After the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, I’d worried that Barack was suffering from that familiar avoidance of confrontation with white people hammered into people of color by centuries of racism. We all know this subconscious awareness that the system is weighted against us, that whiteness can, by simply being, crush us into nothingness.
The second debate put that to rest. And if only for the fact that Barack voted to appropriate money for an overhead projector for a planetarium used by 8th graders, I’d gladly endorse him. A man who understands the wonderful impact of standing under a sky visible with planets, stars, galaxies and nebulae must have great empathy – something rare among those who deal with and in power.
John McCain’s “that one” comment confirmed my suspicion that he found it outrageous and enraging to have a young mixed blood challenge his right to power and title. Uppity, indeed! It must have lodged like a boulder in his bowels; he looked so constipated the whole evening.
As for Sarah Palin, she’s become a political potty-mouth. I should feel sorry for the woman but I ain’t.
2 comments:
I've read that even bell hooks gets objections from students and peers in her lectures because she also confronts racism in her feminist discourse. She is often scolded to leave race out of it. Would Obama be told the same?
I remember after the first debate one of the three male commentators said that for some reason McCain is so terribly bothered by Obama and is showing it. I think the other commentators knew exactly what he was talking about but were silently avoiding the issue of racism and class. Maybe many are just too afraid of America's violent history with racism to confront it.
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