There is a lot of indignation about the most recent attempts to "otherize" Obama. But aren't there real responses that real folks (like the ones on Daily Kos) should be taking responsibility for?
Jonathan Capehart writesin today's WaPo:
[the McCain camp] seem[s] to have no qualms appealing to the cultural fears of their agitated, and now energized, base by practically branding Obama as un-American or anti-American. And this is eliciting an ugliness at McCain-Palin events that is justifiably raising alarms that some nut job is going to act on the Republican ticket's cynical campaigning.
and goes on to discuss the scariest part of the article for me. The photograph of a sign in someone's yard on Mickle Hill Road in Warren County, Pa. on October 5. The signs says: VOTE RIGHT. VOTE WHITE.
All I can think is this.
These people are related to people. They know people. They love people. Some of these people may be related to Daily Kos folks. The fact is, while others think it great that folks are voting for the "The Colored Boy," when I read that? It makes my stomach turn. When I hear the stories about the bigots who are getting cheered for voting for Obama, I still get nervous.
Ok. So they got over their basic issues of black inferiority. What now? Win or lose, what are we going to do with this bold, unencumbered discussion of how much, as a nation, we think black people suck?
What are our own responsibilties on this front? Who do we talk to about the real, ugly, racism that is going on here and the real, ugly consequences that these beliefs have on real black people? and Latinos who faced this sort of stuff during the primaries? These comments aren't just floating bubbles of ugly. They are attached, very specifically, to a history and current lineage of beliefs that are truly oppressive. Those oppressions have tangible affects on our society today. Heck, black people are being blamed for the financial crisis (as with all things Coulter, this is bullshizz) although they make up a tiny percentage of the homebuying public and yet it is black and latino peoples who disproportionately face foreclosure.
I recently diaried about some movement on this that makes me feel slightly more optimistic, but truth be told, I feel like on the part of the left (with some very notable exceptions) there is a lot of patting ourselves on the back about how "down" we are ("Hey, I watched the Wire!") and not a lot to confront the true horrors (and by confronting, I mean calling out coworkers, neighbors, relatives) about what the "nice" and "mean" kinds of racism really mean.
It's not just McCain/Palin, y'all. Where does OUR work begin?