If He Loses
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
--Age of Aquarius, 5th Dimension
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,
in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was and never will be
--Thomas Jefferson
______________
As a black man running for president, Obama personifies Affirmative Action. They remember 40 years ago, and school busing, and the breakdown of communities around that momentous event. Though Brown vs. Board of Education mandated desegregation "with all deliberate speed," most districts avoided the actuality until almost 20 years later. When it came, it presaged the "White Flight phenomenon."
Both black and white communities suffered a loss of cohesion after enforced busing, and many cities have never recuperated. The Housing Administration's Cabrini-Greens were often little better than jails for their inhabitants.
In addition, Affirmative Action and racial quotas insured that many white people lost jobs, oftentimes to less-qualified black candidates. Integration would not have arrived in any timely manner had these Civil Rights Era policies not been implemented in such a way. However, bitterness remains.
In 1978, Alan Bakke, a UC Davis medical school student refused admittance solely on the basis of his race appealed his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, winning a Reverse Discrimination suit upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. This win was heralded every bit as much by the white community as O.J.'s beating the murder rap was by the black community in 1995.
[2] They see the Department of Homeland Security detains people with names like "Hussein" and "Obama" ("Osama"?), and who wear goatherder's duds like Obama did in that picture, right?
[3] Aren't we at war with people with names like "Hussein" and "Obama"?
[4] Whites are also facing the reality that they may be the last generation of a white American plurality. For those who feel buffeted and displaced by the system, Obama for president may be one bridge too far.
I've been following the pussyfooting around on race this election with curiosity (Does Race Really Matter?). From reading the papers, one gets the impression there are small pockets of barbarity in the hinterlands, but overall, this won't amount to much. 9-11% of whites say Obama's race might be problematic for them; 90% of blacks are voting for Obama, and race is a significant element of their support. Somehow, their racism is less onerous than that of the apprehensive whites.
Obama's presidential bid demonstrates the effectiveness of the Civil Rights movement, but it also reveals the schism and subsequent lack of reconciliation which many feel the Affirmative Action initiatives heralded.
Obama has been marketing as spanning a large swath of the electorate: he is black and white; Old School and New; he may listen to rap on his iPod, but he wears tailored HartMarx suits. One WaPo writer recently mistakenly declared he is not even a part of the Baby Boom generation, so wanting was he to make of Obama an innocent (of consumerism, or anything negative.)
When crude rapper Ludacris sang him an homage, Obama dutifully declined the favor. He is the perfectly disinterested observer, and he orates from on high. He encompasses as much as he can. Like Bill Clinton, "He is not always eloquent, but he is always fluent, which is easily mistaken for eloquence" (Clues in the Mist.)
But the legacy of slavery and race relations are the great sorrows of this nation, which will perdure past the current sorrows of our own making, and they attach to Obama solely due to his race. This is the subtext of this election for many disenfranchised white voters.
The war on drugs has not been successful. Violence, drug use and prison overcrowding are blights upon our society. While these problems do not solely affect the black community, 70% of unwed teen mothers are black; 50% of new AIDS cases last year were in the black community. One of every five black males is in jail. There is a problem in our society.
Some see Obama's nomination as a social experiment to help quell restive populations. We want no more Kwame Kilpatricks (Ex-Detroit Mayor Begins Prison Term) or Marion Barrys. If you are not a scary black, like Tupac or Biggie Smalls, you too might be fronted for The Highest Office in the Land. Those who think this resent voting for president-as-social-balm.
This is how it looks to some members of the electorate.
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
--Age of Aquarius, 5th Dimension
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,
in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was and never will be
--Thomas Jefferson
______________
If the Democrats lose this election, it will not be for want of change in this stricken nation of ours. It will be because a large contingent of your fellow Americans are confused and frustrated, not simply by the issues but by the choice of candidate. Can we look at this honestly, without being bound by the requirements of what ought to or should be?
It is my contention that race is a much larger issue for many voters than the actual policy statements of either candidate. If Obama loses this election, it will go down in history as the most grievous political miscalculation in many generations.
What should be a gimme election for the democrats is instead a battle. The Democrats have short-sold the lingering resentment of many Americans following the implementations of the initiatives of LBJ's Great Society. These are people for whom Equal Opportunity did not mean a leg up, but a leg down.
Much of our country still suffers following the plight of enforced busing and the societal shift that wrought. They are unwilling to give more in what they perceive as some great liberal societal agenda. They may have to abide by Supreme Court decisions, but no one forces their hand in the voting booth.
It is my contention that race is a much larger issue for many voters than the actual policy statements of either candidate. If Obama loses this election, it will go down in history as the most grievous political miscalculation in many generations.
What should be a gimme election for the democrats is instead a battle. The Democrats have short-sold the lingering resentment of many Americans following the implementations of the initiatives of LBJ's Great Society. These are people for whom Equal Opportunity did not mean a leg up, but a leg down.
Much of our country still suffers following the plight of enforced busing and the societal shift that wrought. They are unwilling to give more in what they perceive as some great liberal societal agenda. They may have to abide by Supreme Court decisions, but no one forces their hand in the voting booth.
These are simple thoughts, things I have heard and observed.
[1] Many do not want Affirmative Action shoved down their throats once again. To them, they suffered and still suffer as a result of the unfortunate side-effects of those policies.
As a black man running for president, Obama personifies Affirmative Action. They remember 40 years ago, and school busing, and the breakdown of communities around that momentous event. Though Brown vs. Board of Education mandated desegregation "with all deliberate speed," most districts avoided the actuality until almost 20 years later. When it came, it presaged the "White Flight phenomenon."
Both black and white communities suffered a loss of cohesion after enforced busing, and many cities have never recuperated. The Housing Administration's Cabrini-Greens were often little better than jails for their inhabitants.
In addition, Affirmative Action and racial quotas insured that many white people lost jobs, oftentimes to less-qualified black candidates. Integration would not have arrived in any timely manner had these Civil Rights Era policies not been implemented in such a way. However, bitterness remains.
In 1978, Alan Bakke, a UC Davis medical school student refused admittance solely on the basis of his race appealed his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, winning a Reverse Discrimination suit upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. This win was heralded every bit as much by the white community as O.J.'s beating the murder rap was by the black community in 1995.
[2] They see the Department of Homeland Security detains people with names like "Hussein" and "Obama" ("Osama"?), and who wear goatherder's duds like Obama did in that picture, right?
[3] Aren't we at war with people with names like "Hussein" and "Obama"?
[4] Whites are also facing the reality that they may be the last generation of a white American plurality. For those who feel buffeted and displaced by the system, Obama for president may be one bridge too far.
I've been following the pussyfooting around on race this election with curiosity (Does Race Really Matter?). From reading the papers, one gets the impression there are small pockets of barbarity in the hinterlands, but overall, this won't amount to much. 9-11% of whites say Obama's race might be problematic for them; 90% of blacks are voting for Obama, and race is a significant element of their support. Somehow, their racism is less onerous than that of the apprehensive whites.
Obama's presidential bid demonstrates the effectiveness of the Civil Rights movement, but it also reveals the schism and subsequent lack of reconciliation which many feel the Affirmative Action initiatives heralded.
Obama has been marketing as spanning a large swath of the electorate: he is black and white; Old School and New; he may listen to rap on his iPod, but he wears tailored HartMarx suits. One WaPo writer recently mistakenly declared he is not even a part of the Baby Boom generation, so wanting was he to make of Obama an innocent (of consumerism, or anything negative.)
When crude rapper Ludacris sang him an homage, Obama dutifully declined the favor. He is the perfectly disinterested observer, and he orates from on high. He encompasses as much as he can. Like Bill Clinton, "He is not always eloquent, but he is always fluent, which is easily mistaken for eloquence" (Clues in the Mist.)
But the legacy of slavery and race relations are the great sorrows of this nation, which will perdure past the current sorrows of our own making, and they attach to Obama solely due to his race. This is the subtext of this election for many disenfranchised white voters.
The war on drugs has not been successful. Violence, drug use and prison overcrowding are blights upon our society. While these problems do not solely affect the black community, 70% of unwed teen mothers are black; 50% of new AIDS cases last year were in the black community. One of every five black males is in jail. There is a problem in our society.
Some see Obama's nomination as a social experiment to help quell restive populations. We want no more Kwame Kilpatricks (Ex-Detroit Mayor Begins Prison Term) or Marion Barrys. If you are not a scary black, like Tupac or Biggie Smalls, you too might be fronted for The Highest Office in the Land. Those who think this resent voting for president-as-social-balm.
This is how it looks to some members of the electorate.
Labels: race as determinative issue in 2008 election, why obama might lose
posted by Lisa at 11:15 AM
17 Comments:
Barack Obama is "black"?
BARACK OBAMA'S FAMILY TREE
Jim,
In general, I can agree with many of the ideas you note in this post. No question race is still a key issue (black, white, asian, etc) in this race; and the varying perceptions about how well/how poorly affirmative action has treated any particular group in this country will affect how and why voters vote on Tuesday.
But, I do have to quibble with your implied comment that Barack Obama is not a Generation X'er (13er). Obama was born in 1961 and is a early wave X'er. In Strauss and Howe's Generations, the authors delineated the "Reactive" 13er (X'er) Generation as those Americans born between 1961 and 1981. In their 1991 description of the Reactive archetypes, S & H noted that in general, these are people who grow up under protected and criticized (by society) as youths, mature into risk-taking, alienated rising adults, mellow into pragmatic mid-life leaders and maintain respect as reclusive elders. The last American reactive generation was the "Lost Generation (1883-1900) that gave us such great citizens as Eisenhower, Truman, Patton, Earl Warren, and Reinhold Neibuhr.
Contrast this to S&H's description of the immediately preceding "Idealist" generation, America's Boomers born between 1943 and 1960. Idealists are dominant, inner-fixated and indulged youths who's coming of age inspires a societal spiritual awaking, fragments into narcissistic rising adults, cultivates principle as moralistic mid-lifers and emerge as visionary elders guiding the country during a secular crisis. The last two Presidents have been Boomers and today, much of the political machinery at all levels of our nation are led by Boomer generation citizens.
(In case you're wondering, McCain is a "Silent Generation (1925-1942) figure, and if he wins, would become the ONLY silent gen member to rise to the Presidency (something that S&H predicted may never happen). Silents are of the Adaptive archetype, described as recessive, with overprotected and smothering childhoods, risk-adverse and conformist rising adulthoods, indecisive mid-lifers and influential (but not respected) elders. Sound familiar?)
In any case, this election has been one as much about a generational change (meaning, the removal of Boomers from the levers of power) as it has been about electing a black man or woman to the highest office. Not unlike 1960 or even 1932 in its seriousness for our future, Nov 4 will set the course our country takes and the civic realignment that will last for the next 60-80 years. I for one and damn glad to see that many, many, many of our citizens are engaged and determined to be a part of it.
As an 13er myself, I am wildly proud and supremely happy to see "one of my own" rise to compete to lead our country. We're gonna need some pragmatic leadership in the coming years.
As for Kwame and Marion (again, two widely divergent generations of men there!), how come no mention of other distinguished black American politicians like Cory Booker (Newark), Deval Patrick (MA) or Adrian Fenty (DC)? Or any discussion of poor, inflammatory white leaders (Frank Rizzo comes to mind)? Failed politicians come in all stripes, colors, persuasions and genders. Some are good. Some are bad. All must be held accountable by their electorate. And they are.
SP
Hi Serving Patriot,
My piece, not Jim's.
The Baby Boom Gen. spans 1946-64. I'm younger than Obama, and I'm Baby Boom. Of course lines are wavy and arbitrary, as are are the airy descriptions of how a Boomer might deviate from an X-er.
As for the other politicians, this piece is my representation of how some voters think, and those voters aren't thinking of the "good" black politicians.
Yeah Mad Celt, exactly. But that's the drum the press is beating.
here's the thing that, as a racial minority, i see every day. it's. fucking. there.
always.
ever lasting.
immobile.
pernicious.
one of the few places where race matters less is the military. thanks to truman's order. still. it's there.
my unit was elite in every sense of the word. racism was there.
if you looked at the teams working out of subic, you saw white boys.
if you looked at the teams working out of bangkok, you saw white boys.
cam ranh? white boys. saigon? white boys. every place that had air conditioning, hot showers and chow, cold beer. white boys.
if you got to the assholes of the boonies like dong ap bai. the complexion grew darker. african americans, philipinos, mexicans, puerto ricans, native americans began to not only show up in numbers, at times they would predominate.
in the regulars, marines, and army, it was as much if not more pronounced. the shittier the billet, the darker the hues.
another thing to remember. even a 101 statistics student will tell you. you can't get numbers like that without a. fucking. plan.
shit like that does not, and cannot, simply happen that way. it must be engineered.
one of the reasons i was glad to move away from arizona is the racism that pervades life there. it's everywhere. it's so ingrained into the fabric of their society that they don't even know it's happening. it's there. boundries are laid out and respected faithfully as if they were drawn with razor wire. lines are not crossed.
i have a black polo shirt that i had embroidered right after obama announced his candidacy. in gold thread it says:
If You Kill Obama We Will
Blow Shit Up
i fought through the racism of arizona. i fought through the shitty schools they had for indian kids. i tell my kids that i stole my education. my cousin and i used to raid the donated books before they could be censored. i lived with an LDS family all through high school on their indian placement program so that i could go to an accredited high school (read: white) i worked the melon fields all summer.
i went into the military mainly to get ahold of the g.i. bill so that i could get myself a college education.
most of the kids that i grew up with didn't. most of them saw the obstacles placed before them and conceded. most of them are dirt fucking poor today.
to my thinking, a plan, like affirmative action, while it may inconvenience a few folks here and there doesn't do the larger harm that the way things were did.
so, go ahead. build me a crappy school, staff it with missionary volunteers. i figure out a way to go somewhere else. price a college education out of my reach. i find another way. (that is, if i manage to survive always being sent to the hottest parts of the worst conflicts)
i was the type that could not be stopped. there were slaves that taught themselve to play the piano and read by attending the lessons of their masters. you can't stop everybody. some of us won't allow that.
still, too many others, not possing my dynama (will to fight in ancient greek) are turned away, discouraged. there needs to be something, someway, to save some of the kids who weren't given my drive, my fight, and my will.
it's only fucking fair.
MB,
Thank you for sharing, MB. Your dynama is especially strong.
You speak from knowledge: "boundaries are laid out and respected faithfully as if they were drawn with razor wire. lines are not crossed." This is what I am speaking of. Endemic prejudice.
Brutality happens every day, everywhere. Sometimes the lines circumscribe a race; sometimes a gender, religion or an economic class. (Only today, a girl stoned to death in an arena of 1,000 spectators in Somalia.) Bigotry is nothing new. Hatred grows out of fear.
As a supposedly civilized society, we must help those in absolute need. Hopefully, help them into a position of self-sufficiency, when that is appropriate. Education needs to be more accessible, but it, like everything else, is only becoming more expensive.
There needs to be a fair determination of how allowances are made. It seems pretty obvious that those at an economic disadvantage are most in need of assistance both for basic needs, and education to end the cycle. "Economic disadvantage" transcends the color line.
Unfortunately, as an educator, I can attest to the fact that many students today have learned to game the system, and get their check without sincere educational intent. They are cracking down on this now, but that is always a problem that sticks in people's craw: exploitation. (Kind of like what the Bush's did.) That's why oversight is so necessary.
I don't have the panacea to prejudice and racism -- I just observe it.
Lisa,
Sorry I mis-addressed my comment! :)
There's no question that people who find themselves in the blend-over period between the generational archetypes can fall up/down from their peers. I see it happen a lot - especially for those who were born during the Kennedy Administration.
What really makes your generational affiliation is the experiences you grow up with during your childhood - and the parenting you receive. 13ers are considered to be the first American generation that grew up with widespread divorce and single-parenting. That Barack Obama, the son of an essentially single-parent, exhibits all the best qualities of a 13er is no mistake.
As for the voters, they too are impacted by their generational position. Its also no mistake that the rise of 13er politicians follows immediately the curtain call of the last great civic generation (the GIs, born 1901-1924). And not a moment too soon either. The civics were the last political restraints placed upon the Boomer politician (who worries more about the grannies and social security/medicare than the young schoolchildren). The 13ers and, more importantly, the following Millenials (1982-2000), are the least racially polarized and most multi-cultural generations ever raised in America. Combined with the significant immigration experienced in the 1980s/1990s, this country is ready to take the next step and break the bonds of deep-seated racialism.
There very well could be a significant number of folks who will vote for the black man simply because they can not vote for the old man (or his clearly unprepared lady-dictator-in-waiting or because they can't wait any longer for the government to help them out).
This does not mean that racism will ever NOT be part of the culture. It will always be there. As it is even in the most long-lived cultures on the planet (dare I raise the Middle East or India?). If as a nation we can recognize our faults and act with the humility our great religions demand of us, then we can ameliorate its most pernicious effects.
Thanks for the wonderful thread.
SP
And MB....
I really, REALLY love the shirt!
SP
This may be a bit off topic. Why is it that everyone assumes that there are only two candidates? Why is it "I have to vote for Obama or McCain"? There are other candidates. Baldwin, Mckinney, Barr, and a host of others. There are more choices out there than the two media front men.
Yes, MC, Obama's Black. And MB, the wars we get into are racist, too.
Slick Rick,
Thank you for saying that. We do have choices, and the mere act of exercising your franchise is a patriotic one.
Any qualifying candidate is as valid a choice as any other.
SP,
"Barack Obama, the son of an essentially single-parent, exhibits all the best qualities of a 13er is no mistake" . . . or, one of the worst attributes of the 13'ers.
Any attempts to categories people are more for media curiosity than any hardcore realities. I know X-ers who are far more Baby Boomer than any Boomer, and Boomers who are more like Gen Y or X. So it's all hype and arbitrary.
What it not hype are the sociological shifts that accompany political and legislative changes. People, as you say, are more responsive to their personal environment (parents, peers) than they are to changes on the larger stage. So, greedy, entitled parents = greedy, entitled kids.
Obviously, there is a flow here, as far as society's ability to impact any unit. No doubt the "Millenials" are less bothered by color lines, but my post posed the question: Are we ready yet?
Because this is not a nation of "Millenials," and their impact is not about to trickle down to those who were adversely affected by the First Wave of the Civil Rights agenda.
We all hope for a colorblind society, and for everyone to do right, but that is not where we are. Look around. It is what it is.
Lisa: I think you're very right in your assessment of this situation.
But.
There does have to be a point where you have to choose to either give up or fight. We came to that point in 1860. The 49.5% percent (or whatever) of the U.S. public that thought it was OK to own a person like a dog or a chair so long as that person was darker than a cup of cafe' au lait had backed down to the furthest point they could go. In the Good World the 50.5 percent would have just passed an amendment ending chattel slavery, as the British did three generations earlier, and tht would have been that. But it didn't happen that way. Slavery ended because the slaveowners lost a war.
So, while I agree that Obama's not my man and now's not the time, the question Minstrel Boy asks is still valid: if not now, when? If not us, who? Until we're willing to accept African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, Gyno-Americans (probably the most commonly disrespected "minority" in the country - women) as presidents, CEOs, Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs...in other words, until we're willing to accept that, regardless of how you FEEL, you WILL accord EVERY American the same rights and privledges...we're gonna wind up fighting this same fight every fricking day.
The military is a good example. Yes, there sure as hell is racism in the Army I served in - MB nailed it when he observed that the shittier the detail the darker the troops.
But.
It was several orders of magnitude better than 1944, when entire regiments of African-Americans could be detailed degrading tasks just "because".
And this didn't happen because somehow GIs and officers "got over" their racism. It happened because, just like the Southerners in 1865, somebody with a bigger fist - in this case Harry Truman's Commander-in-Chief fist - shoved it in their face and told them: "Get over it".
So I regret that this issue is going to hound and hammer an Obama Administration, if that's the outcome tomorrow. But, at the same time, I;
1. Think that this is something we as a nation need to get over, and,
2. Think that we're not going to just "get over it" on our own. It's going to take a top-down fiat.
Whether this is the time and place...we might just find out.
Chief,
I don't doubt any of your words, or those of anyone else who has responded here.
My sorrow will be if the change that needs to occur (i.e., to a Democratic presidency) does not, because somehow we got sidetracked about fighting this other battle that we forgot to recognize as being more pernicious and deeply rooted than we wished to acknowledge. This presidential election should not be about race, but it is.
It is my contention that the presidential race is not the place to try to iron out our residual bigotry. Certainly not this election, as there is too much else critical on the table.
This election is crucial for a multitude of reasons other than lingering racism. If anything sinks it for the Democrats, this issue will be it.
Gotta put hip-high waders on to get through all of the BS floating around here.
Without throwing too many turds out there, this white boy voted (early) for Obama. And, yes, I believe that if he loses, it'll be attributable to racism.
I'll leave it to the rest of you to sort out who belongs to what generation, voice profound sociological thoughts and solve racism in the military.
Dang... that many members of the electorate have their heads pushed deeply into their third point of contact is indisputable... the question I have is so FU%$ing what?
There have always been legions of uneducated, (and sometimes highly educated) bigoted, self-absorbed and selfish fu#@tards roaming the earth, but despite that fact we have been moving slowly forward since ancient times and their continued existence gives me no reason to fold up shop and ask the scary negro to step down so they will be more comfortable.
I am much more alarmed by the prospect of continuing the rapid slide toward a police state filled with cowards who are willing to give up all the freedoms they are constantly howling about so Big Daddy can protect them from the terrorist boogeyman.
Yes, tempers are running high.
If the Dems lose this election it will be because of voting machines and voter suppression.
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