when it’s all said and done Geraldine..

Your a racist and a misogynistic bag of shit in my humble brown bitch opinion. The only thing you care about at this point..is to make sure HRC wins..at all costs.

And Lady Ferraro..the cost is too high if we allow you to spew your garbage and get away with it. So I for one, am calling bullshit on your bullshit here and now.

Update..here is Ms. Geraldine on Fox Noise..some one tell this woman to stfu please!

Crossposted with brown female pride at Sirens Chronicles and UnCapitalist Journal
Tags: Geraldine Ferraro, Racism, Misogyny

“I think you’ll be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say.“He’s never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002.” - Hillary Clinton before the Texas and Ohio primaries.

And with that comment, Hillary Clinton proclaimed to the nation that if she can’t have the presidential nomination then the whole Democratic party might as well just vote Republican, because if the choice ends up being between McCain and Obama, well then Hillary thinks that four more years of Bush-like policies are A-OK for America.

Sounds like Hillary has Joe Lieberman for an advisor. If the Democrats don’t give you what is obviously rightfully yours to take, then the hell with them! Better to side with the law-breaking, torture loving, warmongering, Bush GOP than actually listen to the people of this country when they tell you that they prefer someone else for the top job.

Of course, when Hillary makes statements like the one above, it only highlights why so many Democrats-and so many Americans of all political flavors-have thrown their support behind Barack Obama. We don’t want a president who thinks that decades of experience in a crooked political system is a plus. We don’t want another president who refuses to acknowledge the reality of a situation, who thinks that she should just get her way because, by golly, it’s her turn and she’s due. We don’t want another imperialistic attitude sitting in the Oval Office, pretending that things will only be better with her in charge, that no one else (save the opposition party nominee) can quite handle the task. We don’t want another presidential election that boils down to a choice between bad and worse. And this time, we actually have a chance to change those dynamics by giving the nomination to Obama.

But for Hillary the equation is a different one altogether. For Hillary, the question isn’t who can better help to end corruption in government or who can give America back her reputation in the world or even who will inspire Americans to get back to building a better country and world. Nope, for Hillary the only question is “How can I win this thing?” And in answering that question, she shows that for her, winning is the only thing that matters.

Debate after debate has proven to voters that on many domestic issues, both Clinton and Obama share similar goals, varying mostly in the details of policy than in the necessity of movement. But under the surface is where the differences lie, and voters have figured out that where Obama seeks to empower us all, Hillary simply seeks power for its own sake-and for her own sense of personal destiny.

Since falling behind Obama in the delegate count, Hillary has pulled out all the stops to paint Obama as unprepared for the task of being president, hoping that by highlighting his so-called “inexperience” that voters will flock under her banner. It simply hasn’t worked. Even her primary victories in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island were slim victories and weren’t enough to even narrow the gap in the delegate count. But what Hillary seems to ignore at this stage of the game is the fact that many, many Republicans are less than satisfied with McCain as their nominee. These GOPers are now watching the Democratic race and asking themselves a serious question-could they vote for a Democrat? For many, if the candidate is Hillary the answer in a resounding “NO.” But if it is Obama, there are many who will jump ship and vote for a Democrat. At least they would if the vote was held today. But if Hillary-who they will never vote for in the general election-continues to portray Obama as a weak choice for Democrats, she is also hurting him for the general election and giving McCain a better shot of winning the prize. For someone who claims to despise the Bush Administration, stumping (even discreetly) for the GOP nominee who puts forth ambitions not so unlike those of Bush seems an odd way of telling voters that they should pick you. Especially Democratic voters who would rather sit in a pit of vipers than give the White House to another Bush-like contender.

Michael Gerson said it well in this Washington Post article:

“Though it is increasingly unlikely, Clinton may still have a path to the nomination — and what a path it is. She merely has to puncture the balloon of Democratic idealism; sully the character of a good man; feed racial tensions within her party; then eke out a win with the support of unelected superdelegates, thwarting the hopes of millions of new voters who would see an inspiring young man defeated by backroom arm-twisting and arcane party rules.”

Indeed. And what a presidential path to victory that is.

But as she keeps on campaigning against Obama, she keeps highlighting her own presidential unworthiness by trying to paint Obama as some untested, incapable hack who showed up at the last minute and fooled us all into taking away what was and should be hers and hers alone.

Like when she tried to throw light on a land purchase Obama made. Obama acknowledged that the deal was a bad idea and has taken responsibility for his actions. He’s not denying the mistake, not battling to have records hidden. And yet for Hillary Clinton, years were spent examining a little land deal called Whitewater, years which she fought and fought to keep the whole thing under wraps.

And this whole “experience” thing is a real laugh too, especially if you look back to the 1992 campaign of her husband. Bill Clinton was so overmatched by the senior George Bush when it came to government service and experience that the Clinton’s had to portray his candidacy around a different theme- something they called “change.” Funny how what seemed such a good idea in 1992 (and was a good idea by the way) is now some kind of harbinger of failure if Obama wins the nomination. And let’s be real here- Hillary isn’t all that much more “experienced” at being president that anyone else who has never been president.

And then there is Hillary’s tendency towards secrecy. In a move that likely inspired Dick Cheney’s own energy meetings, Hillary has yet to fully release the documents related to her own health care meetings in the early 1990’s. She has yet to release her income tax returns even though Obama has done so and even though when running for Senate in 2000 she screamed about how her opponent didn’t release his returns. A small bit of hypocrisy that reveals a lot about the candidate herself.

And now her latest flop is with regards to the Florida and Michigan primaries-she “won” both events, despite a pledge not to campaign and now wants those delegates added to her tally. Of course, she and all the other candidates knew well in advance that those states’ delegates were not going to count because of some disagreement with the DNC and the stat Democratic parties. Obama (and the others still in the race at the time) followed the rules and stayed out of the states, in Michigan no name but Hillary even appeared on the ballot. But now that she is losing what is rightfully hers, she wants to change the game and get those delegates in. Tell me again how Hillary would be a different, better president that Bush? After all, lying and cheating and ignoring the rules doesn’t seem to have made this country a better place in the last eight years.

And for goodness sakes, I’m not even mentioning her many corporate ties that make her incapable of legislating purely for her constituents, or her support for the war in Iraq, or her willingness to ignore the massive abuses of law perpetrated by Team Bush.

All grace and honorable when she was the presumed “inevitable” nominee, Hillary Clinton coming in second isn’t such a noble character. I suspect though that this is a more true representation of who Hillary Clinton really is, and of who she would be as president of this country.

And these are just some more reasons why I support Barack Obama.

(cross posted at Common Sense)