US election time stresses racism issues
Not racist any more
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Mexican cultural critic, “Are we American?”
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thuglifearmy.com 15 Feb
2008
Noted Conservative Columnist Bruce Bartlett author of Wrong On Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past appeared on the February 13th edition of "The Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program," for a wide-ranging discussion on the 2008 election; the Barack Obama phenomenon; Immigration; Reparations; Republican outreach to Blacks; Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy; and the racist history of American political parties.
"Bruce Bartlett has written an important book about racism and American politics and we asked him some unique questions about it.
My view is that Black voters have had only one relationship with the two-party system in this country - one party ignores us while the other takes us for granted.
The question that remains to be asked is - can Black Americans really find an alternative home in the GOP tent? Hopefully this discussion and excellent interview will make all appreciate the value of the Black electorate and why its vote needs to become more predictable," Cedric Muhammad stated.
The Show is archived at (go to: Feb 13 Show)
Jack Engelhard Feb 14, 2008
As the results keep pouring in from the primary states, turns out that Barack Obama is the preferred choice among "white male" voters. Every time I turn around he's won three more states and keeps on prospering from those "white males" who can't jump but sure can vote.
That doesn't square with the widespread perception, as advertised from the Left, that we're a nation of bigots that must always lament our guilt. America, according to our Leftist sages, is always guilty as charged and must look to other nations to learn tolerance by example. Where, for instance?
Saudi Arabia, maybe? Or how about Kenya, which was home to Obama's father and which today is the site of some horrific tribal warfare? People there cast their votes by guns, knives and sabers.
Bigots will always be among us and that will never end until we, mankind, reach entire perfection – and won't that be a blessed day.
Meanwhile (along with Israel) has there ever been a nation – even with all our faults – that's been so inclusive?
Yes, we inherited slavery and that is an evil. But in this country we work on our mistakes and we fix our mistakes. Takes time, but we're on the job.
Need I mention Oprah? Oprah is by far the most powerful and influential man or woman in America. She can turn an unknown into a star simply by whispering the name. She makes best-sellers happen in an instant. She is worshiped and her devotees number in the millions, black and white.
Here, too, we keep being reminded that Oprah is a "token." By the tens of thousands they turned out for Obama on the day she bestowed her grace upon him. Some token. Obama has surged for many reasons, not least among them, Oprah. That (in my view) is when it started for him. It sure didn't hurt. Not her, not him.
What have we here – "Jesus Christ Superstar?" (Personally, I'm getting tired hearing about the multitudes who swoon for his talks – even when they don't know what he's talking about.)
At a time when Michael Jordan was dunking all those basketballs, was there a man more popular, more beloved than this sports figure?
Those were blacks who made him an icon, and those were whites who idolized him.
Does Tiger Woods lack for adulation? Name the tournament, and here come the multitudes surging the ropes and cheering him on against any "white" opponent.
No doubt if Obama loses this round or the next round, the same voices will cry racism, because that is more convenient than facing issues, or maybe his inexperience.
We'll hear that "America is not ready for a black president."
For some bloviators, the racism pot must always be kept boiling. Not to mention any names, except maybe Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton, racism keeps them in business, so far as defining America as bigoted. "America is racist" is the default position for anyone who wants to preserve his or her liberal credentials.
If Obama wins, don't place any bets that those people who divide us will clean out their drawers and go running for the exits; it will be more of the same from America-debunkers since, in so many cases, entire careers have been built in the offices of racial mud-slinging.
These people, who profile the entire country as intolerant, need SOMETHING to keep themselves occupied and surely somewhere, some lacrosse team (later to be proven totally innocent) will be imagined to have done something wrong, something bigoted, and that will be enough to tarnish the entire country – even with Obama in the White House.
The mere fact that he's this close means that, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., we can quit dreaming. We have awakened.
Michelle Obama, by the way, is on record as saying (from what I caught on TV) that if her husband loses, she's not sure if she'll support Hillary.
That's strange.
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nydailynews.com Feb 15th
2008
The U.S. took a historic step in December by voting against the United Nations budget on the ground that a small portion would pay for a conference destined to become a platform for anti-Semitism and the vilification of Israel.
The vote was a powerful moral statement that America wanted no association with a perversion of the world body's mission. Disgracefully, the General Assembly nonetheless bestowed official blessing on the so-called Durban II meeting.
And, now, the State Department has abandoned this forthright commitment to fairness and decency. Secretary of State Rice has refused to say what she should say:
The U.S. will not participate in, lend its prestige to or squander its moral authority by participating in a replay of the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.
Wonderfully, America's neighbor to the north has charted the right course.
"We'll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance," said Jason Kenney, a Canadian government minister, accurately summing up the depravities in store for the world when Durban II convenes next year.
Canada's clarity put Rice's stance to shame. Testifying in the Senate on Wednesday, she said, "We have not tried to make a final decision on this." Previously, the department's special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism had said, "It will be left to the decision of the succeeding administration."
Such diplo-dallying serves only to erode the high ground America has held since 2001, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to attend Durban I and the delegation he sent walked out. They had no choice.
Of all the countries on the planet, among which far too many are guilty of human rights violations, the conference condemned only one nation as supposedly racist: Israel.
Durban II is billed as a "review" of the conference's findings, and again the proceedings are heavily controlled by Israel's foes in the Islamic world.
Planning is under the aegis of members of the UN Human Rights Council, a body that, too, focuses its energies on a single country: Israel. The council has issued 15 resolutions in the past two years. Fourteen have attacked Israel, while Sudan, North Korea, China and myriad certified human rights abusers have gotten a pass.
Clearly, the deck is stacked. And it is wrong for Rice to pretend that, with cajoling and good thoughts, Durban II might just work out nicely. With Libya and Cuba serving as chair and vice chair of the conference, and Iran on the organizing committee, the event is doomed to become a propaganda playground for thugocracies.
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By Zachary Burk 14 Feb 2008
Carlos Monsiváis says that Mexicans think of themselves as Latin Americans, not North Americans.
Carlos Monsiváis, one of Mexico’s leading political and cultural critics, spoke about Mexican perception of the United States and Mexico’s place in North American culture in front of a packed auditorium at the Omni Mont-Royal Hotel on Wednesday evening.
The lecture, titled “The Other North America,” started off a three-day conference about North American identity dubbed “Are We American?” The conference is sponsored by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
Through his lighthearted and satirical lecture, Monsiváis addressed the identity crisis surrounding Mexican migration to the United States, and the impact that perceptions of the United States and modernization have on Mexican culture.
“Mexicans think of themselves not as North Americans but as Latin Americans,” Monsiváis said. “North America is to them the United States. Canada to them is just Canada, part of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], an institution that is not so good for Mexicans.”
He explained how the Mexican economy is tied to American trade, and linked this economic dependence to Mexicans’ interpretation of American culture as an expression of their identity.
How American culture reaches Mexico and offers people there a vision of modernity that is both appealing and imprisoning, he said.
“Young people feel trapped by MTV video clips and adults feel trapped by television commercials. Television becomes the only conceivable culture, and one’s life is invaded by fabrications,” Monsiváis said.
To Mexicans, modernity and the prospect of opportunities north of the border lead to an abandonment – or at least a confusion – of cultural roots, he contended, saying that the prospect of a stable income in the United States forces some to completely alter their culture to be able to adapt to a new life.
“The experience of uprooting to the United States is brutal. It leads to a transformation of a rural ethos into a highly modern medium...one in which everything seems reachable through work,” Monsiváis said.
“The idea exists that work defines a people,” he continued. By coming to the United States, migrants assumed this North American identity partially on their own, and that it was reinforced by others' views of them, he added.
Further, the Mexican population in the United States is culturally discriminated against and there is a perceived inferiority of Mexican customs by American society, he told the crowd.
“Mexican children are taught [in the United States] that their own poverty is because of their primitive culture and language, and that Anglo-Saxon education is necessary. The Mexican immigrants are defined [to many Americans] as cheap labor,” Monsiváis said.
He went on to describe what he called “racist” thinking in even mainstream America, pointing to the Democratic presidential candidates as proof.
“Obama and Clinton both back the idea of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico,” he said.
Throughout the lecture, Monsiváis voiced his disappointment that Mexicans are aspiring to an American culture that is both destroying their rural identity and meeting them with prejudice and racism.
When asked by an audience member if he thought it was necessary for Latin America to undergo a “revolution of thought” to earn the United States’ respect, Monsiváis argued about the importance of economy as a way to rejuvinate ideas.
“If you want a thinking revolution, what you have to do first is create jobs. Without that there is only turmoil, destroyed hopes, and the possibility of cities as laboratories of doom,” he said.
“But that is a very sad ending to my words, so I will say that I don’t believe in my recent words,” he added with a laugh.
See also
Racism and slavery in the deep south
Barack Obama's 'day that would never come'
Christian right
Mexican people power
Is Obama too black
US whites
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