By Padmini Arhant
India blessed on the October 2, 1869, with the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, later became ‘The Champion of Peace and the Non-Violence Icon’ for his country and the entire world. The righteous world leader was a saint rather than a politician. Gandhiji, a reference made in reverence, practiced what he preached to the world - a rare trait and indeed a misnomer in the contemporary politics.
Gandhiji’s presence was timely and poignant in the world that was subject to slavery, holocaust, colonizations and fascism all around. With hopelessness and despair at its peak, the frail yet feisty individual emerged to challenge the odds and beat it on his terms and they were –
War is not in the solution to peace and Violence is not the pathway to justice.
Remaining content @http://www.padminiarhant.com
Thank you.
Padmini Arhant
Hi, all,
I would like to ask your help in a journalistic research project, which I hope will result in an article or book. I expect to have to ask this question of thousands of people in order to find the few who fit the profile I’m seeking.
I’m trying to find people who overcame a personal bias against black people in order to vote for Barack Obama for president. I’m looking for individual stories of how people moved away from bias they grew up with, to the point where the US could elect a black president. This change could have occurred gradually, or quickly for this election.
I'm looking for people willing to talk seriously about their own bias, to canvassers who ran into biased people and talked them past it, to people who voted for Obama and didn't dare tell a racist boss or relative, to anyone else who has a direct story about this change in attitude in America.
So please, if you can help, 1. write back to me with your own stories or just your contact information, but even if you don't fit, 2. pass this request to your list of friends. Ask them to pass it on to their friends.
I'm a journalist with decades in newspapers. I'm a former foreign correspondent who covered the collapse of the Soviet Union, and did not misquote Soviet leader Gorbachev. I promise to record your statements accurately.
Please, help me document this monumental change in our country.
Ann Imse E-mail to: research31@gmail.com
In this post I wish to address the affairs of the middle east. Ths is direct, truthful. It is open to suggestions, insight, and carefull planning. I think we as Americans have ignored the hope for a brighter and peaceful middle east. Placing all our bets on a single Allie of Israel has lead this nation and many other nations to hate the USA. That's right. Even this nation hates itself. I remember a time when I use to travel to so many countries, and when people knew you were american, they always wanted to greet you and wish they could live where you live. We were the envy of the world. In the past couple of decades a shift, and a rift has formed over this. Now as americans we travel to these places and we are looked at as the scum of the earth. Mind my words so direct please. But now we have a hope. A new leader. Fresh. And anew. Now the world has us again in thier eyes as the center of attention. Questions arise. So people talk in these over seas cafes and house holds. I've seen it personaly as I mingle with both the elite and country folk of these foreign nations. So now the nation here won't hate itself and others so much. And maybe it will end permanently some day.
So now it is our time, and our chance to make the world a better place. A chance for peace amongst enemies. A chance for growth and prosperity. For rich to help a poor man. And for a peace keeper to set a pace for hope to the world. For me it is in President Obama.
I can honestly for the first time see this once in a life time chance. I am well over forty years old, and seen all the prejudices in this country and abroad. I never voted before in my life. But I registered for the first time 3 months ago. And said, this was the man. And I voted for President Obama. May god bless him and his family and children, and all of his extended family, with the grace that god could ever give. And I pray may god give guidance to president Obama, and that he too will see what I have seen. May faith not be a issue, but a seed to promote friendships with all nations.
It is a beautiful moment for African Americans tonight. It's a moment to cherish in US history.
Resolving Your Obama Race Dilemma -- How You Got it and Where to Put It
by
David Scheinman
Are you reluctant to vote for Obama because he is black? Hesitant to pull that lever or punch the keyboard even though his ideas and character are compelling? Do you think, if only Hillary had won I wouldn’t have this dilemma? To make matters even worse, are you hesitant to share your latent – and somewhat embarrassing -- uncomfortable feelings with others? Did you grow up in the 1940’s, 50’s or 60’s? If so, your feelings are perfectly understandable, especially if you grew up in a home where equality wasn’t taught. Have you always thought you were an open minded person, yet here you are, surprisingly reluctant to vote for Obama?
Where Were the Black Professionals When You Were Growing Up?
Did you have relatives who told you blacks were dumb, lazy, and good for nothing? That’s what an uncle told my good friend Dennis in Tennessee in the 1950’s. When Dennis came home and told his mom he met the niggers, his school teacher mom was furious. She set Dennis straight and banned the uncle from her home. Dennis clearly remembers being taken around a poor black community and receiving the racist indoctrination from his uncle. “Dennis, these are niggers, and this is how they live. “ If his mom hadn’t sternly told him his uncle was full of crap, Dennis could be experiencing a similar dilemma. Dennis wound up marrying a black woman. They have three adorable teenage girls and are still married.
My mom drummed equality into my soft head. In the 1950’s my mom told me about a black singer named Marian Anderson who was not allowed to perform in Washington’s Constitution Hall in 1939 by its owners, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) , because she was black. It was one of the earliest incidents that brought racial discrimination to our attention. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited Anderson to perform in front of the Lincoln Memorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnzb0Jj074 ?
She was introduced by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYZoeMKkxkg&feature=related
Where We Were and Where We Are Today -- From Slavery to Obama
Due to many factors, the black people you encountered growing up were probably maids, factory hands, garbage men, and laborers. They lived in segregated run down communities on the wrong side of the tracks. They spoke funny slang, hung around together, ate weird foods like collard greens, weren’t seen at the restaurants your folks ate in – except as busboys and waiters – BUT they were easily identified by their color.
So how did all this happen, and why in 2008 is our society suddenly chock-a -block with black professionals? Go to any school now and you will see black teachers, administrators, and principals – not just janitors. Go shopping and you will meet black supervisors. Buy a car, insurance, or clothes and you will often see black personnel. Turn on your TV and there is a black anchor or expert being interviewed in his area of expertise, which is not race relations.
And most intriguingly, why did many African students studying here in the 1980’s and 90’s return to Africa and tell me they had more white friends than black ones on campus? Why were black Africans readily accepted into white social circles when black Americans were either excluded or segregated themselves into all black dorms?
To get to the bottom of this, and to get you off the hook, let’s return to how black people wound up living on the wrong side of the tracks and how in 2008, many more of them are your neighbors or workmates. What in world changed? Why do kids of all colors in my son’s high school eat lunch together in 2008?
Blacks were the only group that came here involuntarily, in chains. They were captured by rival black tribesmen and sold to Arabs who subsequently sold them to slave dealers. Coming from different tribes, most of the slaves couldn’t even communicate with each other in a common language. Thousands of slaves from all over Africa converged in the American south and didn’t even share a common language or history. They were ripped away from their familiar world and, unlike prisoners of war, couldn’t even talk to each other initially. They weren’t allowed to learn how to read, write, or even swim.
They eventually had kids, but these kids could never be taught the legends or stories that make up a culture. They lacked the fundamental accouterments of culture that include shared beliefs, art, language, institutions, manners, dress, religion, rituals, and so forth. All they knew was the plantation and their narrow world. So when freed from slavery in 1865, they had no skills, capital, land, or even literacy. Their real culture was agriculture – plus what they created as slaves. They had the slang they created and, of course, each other. Since whites gave them few responsibilities, they developed few skills and consequently had the reputation of being lazy, shiftless, and dumb. They learned to believe they were inferior -- and often reinforced that stereotype by acting commensurately.
Imagine for a moment how that gets into your head. Most of what we become as adults is tattooed onto our soft brains as toddlers. My mom used examples to teach me that all people were equal. Having the term inferior branded onto your character often relegates a person to life’s junk heap. Ambition and dreams are snuffed out. People who define themselves as being not good or smart enough just shuffle along life’s paths. They don’t feel they can succeed, so often don’t even try.
If you think the effects of slavery and segregation have vanished, you are wrong. I recently chatted with a racially mixed mom – her dad was white mom black – at a football game both our kids were playing in. We started chatting about where we were from. She was from Louisiana so I asked about segregation in the 1950’s.
“My dad made me lay down on the rear floor of our car when we stopped to eat. I wasn’t allowed to go inside so he’d buy my favorite food and bring it to our car.” So imagine growing up and not being allowed to have a fun vacation meal with our parents on the way your Florida vacation. From the day she was born, society told her she wasn’t good enough to enter public facilities in her home state. And do these feelings trickle down to her 16 year old son in 2008? Probably.
After slavery ended, blacks had freedom FROM, not freedom TOO. Since they had no access to the adequately funded schools we white kids attended by the accidents of our births, they never learned the essential survival and social skills we white kids acquired naturally. Their segregated educations were inferior; they were banned from attending the flagship state universities in the south until 1962 when James Meredith was escorted to class at the University of Mississippi by federal marshals.
During the hundred years from emancipation in 1863 to 1962, black people just shuffled around generally carrying out jobs immigrants perform today. Consequently they banded together for community and self preservation. They lived in segregated communities, founded black churches and over 100 black universities and colleges, developed their own way of speaking English, and lived in an inferior parallel society.
Results of School Integration and the Civil and Voting Rights Acts Are Huge
The civil rights movement sprung out of the black churches in the 50’s and 60’s. This led, after much bloodshed, to the civil and voting rights bills being passed in the mid 1960’s. Prior to the voting rights act of 1965, many blacks were excluded from voting due to poll taxes, literacy tests, and residency requirements that were applied only to black voters, particularly in the south. That was barely two generations ago! When the Civil and Voting Rights bills were passed in 1964 and 65 and the Supreme Court ruled segregation was unconstitutional in 1954, the doors of limited privilege began to creak open.
As these doors opened in the 1950’s and 60’s, blacks began slowly entering mainstream society. In the 1970’s and 80’s we began seeing black reporters on TV and some blacks were featured in TV commercials. More and more black faces were seen on college campuses. Yes, many felt insecure and kept to themselves. Many had congenital inferiority complexes caused by lying on the floors of cars and being banned from selected business and public places, like bath rooms and schools. They also knew from their parents that keeping a low profile was a survival skill. Who wanted to wind up lynched like Emmet Till?
Now, just 46 years after James Meredith integrated Ole Miss, 20% of the student population there is composed of students from minority groups. Most surprisingly and positively, the university sponsored the prestigious first presidential debate this season. And who could have imagined in 1962 that this would occur and that one of the major candidates would be black? Black professionals are in every profession and serve all customers, not just blacks.
Beneath Our Radar, Dynamic Shifts are Taking Place in Schools Today
Folks my age just shake our heads in bewildered awe. It happened again yesterday at another football game on a glorious afternoon. I chatted with a well dressed white woman – native Houstonian -- from an oil services company.
As helmets loudly cracked on the field, we discussed Obama and, more importantly, how much racial mixing there was at both our high schools. She was astonished that her son once dated a black girl without the slightest sense of scandal or tittle-tattle. According to her son, kids of all colors shared lunch table in the cafeteria, and there was no racial tension. She was also astounded that these changes were occurring out of the blue and beneath her radar.
My son’s school is 30 percent each black, brown, white, and 10 percent Asian. They hang around together, enjoy the same lousy music, and don’t cluster in segregated groups. Looking at the legs of the football players from the stands provides a vision of the new America – every shade of human color is represented. It is the same watching 3000 kids as they stream out of school in the afternoon, chattering away in diverse groups. And when I ask my son about racism – he is mixed – he sighs and says “Dad that is such an old school question.” I don’t even ask any more.
Black accents are fading as more and more blacks enter mainstream society and worry more about their job prospects, portfolios, and retirements than racism. Parents of racially mixed kids (me) are dumbfounded and thrilled that the racism I anticipated when my little girl was born in 1986 never materialized. Problems arose more from selected black peers who felt there should be black solidarity. Like my African friends experienced, the racism came from the blacks, not the whites.
This occurred amongst some old-school Blacks when Obama initially declared his candidacy. Some blacks felt because he didn’t grow up in the ghetto he wasn’t a legitimate black person. They slowly came around, but initially there was much skepticism and resentment. Finally many realized that their sacrifices paved the way for an Obama to emerge.
Relax, Your Racial Dilemma is Normal
When you saw a fellow white person, you had no idea who he was, where he came from, or what he stood for, especially if he dressed appropriately. There were many poor whites, but their skin bestowed immunity on them. They blended in and did not have the stigma of coming to America as involuntary slaves. No one owned their great grandparents.
Since your impression of blacks was forged prior to blacks entering mainstream society, those old programs are still running in the background of your brain. And that is as normal as all the other values you picked up as a kid like rooting for your favorite sports team, liking a certain food, or knowing hard work is a virtue. You grew up seeing black people as chronic underachievers. Of course many were. They had no access to the institutions you accessed due to the lucky accident of your birth.
It Is Class, Not Color
These negative ideas do not automatically make you a racist. Now I’ll demonstrate that you really aren’t racist after all. When I quizzed African students who studied here, some mentioned that American blacks often gave them an ultimatum. Don’t hang out with whites. Choose us or them! If you hang out with whites you will not be welcome in our black society. A black girlfriend I had in 1979 when in grad school received the same treatment from her black peers. “Why are you dating a white boy? Aren’t we good enough?
It eventually dawned on me that racism was a socioeconomic phenomenon. And people were “racist” only because blacks stood out like sore thumbs due to their color. But why were Africans welcomed into white society, why did they readily accept the friendship of their white peers, and why didn’t they care about the threats they received from black Americans? One Somali friend of mine even hung out at a redneck country bar in Michigan where he was the only black person. He went because he liked the music and it was the easiest place to pick up girls. “And the redneck guys?” I asked. “I was polite, sized up the situation, wasn’t pushy, and gradually got to know everyone and became a regular. No one cared that I went home with white girls. They even asked around if I missed a few days.”
Soon I realized that the Africans were middle to upper class kids who had much more in common with middle to upper class white kids on campus than they did with black students who grew up in poor segregated communities . It was culture that mattered, not color. The Africans never defined people by color. They discriminated instead by tribe. Where they came from, everyone was black. Consequently they had little in common with black American students, aside from their shared skin color. The American blacks were yet another alien tribe to them – and a subservient one at that! Color counted for nothing, just like white skin is not the number one catalyst for white bonding.
The Africans were never denied anything in their home countries due to race. So they naturally hung out with their social class peers, white middle class kids. Few reported any racial problems in the 15-20 years I posed the question. They knew some of their most brutal repressive dictators, like Idi Amin from Uganda and Mengistu from Ethiopia, were black.
Now You Can Vote For Barack
And your perceived racism? A myth. You just want to hang out with your peers and don’t want to spend time with people you have little in common with. Since African students and white kids shared a common class background, they were well matched -- far better than black Americans whose criteria for friendship were based on shared discrimination and color. Black Americans and black Africans shared little in common at all, just pigment. Hence the reluctance of the African students to be friends with them just because they shared a common color.
Back to Barack. You are attracted to him. You like his message of hope. You admire how he took withering fire over Reverend Wright and survived. He is battle tested. You also recognize that McCain clumsily stumbles from issue to issue and has a weak grasp of economics. He said the fundamentals of our economy were strong, and then abruptly reversed himself just fours later. You like Obama’s choice for vice-president and think McCain used poor judgment and acted impulsively and irresponsibly when he chose Sarah Palin. You thought when McCain suspended his campaign it was a gimmick. You worry about your retirement, yet McCain offers no solutions. And you know you would vote for Obama in a heartbeat if only he were white.
tanga4@yahoo.com
Available for Distribution:
www.tashi48.wordpress.com
Please copy and distribute to all wavering voters.
As the crow files, my father and I are separated geographically by over three thousand miles. I live on the west coast, he on what he often calls the "right". The wonders of technology have enabled us to remain in nearly daily touch with one another - I, a steadfast writer of email, he a voracious email forwarder.
A staunch Democrat his entire life, when I was only six years old he proudly presented me with a very important book, long before I was old enough to appreciate it. John F. Kennedy's Profiles In Courage. Not long after he stood stock still in front of our small, square black and white television, hand over his heart, as John F. Kennedy's cortege made its slow, meandering, mournful way to Arlington cemetery.
It was the only time in my entire fifty three years that I ever witnessed my father weep.
Since the inception of the 2008 presidential race my father has made his political leanings very clear. They are new to me and, much as I wish I could say they're profoundly puzzling, they are not. His political liaisons are new to him, too.
He will vote for John McCain.
Day after day his missives arrive in my in-box. Pro-McCain, pro-Republican, pro the war in Iraq, and, very strange, suddenly pro George W. Bush. Most bizarre and deplorable of all is none of these emails are authored by him. They're all opinions, hopes and heresay hogwash written by other members of the new lunatic fringe, those ultra conservative far right neocons, all apparently penned under the influence of Christian fundamentalism.
In the beginning, when these forwarded emails started coming, I'd email my father back and politely try to express my dismay at his sudden change of personal politics. I'd remind him that these past eight years of Bush have plunged our nation into an economic quagmire that will take many years for us to survive, even longer to correct. I'd send him links to well written and easily verified articles that prove Senator McCain's lackluster military career, his thirst for power and blood. More than once I aped my father's favorite bible passage right back at him - Exodus 20:13, Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Throughout all of it I've been unable to engage my aging father in one single personal discussion concerning his radical change of political party and his dismaying and disappointing change of heart. At least it has served me in obtaining a small education in our political process and instilled in me a greater thirst for staying informed. I am convinced this is the most important election of my entire generation, possibly of the past entire century. While I have remained loyal to the values of Democracy and the virtures of voting my conscience, the true legacies bestowed upon me by my father, I've been virtual witness as he's turned his back on his own beliefs and convictions.
Finally, after growing weary of what has felt like an ongoing assault, I simply began routing most email from my father with "Fwd:" in the subject line stright to the trash folder. I informed him of my practice and was so certain he'd agree with me that it's fine to agree to disagree. His forwarded claptrap kept and keeps coming. A recent exception to my recent "dad spam" rule, one which sickened me, was an email full of photos of Sarah Palin in her various inceptions as soccer mom, bloody hunter of wildlife, model of chic designer clothing and beauty queen. The caption beneath the photos was nothing short of crass yet glaringly long on utter stupidity - "I don't care what her politics are, this sexy babe's got my vote!".
How I wish I'd stuck to my guns.
I can only shake my head but I have no need to wonder. Sadly, I know what has brought about my father's startling, near ephiphanic changes. I wish I had need to ask him but he'd never confess.
I am a permanent absentee voter and last week, with pride and certitude, I cast my ballot for the 2008 presidential election. After carefully aligning the stamp on the outer envelope and happily attaching it to the mailbox I emailed my father to inform him that his befuddling quest to convert me to political beliefs he once disdained was over. Of course, I couldn't help rubbing it in a bit but feel I did so respectfully in telling him I did NOT vote for John McCain. I did, however, express hope that perhaps now we might return to some semblance of what had once been a very enjoyable father-daughter relationship, albeit by email. I closed it with my hopes for America's peace and prosperity, regardless of this important election's outcome and, like always, with all my love.
Before I could close my email program my father's response arrived. In fact, it came so fast that I can't help but think he's been ready and waiting for me to announce my vote. Yet another forwarded email, this one authored by a man from Maine. It's a mock version of what this man feels George Bush's farewell speech to the Oval Office might be. It's also an old piece of folderol which I've read before so no doubt it has been forwarded around the globe countless times. Since chances are great many of you have alredy read it I won't paste it up here. Suffice it to say that nearly every single line of this impudent contrivance contains words like "fools", "idiots", "nitwits". It's raft in accusations that we Americans are lazy, uninformed, that the pro-Dem media has sold us a bill of goods. All of it is slimy invective from a small and sophomoric mind.
All in all, to me it's an insult of a response to what I'd hoped would be a new beginning, at least some return to normalcy, in my relationship with my father. I am insulted. Had my father the courage of convictions he once possessed, had he the grit to write directly to me and call me a nitwit, fool, idiot, loser, I could stomach it. That he chose someone else's ill-written and erroneously conceived ideas to respond to my choice and my vote for Barack Obama makes me see red and makes me feel disillusioned, even disinherited. I don't know how to respond and no longer feel the need. Like my own, my father's mind is made up. He's a new Republican. I am not.
The mysterious question in it all is "why"? Why is my once dignified, fair minded, peace loving Democratic father who personally knows America's desperate need for positive change now suddenly a rabid supporter of a Republican war hawk who has conducted a disreputable election campaign based on falsehoods, innuendo and a winking Alaskan seductress? What could have possibly dissuaded my father from the values of honesty and integrity which he always tried to instill in his children and always maintained in his own life and incorporated into his own vision for our nation? What could have caused his departure?
Sadly, his departure is a return.
It's a return to something I believe he tried to overcome, or at least quell. It's the return to something so many others are unable to resist. A return to the product of the past, that good ol' boy Southern upbringing and the ghosts of bigotry which may often abate but never die. If Barack Obama arrived with the same credentials as Jesus Christ but only with a lighter shade of skin it would still be the same - being half African-American means he's all unacceptable.
I am ashamed for my father. And I am fearful for Senator Obama who is correct in stating that the fight is far from over. There will be no landslide victory. Nothing's in the bag no matter how good the polls may look right now. The South is trying to rise again, not only in the South but in many places throughout our great nation. No doubt the feeling of divisiveness I'm feeling this morning is one many others are experiencing. For daring to cross the race line, a line of demarcation which should never have existed or at least be long buried in any progressive society, in some way I've finally felt the stinging slap of my father's once kind hand.
I don't know how to cajole him to return to his once fair minded beliefs.
I will not depart from my own.
Godspeed, Barack Obama. America needs and awaits you.
McCain and the politics of hatred, fear, and prejudice: http://therealmccain.com/mob/ (2 min) And this next one...it's about a large group of hate mongers being catered to right now....Wow. (The 60 seconds is an introduction (a little slow, IMO), but it picks up quickly)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGn9F1Jw24U&NR=1 It reminded me of this video from 50 years ago - it's the exact same group of people, just a generation removed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgH7WgtIU2k (15 seconds). You can sign a petition to be sent to John McCain after watching the video. And, if you've got $5 you can fight against this political campaign: http://my.barackobama.com/page/contribute
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
-- Obama
http://my.barackobama.com/page/contribute
When I joined this website, I wrote that one reason I support Barack Obama is that his victory would be a victory over racism and prejudice. I realize now that I could be misinterpreted as meaning that Obama's opponents are generally racist. That's not what I meant at all. I have known a lot of conservatives and Republicans in my life, and most of them were not racist. Indeed, the unprejudiced majority of Republicans eagerly seek out and embrace African-American conservatives, to show to others and themselves that their policies are not motivated by any dislike of other races.
Nevertheless, while only a minority of Republicans are racists, the Republican party's program is much more attractive to racists than the Democratic. You don't have to hate black people to be against affirmative action, or in favor of states' rights, but both positions are easily capable of being abused by racists, and often have been. Racists are only one faction, and a small one, in the Republican coalition, but they still must be beaten for Obama to win.
OK, here's the deal . . . I'm not racist by any means. My grandmother, though, she was prejudiced against others who were of a different color. She was brought up in the south-- where a lot of these racist views were promulgated from one generation to the next. A lot of Southerners still want to blame the Civil War on the black race.Although I loved my grandmother dearly, I could never understand her racist views. Sorry grandma, but racism is ignorance. And those who practice and preach racism are ignorant slaves to some predetermined notion that stands unqualified and unwarranted.Let me tell you . . .. When I was about thirteen years of age, I'd met Sammy Davis Jr. This was at the Hyatt O'Hare. After he exited from the elevator he stopped to sign his autograph for me. I was thrilled. Also, he handed me the wine glass he was clutching. A souvenir, man was I excited. Later that night, I told my grandma the good news. "You'd never guess who I met today.""Who?""Sammy Davis Jr. I got his autograph and he gave me his wine glass."Ricky," she said, "Don't you ever drink out of that glass.""Why not.""Because a Negro drank from it."I, to say the least, was dumbfounded. I could not believe my own grandmother had just made that impossible remark. It was ignorance in the most egregious form. If I didn't love my grandmother, I would have disowned her right then and there.Racism, I will never understand it. I am a man who has the capability to understand and appreciate a lot of things, but not that. Neither my mind nor heart has the capability to appreciate this type of ignorance. I'm not wired for that type of hypocrisy.One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was "Guess who's coming to Dinner." Another, "In the Heat of the Night." Yes, and one of my favorite actors is Sidney Portier.You can call me Tibbs, Mister Tibbs. . . . .Oh, and "To Sir With Love." You want to know how many times I cried as a kid watching that movie? At least six times. Yeah, I'm a sentimentalist . . . . .And no, I won't stoop down and bash, denigrate, ostracize, ridicule just to get fucking ratings. I don't care if you don't read my work. I'm not a Howard Stern wannabe, no siree. And surely not another Jerry Falwell.I wish my grandmother were still alive. I think she may share my views on Barack Obama. I think if we were given the chance to sit down uninterrupted and she would listen to some of my own philosophies and viewpoints she just might consider judging a person not by color but by character... the very message that Dr. Martin Luther King espoused in seeking the rights and freedoms for all people."Our world is full of many tragedies but the biggest tragedy is the one that is bred from ignorance."
Ricky J. Fico
Triumphs of Humanity
Adapted from last night's Outpost Mavarin entry:
Yesterday I found my way to an odd little discontinuous stretch of 1st St. behind Speedway here in Tucson. I had been a little surprised that there even was an Obama HQ in Tucson, since it's John McCain's constituency and the new statewide Obama office in Phoenix was just announced in email last week, with no mention of a Tucson one. When I actually arrived at the place, though, all was revealed. It was the Pima County Democratic Headquarters. There were so many campaign signs on the wall outside for so many different races that I looked them over three times before I found the Obama one. Okay, so I'm not the most observant person in the world.
Photo: The table I worked at, in a room with many campaign signs. Inside, though, it quickly became clear that much of the activity was centered on getting Obama elected. I found myself speaking to several people and being gradually conducted counterclockwise around an entire rectangle of rooms with tables, a cubicles and a couple actual offices. I filled in a form, and they hoped to put me to work updating lists of volunteers. One problem: they didn't have a computer available for me to use.No problem. I drove home and brought back mine.I ended up working until just after 5 PM, sharing a folding table with several other volunteers doing similar work. One of them joked that we were a table of Old White Women (which in my mind, I immediately abbreviated as OWW). I refrained from mentioning that I'm not even close to 60 years old. I'm not sure I got as much work done as I should have, because of a very minor learning curve, a few technical issues, and (mostly) because we were enjoying each other's company a little too much. I'll do better tomorrow.The guy in charge (Estaban) was smart and funny and appreciative. He said that the retro shirt I was wearing reminded him of Good 'N' Plenty. From now on, that's my Good 'N' Plenty shirt. He said something about some people not wanting to do volunteer work once they learn it's "not glamorous. It's appreciated, but not glamorous." Once people find out it's not about getting to meet George Clooney, he said, they don't want to do it.I said that it might not be glamorous, but there's a certain romantic idealism to it. I mentioned my childhood friend Joel, who was working for Eugene McCarthy's election back when we were in sixth grade. I didn't give details, but here in the blog I'll tell you that I never thought I could get involved in social or political causes the way Joel did and and still does. But I admired him for doing in, and still do. Estaban said that McCarthy came to Tucson in the 1980s(?) for a poetry festival.
Photo: I see Rose Mofford, and Janet Napolitano, and...!In the front of the HQ are books and framed photos. The photos are of past and present Democratic presidents and governors and so on. Three of them are of JFK: a portrait, an enlarged photo of him with two men I don't recognize, and a 1960 campaign poster. I don't want to call the area with the campaign poster a shrine, but in a secular way it almost is, at least for me. As a lifelong democrat who actually remembers the day JFK was shot, I was impressed to be working in a room decked out with vintage Kennedy stuff, and nearly 50 years of party history.
Photo: JFK campaign poster. Drat. I messed up with the flash.It's probably facile to compare JFK with Barack Obama, but I'm going to do it anyway. In 1960, Kennedy had to deal with mistrust on the part of some people because he was *gasp* a Roman Catholic. Obama is carrying a similar burden several times over, as a black man with a mixed parentage that I think was still illegal in some places in 1960. If that's not enough, xenophobic idiots get all aflutter about his Muslim-sounding middle name, and accuse him of being secretly part of the one religion it's socially acceptable to hate, at least in some quarters. Throw in an anti-intellectual charge of elitism and other spurious claims, and you have an effective bit of what my husband John calls "hate porn."
Photo: JFK and supporters. I bet these guys were inspired by their candidate too.
But if Obama has an exaggerated version of Kennedy's challenge as a member of a mistrusted minority, he also has some of Kennedy's strengths. He's smart and articulate and funny, with great rhetorical skills. He has relative youth, charisma, and a rare combination of optimism, idealism and pragmatism. Like Kennedy, Obama inspires others to do for their country, to believe they can do more than they ever thought they could accomplish. From what I saw yesterday, I'm just one of millions of people who are inspired and enthusiastic and accomplishing things after decades of depression and disappointment and cynicism.Will it all translate to a win in November, or fall before the constant onslaught of lies and hate porn, and all come to nothing? Can we overcome both open and hidden bigotry, ignorance and greed, honest disagreement, voter fraud, deliberate falsehood and reckless disregard for the truth? If he's elected, can we expect policies to be made and laws enacted that start to make things better than they are now?Okay, so it's not a certainty. Far from it.But yes we can.Karen
Update: My second scheduled day of volunteering fizzled today due to a personal crisis involving my unemployment claim, but I'll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile, I was in long enough to see more volunteer enthusiasm, and amazement at McCain's odd attempt to postpone the debate. Will anyone but his core supporters take this week's actions by the McCain campaign as Presidential or reasonable? Time will tell!
Yahoo came out with a poll that says a lot of whites won't vote for Obama just because he is black. Well, DUH! Did anyone REALLY think that there was no more racism in our Country?
However, the only thing that Yahoo's Poll did, in effect, is prove that the entire poll was rascist! Anyone who is NOT rascist wouldn't even be ABLE to answer those questions.
Example from the Poll: How does each of these words describe most blacks?Hardworkingviolentdependablelazycomplaininggood neighbors(you get the idea)
If you are NOT prejudice you can speak about specific people that you know; but using generalities like Yahoo Polls did (generalities to describe a whole race of people) is, in itself, racist!
I am sure that I have some racism in me. I have never met anyone who didn't. However, this POLL is a crock!
It is based on a wrong assumption. The assumption that ANYONE can fit an ENTIRE race of people into certain little boxes.
Not ALL blacks are law-breakers. Not ALL blacks are law-abiding. Not ALL blacks are friendly. Not ALL blacks are unfriendly. etc., etc.
I WOULD have to say though, that ALL blacks are just like ALL whites, in that they have good days and bad ones. Sad days and happy ones. Angry days and helpful ones. Families that they love and that love them. Hard times and Good times.
People (of any race) cannot be pegged into little boxes; like Yahoo tried to do.
Yahoo Polls, before you try to take the splinter from my eye; take the beam from your own.
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race;_ylt=AsoPbkEg2x_3a7JWZUFDN9l2KY54
http://heyjude.name
WASHINGTON (AP) - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks _ many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 _ about two and one-half percentage points.
Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents _ voters Obama can't win the White House without _ agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.
Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.
"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home _ among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president _ white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The AP-Yahoo poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.
"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.
The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."
Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.
Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."
Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder."
The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes _ including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers.
Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain.
Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries _ particularly whites with high school education or less _ were motivated in part by racial attitudes.
The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this story.
Cross-posted at The SuperSpade
As for how I as a Black Christian (not speaking for that entire demographic) feel, I have no "concern" about Obama's religion. In fact, I bet most people don't have any concern about Obama's religion. Frankly, I don't care what his religion is, and the people who say that he's a Muslim in a derogatory way are actually not only insulting Muslims by implying that being Muslim is bad, but they are also note acting in a Christ-like manner by bearing false witness against another person. So there are two questions to pose to Christians or anyone else who has a problem with a candidate's religion:
As to your question on qualified Black candidates that could run for President and VP, the issue is not qualification. There are qualified people of every type: race, sex, gender, ideology, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc. The issue is actually one of prejudice and access.
