A hopefull Thread About Race and Politics (race and politics rr)
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
4 years ago one of the main themes in the presidential election was race.
In the Democratic primary, in the general election, major controversies like Jeremy Wright, and never ending minor slights.
It was about race.
It seems to me, and I know some disagree, that this year the tone is very different.
This election is about the economy and worries about race and religion are mostly regulated to the margins.
I believe that Barack Obama's presidency has been transformative.
Perhaps even more transformative has been his family.
White America to seeing a functional Black family changes many peoples perception of what it means to be Black.
Now I am no fool (and I know some think I am a fool) there is still racism in America and we are far from a post racial world.
But I think, 4 years on, overt racism, and acceptable covert racism, is on the wane.
Institutional racism remains a big problem, but I want to concentrate on the hopeful stuff here.
Does anyone else think our country is getting a little better?
PS: I hope people can refrain from posting up racist images.
In the Democratic primary, in the general election, major controversies like Jeremy Wright, and never ending minor slights.
It was about race.
It seems to me, and I know some disagree, that this year the tone is very different.
This election is about the economy and worries about race and religion are mostly regulated to the margins.
I believe that Barack Obama's presidency has been transformative.
Perhaps even more transformative has been his family.
White America to seeing a functional Black family changes many peoples perception of what it means to be Black.
Now I am no fool (and I know some think I am a fool) there is still racism in America and we are far from a post racial world.
But I think, 4 years on, overt racism, and acceptable covert racism, is on the wane.
Institutional racism remains a big problem, but I want to concentrate on the hopeful stuff here.
Does anyone else think our country is getting a little better?
PS: I hope people can refrain from posting up racist images.
Comments
^ ^
OK, but seriously, I'd love to agree with your thesis, but I can't quite get there. Race is still a big issue in this country, and sadly, it will be for a long time to come. Hell, just today, we're hearing that the only possible reason Colin Powell would have to endorse Obama as he did is that he's black.
Same allegation was put forward in 2008. It's pathetic and overtly racist, IMO.
b/w
I actually think the OP is one of the more thoughtful posts that Lazer has made. I do think the country is getting better, and am hopeful that these racially charged attacks are indicative of a failed viewpoint being in its death throes.
Nope. The theme was "Hope & Change". Or more bluntly, I'm not Bush, I'm the anti-Bush, I promise more things that cannot be fullfilled than any president before or hence, and (most Importantly to the most astute) with me, Politics will never be the SAME again.
They were not minor slights. It was not about race insomuch as a black man attending a black mega-church in Chicago under the tutelage of a black preacher. It was the tone of the preachings of that minister and his anti-American hateful rants. That were wrapped in Christian dogma, the meek and persecuted shall be redeemed with the help of God. Victimhood and celestial retribution. Along with a spotty attendance and voting record in his brief public service. His thin resume and zero record. But Hell, He sure could give a Speech!
--Hillary should have been the Democratic Nominee!
Yes. It is about the economy. To quote Bill Clinton's Successful Campaign, "I'ts the Economy, Stupid". People will always vote with their pocket books, especially in the epochs after Civil Rights and Suffrage. Social programs and issues, entitlements, transfer payments, and small debts and deficits can be argued over and solutions may be progressed and pushed through the legislative bodies, though maybe at a snail's pace in normal economic times. But with double the normal/natural unemployment rate, massive deficits, and an astronomical debt, coupled with very modest GDP growth, and no clear signs of a change in the outlook all told spell a very grim present and future and command a very serious rethinking of whom should be at the helm of this ship. Nobody I know, even once, has said anything about RACE when it comes to the election of Obama or his presidency EXCEPT for its historical significance.
Yes it has been extremely transformative No need for the word "believe". He has accomplished a lot. He has not, however, lived up to what he said he would do. To be fair, no President ever does, but still, his speeches and his vision stirred the soul and echoed many peoples' thoughts but in the end it is Politics as usual.
Don't know what you mean here. In fact that's a racist comment. If I was black I would be offended by that.
Racism has been on the decline in America for a long time now. But racism will always exist in all human cultures. The reason for this is that it is hard wired into our DNA and consequently our brains such that we favor people that resemble us and distrust or avoid people and things that are unlike us. Whether we like it or not. Of course this feeling is very minute and may be unnoticeable or even so suppressed by intellectual or cultural progress as one may say, very presumptuously, that "it is not within them". Do heavy time in prison, and see how all the inmates naturally revert to their racial groupings. In the not so distant past this provided and provides an evolutional and survival advantage. Otherwise it would not be preserved. Other animals are racist and segragationists in close species kinshpis. Even within species we find infanticide very common among competing males because their sperm's genes want to survive and reproduce. So they instinctively kill the babies of other fathers and then impregnate the female with their sperm.
To deny evolution and Darwin is to to deny natural selection and it's bastard offshoot, racism. This is where it comes from. This is why it is still here despite the great advances in human understanding and in the face of our expanding knowledge of the Cosmos and our small place within. Even with 100 percent literacy and education, were that possible, to all human beings, it would still rear it's ugly head. This is not an excuse, merely, the explanation for why it exists, where it came from, and why we are still talkin bout it in 2012.
Of course it is NOT RIGHT. Of course It is NOT MORAL. But it IS the way we have evolved. And that is the reason that it still exists. And will persist until all the races have intermingled and traded genes until we're all of one ethnic identity. But sadly this probably won't happen because of the large population and the geographic diversity and resulting climate and habitat differences. In other words, if we were a small population in a centralized location on earth, like we were some 200,000 years ago in Africa, we would all be the same ethnic identity: Black. Science backs this up. We, everyone of us alive today, through our Mitochondrial DNA that is only passed from mother to offspring, can without a doubt trace our lineage back to a single woman who lived in Africa, the so-called scientific Eve, some 200,000 years ago. I'm sure many of you have read about this and it is without dispute. We are all at our core BLACK AFRICANS.
Now if our cultures were completely based on Science and Reason, devoid of religious dogma and superstition, then and only then do we stand a chance of abandoning racism for good. Until then someone on some board will post some nonsensical series of questions or statements like this one, right before an election to fan the flames of so-called racism in this political climate, perhaps to ensure that their candidate will succeed in being re-elected if for no other reason than for the potential voter to feel false guilt for not going twice for the black candidate. Because, then, shame on you, you are racist for not giving Obama a second term.
Not much could be further from the truth for any thinking person in the USA. In a twisted, diametrically opposed way, when Obama's economic policies fail, the race card is pulled to guilt white America into thinking that they would be turning their backs on 247 years of progress should they vote the other way. The shame is yours. Tens of millions of white Americans voted for Obama in 2008. Otherwise he wouldn't have won. Tens of millions of white Americans will vote for Obama again in 2012. Probably those with jobs. The one's without and the one's who are doing worse than four years ago despite any allusions to the liberal social issues will vote with their pocketbooks or rather empty pant's pockets.
PS. Anticipated Objections and Comments:
If you call me racist, right-wing, bigot, illogical, ill-informed, or otherwise nit-pick the above to classify me into some easy to hate group you are:
-wrong,
-you didn't read the entire post,
-I don't adhere to any political party (I think anyone who does is not a serious thinker)
-I did vote for Obama in '08
-I'm not racist I'm an African Ape (the Fifth Ape to be exact)
-Race was unimportant in '08 (EXCEPT for the Historical Significance) and is unimportant in 2012. (Mark me the ones that make it important are the real racists, the predatory and opportunistic racists)
-Lawrence Wilkerson, General Colin Powell???s former chief of staff