Are we really over race?
By: devona walker
Watching the Inauguration on Tuesday, I fell prey to my more naive urges. I watched and listened to broadcast commentators fawn over the First Family and our collective diversity, brave the frigid temperatures, the crowds and the parking, just to be a part of the day. And I was thinking in the back of my mind. Maybe we are over race? Maybe this is the post-racial society Obama kept eluding to during the election.
Well, then, Joe Lowery started talking.
Some folks have been up in arms about his comments. Not me. It was just a dose of reality on a day that was beginning to look like a fairy tale.
I am tired of debating race, or post-race? We all know racism still exist. The question then becomes how did he do it. How did Barack Obama get into the White House despite this country’s racial issues. That was real genius of the Obama campaign: He literally had to keep the majority of this country enthralled in the fairy tale, not just for one day, but for the last 18 months.
Getting black folks to the polls
To read the complete blog, go to http://theloop21.com/blogs/pre…
i’m just curious as to whether you’re going to hang around long enough to join in the conversation. after all, you created a user just minutes before posting two diaries, both of which link to another blog. not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it rarely indicates a true interest in participating here on bmg. i look forward to a response.
Of course he generated unprecedented enthusiasm among African Americans, but I truly believe the vast majority of whites are not racist and probably didn’t give it a second thought. It also probably helped that he was not just “the black candidate” in the way that Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton would be, but more like Deval Patrick who just happens to be black.
i think whites did give obama’s blackness plenty of tnotice (impossible not to!), but decided it was a minor factor as compared to his political skill and so not something to factor into the vote decision. i also firmly believe that some white people chose to vote for him in part because it was their way of proving that they weren’t biased, and to relieve themselves of some guilt over the white privilege that they never asked for but get by accident of birth. i agree that it probably helped him with some whites that he was not part of the black civil rights old guard. being outside that group, he could be seen (rightly or wrongly) to be his own man and not necessarily connected to the “black agenda” which has endured many hurtful fights over affirmative action, etc.
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p>i am just one white person and cannot know how the other 300 million are thinking. but these are my impressions after speaking to the small sample of other american whites i know who live around the country.
Well, I am interested in BMG. It was suggested by the site administrator that this is the best method to share content.
I am essentially a print reporter who has gone to new media and guess I am a little unaware in terms of etiquette.
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p>I will respond to any questions, critiques or conversations that arise from the post.
looking forward to interesting discussions!
It’s unusual for someone to post two diaries in one day — and it’s suspicious for a new user to do so. My initial reaction, therefore, was skeptical, but I’m less concerned now.
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p>Welcome!
See, I am not so sure the vast majority of white people did not think about it. I am not white so I won’t totally disagree with you. But when you consider, just how frequently it was mentioned, or the fact that Fox News referred to his wife as his “baby’s momma” or the fact that he was called a terrorist, and Muslim, and all the other shenanigans, it’s really hard to fathom that white people didn’t think about it.
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p>The thing about race when you think of it in terms of black and white is that many white people, who I must say are not usually on the receiving end of it, never think it’s an issue. And many black people, I can say from experience, often think it is more of an issue than it is. My own suspicion is the truth is somewhere in the middle
but I’d like to think the terrorist-Muslim accusations were fringe. As for Fox, if that’s true the network has sunk lower than I thought it could.
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p>Also, a hint on commenting/replying: It appears that your comment above was intended to respond to my previous comment. If you want to reply to a specific comment, hit the reply link at the end of the comment rather than the Post a Comment link at the end of the main diary. That way, it will appear indented under that comment (like this comment is) rather than at the end of the thread.
To be honest, the thing that makes me most skeptical about what is in the hearts and minds of many white people is Fox News. I mean how does that race-bating network continue to rack up more ratings than CBS, MSNBC and any other news outlet other than CNN, if they are not preaching to a very large choir. I don’t know who these people are any more than you guys. But they are obviously out there right? And there must be a lot of them because O’Reily, Limbaugh and Hannity did not become household names by accident?
It appeals to a sense of what Stephen Colbert likes to call “truthiness” and apparently has managed to channel talk radio into a visual medium. Interestingly, the names you mention all have syndicated radio programs.
… gets ratings from race baiting. I think Fox News gets ratings from tribalism. Race baiting just happens to be one corner of psychology ingrained in the tribe’s history, so it’s bound to come up.
There are people on Fox all day and all night who don’t race-bait so why do you call the entire network race-baiting?. Unfortunately it seems like people will hear things the way they want to hear things. If someone is against the person you support, often times people will find aspects of that criticism which they can pigeon hole into argument. People against Hillary were sexists, Obama’s citics were racists, McCain’s were prejudiced against his age and often pro-civil rights advocates like Jesse Jackson are considered anti-white… You say tomato…
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p>Fox is conservative and I watch them daily. I’ll continue to do so until I find a better source of the news and events of the day. I try other networks but haven’t found one better. I watched Rachel Maddow for awhile last night and wanted to vomit on numerous times. She (and others on MSNBC) have to realize that George Bush isn’t President anymore. She also needs to know that if you question anything Obama wants or the Dems want, it doesn’t make you wrong or a bad person. How quickly she forgets defending Hillary for questioning the war and it not making her unpatriotic. And much like Keith Olbermann, she rarely has anyone from the opposition to plead their case and simply lobs hand grenades like a coward.
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p>For what it’s worth, I have greatly reduced watching Sean Hannity since without Alan left the show since it is too one-sided (he’s starting to sound like Limbuagh’s program which I also stopped listening to years ago for the same reason). I have watched Lou Dobbs and he appears to present both sides or at least has guests on to present their side.
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p>Watch Fox for a week (if I can watch MSNBC then you can handle Fox) and record the moments you believe are race-baiting. But please try to be objective and not call them race-baiting if the announce a homicide and it happens to be a black person killing a white person, that’s just the news. Check out this article which is an “academic” study but it based on FBI data. It’s reality.
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p>But racism has not gone away, ask Joe Lowery.
I think race was an issue. My experience as a white person is that white people notice black people are black and it factors into their thinking. Some are more conscious and responsible than others about it.
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p>Would Obama have won if he was from a more typical African American background, i.e. child of a family that moved North from the South descended from sharecroppers and slaves? Would enough white Americans vote for someone with those cultural characteristics?
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p>Would he have won if he wasn’t running against the least popular President ever? In the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression? Against a relatively weak Republican candidate?
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p>Maybe in some states.
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p>I’d like to think that Americans are more “over race” than that. Obama suggested as much in his speech on race. I’d like to think that I’m a victim of an old fashioned way of thinking.