It's been a while since I've read this, but it's gnawed at me for several reasons. First, he makes some interesting points that I don't necessarily disagree with. But I do think it's facile, simplistic and misleading to filter every difference with Obama through the lens of racism. I'm not satisfied with Obama having given a speech where he stated he'd be called different with a funny sounding name who is black, etc. And every criticism of him has been twisted by somebody as being racist. One example, his having received the second largest amount of contribitions from Fannie Mae, whose former director was indicted. I had known about that tie between Franklin Raines and Obama for weeks before I knew Raines was black. And I only knew that from a photo in his Wikipedia article, not because of anything I saw in the media. And then I later saw that lumped in with accusations of racism for mentioning Reverend Wright, and even Bill Ayers, who's a white guy. Well, if all you have is a hammer, then every problem's a nail.
I don't think that it's the only way to look at things, but I do think that it's important to remember because I have the priviledge of not always thinking about race, or choosing when to think about race, whereas for people of color that can always be something that is brought up, subtly or not, and used against them. I liked the article because it called out some assumptions that are often made and rarely questioned by people (myself included) in the white majority.
Another thing I think is worth considering is that, although Obama is black, he's not the descendant of slaves. It's interesting in the context of people who favored Colin Powell for president, another black not descended from American slaves, but from Caribbean Africans who won abolition of slavery after a series of rebellions. Too often people of color are kinda lumped into one category, when even among themselves they perceive distinctions, as I saw in Oklahoma when lighter blacks tormented darker blacks on the playground. I think it would be a much bigger deal if a descendant of American slaves were elected president this time around. I mean, Obama is hardly underprivileged.
True, true. I am not trying to lump people together. No one person can ever represent everyone, I just think it would be nice to have a different color in the White House to begin with.
It's been a while since I've read this, but it's gnawed at me for several reasons. First, he makes some interesting points that I don't necessarily disagree with. But I do think it's facile, simplistic and misleading to filter every difference with Obama through the lens of racism. I'm not satisfied with Obama having given a speech where he stated he'd be called different with a funny sounding name who is black, etc. And every criticism of him has been twisted by somebody as being racist. One example, his having received the second largest amount of contribitions from Fannie Mae, whose former director was indicted. I had known about that tie between Franklin Raines and Obama for weeks before I knew Raines was black. And I only knew that from a photo in his Wikipedia article, not because of anything I saw in the media. And then I later saw that lumped in with accusations of racism for mentioning Reverend Wright, and even Bill Ayers, who's a white guy. Well, if all you have is a hammer, then every problem's a nail.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it's the only way to look at things, but I do think that it's important to remember because I have the priviledge of not always thinking about race, or choosing when to think about race, whereas for people of color that can always be something that is brought up, subtly or not, and used against them. I liked the article because it called out some assumptions that are often made and rarely questioned by people (myself included) in the white majority.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I think is worth considering is that, although Obama is black, he's not the descendant of slaves. It's interesting in the context of people who favored Colin Powell for president, another black not descended from American slaves, but from Caribbean Africans who won abolition of slavery after a series of rebellions. Too often people of color are kinda lumped into one category, when even among themselves they perceive distinctions, as I saw in Oklahoma when lighter blacks tormented darker blacks on the playground. I think it would be a much bigger deal if a descendant of American slaves were elected president this time around. I mean, Obama is hardly underprivileged.
ReplyDeleteTrue, true. I am not trying to lump people together. No one person can ever represent everyone, I just think it would be nice to have a different color in the White House to begin with.
ReplyDelete