–Barack Obama

RAMIIE

I’m really not sure where this comes from. His first book, his memoir “Dreams of My Father,” is subtitled “A Story of Race and Inheritance” and deals quite a bit with his own identity struggles as a “black” man who grew up with his white grandparents. His newer book, “The Audacity of Hope,” has an entire chapter, some 50-odd pages, that discusses the issue of race.

Acknowledging that you are part black and talking about how race has affected your life is a far cry from actually having plans and policies that will make a difference in the black community. The liberal policies that democrats put out to help the poor do not neccesarily help poor black people. The legislation the Dems hope to push in their first 100 hours is an example of this. Moreover, one could argue that liberal policies actually hurt black america more than they help. Is he just going to do more of the same?

This is someone who worked as a community organizer in South Side Chicago before going to law school, and who turned down prestigious clerkships and lucrative job prospects to return to the South Side of Chicago to work on voter drives and community outreach in the black community there. He started a civil rights/voting rights practice there, while representing a largely black district in the South Side in the Illinois Senate.

Registering people to vote is great… but there are a lot of other black owned groups out there doing the same thing. Lots of black people go into civil rights work… again, not that special, and not that much of a change in what we already have.

Not to mention this whole “omg, look at what I gave up to help you degenerates! Just be grateful!” attitude is disgusting. While I’m sure that Senator Obama doesn’t think like this, it sucks that you do.

Now I don’t doubt that the way the press covers what he says might suggest to some that he doesn’t discuss race — unlike many other minority candidates, he talks abaout all kinds of issues, not just minority issues. That, in fact, is a huge part of his appeal.

I think its great that he talks about issues that aren’t specific to the black community (I think more black people need to think about politics outside the black box). But he definitely doesn’t talk much about the issues that are. What’s his stance on affirmative action? School choice? I know he wants welfare reform, but what’s his reform plan? Like I said, if I wasn’t black I’d feel fine about voting for Obama… but there are WAY too many black people at the bottom of the ladder for me to fawn over any candidate that isn’t actively trying to help. ESPECIALLY a black candidate.

Thanks for your response.

To many white people, being “white” means being “default” or being “normal” or being “right” or whatever it is that causes discrimination, insensitivity, etc. and the perception of so-called “non-white” people as the mysterious/dangerous/ignorant “other.” We see that all the time, and people who aren’t white notice it and feel it a lot more than I do.

This admission alone is rare. I remember telling a white girl in college that I liked rap, she replied with, “eww. yea but you like normal music like Live and red hot chili peppers too, right?” You didn’t mention the privelaged implications of the “default-ness” of being white, and there’s no need to go into it here, I’m sure you’re aware of it.

I’ve got to figure out something else for being white to mean

This reminds me of a Malcolm X anecdote, a white coed followed him from Boston to NYC and asked, “I’m a good white person, who’s not prejudiced and racist, and agree with a lot of what you say, what can a good white person do?” Malcolm replied, “Nothing”

After his separation from the NOI and formation of the OAAU, he later regretted the remark, he felt a white person who genuinely was interested in a fully colorblind society, devoid of institutional barriers could educate their own people on some of the truths you’ve touched on. I’m not one to define anyone else’s reality, but perhaps that’s what being white could mean.

Imagine how gussa Amreekans would be if a candidate went to the beach in a bikini. Sacre bleu! I don’t know who’s best but go Segolene!

Instead we are invariably numbed by two hyper-religious wankers who claim they talk to God and whose positions on social and economic issues are essentially half a degree apart on the political spectrum.

(deep breath…) okay.

To many white people, being “white” means being “default” or being “normal” or being “right” or whatever it is that causes discrimination, insensitivity, etc. and the perception of so-called “non-white” people as the mysterious/dangerous/ignorant “other.” We see that all the time, and people who aren’t white notice it and feel it a lot more than I do.

And there are people, like myself, who understand that being white is not the “default;” that “white” is just a name attached to certain people in the middle of all the people who make up America and who make up the world.

So if being white is not simply being the default, then what is it?

Once it is removed from the idea of “default” or “normal” (with the word “non-white” then meaning, at least subtextually, “non-normal”) — once that idea of white/non-white is removed, what’s left? A word — white — that does not even remotely come close to the color of my skin. There’s no word in the English language for this particular color, because for so many years it was simply called “flesh-color” (like the Crayola crayon).

Still, okay, I’m white. Can’t ever change that. But once it’s removed from “normal” or “standard” or “majority,” it leaves a void behind. And so… what am I? As other posters have mentioned, there’s no real shared culture or identity. There’s what’s defined as Western culture, sure, and the mish-mash of advertisements, fashion, and TV shows which make up American culture (which, of course, until recent decades featured solely white faces and even now is not very integrated or multiculti) — but that’s not something I can put my back against.

What I mean to write is that since I’ve figured out that I am one person in the middle of a very large world and that being white does not entitle me to delude myself that I am “normal” or “default,” I’ve got to figure out something else for being white to mean. Perhaps I don’t; perhaps I can just be a person, for better or for worse.

But still, there it is, on my face — and so when I stand in a classroom in front of a group of students, for example, I’ve got to figure out how to relate to them as a white woman, particularly when saddled with a language that defines half of them as “non-me” and trying always to negotiate around the fallacies of English, trying always to draw everyone in, to include all experiences and identites. I’ve also got to figure out how to be a white woman amidst the rest of the world, and what that means — and very soon, how to be a white woman in India.

Shodan, I am very familiar with desipundit. It’s almost as awesome as SM!