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Is Racism Still Alive in America?
For people throughout the world, the election of Barak Obama to the U.S. presidency seemed to signal in a new era, that of the end of racism. Indeed, Obama's election was a momentous occasion and, one would have hoped, a milestone on the road to reconciliation. However, some recent, very ominous events cast a worrisome veil over the democratic process in the United States.
There are many reasons that can explain Obama's election as President: his penetrating intelligence, a wonderfully orchestrated campaign, and a life devoted to public service in which each action was like a brilliant chess move by a master of the game. But there were other factors of equal significance.
Before Obama's election, not only was the country involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in what increasingly looks like a quagmire, particularly in the latter country. The economy was in a desperate state, and unemployment and health costs were rising. There was a feeling of widespread malaise in the country believed by many to be the result of an incompetent president manipulated by darker forces, an opinion widely shared throughout the world.
After the initial high of Obama's election, there is now a changed atmosphere n the country. Violence is an inescapable companion to racism. And violence, or violent outbursts racially motivated, are certainly on the increase in the U.S. Threats against President Obama have increased by 400% since President George W. Bush left office, the highest numbers on record.
What makes this situation particularly worrisome is that they come not only from fringe elements in society. Thinly disguised, they also originate from certain political leaders who seem intent on creating an atmosphere of violence and disrespect around the President and the presidency.
How else can one interpret this statement by House Minority Leader John Boehner? "There is a political rebellion going on in America, and what we saw last night was just a glimpse of it," he stated after last November's elections. One doesn't need to be a psychologist or a linguist to understand that such statements stoke the fires of rebellion, and are all the more dangerous when coming from a leader holding one of the most powerful offices in Washington.
As if this weren't enough, Boehner added, "Clearly it's been a difficult year. For us it's been like standing in front of a machine gun--liberal ideas every single week, one after another. I think it really has the American people concerned. They are scared to death, actually."
Not to be upstaged, the ineffable Mrs. Palin, vice-presidential candidate of the Republican Party during the last presidential election--and an avid hunter--told her Tea Party supporters at a recent event in Nevada, "Don't retreat, reload."
If to these dangerous words--rebellion, machine gun, scared to death, reload--one adds the recent attacks on Democratic legislators during discussion of the health care bill in which they were spat on and threatened with racial and homophobic insults one has the makings of a racially charged--and extremely dangerous--atmosphere in the country.
Although there are other causal factors as well--political, social, economic--there can be no doubt that racism plays an important role.
The country is now facing an increase of 244 percent increase in the number of Patriot groups (militias and other organizations that see the federal government as their enemy) in 2009. At the same time, there has also been an increase in the number of anti-immigration groups throughout the country. These groups grew from 173 in 2008 to 309 in 2009, a rise of nearly 80 percent.
Are we facing a setback after so much work done in the last decades to overcome division and hatred in America? As Mr. Doudou Diène, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, stated after visiting several states in the U.S., "Racism and racial discrimination have profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society.
The U.S. has made decisive progress. However, the historical, cultural and human depth of racism still permeates all dimensions of life and American society."
- Posted in
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166 Comments so far
Show AllOne really doesn't need to read the article to answer the queston posed by the title. Alive and well, I'd say, and thriving.
My thoughts exactly. I was going to be a bit snarky and ask if the pope still sat down when he defecated....
LOL!! You channeled me nearly precisely. I nearly wrote, "Does a Pope **** in the woods?" (pope, bear, whatever...)
My immediate mental response to reading the title was "Dunno. Is water still wet?"
Racism is so deeply ingrained in America you could say it's one of the founding principles of this country along with genocide.
Folks have been taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitude. But a "white" skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us.
Individual acts can palliate but cannot end, these problems.
To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political surrounding privilege are the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these subject taboo. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.
It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly acculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.
One of the most important things that we all have to come to grips with is that RACISM KILLS (as do sexism and homophobia, and all the other oppressions.)
So many people don't seem to understand what racism even is. "Are you saying ________ is racist?" "Oh, no, I'd never say THAT." BULLSHIT. Of course ________ is racist. And so is everyone else who can't see that it is racism (and classism) that is killing NOLA residents, Detroit residents, East St. Louis residents etc....and our leaders and our whole government, the entire system is racist to the core.
It's as if they think racism (or any of the other oppressions) is necessarily a CONSCIOUS construct: "I really don't like black people -- I think they're inferior, so let's not fund the levees and then someday they may die."
No, perhaps the worst, but certainly the most intransigent aspect of racism is the part(s) based on SUBconscious or even UNconscious beliefs that there are people who simply don't count as much, for whatever reason. But the funny thing is, those people tend overwhelmingly to fall into the oppressed groups. "Oh, it's only black folk (so who cares?)," or "Oh, it's only poor folk (who are lazy and therefore deserve what they get) and old people (past their prime and useless) anyway."
The US is a nation born of genocide, suckled on slavery, and weaned on apartheid, and the weaning process has been largely confined to a bottle at board meetings.
And as someone else mentioned, maybe here, maybe elsewhere, the sin, in the eyes of the white and affluent, is not the racism itself, but being reminded of it.
Sioux Rose
MCOYOTE: Thank you for your very wise and profound post.
I know this topic has its critics, but if I didn't believe it held merit, I would avoid it altogether. I am speaking about the universal appearance of the 12 tribes. From the astrological standpoint, the U.S., having been "born" as an established entity on July 4, comes under the dominion of the sign of Cancer. It is the sign of families and their lineage. So whilst The Founders sought to break away from the tyranny borne from wealthy, established families of nobility, in a sense, our nation founded under the constellation of Cancer, re-articulated that very theme. In our own instance, it may not be royal families per se; but the influence of certain well-to-do clans is well-known. Even in Hollywood, it's frequently the kin to renown stars that seize the spotlights all over again. And of late, several political families have claimed and held the nation's throne in earnest.
The sign of Cancer, where the crab lives inside its shell, explains the new enclosure movement, the building of a fence on every border. It also sheds light on the uber: security emphasis this nation has taken to extremes.
The best investment in homeland security is to forge a foreign policy that is based on fair trade and mutual respect, win: win negotiations for all involved parties. In contrast, the greater the use of force to win the nation's objectives, the likelier the return of karmic blowback.
Much can be learned from an understanding of the "As above, so below" equation.
Interesting. Using the intellect in isolation of wholeness tends to act as a teacher and an obstructor. Intellectual education is good and necessary to minimize knee jerk reactions on racial remarks and perceptions. however, it can also become a deterrent to erasing color blindness as it, intellect, is programed to operate in the field of opposites, and racism is in part a problem of opposites. The real problem of racism is an identity problem. If the identity is composed of divergent parts, as opposed to what the parts appear in, then those 'parts' will almost constantly need to be attended to in order to keep the understanding alive that racism is cruel. However, If the identity is based in unified awareness that requires no understanding or education in order for it to maintain itself [ Self, consciousness awake to itself] then the mind is colored by natural sameness even while engaged in intellectual comparison.
I am wondering why Teabag Annie (Ann Coulter) and Sarah Palin have not been seen on the same stage at the same time since both give the same advice to teabaggers: "Don't retreat, reload." One makes me think that they may be the same person.
As you know, Ann Coulter was recently in Canada - and Humberto (aka Not Rex) has something to say about it:
http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/04/features/not-rex-commentary-humberto-teabag-anne
Vaudree sez: "I am wondering why Teabag Annie (Ann Coulter) and Sarah Palin have not been seen on the same stage at the same time"
That's ridiculous. Palin is a woman, so her alter-ego would have to be a woman.
I'm thinking Paris Hilton.
Anne and Sarah make Paris Hilton look good. Hilton seems to be living her life to test the limits of Marshall McLuhan's theories. She is smarter than most of us give her credit for. I still remember her commercial making fun of those trying to make use of her for their own purposes during the election - that was brilliant.
Coulter looks female to me. Both promote special interests while preaching hate. Both give hate a softer more acceptable look.
Sioux Rose
Mr. Chelala seems intent upon kissing ass in paragraph #2, a hyperbole at best, nonsensical PR otherwise. And here again is a newspaper voice making Obama's completely right-wing policies irrelevant, and suggesting that the vitriol in the land is due to racism.
History has diverse examples on display that clearly demonstrate how "the little people" fight over the crumbs when the elites determine it's time to slice the pie into thinner and thinner pieces.
A great many people see their income vanishing as prices rise, or have lost their jobs and can't hold onto the equity they once thought they owned. If persons continue doing what they have in the past, but see the fruits of their efforts slipping away, then they want someone, or a target to blame. There is no logical reason for their losses.
Meanwhile, racism, sexism, and other ism divisions remain active in the U.S. And the reason these divisions are growing is due to sheer anger. Since citizens have not been told the truth by "the ambassadors of the 4th estate," they settle for what they can resonate with on a visceral level. Authoritarians have taught their flocks not to think critically, but to respect the views of their "superiors," or father figures. They are also highly critical of outsiders, those who don't think along their lines, worship in the same churches, or look the same (from the standpoint of ethnicity).
Given the multitudinous ways minds have been trained to close down (forfeiting their capacity for critical analysis), and the influence of a pulsing 24/7 disinformation media... the causes behind the growing levels of intolerance are as manufactured as the wars against terror. It's ALL an inside job. In response, the real test comes down to finding a means to awaken persons, a way to release them from the grip presented by the drug of deception... its influence is everywhere.
I agree, Sioux.
As Dickens and Marx, among others, recognized over a century ago, Want and Ignorance are the eldest of a string of nefarious siblings, including racism and sexism, that breed like mosquitoes in the capitalist swamps.
But the author obviously buys into this week's theme of incorporating the evil of racism into the brittle and decaying context of identity politics, and plays upon the bogus dichotomy of the forces of enlightened liberal thinking (exemplified by Obama and Democrats) versus the forces of bigoted and backwards reactionary thinking (exemplified by Palin et al and Republicans).
Sioux Rose
O.S. Thank you for the nod, and your additional astute and nuanced analysis. The talk about race as a means of deflecting the bankrupt quality of Obama's policies (domestic and international) reminds me of the pundits discussing the price of oil, rather than facing the devastating consequences of both global warming and what Michael Klare characterizes as the "end of oil" phase rapidly approaching. Today's media has taken smoke and mirrors and made it into a coarse, yet pervasive high art form.
RE: History has diverse examples on display that clearly demonstrate how "the little people" fight over the crumbs when the elites determine it's time to slice the pie into thinner and thinner pieces.
The elite encourage this tendency. As long as the little people are fighting each other and give in to hate, the "beautiful people" can walk through untarnished. The elite seem to be coaching the little people on who to hate and who to blame.
Jason Kenney called George Galloway a terrorist because he was bringing food and "nappies" (diapers) to the people of Gaza and barred him from speaking in Canada. Jason Kenney insisted repeatedly that a couple of sentences referring to gay rights be removed from the the booklet they give immigrants applying for citizenship. Jason Kenney accused one group of trying to get on Welfare so that they can use government money to fund terrorism.
When the rights one one group is questioned then the rights of all groups come into question.
"Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a contributing editor to The Globalist.'
And Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
With the exception of a few (and many events not credibly documented), the anger out here is about about criminals & money, not race. Your 'racist' accusation simply doesn't explain the real anger.
I watched Tavis Smiley's show the other night when the subject was ML King, and it just showed--sadly--how far our left/progressive movement has sank over the decades. Its totally disgusting.
As for President Obama, he's shown to be everything that Dr. King deplored and fought against. As many are, I'm sorry I voted for him, but it at least brings to light that, while finally and justifiably African Americans are equal--from the highest of places of power--they are just as equal in being prone to bribery, guilty of injustice, abusive of their power, just as devious with their lying and deceit, and just as capable of mass murder and destruction as any cracker could ever be--even worse so when they hide behind Dr. King along with false claims of racism in order to cover-up their own criminality.
Me thinks there is nothing to gain in 2010 by making these claims.
The anger is about lack of representation (e.g. healthcare legislation) and money, (i.e. bailing out criminals & losers.)
Meanwhile, given what the democrats have become and what people say and do in his name, I'd safely bet Dr. King is right now turning over in his grave.
I agree but what you say is a third rail on CD so expect a vast sound of crickets and non response.
"Mr. Chelala seems intent upon kissing ass in paragraph #2, a hyperbole at best, nonsensical PR otherwise. And here again is a newspaper voice making Obama's completely right-wing policies irrelevant, and suggesting that the vitriol in the land is due to racism."
You stole my thunder Sioux. Thanks for that. :)
Look, this is part of the problem.
You have people who absolutely adore Barack Obama, and that adoration is largely due to him being black and a Democrat.
Then you have people who psychotically hate him because he's black and a Democrat.
But you also have people on the left, real radicals/progressives, who neither hate Obama nor love him. We're just highly critical of him, but the fawners and haters squeeze us out.
He's still got us stuck in two wars, complete with mercenaries, and is ready to start more.
He supports No Child Left Behind and The Patriot Act along with wiretapping.
He believes in clean energy solutions that involved unclean materials, including drilling for more oil and blowing up the Appalachias.
His solutions to everything involve the free market.
He gives money to Wall Street instead of the people.
His health care reform, while helpful to many people is still a giveaway to the medical/industrial complex, and at best doesn't go far enough.
He's got a good bit of neo-con and neo-liberal in him, neither of which is good for the 99%.
Then you have the racist, paranoid right-wingers still claming that he's an undocumented Islamic terrorist mole and Stalinist.
I'm still glad Obama won the election. McCain would have been even worse, and it is good for the country to nhave a president that isn't white for a change, but where's the real change?
This is one reason why identity politics sicken me so. It so muddles the truth, but apparently the right loves ID politics along with enough of the left.
"He's black, leave him alone. He's MY black president. He can do no wrong."
"He's a nigger and a sandscratcher. Damn him. All presidents should be white men, no matter how they screw my own white ass over!"
That's what I hear. So many people on the left (liberals anyway) have lost their teeth since Obama got in office.
On the other hand, those on the right are acting like everything was fine when the clown prince or corproimperial crime Dubbya was in power. Why didn't they turn their flags upside down then?
Ugh. I want to cuss out Chris Todd, Michael Eric Dyson, Limbaugh and Mike Savage equally.
Sioux Rose
Hello, ROCKY. I know you feel you've made enemies in your workplace for speaking Truth, but you've planted seeds in what appears to be an arid field of consciousness; yet you just can never tell when the right rain drops will fall to spur those seeds into a germination process.
Thanks for sharing the thunder.
I used to think Obama would be a better choice than McCain, but his absolute betrayal in the form of never failing to do the wrong thing is unforgivable, particularly in the times we're living in. And as some have wisely pointed out in this forum, he's done the left a serious blow by defusing the collective anger that welled up when his predecessor began the SAME abhorrent, ill-fated policies he's been evidently tasked with continuing. The R and D team logos are powerful subliminal forces that sway intellects far from the shores of reason. Sports r'U.S. programming all the way!
I can only speak for myself...
I am not happy with John Conyers, for example, but it is not because of the color of his skin, it is because I feel he misuses his position to promote power over justice...
I am not happy with Nancy Pelosi, but it is not because she is a woman, but because I feel she misuses her position to promote power over justice...
there are actual issues and dangers in our world, and actual individuals responsible for initiating and promoting them...
there are many white men I am not happy with, and many men and women of various colors, and ages, and apparent religious affiliations...
these people have abused public trust, and planetary responsibility...these are not racial or sexist issues...they are, to paraphrase the Rev. King, character issues...
no, stronger...
crimes...
dubet,
Good post.
moonpie-It also disgusts me when people compare Obama to MLK. MLK would be all over Obama's ass if he were with us now.
Workers and poor DO have a right to be angry though, but they're too often angry with each other and not enough at the elites.
I'm also tired of these articles asking doe-eyedly "Is racism still with us?"
Uh yeah, it's with us. I may get fired from my job on Monday because I confronted it, as I have been doing all my life, making nothing but enemies along the way.
There are ways to end racism though or at least depower it enough so it doesn't affect anyone's lives that much, but the Democrats nor the Republicans want to hear it, especially if it means making the rich pay more taxes and doesn't penalize anyone else.
To be more exact, MLK would be turning over in his grave if he knew how much people compared Obama to him, or about what Obama's been doing in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
Racism is STILL very much alive in America as well as in just
about every other country. But so is bigotry, scapegoating,
fear-mongering, greed, stupidity, selfishness, ignorance,
conformity,... Need I continue?
Type of Bigotry Check box if still present
Is Racism still alive in America? [ ]
Is Homophobism still alive in America? [ ]
Is Anti Semitism still alive in America? [ ]
Is Anti Feminism still alive in America? [ ]
Is Anti Islamism still alive in America? [ ]
Is Anti Hispanicism still alive in America? [ ]
Lets see, that would be a check, check, another check, check, check and check...
Alas! one must inevitably conclude that checkism is still alive in Amerika.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a checkist?
Excellent post, not long and complicated but packs a good punch. Nothing but the truth.
You left out ripping on the rural poor with "Jethro "stereotypes or is it OK to to discriminate against rural poor people in a classist way, I keep forgetting? Oh choir, where are you to tell me what to think?
The fact there is nothing about class on Tom's list of bigotry quite literal isms is very telling to me. Hurray for forgetting the p.c. out group of un-people, now that's livin'
Why I am guessing Tom is another middle to upper middle class white guy?
Sigh...
"Why I am guessing Tom is another middle to upper middle class white guy?" (stereohead)
Trying to intimidate and suppress WASPs, dear sterohead? Racism? Classism? Alive and well from all quarters, even yours sh.
Back to the topic and away from commenting on the blatant personal insults; I especially see racism from the Asia-Pacific friends I know. More tribalism from them, as well. Just my own anecdotal observation.
The suits in the suites are the enemy of *all* the downtrodden of all races, creeds, and sexual preferences, are you one of them?
Us against them. Is it all so simple to you?
"Who are you? Who, who, who who? I really wan to know." (Is that a song?)
Dafoe
Of course racism is alive and well in America, "Negro" appeared on the census form, so its part of the culture. I think Lincoln was wrong, they should have let the south secede and good luck to them.
Rebellion is a possibility for there are lots of groups that are agin something and for ,,, well not a hell of a lot apart from having a gun. The borders are being fenced/fortified and the stuff to do it comes from offshore!! Thank those paymasters for the politicians, those corporate free enterprisers with headquarters here but not the manufacturing plants for they are offshore. That is one reason why people are losing their jobs.
I think that in 20 years this country will be a shambles, nothing of value to hold it together, just 50 tinpot states jealously guarding their little borders etc for with an education system that is overall rather poor how do you expect to have a reasonably learned electorate where their X on a ballot is not their normal mark?
I don't see what difference electing Obama has made on racism anywhere in the world. When I was in the Far East, I was saddened to see people of color stuffing their faces with skin lightening cremes. I would feel like wanting to snatch them away and burn down those companies manufacturing and selling those poison cremes. All said, I feel that we need to go color blind and judge people less by their skin color and more on what they can show for their worth. I don't mean color blind in a bad sense but race is being misused on all sides all over the world to discriminate and cause more economic disparities.
The Dems are so desperate,
Their media is going to play on every kook and nut case
from now until election time in order to maintain the
minority vote that they don't deserve.
There will always be some form of racism alive, mostly,
though, the public is not racist. Our government is and
its policy. We incarcerate young black men at a rate of
30 to 1 (at least) that was just reduced from 100 to 1
and call that reform.
The public showed in 2008 that we on a whole are not
a racist society. That Oh?bama abused his power and became
a republican is his and the Democrats fault. Now all
the damnocrat media is going to blast all over mainstream
every little nut case in America in order to keep the
minority vote that they don't deserve.
The Democrat Party is the one playing the racist card.
The article is merely an opinion. Chelala strung together some out of context quotes and meaningless numbers to conjure up fear and guilt.
Racism is alive and well and all races participate equally and have done so for millennia.
Baboon is right.
This teabaggers stuff is all over the news yet other mainstream and progressive protests (such as single payer advocates getting busted for civil disobedience) never make it on the news--just the loonies right wingers.
Yes, there are racists out there and the news should cover them but I feel they are blowing this whole teabaggers thing out of proportion--they want to do this to scare Dems into staying in line.
It's a distraction from other bad shit going on Wars,economy, health care deform, etc--same with the constant coverage of assclowns such as Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, etc.
Politics of fear at work......
That's what I'm taking about. The suits in the suites that run the wars and corporations the enemy, *all* else is distration or mere epiphenomena to that root causality of our problems.
Classism is far more previlient.
Who is denied health care and education, poor people, regardless of race.
If you want to really get my point, don't pay your rent this month and see how fast you feel like a nigger.
( I'm black fyi, but seriously your average poor white family is going though a a far harder time then a upper class African or Latino American)
racism is a tool used in the class war to divide the masses and justify exploitation
the sad thing is that many whites don't see that and play into the race paradigm
I s'pose the same could be said of many blacks
or of any group, be it here or abroad
Yeah, but we have to look deeper if we're to overcome racism and fascism. Racism has it's roots buried deep in the fear of the unknown and especially the unknown of what was not recognized as another human or group of humans coming over the hill and into ones home territory. Fascism is a physical/psyche disorder of which racism in many cases is a symptom.
But people do know. They know from their overwhelmingly positive everyday experiences with people of other races.
It's the propaganda that tells the lie and too many believe the lie rather than themselves or facts.
Though racism still prevails(Reverend Wright would still be Obama's preacher if it didn't), it's combination with classism is a huge problem. As Maureen Taylor (Co-chair of the US Social Forum) will tell you from her travels while campaigning for city council in Detroit, "There's a whole lot of Black people who won't go down there anymore". As in south of 8 Mile in Detroit.
The big problem is this takes a lot of force out of the civil rights war. Grace Boggs of Detroit Summer and the Boggs Center in Detroit relates that until recently a large segment of Black intellectuals were constrained into living in the Ghetto with their (now) less economically well off brothers and sisters. So now there's not the intellectual acumen to effectively articulate the horrendous condition of roughly 8-10 million blacks (which expands to what? 30 or 40 million total when including all ethnic groups) that are without jobs and services from mainstream society.
No. The brilliant "chess master" did the nation no good in ostracizing the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He swept the catastrophe of racism back under the rug in this country, which in part allows for the racist murder, rape, and pillage of the Middle East. The Grand Master even encourages our great humiliation of humanity every time he uses those sick phrases of "standing down when they learn to stand up", and of course his master move of all master moves that enabled racism to flourish: this of course being his repulsive "evil" in the world statement while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.
Racism, Classism, American Exceptionalism can all be encapsulated into Wilhelm Reich's organic definition of Fascism...see you or your rep at the US Social Forum...seems there's plenty of glorious human recognition work that can be done.
Right on, thanks for seeing the big picture and solidarity!
The bear uses Charmin now. I wonder what the Pope uses? Probably nothing because his shit don't stink.
Okay, before I ask my silly question, let me give some "me" background, only so you know "who" is asking.
White, gay, HIV, Democrat or Independent, Protestant/Pentecostal history - diverse enough for me to say "mutt," ex-RN, disabled, oxygen 24/7, born in Indiana, moved to North Carolina 1974. So, been in the south 36 years - this is home.
I understand why the "N" word is wrong, and I agree. I understand why "colored" is unacceptable, and I am okay with that. I understand that "Black" and African-American" are about equal. I understand that many people define themselves as race/nationality background-American these days.
That's their prerogative.
What I do not understand is "people of color"!
Well, yes, I do. Anyone who is NOT "white" - at least I think that's it.
But it's a bizarre term, because in reality, everyone is some kind of - color.
If we were not, we'd be invisible, right?
So how, when, and why did "people of color" come to be?
It's a shame the media pays more attention to a dumb white chick from Alaska who is also a felon than the first lady, Michelle Obama.
It's also a shame that same white chick gets more airplay than people like Cynthia McKinney.
This country is a joke and the 21st century KKK has control of the airwaves...
I highly recommend the following essay from the now deceased Juan Santos. Below are a few excerpts.
RIP Juan.
===============
Barack Obama and the “End” of Racism
by Juan Santos / February 13th, 2008
--------
And that’s the Obama equation. Keep your Black/ Brown mouth shut and you can “succeed.” And you can still feel “clean.” Here we have the real story behind Obama’s portrayal of his squeaky clean-ness. Yes, Black man, yes, Black woman, you can have power in this killer-racist system and stay “clean.” In Obama’s carefully constructed image lies a symbolic resolution of a profound inner conflict that all people of color in the US face in their daily lives.
Obama plays the role of a Black Cinderella. He does for Black folks what Cinderella does for girls. He shows that oppression and silence can be good for you — at least if you are the one the prince chooses, or if you are the one who gets to be the prince. It’s total fantasy. It’s a glass slipper that will break at the arch and be turned on us like a broken beer bottle or a jagged-edged knife; the same knife Obama has threatened to turn on the people of Iran and Pakistan.
But, he’s getting over with it, if for no other reason than that the inner conflict I’ve described remains largely unconscious for oppressed people in the US. That’s why one Black poet, spoken word artist Darian Dauchan, wrote a piece called “Damn You Barack Obama You Pretty Mothafucka.” It’s because Dauchan was trying to sort it through. Even though he fails, he buys into the Obama myth; nonetheless, he had to sort it through as best he could, because Obama is the walking illusion of the realization of an impossible dream; the dream that in white racist Amerikkka a Black man could be judged on the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
-------
The rest of the racist subtext is this: Obama, with his extraordinary intelligence and presence (by any standard), is, in the eyes of white Amerikkka,(and, according to the standards of the so-called “Enlightenment,” which still rule the thinking of Euro-Americans) the half-white, and thus, half-redeemed “Black savage” — “redeemed” by his “white blood”, “civilized” by it – redeemed by his relative whiteness — ultimately redeemed and refined by the white nation itself.
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Many people, nonetheless, think Obama is the realization of Dr. King’s dream. The power of this archetype is immense. It’s why the completely empty catch-phrase “Change” works for him, and it’s the deeper reason for the quasi-religious wave of “Obama fever.” Obama is Cinderella and King’s Dream rolled into one. He’s even had the myth of Kennedy’s so-called “Camelot” invoked on his behalf. For many, he’s not only phenomenally charismatic, but irresistible. There’s even been talk of an “Obama Cult.” [The comments at this link, many of which attack the essay, are every bit as interesting as the essay itself.]
But, if Obama is the realization of King’s dream, then the price of the dream is silence. And, as the slogan goes, “Silence = Death.” If Obama is the realization of King’s dream, then the price is silence about the oppression of Black people and the abandonment of the millions locked away under the conditions of mass incarceration that have replaced Jim Crow. If Obama is the realization of King’s dream, then being Black means being white; then Black is white, or at least it’s Black on white terms. It’s a Blackness that dare not speak its name.
Obama’s shot at the presidency doesn’t signal the end of racism in the U.S. It is made possible, rather, by the new form racism itself has taken, a form that offers a prison cell to poor people of color, and, for the middle class, on the other hand, an Apartheid-style pass card stamped “SILENCED.”
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The only awareness most whites have of racism comes as a result of the immediate and very short term impact of the struggle of peoples of color upon their consciousness. The silencing of that struggle means only the end of its painful intrusion into white awareness — not the end of racism as an omnipresent, violent burden on the oppressed, not the end of racism as omnipresent oppression and degradation. As noted above, Obama has no plan, and thus, it is fair to say, no intention of ending systemic racism in the US. It’s easier to pretend for popular consumption, that it no longer exists.
Barack Obama is priceless. If he didn’t exist, as the saying goes, they’d have had to invent him. And, no matter Obama’s subjective intentions — white people did just that in their imaginations and in setting the social terms of the New Racism. The very best one can say is that Obama’s let them get by with it by pandering to it. I’ll leave the worst one can say to you. It’s closer to the point, and to the truth.
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Much more here:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/barack-obama-and-the-%E2%80%9Cend%E2%80%9D-of-racism/
My local militia is probably as diverse as my local peace group, who is the racist again? I keep forgetting... Maybe we should look in the mirror before pointing fingers at others? Shouldn't we *all* working on accepting people based on their fundamental decency and not other superficial characteristics?
Shouldn't we *all* be working on accepting people based on their fundamental decency and not other superficial characteristics?
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Bingo.
"I'm black fyi, but seriously your average poor white family is going though a a far harder time then a upper class African or Latino American."
Thanks for that keithsoulusa. Classism is still so taboo. The unspeakable nature of class insinuates that certain swaths of the US deserve their poverty and disenfranchisement since everything's so tilted in their favor and therefore have nothing valid to worry about except for "others" taking all their "privilege" from them. It's sickening how certain ID merchants on the left feed into the right-wing who then fuck over everyone!
Juan Santos can take his identity politics and choke on them in Hell for enabling the elites with his divisive nonsense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah white people are demonic, created by some cat named Yakub, "inventing" Obama even because they're that sinister. But then they're evil because they hate him according to others, as if black people aren't under his centrist spell either. MUUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What BS.
Barack Obama got to where he is because he was raised in an upper-middle class household. If his parents delivered mail and operated a cash register for a living, he'd have never gotten involved in politics. If having your affluent grandparents raise you is isn't privilege, I don't know what is.