more from melissa.
No one, not once, not ever even considered the possibility of talking to Melissa the Professor. Melissa is a woman. She is black, divorced, and raising a child without consistent financial support from the father. She is extremely well-educated, lives on the East Coast, and makes a good salary. Despite her education and decent income all her wealth is tied up in her home and she still worries about how to care for her aging mother whose retirement has been wiped out in the Wall Street crash this month. She will never own her own business, but during her career she will help educate thousands of political and economic leaders. She opposed the war from the start, is willing to pay higher taxes if all Americans can have health care, opposes Walmart on ethical grounds, and worries every day about the declining quality of public education.
No candidate thinks it is relevant to talk to Melissa the Professor because she lives in a safe blue state and has supported Obama from the beginning. She is not a swing voter so she is not a topic of conversation in the debates.
But it is more than that. The deeper alienation emerges from the sense that Melissa is not representative of "real Americans." Presumably real Americans don't read books or the NYTimes. They don't control their own fertility. They don't make up their minds more than 12 hours before a major national election. Real Americans don't call the plumber, they are the plumber.
Real Americans are not descended from American slaves. They are not black and their hair is not nappy.
Barack does not look into the camera and decry racism because we are not really Americans. We are not allowed to express our political needs or tell our political histories because when we do it makes other people feel uncomfortable. African Americans are still supposed to be grateful for being saved from the "savagery of Africa," civilized by the cross, offered the crumbs of capitalism, and given the chance to die for the flag. Our sacrifices and our suffering are still elective courses, not required reading. Barack does not talk to Melissa the professor because if he did he would be labeled a special interest politician, even though worrying about Joe the Plumber is somehow universal.
http://princetonprofs.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-melissa-professor-has-some.html
xposted from my lj.
No candidate thinks it is relevant to talk to Melissa the Professor because she lives in a safe blue state and has supported Obama from the beginning. She is not a swing voter so she is not a topic of conversation in the debates.
But it is more than that. The deeper alienation emerges from the sense that Melissa is not representative of "real Americans." Presumably real Americans don't read books or the NYTimes. They don't control their own fertility. They don't make up their minds more than 12 hours before a major national election. Real Americans don't call the plumber, they are the plumber.
Real Americans are not descended from American slaves. They are not black and their hair is not nappy.
Barack does not look into the camera and decry racism because we are not really Americans. We are not allowed to express our political needs or tell our political histories because when we do it makes other people feel uncomfortable. African Americans are still supposed to be grateful for being saved from the "savagery of Africa," civilized by the cross, offered the crumbs of capitalism, and given the chance to die for the flag. Our sacrifices and our suffering are still elective courses, not required reading. Barack does not talk to Melissa the professor because if he did he would be labeled a special interest politician, even though worrying about Joe the Plumber is somehow universal.
http://princetonprofs.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-melissa-professor-has-some.html
xposted from my lj.