Those were the incredible words uttered from my sister Farrah’s lips during a shouting match phone conversation two days ago. She said that Obama was an ambitious man who wanted to increase taxes, a socialist inexperienced in world affairs, and to top it off she said that he wants to pay back white people for the injustices to black people. She praised John McCain and Sarah Palin, the latter who she thought was a breath of fresh air.
After picking up my jaws from the floor of the Chinese restaurant where I was about to order dinner, I simply asked her that if she truly believed this rhetoric, she would contact all her friends and family to tell them about the danger she sees for voting for Obama. I told her she wouldn’t because they would laugh in her face.
A little about my sister. She’s black. Technically mixed. Educated, with master’s in nutritional medicine. Wife, mother, small business owner, Massachusetts resident. She’s also weak. Weak in the sense that she is a follower when it comes to politics, and the one doing the leading is her husband, a black man, and a huge Hillary supporter. They are still very upset about the primaries. They both volunteered for Hillary, donated money and time to her cause. Having been burnt badly in the past two presidential cycles, I warned them not to get too emotionally invested in this election.
I wrote my brother-in-law this text:
Your wife just told me if it was a choice between Obama and Bush she would choose Bush. I am amazed. If you think that way too then it’s a shame and a pity. She sounds like a neocon who watches Foxnews and reads Drudge.
No response.
Funny how the conversation with my sister started with the economy, about how our father’s 401K has lost half of its value and how he cannot retire for another year. (Why he had greater than 30% of his portfolio in stocks is another story.)
Of course I spoke with members of my family about Farrah’s new tune. They said they were not surprised. That she was always the "racist" one in our family. She was ashamed of us, ashamed of how our parent’s raised us, and thought white people’s approach to everything from education to child-rearing was better. (She is a huge opponent of spanking.)
Last night, Farrah had the audacity to send me an email clearly forwarded to her by the McCain campaign. Titled "Obama’s Blind Ambition," it talks about Acorn and Obama’s link to this organization. I won’t sport with you by posting the dribble on this site. I replied to her as follows:
John McCain and Sarah Palin are fueling fear, loathing and racism in their campaign to stop Obama's momentum. You must have seen it in the news. People yelling "off withh his head," "kill him," "terrorist." They are stroking the fire right now, trying to energize their base who feeds off of this idea that Obama is not "one of us." Are you telling me you approve of that?
I know you are a Hillary supporter. I was a Hillary supporter too. But she lost. The Republicans have brought this country where it is today and we must not allow a continuation of George Bush's policies which is what a vote for McCain will bring. McCain used to be an honorable man. I would have voted for him in the past. But, he has been corrupted by Karl Rove and his minions. He wants to win the presidency so badly that he is stooping to this low level with character attacks on Obama. He wants to win so badly that he chose Sarah Palin, a woman who couldn't hold Hillary Clinton's panties, an anti-intellectual, a hate-mongerer, a political and intellectual neophyte. He dared to insult my intelligence and the intelligence of millions of Hillary supporters by this choice. A vote for McCain is a vote for the status quo. A vote for Obama is a vote for change of course of the current trainwreck we are on, bipartisanship in Washington, leadership in a time of great uncertainty here and abroad.
Obama is an honorable man. You've got to get over that Hillary lost. She is a great woman and I'm sure she will have a place in an Obama administration. And even she is supporting Obama because she is a loyal Democrat and knows that Obama is much better choice than McCain. I hope you will reconsider your vote in this historic election.
This morning, my sister’s subtle racism resurfaced:
It sounds that you’ve been reading too much of the Obama driveby media . . .don't believe everything you hear...they have been in bed with the messiah from the beginning and they are invested in seeing him win... But I'm sure your candidate will win, but not with my vote because he does not speak for me and I don't share his values and ideas about America.
Not sure how to respond to this last communication. I’m saddened and concerned. I’m saddened that my sister seems lost, despondent and willfully blind. I’m also concerned that my nephew, whom I love dearly, has to grow up with parents who possess so much self-hatred and negativity. Thankfully, they live in a heavily blue states where their lack of judgment will not affect the rest of us.
This is what we are fighting for