Obama Grabs Headlines--November 5, 2008

A view of the many newspaper front covers from around the world on November 5, 2008.

Mmmm! They Make a Beautiful First Couple

It's A Whole New World

That's My Man!

Collin Powell just endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States!

Powell has renewed my appreciation of him. There are so many reasons why it was in Powell's self-interest not to, but he did. Powell offers a totally affirmative rationale for his endorsement of Obama. And though he could have side-stepped it in an effort to maintain his Republican standing, Powell expressed his disgust with the incendiary ad hominem campaigning of the McCain ticket that has been so completely beyond the pale these past few weeks.

The coalition grows...

Scam

It's amazing that we are so used to being extorted by our own government that this even works. It's supposedly spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call.

Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the con artist asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The swindle has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. It is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their websites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

Since I've been all over the place looking for a job, this has me wondering how vulnerable I've made myself to identity fraud just by filling out applications.

Artistic ramblingS

I just published an Home-Training essay on GP about the Rene Marie controversy and the importance of artistic contribution (Part 1 / Part 2). This marks the first time I've liked the almost inevitable title change better than my own. My working title was "Artistic ramblingS," which my editor changed to "Good Art Gives--but Doesn't Always Sell." You go, Ryan!

Brian Surgery with a Switch-blade

I'm not sure how I feel about this GP post—whether it says something that ought to be voiced or whether I just fell into the trap of being the Black guy who commented on the black thing just because I happened to be more qualified to do so than most other GP contributing writers.

If nothing else, I do love the quote by Ralph Ellison...

The 4th of July is always a weird holiday for me. It's not that I don't enjoy the nostalgia, picnics, barbeque, fireworks and romanticizing of history—I do—yet as a student of history I can't help but be reminded of the July 5, 1852, speech of Frederick Douglass, given at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY. If you haven't, you should read it. "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." This was a full 10 years and then some before Emancipation. Though I do not mourn in the same way or for the same reasons, I feel I owe such proud patriotism some homage. So I remember in (mostly) quiet yet hopeful ambivalence. January 1st (1863) is much more straightforward for me.

Exactly one week prior to the Fourth this year (not by accident, I'm sure), the largest segmented survey of African-Americans ever conducted was released by the research firm Yankelovich. The study was commissioned by Radio One, the largest radio broadcasting company primarily targeting African Americans in the U.S. USA Today was given the first opportunity to review it.

I am always amazed at how serendipitously life tends to sync up with what I am currently reading. On the very day Black America Today was released to the public, I coincidentally began reading Dark Matter, an anthology of speculative fiction. I was floored by the incisiveness of the following statement found in the anthology's introduction:

"In his 1953 collection of cultural criticism, Shadow and Act, Ralph Ellison cautioned readers not to stumble
'over that ironic obstacle which lies in the path of anyone who would fashion a theory of American Negro culture while ignoring the intricate network of connections which binds Negroes to the larger society. To do so is to attempt a delicate brain surgery with a switch-blade. And it is possible that any viable theory of Negro American culture obligates us to fashion a more adequate theory of American culture as a whole.'"

This became the lens through which I process the Radio One survey in the shadow of Independence Weekend. I'm not left with a cohesive image. Rather a disjointed vision cracked by nagging questions.

read more @ God's Politics blog>>>

A Joke for Colored People

This seems to be the Year of Color in America—from ethnicities to rainbow coalitions.

Kevin Tan may be the first Chinese American to take the mat for USA gymnastics on the very year the Olympics go to Bejing. He's America's best hope in the rings.

The first American of East Indian descent, Raj Bhavsar, may finally make it on the USA Olympic team as well. Many gymnastics fans felt that by virtue of his performance at the last trials he should have made the 2004 team, but such is life (...in the West—sadly one can never be sure what dynamics are at play).

In order to understand the following comment, you'd have to know that my sister-in-law is of Indian descent as well.

While watching Raj today, I turned to my wife and said, "Quick, Leslie! Call Jocelyn and see if she knows him!"

*Update: Though 3rd best all around (separated from 2nd best by less than a tenth of a point) and the high scorer on the parallel bars, Raj was again denied and named 2nd alternate for the team—go figure.

THE WORD

5-y-o Voted Out of His Class

What is this Kindergarten Survivor? I have no way of making sense of this, except to say this reinforces Leslie and my choice to home-school our children. We want to instill in them what they need so that they would never participate in something like this, and by God's grace, one day know courage enough to stand against it.

The Whims of a Highly Partisan Supreme Court

I found this editorial by Cynthia Tucker highly representative of my thinking about the issue of requiring voter IDs. I just hate having conservatives claim the laws address voter fraud when it is clear they do no such thing, and those same conservatives are unwilling to address absentee voting which has been empirically linked to fraud.

Class & Racism (Not Race) Harms Our Health

I found this amazingly interesting. It's a radio interview on NPR's Tell Me More. A new documentary series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick asks why minorities suffer disproportionately from many health problems. The film's producers discuss new research that suggests the mental stress of racism and poverty can take a direct toll on physical health.

The 7-part documentary will generally air Thursday nights. Check local listings for exact times.

Don Imus and VA Tech—A Year Later

This is a re-write of some thoughts I posted a year ago after the VA Tech tragedy. It's a tough one, because it asks us to identify with those we viscerally (an perhaps rightfully) despise. But isn't that the message of Jesus on the Mount...

It was only a short year ago that "shock jock" Don Imus chose to refer to the accomplished women playing in the NCAA Basketball Finals as "nappy-headed hoes," later billing the match-up for his listeners as the "jiggaboos" versus the "wannabes." Imus' disrespect came as little surprise. He had a long history of slur and slander against Blacks, Africans, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Arabs, women, homosexuals, the poor, and just about anyone he considered unlike himself. And he had been paid handsomely to be so. The absurd brevity of his time spent off the air is perhaps only surpassed by the financial profitability of his return.

But the story that a middle-aged white man of means in the U.S. showed himself to be (or made his living as a) racist and sexist is not news to me. He is not the first, nor will he be the last. Not that what he did was not news-worthy, but his misogynistic or otherwise bigoted views seemed almost beside the point to me.

The thing that captured my attention regarding the Imus coverage the first half of April 2007 was the power dynamic. You see, power matters, and Imus had plenty of it, which he used unrepentantly to pummel with impunity the dispossessed, disenfranchised, or otherwise already marginalized. Don Imus, who is now with ABC, at the time had a nationally syndicated CBS radio show that was simulcast on MSNBC (how much money was he making?), which NPR reporter David Folkenflik further characterized as attracting "an educated, affluent audience." Most interesting to me, again, was not that this was the case; however, I was floored by the sheer number of "educated, affluent" folks who unreservedly championed Imus' "right" to do what he had been doing. It was as if the unapologetically privileged got together and declared, "How dare you have a problem with us continuing to exercise our privilege at your expense? This is the way it's supposed to be. Haven't you gotten the repeated memos?"

They said it was a First Amendment issue, to which my only response can be: Neither hate, discrimination, nor any other form of exclusionary practice or language is a First Amendment issue. Freedom of speech does not guarantee one the right to be heard. Hate does not deserve a publicly facilitated audience (e.g. radio and television air waves), and those who resource it privately deserve whatever nonviolent (particularly financial) backlash they get.

Then came the story of Seung Hui Cho. The Western world cried out in horror at the massacre Cho perpetrated on VA Tech's campus—"the single largest act of recorded handgun violence on U.S. soil in American history" (the qualifiers "recorded handgun violence" and "on U.S. soil" are important because they help to conceal our selective recollection and shocking history of violence, particularly that which has involved what we would call "state-sponsored terrorism" if it were directed at us from the outside).

And we wept. And so should we weep again in the upcoming weeks, but not just for Cho's victims. We should weep for Cho and others like him, who are victims as well ... of the Imuses of the world.

Complete the post at God's Politics blog>>>

What Imus and Cho Have in Common

A few weeks ago "shock jock" Don Imus consciously, intentionally, knowingly chose to refer to women playing in the NCAA Basketball Finals as "nappy-headed hoes" later billing the match-up for his listeners as the "jiggaboos" versus the "wannabes." Imus' disrespect comes as little surprise. He has a long history of slur and slander against Blacks, Africans, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Arabs, women, homosexuals, poor and just about anyone he considers not like him. He's an equal-opportunist xenophobe, as the always incisive and insightful Dr. Cornel West points out. And he was paid handsomely to be so.

But the story that a middle-aged white man of means in America showed himself to be (or made his living as a) racist and sexist is not news to me. He is not the first, nor will he be the last. Not that what he did is not at all news worthy, but his misogynistic or otherwise bigoted views seem almost beside-the-point to me.

The thing that did capture my attention regarding the Imus coverage the first half of April was the power dynamic. You see, power matters, and Imus had plenty of it, which he used unrepentantly to pummel with impunity the dispossessed, disenfranchised or otherwise already marginalized. Don Imus had a nationally syndicated CBS radio show that was simulcast on MSNBC (how much money was he making?), which NPR reporter David Folkenflik further characterized as attracting "an educated, affluent audience" (I wouldn't know; I've never listened to him). Most interesting to me, again, was not that this was the case; however, I was floored by the sheer number of "educated, affluent" folks who unreservedly championed Imus' "right" to continue to do so. It was as if the unapologetically privileged got together and with one voice declared, "How dare you have a problem with us continuing to exercise our privilege at your expense? Your indignation is absurd. This is the way it's supposed to be. Haven't you gotten the repeated memos?"

And I've had my fill of those so indoctrinated by an imperial agenda that they are too blind to see: neither hate, discrimination nor any other form of exclusionary practice or language is a First Amendment issue. Freedom of speech does not guarantee one the right to be heard. Hate does not deserve a publicly facilitated audience (e.g. radio and television air waves), and those who resource it privately deserve whatever peaceful (particularly financial) backlash they get.

Then comes the story of Seung Hui Cho to redirect our attention. The Western world cries out in horror at the massacre he perpetrates on VA Tech's campus--"the single largest act of recorded hand-gun violence on US soil in American history" (the emphasis on certain phrases is important because the Western world has made a habit of selectively recording its dubious history, particularly that which has involved what we would call "state sponsored terrorism" if it were directed at us from the outside). And so we should weep, but not just for Cho's victims. For he was a victim as well... of the Don Imuses of the world.

The portions of Seung Hui Cho's multimedia manifesto released to the public heretofore read like the diary of the oppressed who had finally been transformed to embody the rationality and methodologies of his oppressors. Having bought the Imuses' propaganda, rather than joining them, he purposed to beat them with a ferocity commensurate to his own afflictions and pain. What I believe Cho and many others like him fail to realise though is that neither the methodology nor rationality of the oppressor is just: thus it is doomed to fail: almost immediately for the less powerful and for the more powerful sooner or latter inevitably. Though I confess to loving the whole V is for Vendetta fantasy of striking a crippling blow to the imperial system on behalf of the oppressed while somehow avoiding harm to any innocents, that's all it is: fantasy.

Don't misunderstand, I am in no way defending, justifying or excusing what Seung Hui Cho did. I just believe we need a good dose of "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" as we try him in the court of public opinion. In so doing, I hope we see the need to indict ourselves as well.

If you're struggling to connect the dots, consider this quote from one of Cho's high school and college classmates, Chris Davids, as reported on npr.org:

In an English class during high school, a teacher threatened Cho with a failing grade for participation unless he read aloud as the other students had. Cho [a Korean immigrant] started to read in a strange voice that sounded 'like he had something in his mouth,' Davids said.

'As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, "Go back to China!"'

Don Imus behaves as if his privilege (power & prerogative) entitles him to further marginalize and/or humiliate anyone he so desires. Isn't that what happened to Cho--by his own admission and the admission of others?

Well, you might say, "Crowding someone out--pushing him to the margins--doesn't give him the right to lash out." Sure. Yet I ask along with Langston Hughes, "What happens to a dream deferred"--dreams of belonging and significance, security and prosperity, dreams of equity? What is one to do when she runs out of space at the margins? How do we critique his or her means of survival (those with less power and prerogative) without also critiquing our own (those with more)?

I'm reminded of the closing scenes of Malcolm X, the movie, in which a series of persons from all over the globe (ending with Nelson Mandela) stand up and declare, "I'm Malcolm X!" It seemed to spawn a whole genre of "I wanna be like ______" commercials. We are so quick to associate ourselves with the best and the brightest. Perhaps it would be cathartic to own our demons as well: "I too am Don Imus!"

What I'm afraid will happen instead is that we will disassociate ourselves from both Imus and Cho, choosing to see ourselves as the unwitting victims of both, much like VA Tech affiliate Marissa Itte:

'In a lot of ways it makes it better to know he's just a crazy person. That is just completely not our university's fault. This has nothing to do with anyone else. This is just his issue' (npr.org).

The only hope I see in overcoming this inevitable, vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence is to abandon and subvert the rationality and methodology of anyone, any institution and/or any system that seeks to justify or legitimize gain at the expense of others as a valid means to an end. But wait a minute... wasn't abandoning and subverting the dominant power structures the way of Jesus?

Well, at least we don't have to re-invent the wheel.

[To continue the conversation of abandoning and subverting the cycle of violence and counter-violence and its relationship to the way of Jesus, be sure to check out author Brian McLaren's forthcoming book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a
Revolution of Hope (Nelson, October 2007).]