Racial politics.
Former President Clinton talks about Obama and racism.
Dear America:
Racism is not dead just because we elected a black President.
Thanks. - Me
That said, recently Former President Carter stated that a lot of the hate against Obama is racially motivated. I'm glad that someone had the guts to say it. Do I think that means that people are going to start burning crosses on the White House lawn? No. I don't. But racism doesn't just exist in extremists. It exists in a privilaged society where the privilaged refuse to recognize their privilage. In this case, it's white society failing to recognize their privilage by virtue of the color of their skin.
Race is an arbitrary, socially defined characteristic. Most of the time race can be recongized easily as skin color is often a major determiner of race. Others, not so much. For example, Jewish people are traditionally not seen as white, regardless of where in the world their family may be from and what color their skin. You wouldn't know all of the time by looking at someone that they may be Jewish, however, so they are often afforded white privilage unless it's made apparent that they are Jewish (clothing of orthodox Jewish people comes to mind). Some people are black because their parent is black. My nephew is biracial; his mother is white and his father is black. He is a very light skinned child. Because his father is black, he's black, according to the state. They claim that if his mother was black and his father was white he would be considered "white" but I doubt that highly and have never seen it happen. (for the record, I don't think he should be "classified" as white either. I think the state needs to recognized biracial/multiracial/"mixed" people in their demographics). That said, it's relatively obvious that President Obama is not going to be classified as a white man.
Anyone who ignores the impact that race can have on a person's political career is either stupid or in denial. Since his election, President Obama has presented a challenge to the "Good Ol' Boys club" just by matter of being black. He defies the stereotype of a black man-- he's very intelligent, very well-spoken, is well educated. I don't know that the government elected officials have ever really known what to do with him. There are other people of racial minorities elected to office as well, and I would say the same thing for them. Heck, look at what happened with Sonia Sotomayor. Former President Clinton states that he thinks a lot of the people who are against Obama's health care reform would be that way if he were white. And to an extent, I think he's right. Clinton also fought for nationalized health care in the early 90s in his welfare reform bill. His bill was gutted, a bare carcass of the original bill now affectionately refered to as TANF was passed and signed in '96. Changing the way we do things in this country to make them more fair and equal is always going to be met with extreme hostility in the government. The people at the top have been created and fed by a broken system that only works for them, why would they want to change it? Any threat to their seat in the heirarchy is going to be met with guns blazing. We saw this with the sufferagette movement, we saw this with the end of segregation, we saw this with the Voting Rights Act, we see this in the constant battle loss of the ERA, we see this in the fight for gay marriage. Everyday this happens and anytime you're going to try to show the majority that they aren't any better than the rest of the world, you're in for a fight. This includes healthcare. So I do think that, regardless of Obama's race, there would be a large amount of hostility about health care reform.
However, I don't think the sheer level of disrespect that we currently see would be occuring. I believe there is a fair number, a large number even, of people who are against President Obama regardless of his stance purely because he's a black man. I also think that had President Obama been a white man, the outburst we saw from Rep. Wilson would not have happened. Regardless of whether he want to admit it, to himself or the rest of the world, Rep. Wilson would not have done what he did on the Congress floor had he respected President Obama as President of the United States of America. I don't think that he would be so protected by Republicans and moderates on both sides if they respected the President. I believe that a good amount of that lack of respect comes from the fact that President Obama is black.
Racism continues to be a huge problem in this country. The problem is that it's not blatent like it was in previous generations. There's no segregation, no lying to our children that seperate can be equal while putting black children in squalored schools. No, it's more subversive than that, hidden beneath the surfaceand oozing into the fabric of society unchecked and understated. The biggest reason is unchecked privilage and minimalization of the problem. Racial minorities can scream it from the rooftops, but if white people are going to sit and criticize them for "always making it about race" and "playing the race card" when "racism doesn't exist anymore" because we have a black president, then we're not going to get anywhere. The majority needs to recognize it before it can start to disappear, and until then we'll continue to struggle with race as a nation whether we want to recognize it or not.
Dear America:
Racism is not dead just because we elected a black President.
Thanks. - Me
That said, recently Former President Carter stated that a lot of the hate against Obama is racially motivated. I'm glad that someone had the guts to say it. Do I think that means that people are going to start burning crosses on the White House lawn? No. I don't. But racism doesn't just exist in extremists. It exists in a privilaged society where the privilaged refuse to recognize their privilage. In this case, it's white society failing to recognize their privilage by virtue of the color of their skin.
Race is an arbitrary, socially defined characteristic. Most of the time race can be recongized easily as skin color is often a major determiner of race. Others, not so much. For example, Jewish people are traditionally not seen as white, regardless of where in the world their family may be from and what color their skin. You wouldn't know all of the time by looking at someone that they may be Jewish, however, so they are often afforded white privilage unless it's made apparent that they are Jewish (clothing of orthodox Jewish people comes to mind). Some people are black because their parent is black. My nephew is biracial; his mother is white and his father is black. He is a very light skinned child. Because his father is black, he's black, according to the state. They claim that if his mother was black and his father was white he would be considered "white" but I doubt that highly and have never seen it happen. (for the record, I don't think he should be "classified" as white either. I think the state needs to recognized biracial/multiracial/"mixed" people in their demographics). That said, it's relatively obvious that President Obama is not going to be classified as a white man.
Anyone who ignores the impact that race can have on a person's political career is either stupid or in denial. Since his election, President Obama has presented a challenge to the "Good Ol' Boys club" just by matter of being black. He defies the stereotype of a black man-- he's very intelligent, very well-spoken, is well educated. I don't know that the government elected officials have ever really known what to do with him. There are other people of racial minorities elected to office as well, and I would say the same thing for them. Heck, look at what happened with Sonia Sotomayor. Former President Clinton states that he thinks a lot of the people who are against Obama's health care reform would be that way if he were white. And to an extent, I think he's right. Clinton also fought for nationalized health care in the early 90s in his welfare reform bill. His bill was gutted, a bare carcass of the original bill now affectionately refered to as TANF was passed and signed in '96. Changing the way we do things in this country to make them more fair and equal is always going to be met with extreme hostility in the government. The people at the top have been created and fed by a broken system that only works for them, why would they want to change it? Any threat to their seat in the heirarchy is going to be met with guns blazing. We saw this with the sufferagette movement, we saw this with the end of segregation, we saw this with the Voting Rights Act, we see this in the constant battle loss of the ERA, we see this in the fight for gay marriage. Everyday this happens and anytime you're going to try to show the majority that they aren't any better than the rest of the world, you're in for a fight. This includes healthcare. So I do think that, regardless of Obama's race, there would be a large amount of hostility about health care reform.
However, I don't think the sheer level of disrespect that we currently see would be occuring. I believe there is a fair number, a large number even, of people who are against President Obama regardless of his stance purely because he's a black man. I also think that had President Obama been a white man, the outburst we saw from Rep. Wilson would not have happened. Regardless of whether he want to admit it, to himself or the rest of the world, Rep. Wilson would not have done what he did on the Congress floor had he respected President Obama as President of the United States of America. I don't think that he would be so protected by Republicans and moderates on both sides if they respected the President. I believe that a good amount of that lack of respect comes from the fact that President Obama is black.
Racism continues to be a huge problem in this country. The problem is that it's not blatent like it was in previous generations. There's no segregation, no lying to our children that seperate can be equal while putting black children in squalored schools. No, it's more subversive than that, hidden beneath the surfaceand oozing into the fabric of society unchecked and understated. The biggest reason is unchecked privilage and minimalization of the problem. Racial minorities can scream it from the rooftops, but if white people are going to sit and criticize them for "always making it about race" and "playing the race card" when "racism doesn't exist anymore" because we have a black president, then we're not going to get anywhere. The majority needs to recognize it before it can start to disappear, and until then we'll continue to struggle with race as a nation whether we want to recognize it or not.