Racism, bigotry and intolerance dominate our lives in this country. Some days it seems that the weight of this problem will simply crush us. Almost all of our energy goes into hating or defending ourselves from hate. As a result little good is done these dark days.
Yesterday's news was literally overwhelmed by Ray Nagin's "Chocolate City" and Hillary Clinton's House Slave metaphor. While I'm neither defending Hillary's tin ear nor Ray's 12 incher in the mouth (what better place for some racial stereotyping?), I am horrified by the huge brouhaha over a couple of semantic missteps.
Note to everyone: get over yourselves!
The New Orleans' mayor was attempting, even though he failed, to reach out to the 200,o00? 300,000? poor and lower middle class African American citizens of that city who remain in exile and in deep despair. If the Federal Government gets it way, the devastated Black communities of New Orleans will be leveled and replaced by park land. The result will be that one of America's most culturally vibrant and influential Black communities will literally disappear and the new New Orleans will be predominately white and wealthy, with a newly incorporated Latino underclass thanks to the tens of thousands of cheap workers now being brought in to clear and clean the city. Nagin wanted to reassure Black exiles that he was going to continue to fight for their communities, their rights and their homes. It came out wrong and that was the media lodestone, a clumsy turn of phrase rather than the material issue and the great tragedy of that struggling city.
Hillary Clinton is one of the few Democrats, perhaps the only Democrat, with the balls to stand up and say it like it is. While I can certainly understand the debatable issues surrounding the use of the word "plantation" to compare slaves to Congressional Democrats, the fact remains that she's right and again, the media focus on her lousy choice of imagery rather than her critical and globally important message is pathetic. Of course, the Republicans, a morally and ethically bankrupt lot, leaving a broad swath of corruption and pain in their wake, are using this bit of semantic clumsiness to accuse their leading and most vocal opponent, one of the few Democrats with a national platform who speaks the truth, of racism and incompetence. Of course, this is what the Republicans are best at: mud slinging, lying and defamation. That's the Republican party platform and they're damned good at it. It's the only real talent Bush has. The Big Rude Goebbels Lie.
The real debate today should be Hillary's accusation that Bush is one of the worst Presidents in American history, not her trivial semantic gaffe. As for the plantation metaphor, she's standing by her remarks and good for her. Good for her for not being cowed by the Republicans and their sycophantic media slaves into an empty, politically correct apology.
Frankly, I think the metaphor holds up on many levels. Yes, members of Congress are not in Congress on an involuntary basis, but the fact remains that the paternalistic white male Republican power structure uses the threat of terrorism, fundamentalist Christianity and a fascist style brand of patriotic flag waving to demean and control the Democrats. Terrorism and Jesus are their whips. Frankly, that's really not that dissimilar from plantation life.
This country has become really good at tearing things down but we suck at building things up. We tear down our politicians, our educational system, science, human and civil rights, our global reputation, our unity and hope for the poor and the middle class. This is the Bush legacy and Hillary is prepared to take the heat that comes with standing up to this grossly incompetent and mean-spirited megalomaniac. And the Republicans will rush in and use their brilliant machine of disinformation, defamation and big lies to tear her down.
We must stand by her and join in the fight to return America to a place of respect and honor.
I also live for the day when words like plantation, chocolate, fag, nigger, spic and kike are nothing but artifacts and jokes, words that we can all use with a laugh, understanding that in our hearts we are all Americans and members of the same human family and share equal human and civil rights. You don't have to be Black or Gay to understand oppression and terrorism, you have to have an open heart and and an honest soul. Hillary's not perfect and can be clumsy....hmmm....just like the rest of us...but she's our best hope right now to reverse America's slide into a world of superstition, bigotry and medievalism.
Hillary already had my vote, now she just has it more. Hillary is the woman for the White House and the man Bush will never be.