Many if not most people in the dreaded public, make their decisions based on soundbytes, word of mouth, religious affiliation and aesthetics, a trend which greatly disturbs me. I'd just as soon have people not vote than make their decisions based on such shoddy criteria. But one item that has always been a conspicuous point of internal debate has been race.
Who knows where we would be had Malcolm X or Dr. King not been martyred. Perhaps this subject would be a laughable memory, referring to our collective ignorance back when we had to address it as a problem. But the fact is, we are here and we are stunted where this subject is concerned. I must say however, one of the things I loved about the democratic side of this year's circus, was that either way you went, you were going into uncharted territory. It was a definite "hurry up", whispered into the ears of the constituents to begin looking at candidates for more than how they may ease and comfort us, visually. Either you would have the first woman in the office or the first black person in office. I relished every minute of watching people come to their decisions.
I was also impressed by how (relatively) little attention was paid to either physical attribute. It seems that this could have been a much more explosive and contentious process, so I must give us as a collective whole, a shred of credit. Now however, it seems we have the new school against the old school. The representation of a blended society, racially, religiously and ideologically, against the institution of the older, white male. I have very few gripes about John McCain and this will be an interesting race for me personally, because I truly have not made up my mind yet. But this article, I think sums up the unspoken race issue and what it's going to take for this to be a truly objective fight.
And so the battle begins. Three and a half months of skirting the tough questions, beating up on each other and lobbing out bizarre accusations, are about to commence. I don't think that race will have anything to do with the platform of either campaign, or at least I hope it wont. I'd much rather see all of the fat, bible-thumping, Nascar-white-bread nation folk just come over to the 21st century and realize that we are no longer in the world of the white male as most fit leader. In fact, I have to say that the demographic of those who "know best" is a population in flux. This is not to say that all white, older men are evil, just that the ones who are, probably have a shorter shelf-life these days. And thank your higher power for that, because the sooner we get God and exclusive christianity out of our government, the better. He wasn't supposed to be in the pledge of allegiance in the first place.
And so on this subject of race in the White House, I am both fearful and hopeful. Mostly fearful that we are going to waste too much time on a subject that when boiled down, really doesn't matter. Are we still not solid enough as a people to be judged by the "content of our character?"
Yes, I know, more hate mail on the way. I'm on a roll.
1 comment :
The historical significance of race in America can certainly not be ignored. Even us flaming liberals who claim to be completely color blind walk faster through Harlem (whether we like to admit it or not).
It is this deep rooted history and the clear split between people who want to claim it as "problem solved" and those who want to claim it as "the biggest issue facing our nation today" that makes race such a hot button.
Let's face it, when you talk to people this is an all or nothing issue. Either they are completely color blind and don't care if you are black, white, yellow or purple or every issue is one of race relations. Every time the black kid gets picked last for the kickball team it is because of racism not because he genuinely sucks at kick ball. And every time a black man gets picked for a job over a white candidate it is because of affirmative action not because he is genuinely more qualified.
The very absurdity of these examples is probably glaringly obvious but the point might not be. The idea is that race is an important issue, in America between whites and blacks and world wide among people of all different races and creeds (take Northern vs southern Indians for example). But at the end of the day it isn't the most critical issue and it certainly is anything but solved.
In this election certainly both candidates have their strengths and certainly (beyond any shadow of a doubt) both have their weaknesses. As stated this is not an election of merits but rather a media circus. As such I predict race will play a major role as it is easy to get people engaged on the issue, largely because of it's polarizing effect.
There is a happy medium people.
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