Obama is not a monkey--or a Muslim

[twirlgrrl]

Already I am SICK TO DEATH of the constant fear-mongering and racist attacks on Obama. It's just so infuriating and so incredibly sad. One day it's "Oh he bumped fists with Michelle on his way to the podium" and the next day it's Curious George Obama t-shirts or Michelle being called his "baby mama" or some dumb YouTube video link being passed around that intones "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" about 50 times. The constant subtle message is "You can't trust this guy. He has a funny name. He's black. He might even be Muslim. He's a terrorist who will give everything to the BLACK PEOPLE! RUN!!!!!!"

I. AM. SO. SICK. OF. THIS. I am sick of racism. I am weary. I knew it would be bad, I knew there would be so much of this, and actually this is one of the best things about him being the Democratic candidate; there will be a whole lot of misunderstanding a whole lot of BS, but hopefully his candidacy will continue to stir up opportunities to discuss matters of race in this country. It's just... I don't know how much of it I am up for. Racism is a subject I have very passionate opinions about. But it's HARD to talk about, for a million reasons. For one, I feel so strongly that it's hard to form coherent sentences sometimes. Also, it's something people feel really defensive about. And the more I put into understanding POC points of view, the farther I get from the mainstream white point of view, and the harder it is to remember how to get from there to here. (Not that I have some exalted understanding, but I have put some time in.) And of course there's the fact that I am white and I really don't know much compared to your average American person of color, so I can't speak from any sort of authority and it's hard to try to educate someone else when you feel unsure of yourself. I feel the way I did for a long time about environmental issues. Since I am not a scientist and I did not have all the scientific facts at my disposal when challenged by a skeptic, plus I am not perfect on all environmental fronts (obviously!) I felt that I could not try to educate anyone else about maybe going a little greener. I'm over that one, but I feel the same way about issues of race. Plus, environmentalism can be spread by leading by example, my preferred method of any sort of change. Racism is not so easy--it must be challenged, discussed, examined; one can't just "lead by example" and hope to effect change.

Anyway. It's sad sad sad that it's come to this. But Obama has put together a page to debunk some of the more vicious myths that are circulating about him. Next time you get an email forward with some ridiculous rumor about him in it, you might want to reply with this website. It won't necessarily change anyone's mind ("Oh, but that's HIS website, he could be lying!") but at least you don't have to let the lie go unchallenged.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

And there's always www.snopes.com.

That won't stop the monkey comparisons, either, but it's something.

Comments

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I just skimmed the Ron Paul (former candidate - not your friend :) ) article I put up yesterday. My main point was that I was sad my candidate won't run independent. I hope there was none of that in there.

I don't like Obama. I'll be quite honest about that. But it has nothing to do with his race or his religion (whatever it may be). It has to do with the ideology of the Democratic party... I didn't like Hillary, either.

And for the record, yes, I am a Republican... but I won't vote for McCain, either.

I'll either write in Ron Paul or write in "None of the above"

And no matter who is elected - while I won't like him, he'll still be my President. I'm not one of those ass hats that kept running around crying that Bush wouldn't be their President and that they were going to leave the country (and never did... just sat there and whined). That's a Democracy for you - you get your chance to vote for what's important to you and who stands for that... and if you're in the majority, you might even get a candidate elected that you support. But if not, you suck it up for the time being and you work for change the next time around. Whining does nothing but make you look like an idiot and a brat - both of which our country has come to support for some strange reason.

/soapbox. Sorry.

[canetoad.livejournal.com]

What is the ideology that you're most wanting? I don't always think in terms of ideologies, so I'm curious.

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

Someone who protects ALL life - not just our soldiers (but wants them home!), but that of our unborn as well. Those are my two biggest wants.

[f1ymetothemoon.livejournal.com]

I'll either write in Ron Paul or write in "None of the above"

That's pretty much my plan, as well.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Don't apologize! I don't mind soapboxes! :)

I know you and I have some differences of political opinion but I enjoy discussions even if we respectfully disagree.

I didn't read the entire Ron Paul article either but I didn't see anything in there about Obama and anyway that wasn't at all what I was reacting to. I'll be honest, although I can see his appeal on some levels I'm also a bit put off by other things he supports so there's no way I could support him. I know you feel the same way about Democrats in general and I'm pretty sure I know what your major sticking point is, so I understand that much. (And if you don't want to say here, that's OK too, which is why I'm not saying it, LOL!) I don't know how you feel about other issues like the war, the Patriot Act, economic policies, immigration, welfare etc. etc. and I'm interested in those points as they come up in discussion, but I don't plan on converting my journal to a primarily political blog. I'm much more interested in coming together over commonalities anyway. It's just fascinating to me to explore ways in which people disagree on these matters... at least to a point!

I am curious as to why you won't vote for McCain. Any thoughts you feel like sharing? I don't know many conservatives in my own generation (or thereabouts) and I don't know how people feel about the guy.

I think I understand your last paragraph--in most cases, threatening to leave the country is the same as threatening to leave LJ over the latest "censorship" scandal--but I really want to make the distinction between whining and dissent. I believe that political dissent is healthy; it's important to have the freedom to point up what one thinks is wrong with what the government is doing. If the government is operating in secret and with total impunity, beyond the reach of public comment and involvement, well, that's extremely frightening to me. I think that some major lying, cheating and stealing has been going on in the current administration and I am glad for the people who have been trying to raise those issues and nail these guys for their illegal and dishonest actions. I just wanted to make that distinction because I wasn't sure what you meant by this country supporting idiots and brats.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

I totally and completely agree with your comparison of whining vs dissent. Exactly what I'm thinking. What I meant was what I said, the people who get their panties in a wad and whine for 4 (or 8) years about he's not President... but don't do a damn thing other than bitch on their LJ about it. SHUT UP (not you)!

If you don't like a policy, change it! Work toward it at least! When I was in SD, I was actively involved in the groups that were working toward making SD a homebirth legal state and making SD the first state to outlaw abortion. I'm sure the latter will piss off people here, but so what, I'm feeling bold =) It's something that was/is extremely important to me, and so I worked toward it as I could. I'm like that with all of life, though - an example was someone in the celiac community the other day mentioning that she thought she was being glutened by a product from a company that really strives to make good gf products. I suggested she contact them - write or call or email - and her response was, "I don't see what good that's going to do." Well, it might not do any good, but you can be certain that just chatting with your LJ friends really won't do any good. Why not take the chance and email them or call them? Maybe something happened there on the assembly line that they don't know about and something got contaminated - try and make things better for yourself and others by at least letting them know. It's not going to change the world, but it might make someone's life a little better.

As for McCain - I don't support his view of the war, and I'm pretty sure we'd just be electing Bush back into office in another body. I admit that I voted for Bush - I think he turned out to be someone totally different than he appeared before elections. I think the current Republican in office and the candidate are too involved in getting government involved in every aspect of our lives - I liked how RP supported homeschooling and minimizing legislation with that. There are a few other things, but I have a feeling I've carried on enough.

Regardless, my main point with the first response to your post was that, if Obama is elected, then I won't necessarily agree with MY President - but that should never give anyone the right to start throwing around the racial insults and fear mongering about him being Muslim (which he isn't - and even if he were it wouldn't mean he was an Islamic terrorist - 99.9% of other Muslims aren't).

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool, I'm glad we agree on the whiner thing! :D I am also a big fan of taking action, although I must admit with my life as busy as it is I am more inclined to write a check to support a cause than to actually donate my time--of which there is none.

I think that most people are sick of the war now, even those who maybe supported it on principle at first. I remember even when I was protesting in the streets as it was starting up, people that I have known as staunch conservatives weren't *that* sure about it... people were just scared about WMDs, which of course turned out to be just like the boogeyman. So now people are sick of it, and a lot of people are mad. I'm glad of that because I hope it means we can get out of there sooner.

Personally I am semi-libertarian on some things and semi-socialist on other things. So I can get behind an idea like eliminating legal penalties for activities that consenting adults engage in that do no harm to anyone but perhaps the consenter. Minimizing legislation on homeschooling sounds fine to me. I am all for strong privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of religion etc. But I also believe that a country this wealthy ought to have a "floor" for standard of living, and I support things like environmental protection, a living wage and universal health care. I call myself a bleeding heart liberal because I'd rather pay taxes and make sure that everyone gets fed than pay no taxes and watch my neighbors starve. So that's what it means to me.

Anyway, blah blah blah! Thanks for commenting. I agree with your main point of course. And yeah, most Muslims aren't terrorists, just like most Christians aren't Pat Robertson. KWIM?

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

Okay, I was just browsing on this not-quite-PC ecard site a friend told me about, and I saw one that totally made me think of this conversation.

I'm going to send it to your LJ email address... I hope you don't mind. You're welcome to post it if you want, but I didn't want to link it in case you thought it was in really bad taste (I don't think it's TOO bad, but still).

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Thanks for thinking of me. :D

[f1ymetothemoon.livejournal.com]

I don't particularly like Obama, but that shit makes me ill too. You should see the shit white supremacy groups have been saying about how they WANT him to win so whites will wake up to how low things have become and rise up... WTF?

Monkey comparisons? I thought that was Bush's albatross... LOL!

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wow! I try not to wade into white supremacy stuff too much because I go blind with rage and that makes me depressed, but every once in a while I run across something--most often a random LJer these days, spouting off in a community, and then I'll follow a link or two. How do you run across their stuff?

I know, Bush is the uber-chimp, (my mom calls him Alfred E Neuman instead), but of course it's not even in the same universe as comparing a black man to a monkey anyway. History weighs heavily in the latter case and I find it extremely distasteful.

[f1ymetothemoon.livejournal.com]

I don't run across their stuff. My husband saw stuff on a political blog and was grossed out by it.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, it grosses me out hardcore too!

[artemis-rich.livejournal.com]

The whole thing sickens me too. Seriously. And no matter what, he's going to have a hard time of it, considering how many years of Republican rule he's coming after and all they have done to erode our rights and privacy.

It's going to take a long time to make things better, more than a few terms in office. Hopefully some of our rights can be protected and some of the programs that have been curtailed or cut, re-funded (example: abortion, schools funding, arts funding, privacy, etc.) I still hope for national health care, but I'm not holding my breath.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. (Late.) :)

Universal health care FTW! But neither Obama or Hillary even made their proposals universal. Baby steps, I guess. *sigh*

[tellinellen.livejournal.com]

i think you would really enjoy friending brooklynite.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Done. :)