AlvinBlah

Well, of course the first question is; Have you seen it?

You have? Good. What do you think? What are your opinions? Thoughts? Worries? Frustrations?

Undeniably Senator Obama’s speech on race yesterday is one of the most important speeches dealing with race that have ever hit the psyche of the country. I spent my evening scanning the airwaves listening to pundits break down the speech. Overall the talking heads received the speech very warmly and were ready to open a broader dialog about understanding. Everyone I know that has seen the speech or read its words seems to have a new mind about how sensitive issues about racial tension should be addressed. I want to talk a little about how it affected me, and where I’d like to move the conversation.

A little about myself:

Before 2004 I was a 23 year old white dude living in the college town I was born in — listless, no idea where I wanted to go in life, or what to do. About 3 major manufacturing plants in the town had closed down, so jobs were tight. VERY tight, it impacted the hourly service jobs around me, and I spent that year dependent on my parents. I didn’t demand much, and did yard work to get cash to go out to the bar or coffee shop.

When I was living at home, I was sympathetic to the plight of workers, I understood that social services were a good thing, and that overall the democratic agenda of equality and uplifting others was one that I agreed with. I however had never faced that in person, never been challenged in my views that if we’re all happy together we’ll all be uplifted together. I was a naive liberal whose heart was in the right place, but my convictions were passively formed.

In 2004, I joined AmeriCorps NCCC because there was nothing for me at home. I lived, worked, and traveled throughout the Southeast United States. I worked in elementary schools where the 5th graders showed off their gunshot scars, and the 3rd graders told stories about running drugs. I worked for Habitat for Humanity where families got emotional because our team was happy to work on their home over a weekend. I spent time in State Parks where if we hadn’t cleaned up after a storm things would be closed because the park didn’t have the internal labor to allocate.

I met many people that drove home how important fundamental liberal philosophies are, and how they can be actualized to make a difference. It drove home how someone can only understand something when they perceive themselves on the other side. It was, as one could say, a great awakening.

But it lacked. The contact and meetings were positive yet fleeting; we were doing the work, but we weren’t all there 100%. We often went home from work convinced that people had willfully placed themselves in these dire situations. I think it was a great start for many of us, and one that cannot be taken away, but it wasn’t the full trip.

Yesterday, the other ball dropped. Obama’s speech cut right to the core of hard and sensitive issues that make everyone angry and we’re afraid to talk about. He addressed how stereotypes are formed and propagated, and without being apologetic he emphasized that many of the wrong words used to express frustration and anger are still rooted in genuine problems and resentment. It left me wondering what I can do.

And I think the best service that I can provide is to try and surface some of those really bitter generalizations and keep their perceptions at the forefront of how people think for the next few days. Learning isn’t an overnight process, but one that must be worked at and constantly thought about. I don’t want it be: “Wow what a historic speech; when’s the new episode of The Office going to air?”

So for better or worse. Well worded or not. Here’s what I offer to the internet.

I will no longer subscribe to the idea of “The Great White Guilt”. I will not simply make empty gestures to minorities because I feel it is a worthwhile gesture. I will not consider acts of kindness a charity I perform to prove white people aren’t that bad.

I will accept that whether I was part of it or not whether my direct family was part of it or not; me, and my generation has been handed a burden of division that we must tackle and improve upon rather than insist it has nothing to do with us.

I will no longer talk in classifier terms about where I live, it’s not the difference between “suburban” and “inner-city” problems, they are all problems of my community.

I will know as a fact that there are more black men in college than in prison, and more importantly it’s numerically absurd to think otherwise.

I will understand that even if I see negative consequences to Affirmative Action I understand that it’s helped far more than it’s hurt.

I will provide equal personal criticisms of the Micheal Richard’s and Jerry Falwell’s out there, as I will any black comedian or artist. As in, I will not expect the white folks that fuck up to be held to a higher standard of apology and forgiveness. Racial stereotypes and negative language goes both ways, and I will weight the context equally and not let something roll past simply because “I don’t understand since I’m not black.”

I will, though, realize that my cultural upbringing, and personal history is as different as anyone else, and I will keep that in mind during all conversations and judgments that I make, and in the end, I probably can’t see everyone’s viewpoints.

But in discussing cultural perspectives with race, simply because I don’t see it someone else’s way, or even if I flatly disagree does not mean the other person is wrong or invalid. Instead it means that I didn’t have the lifetime of experiences the other has had to lead them to that conclusion.

If I see, hear, or perceive racism, I will know that being angry and trying to shout it gone, not only doesn’t work, it often can re-enforce those views. Instead I will try and engage conversation to understand the viewpoint, or at least try to reduce the rancor involved.

This is where I am starting, and where I am making a personal and measurable effort to create that “more perfect union”. This is what I bring to the table, but I also am asking for some things too.

Being a middle-class white guy with a comfortable life I understand that I may look like a real obvious symbol of White power, institutionalized racism, and a wealth/class/education divide that can be drawn along ethnic lines. I get that me walking down the street carrying my laptop talking on a cell phone can be a real easy and obvious magnet of racial resentment; please do not assume I personally have done anything to forward racism, or that I am okay with you taking it out on me. I haven’t and I’m not.

Understand that when someone is in fact making some kind of gesture, and you can tell with all your being that the “Great White Guilt” is guiding their hand please don’t get as upset as you probably feel. A lot of us are really trying to make things better, we just don’t really know how.

Comedic jokes about how white people are awkward, stiff, standoff-ish, stuck up, overly intellectual, arrogant, or overall resistant to change are offensive. I like comedians like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, they’ve got some hilarious jokes and great comic timing, but really, the white humor is still pushing stereotypes more than a few that are harmful.

I think that overall White folks still need to do more to offer understanding, not because we’re better, but because we have done more wrong. I think that as a culture that started as white institutionalism our next great step is seeing things from the other side, without resentment or rancor, but honestly and with an open mind about how we are perceived by black culture and other minorities.

But please, when we step forward offering some gesture of understanding and try to make those reaches of apology and mutual acceptance it will be clumsy and awkward. People don’t really know how to handle this, and we’ll probably get it wrong, a lot.

All I ask, is that when we make these feeble and halting efforts, they’re seen not as some kind of act of charity, or arrogance but as a genuine reach forward for a better way of life. And I hope that it hasn’t gotten so bad that the hand is simply batted away in anger as yet another false gesture.

Thanks to Barack Obama, when people reach out this time, I think we all mean it in the best intent.

Subscribe to Prose Before Hos via email or via RSS feed. |

Technorati Tags: barack obama, hope, change, america, jfk, racial divide, healing

(originally from my personal blog The Soapbox and The Bucket)

No Comments »

The Many Contradictions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

All this silly racism…

Why Hillary Will Lose To Barack

Many people still think it’s a tight race between the two candidates. I on the other hand think the point of no return was the hit in South Carolina, and it’s only a matter of time before more states and more politicians throw their support behind Barack Obama instead of Hilary Clinton. First, let’s break down a few of Hillary’s weaknesses; not because I personally am trying to bring her down, but these are all points that would be exploited against this so called front-runner.1) She’s a Clinton, and she will be attacked for maintaining a dynasty in a way that never seemed to stick on George W. Bush. And voters are very aware that we have been Bush/Clinton/Bush for 20 years, another four of the same pattern is a hard sell. Especially when so many feel the country is on the wrong path.2) She’s still a Clinton. As we’ve seen in South Carolina, Bill is using all his influence and tricks to keep her on top. The Clinton’s (even with all the good they did get done) have never been known as a force for co-operation, so much as leveraging and manipulating others to their view. We’ve seen where 8 years of a political cudgel got us, it’s seems likely that her opponents will see and use this too.3) Hillary claims experience is one of her greatest defining traits, and even went so far as to say that she’s been fighting in Washington for the past 35 years, oddly this is less than accurate. If NPR can prove it so can Fox, or any other campaign out there that wants to fire off a low blow. Besides, how does Hillary’s experience stack up against those that now have dropped out, like Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, or Chris Dodd, or against those that are still running, like John McCain, or even Mitt Romney who at least was a Governor, and has some semblance of executive experience.4) This final reason is I think the most important: How electable is Hillary? Really? Granted the USA right now is looking away from a second Republican administration, but will they turn to a Hillary driven administration as an alternative, or will voters turn to a different Republican simply because it is not another Clinton? I expect that voters will choose the fresh face over the old in this election regardless of party.Be wary of those that say any Democrat can beat any Republican; that view did not serve either Al Gore or John Kerry well when they were handed their losses, and the nation does not need another president of a 51% majority. There is also much to be said for Democrats to support the most viable candidate for the presidency instead of the candidate that they like the most. For example; Dennis Kucinich probably had one of the best platforms, but the cameras hated him, and it rendered the man unelectable.And on to Obama and his best attribute:

Yes, he’s the new face. He’s the Kennedy endorsed Kennedy that’s not a Kennedy. He’s the first African American democratic candidate in nearly twenty years to win multiple primaries, and arguably the first African American that has a real shot at the office. But none of this fully answers the two big questions…1) Is he electable?2) Would he actually make a good president?My answer is wholeheartedly yes. This video is an hour long, but it’s fantastic, Barack Obama sits down with the editorial board of the San Francisco Gate, no aides, no rules, just an hour long candid question and answer session where he talked policy and practice. Within this video, Obama emphasizes that transparency in the legislative process can create natural environments of accountability, that as a nation we’re not trying hard enough for fuel economy (he wanted 40mpg or better by 2020), he emphasizes research funding with minimal government stipulations to develop alternative energy arguing it’s not government’s job to define what energy creation methods we will or will not support, it’s our job to set the standards and let the market shake it out).He also goes on to emphasize that Washington needs to be a place where legislators are rewarded for doing the right thing, and standing up for their constituents, and he says the office of the president can do all that. A very solid and honest account of who Obama currently is. That video was from before the Nevada caucus.Next The Atlantic emphasized that Obama’s win in South Carolina was not exclusively about the black vote putting him over the top, instead EVERYBODY voted for him; that’s significant. It’s proof that Barack Obama can turn everyone out to vote for him and the numbers are showing that it’s a very broad spectrum of American citizens that have granted him their support.Barack Obama is the Democrat’s Reagan. It’s really just that simple. The charms and characteristics that made Reagan so endearing as a character to so many conservative Americans has been reborn as a young liberal black man with a law degree from Harvard. Barack Obama is the political love child of Ronald Reagan’s stature, and the idealistic potential carried in memory of an assassinated John Kennedy, 100% raised by the smooth talking political media world of Bill Clinton. Barack Obama’s electability isn’t grounded in the boring sounding policies of a Dukakis or Mondale, it’s in that magic essence that comes with a politician once in a generation. And Americans have always been receptive to it.And yet, even with this fresh and inspirational character Barack Obama is still able to pull the support of the old guard locking in endorsements from both John Kerry, and most of the Kennedy family. If you haven’t read into what these endorsements mean, learn a little more about super-delegates.If you’re aware of the impact of these endorsements it doesn’t take much to realize that when the former party nominee for president, and a Kennedy back someone, it’s a full fledged endorsement by the Democratic establishment.The Kennedy endorsement:

Barack Obama is a solid candidate that is supported by the people, established democrats, and respected news papers. He is even leading in the election! Do not get pulled into the misdirection that Obama doesn’t have a platform, or that he’s nothing more than a fresh face in an old scene. He is much more than that.Remember:*His instinct to oppose the war was correct; while he was running for Senate.*He has co-sponsored bills that have facilitated online searchable databases of federal spending*He brought death penalty reform to the state of Illinois during a time where it was a wildly unpopular issue*He was the youngest president of the Harvard Law Review*His wife ran an managed a CityYear program*He is a supporter of Net Neutrality*He worked for many years in the state legislature as a member of the minority party*His voting record is consistent*He started his career as a community organizer, and truly worked his way up from the bottom.*He emphasizes co-operation and compromise over forcing home his views.*He wants to appoint a technology “czar” to move as much of government as possible online.*Has already expressly mentioned his cabinet would probably have people from opposing parties as members. Many people still doubt that he can win the nomination. This doubt is more poisonous to his campaign than any real flaw. If you’re a supporter of another candidate, please, continue to do so, but if you vote for Hillary Clinton, or John Edwards simply because you think they are more electable, you’ve made a serious error of judgement that could be as disastrous in the long run as it was for Ralph Nader to have split the vote amongst Democrats and Independents in 2000.Barack Obama’s personal response to President Bush’s final State Of the Union Address:

Prose Before Hos is a small, and opinionated blog that regularly covers politics. We’re aware that our online stature is not great nor is it important, but sometimes you still have to declare a stand. And we think that in the future blogs and their opinions will become more and more important to our political process in the future. Prose Before Hos would like to stay near that cutting crest of good ideas, so like XKCD, we here at Prose Before Hos proudly supports and endorses Barack Obama for President because he is a candidate that we take pride in, believe can make a real difference in partisan politics, and most importantly can restore faith in America as a great nation once again for all people around the world and at home. Update: Since writing this Barack Obama has now gone on an 11 contest winning streak, out fund-raised Hillary Clinton, and has moved within upset difference in both Texas and Ohio. And Hillary has only countered by falling flat on her face.

Mark my words. This single-handedly lost her Texas. This petty shot back will cost her thousands of votes. It is incredibly shocking to hear a debate crowd boo a candidate. While it is her job to keep the race competitive, and to call out her opponent on questionable acts. It quite simply isn’t plagiarism if you’ve been given permission to use the words. And everyone knows it. Instead of letting it slide, and keeping issue oriented Hillary took the VERY low road, and I think this will cost her a lot in the eyes of voters.

3 Comments »

False Statements

Daaamn, this PukeBlog can write!

Written on May 31st, 2008 | Trackback URI |

lets buy Helen Thomas some flowers…

Written on April 24th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

Poetry and Music for the Lyrically Minded

Written on April 9th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

Where Do We Go Now?

Written on March 19th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

The Many Contradictions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Written on March 6th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

All this silly racism…

Written on February 19th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

Why Hillary Will Lose To Barack

Written on January 29th, 2008 | Trackback URI |

False Statements

Written on January 27th, 2008 | Trackback URI |