On Race in The Race

So, this post isn't going to be about who's the better candidate, specifically; although I think we all have a pretty good grasp of who I think that is, haha. Anyway, this post is going to be about the specter of race that's been the invisible elephant in the room throughout this campaign. I myself have noticed many forms of racism-some obvious, some not so much. Most recently, there was the case of Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia calling Michelle and Barack Obama uppity. Now, a lot of us are from the South and we immediately know the connotations of that word. Even if you're not from the South and you don't get it, I guarantee you that any person of color does get it.

Then, let's take Governor Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani's remarks at the RNC. Palin said "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." and Giuliani said “You have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a-community organizer. What???!!!". Please note that in both instances, the words "community organizer" were injected with as much sneering and mockery as can be squeezed into two words. Let's look at the facts. As a general rule, community organizers are some kind of minority (whether it be ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation), simply by virtue of the kind of work they do. Compare that to Palin's qualification of being a "hockey mom". Now, community organizing is a very ethnic, inner city, urban type of thing. Hockey mom is a very white, suburban type of thing.

Still don't see it? How about the latest ad by McCain's campaign? I'm not going to post the video on my blog because I can't stand to see it on here, but I'll give the text from it:

Narrator: "He was the world's biggest celebrity, but his star's fading. So they lashed out at Sarah Palin." "Dismissed her as "good looking". That backfired. So they said she was doing "what she was told". Then, desperately, called Sarah Palin a liar. How disrespectful. And how Governor Sarah Palin proves them wrong every day."

Okay, first off, let's correct all those out of context quotes that they attribute to Obama. On the "good looking" comment, here's what was actually said and who actually said it. Joe Biden, in Toledo, Ohio, "There's a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent," he said. "She's good looking." So, yeah, obviously kidding around, obviously making light of their differences in policy and also, um, NOT Barack Obama talking.

Secondly, there's the "doing 'what she was told'" comment. Now, what actually happened was that one of Obama's advisers said that she made a false claim about Obama's legislative record and said, "maybe that's what she was told."

Then, we'll take on the "liar" comment. Unfortunately for Palin, it's a matter of record that she is in fact a liar. She did support the Bridge to Nowhere and she has lied about that fact 9 times, to date.

All of that stuff is beside the point, but I couldn't let the lies stand without calling them out for what they are.

Finally, let's take on the "how disrespectful" bit. If you could only see this ad, you'd probably catch it. It's the black-man-disrespecting-white-woman schtick that hearkens back to the days preceding the Civil Rights movement. When a black man could be lynched and killed simply for looking at a white woman. This ad echoes the "oh lawd, the black mens is trying to rape our white women" hysteria that was so prevalent back then.

There's also the case of Representative Geoff Davis of Kentucky calling Obama that boy. I don't have to tell you all the things that are wrong with that, do I?

I think it should be pretty clear to anyone that racism has definitely been a part of this campaign. The only question is whether or not you choose to acknowledge it. I know a lot of people won't vote for Obama because he's black. And they admit it to themselves. Other people hide behind words like "I just don't know enough about him" or "I just don't trust him" or "There's just something about him..." because their racism and denial runs so deep that they can't even own up to it to themselves, much less anyone else. It makes me so unbearably sad that either of these scenarios could be true. As I've heard many people say lately, the dog whistles in this campaign are deafening.

This post is already getting long, but I'd like to post the text of an article that I read today. It's by an author named Tim Wise.

Here it is, in its entirety:

White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election


By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "f****n’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their f****n' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.

This article was originally published on Buzzflash.org. Please share this blog post with anyone that you think should see it. Whether you want them to see it because they commiserate with you on this issue, or because they don't believe that it even is an issue.