Obama is not a monkey--or a Muslim
Jun. 13th, 2008 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twirlgrrlAlready 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-14 10:09 pm (UTC)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).
no subject
Date: 2008-06-14 11:20 pm (UTC)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?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 09:07 am (UTC)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).
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 10:07 am (UTC)