Links – 2008-11-10
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam blogs for WireTap about Equality Deferred.
Lost in this celebration, however, has been any serious treatment of the Arab and Muslim question. Obama was ceaselessly and openly pilloried by conservatives as a foreign, exotic, unpredictable quantity, not only because he was of mixed racial heritage, but also because he was wrongly said to be Muslim and Arab. And while the Obama campaign fought firmly and intelligently to overcome voters’ fears about electing an African-American, they rarely took the extra step of condemning the anti-Arab and anti-Ihttp://www.racialicious.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpslamic caterwaul of their opponents’ campaign.
Ralph Nader asks if Obama will be an “Uncle Tom,” gets called out by Fox News. Bint Alshamsa offers video and a bit of commentary.
2008 Voter Turnout was about 62.5% of the electorate.
The NY Times follows up with Pennsylvania voters in The Transformation:
A lot of people in Levittown needed the five months between the primary election and Tuesday to get used to a new idea. After Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, followed by a financial crisis that shook Americans to the core, they came to terms. If Mr. Obama’s race had been a factor, they eventually had to weigh it against other concerns.
“For a long time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was black, if you know what I mean,” Mr. Sinitski, the heating and air-conditioning technician, told me. “I’m not proud of that, but I was raised to think that there aren’t good black people out there. I could see that he was highly intelligent, and that matters to me, but my instinct was still to go with the white guy.”
Mr. Sinitski said what pushed him toward Mr. Obama, more than anything, was McCain’s vice-presidential choice of Mrs. Palin. “She might be a great person, but I had never heard of her before and I couldn’t see how such an unknown should be put one heartbeat from the presidency,” he said, “especially with all the problems we’ve got. I didn’t feel it spoke well for McCain. It didn’t demonstrate intelligence on McCain’s part and it just didn’t reflect well in general on him.”
Monica Roberts (TransGriot) writing for the Bilerico Project on Falling for the Okey-Doke:
Today the Religious Right, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and the rest of the right wing Cylons are pleased because their plan to split the African-American community from the GLBT one is working to perfection.
And the counter to it doesn’t start on Rhode Island Ave. The National Black Justice Coalition has been around for several years and with more funding could be an effective counterweight to them,
We also can’t be ignored junior partners you call only when you need some melanin in the picture to prove how inclusive you are. When you’re formulating the strategy, we need to be at the table helping plan and executing it. When we African-American GLBT peeps tell y’all something, quit dismissing it and listen.
The civil rights you save may be your own.
Elton sends in this article: Obama’s Victory: Governing, Not Race.
The ritual preface of the word black in front of every achievement or breakthrough by an African American is insulting, condescending and minimizes their achievement. It maintains and reinforces the very racial separation that much of America claims it is trying to get past. Dumping the historic burden of race on blacks measures an individual’s success or failure by a group standard. That’s a burden whites don’t have. They succeed or fail solely as individuals.
Browne blogging for LAEastside writes about her feelings on Prop 8, and the role of the LA Times in blowing up the blacks vs. LGBTs aspect of the story:
Feelings on Prop 8.
I’m upset that it did pass. Gay rights is a civil rights issue. I am not surprised that it passed, but that doesn’t stop me from being pissed about it.
I’m also angry about how the LA Times focus in regards to this seems to be just on black people. Just in this wide swath. Why aren’t we divided into different demographics like educated or Christian or blue collar? Why are we not individuals like how white people are viewed as individuals in the LA Times?
Kevin Roderick LA Observed (a long time comrade of people at the LA Times) makes a point to say 70% of the black population voted for Yes on 8 (over and over and over again), but fails to point out that we are six percent of California.
But on the other hand he doesn’t link one blog by an African-American writer (I’m pretty sure that was on purpose), though he does link blogs that talk about African-Americans celebrating, in African-American sections of LA after the Obama win.
If the black issue was such a concern to him then why not at least do that.
(And if the rights of gay people were important to him, why doesn’t he talk about it a little bit more. The time for talk about gay people and their rights was years ago, not two weeks before an election. I talk about equal rights for homosexuals, immigrants, racial minorities and woman all of the time, because I care about people, not because I want to denigrate another group, which sorry Kev, that sort what it looks like here. You don’t seem to care too much about civil rights.)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
em wrote:
wow. i finally brought myself to watch the fox news clip with nader responding to his “uncle tom” comment. wow. honestly, it was really saddening. in a way, nader and mccain do have one thing in common now: this past campaign will be a disfiguring blemish on their previously honorable careers.
it really upsets me that nader just doesn’t get it. the man has been involved and done much for progressive politics for decades, yet i can’t think of a better way to undermine progressive ideals and the people who support them than his comments during this campaign. the essence of his argument is one that many people agree with: will obama now act in the interests of the poor and middle class, or special interests? because, as tim wise wrote in his recent racialicious post, “obama is a heavily compromised candidate.” but really, nader, that much disrespect is just gross.
and contrary to many people’s reactions, i also thought that the fox news interviewer was gross. there was something that seemed SO false about his condemnation. i think he was more excited about catching crazy nader in a tight one, than anything else.
Posted 10 Nov 2008 at 11:38 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
Today the Religious Right, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and the rest of the right wing Cylons are pleased because their plan to split the African-American community from the GLBT one is working to perfection.
Is it really “their” plan or are they capitalizing upon layers of marginalization?
Pointing to that fool is way too easy and ignores the real issue.
I watched the panelists discuss this prop on Bill Maher and Farai Chideya made the point that the gay community should have gone into the churches notwithstanding their “fear” of being thrown out.
No, they should have turned to gay people of color and asked, “what can we do to assist you in the struggle?”
Posted 10 Nov 2008 at 4:23 pm ¶
Kjen wrote:
I read the entire post and found many of the posters to be very interesting, but my mind is still stumped by 63 percent. All these months, money, campaigning, waiting in long lines for hours to vote and 37 percent of people didn’t show up?!?
Posted 10 Nov 2008 at 6:27 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Re the right-wing’s “plan”: Fortunately, their plan of winning and holding the White House and Congress for a generation to come is in the toilet. *Flush!*
Posted 10 Nov 2008 at 6:29 pm ¶
Ada wrote:
Dan Savage is being fallacious in his “blacks are homophobic” rant. If the LGBT community wants people to vote for their right to vote, they should start in the church. They need to prove to the people that being anti-gay marriage is homophobia and that being gay is not immoral. People consider homophobia as all out hate crimes, not the tolerance rather than acceptance of gays. They haven’t done that, and most of the population of blacks in CA is older and part of the old guard that voted against it. Calculate age, religiosity/church attendance, and race doesn’t matter. It especially doesn’t matter when AfrAms are only 6% of the population. The only reason this point is being made by LGBTs is because Obama won the presidency and they feel they were owed gay marriage in choosing to vote for a liberal candidate; if he was completely white I doubt all this fuss would’ve been made. If you voted for him, you did so out of your own volition. So don’t hate, go out and educate. I’m sure eventually it will be reversed, but not with that attitude. You wouldn’t want to continue to alienate the 6% of the population that could make or break the next election you know, cuz 100%-6%=94%. That’s not a majority to win =P
Posted 11 Nov 2008 at 3:35 am ¶
Synaka wrote:
I think I’ve officially found a target in the prop 8 fiasco… “Tony Perkins”who has gone as far to defend the mormon churches, which have been hiding behind religious freedom while taking part in partisan politics in this matter, while suggesting that queers should be protesting african american churches.
And I don’t see him getting actively called out….
… Yeah. It could be suggested I’m taking it out of context but three separate interviews, several which he has alluded to and one on cnn, which he outright said… rather defeats that notion.
Although I still contest the argument of religion vs race, sexuality, gender … when it applies to the institution of religion. The same way in which muslims become demonized rather than individual people getting called out for their actions.
and African American Churches is a misnomer because even under the elusive tracks of faith-based initatives in the US, I personally have yet to find one that excludes people based on race, ethnicity or culture… and that a fair majority of churches whose population represents primamrily one group — usually is practicing the same religion, same format as other groups, with a similar recognition of cultural, geographical reflections and living in society as a whole.
Maybe I’m getting off-base… but for me, the issues aren’t as is.
Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 5:32 am ¶
Synaka wrote:
^a target which should have been my target.. but I am off-base.
With all the hangups of the issues… I don’t quite remember what the issues are… what the issues were. I look back and I feel disconnected.
I look at the issues now and I don’t even feel torn or lost, I’m not even on the map.
Part of me wants to rage. I want to rage. But anymore I don’t quite know for what.
I feel like I’m shouting out trying to play to multiple sides — multiple sides which are my reflection, my experiences, my history, my interests, my life.
And I go back and read myself, and the more I repeat myself in various places… sure it outlines my beliefs, but more and more, I’m broken down into a slogan or catch-phrase.
fight for equality, fight h8, fight for a slogan I can remember, a tshirt I can wear, a logo I can use for an avatar.
A few opinions change, but most of it stays the same. Albeit I have no patience for a 40 days in the desert or the life to carry me centuries into a future where the majority of this has changed.
So I’ve seen a new president elected, one which I thought was the only strong candidate out of any of them… so really it’s not that much of a shock.
I never doubted he wouldn’t be elected, though after McCain got the title for the republican side, I did fantasize what would happen if he wasn’t. The same way I’d fantasize with what might happen if Prop8 didn’t pass… though I suspected it wouldn’t.
Though I couldn’t have predicted any of this… not in any of my fantasies.
But even then … I don’t think it’s all that of a shock. The reaction, the ability to turn a blind-eye on all sides.. that the opinions we held before only become amplified but also more confined.
It seems like this month should be over already… it seems like I should be retired and shaking my fist at the kids who trampled across my lawn….
I can remember those yesterdays, a little more than a decade ago in my combat boots and standing on the frontlines of several different protests.
These days I occasionally take a snapshot and I still do support and freelance work with immigration advocates and media. I vent in comments on various sites and blogs. My own getting shut down from fears of the govt years ago was my shining glory. But that’s just a call to ego as I’ve yet to be able to recapture that spirit to keep up or create a new one.
Maybe someone else can tell me what the issues are… I try to avoid television when I can – albeit most of the time I don’t remember to tune-in, unless I’ve made a note to preprogram the recorder.
I just don’t know what’s important in any of this anymore… do I even need an enemy or someone to point to? Maybe I do… I just don’t know.
Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 5:22 pm ¶