This is merely a place where I can express myself. I will post news articles, points of faith, stories, fellow blogger posts (with due credit of course), and generally anything I feel is worthwhile.
James T. Harris is the host of the "James T. Harris Show" on Milwaukee’s radio channel 620 WMTJ. Harris appeared on CNN to speak about the various repercussions of his support for US Senator John McCain in the 2008 US presidential election. Speaking about his experiences, he has been subject to various insults from Obama supporters such as "Uncle Tom" and a "traitor". Many of the insults were from fellow African-Americans that disagree with his views. In addition, he cites that he has received numerous death threats from various people who deem him a sellout.
The following isn’t as extreme as described above. However, one wonders if a majority of African Americans truly feel this way. It’s as if that particular demographic is of the opinion that it’s time to change… The skin color of the president… and that is all that matters.
I know a lot of people of different ethnicities who hold many different political views. And I can say that, at the regretful risk of appearing racist, that there are those African Americans I know who are voting based on issues. Some of them are supporting Obama and some McCain. But yet, the video of the young man above talking solely about race being the reason to support Obama is still disturbing. I can, in no way, ever come close to understanding what the life of an African American is like in this nation. But I do know that there are others like me, of all races, who believe that an individual’s merit and character count above skin color. And although, race should not be a viable reason to support a particular political candidate or issue, no one should ever try to discount or remove the perspective of racial consideration from someone who ostensibly considers it of great importance in how they perceive the various segments of society.
Inasmuch as I do believe Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on the character and merits of an individual to move beyond racial attitudes and actions in society, I also believe that he would have NEVER wanted anyone to forget any part of who they are, including their ethnicity… as long as it isn’t a superficial consideration.
A closer look into the election campaign reveals troubling factors influencing the American vote.
by Shireen Qudosi ∙ September 26, 2008 Shireen.Qudosi@yahoo.com
The 2008 election finds its biggest challenge to be the people’s perception of Barack Obama. The American people, the deciders of the next president of the United States, see Obama through the filter of race and image.
Proving non-racist attitudes
Too many Americans have been swayed by the image of things and by the obvious race card in this election. And in this context they think voting for Obama will demonstrate tolerance. If this is our reasoning, then what’s next? What about when it’s the first gay candidate running for office, the first transvestite, the first transgender?
Are we going to vote someone in just to prove we’re tolerant – when in fact, a choice made to prove you’re open-minded only proves that you’re not. If you’re truly not racist, then you don’t feel the need to prove it. Those voting to prove non-racist attitudes show they value image above truth.
There’s only one reason to vote someone in – and that’s because you believe they’re the best for the job. You don’t vote for a president to prove you’re open-minded; nor do you base your choice on guilt.
Some voters carry a guilty conscience impressed upon them through various sources. These are Americans who have been made to feel at fault for America’s slave history, made to feel responsible for acts that occurred centuries before they existed. Americans are anchored into a past, told they had slaves picking cotton, that our country was one of the biggest promoters of the slave trade.
But listeners and speakers of this history forget one fact. The fact is that that America no longer exists. That was an America of 200 years ago. This is an America of the 21st century.
The slave trade had nothing to do with anyone that is alive today. Americans need to stop making apologies for something that does not need apologizing for. We need to seriously rethink electing a president based on some obscure sense of guilt or distorted perception of advancement.
When people are bothered about image, we are left with a society that is not truthful.
And society that is not truthful has no hope for change.
On November 4th, a vote based on trying to prove non-racist attitudes ensures America enters a dark age masquerading as progress and change.
Unthinking race
A society moving forward doesn’t deepen racial lines by giving them more attention, more power, and more credit. A society of this magnitude knows these barriers are nothing more than fictitious creations. Giving any relevance to race is an archaic mindset – a prehistoric and outdated way of thinking.
Many black voters are using the election as a race confrontation. This group treats his candidacy as a step forward for black people, forgetting that if he were to be chosen, it would be because a majority of the American people made that choice; a majority of the American people with mixed "race and ethnicities". But this fact is ignored unless it is pointed out.
The attitude adopted by people focusing on race is a dangerous mindset that was cemented by the Obama fist bump.
Gang mentalities
Easily-led people were impressed with the bump, seeing it as ‘cool’, recognizing it as something familiar. But a fist bump is an exclusionary act – it’s about superiority. A fist bump suggests a gang mentality.
A gang mentality that’s stressed again and again even by those who are supposedly well-educated and well-respected.
Some of these well-respected appear on nationally syndicated TV shows, some have PhDs, and some (even in this day and age) still go around declaring they’re “a free black man”. Such were the words of a wild-eyed Dr. Cornel West during a rather awkward interview on The Colbert Report, aired Wednesday September 24, 2008. He is one example you can see for yourself; he is one of many who hold a gang mentality, seeing themselves as separate from others based on race.
People like this make the idea of racial inequality possible. They give an unnatural life to an idea that cannot exist without these types of people powering it. These people, these ‘educated’ men with shockingly primitive attitudes voice their support for Obama – a choice likely to be based on color.
After titles are stripped away, there’s sometimes very little difference between the man down the street and the man behind the podium; they both bear the capacity to have a gang mentality. But the man behind the podium is looked up to because of the image given to him. His words of ‘wisdom’ are even more dangerous because they are repeated. His ideas are fatal because they lack understanding.
There are people in positions of power and influence who make race an issue – people who do not see one united America, but a black and white America, an America divided. This is a severe form of ignorance that speaks against American ideals.
The words of such speakers are horrifying. And sometimes, their words are left unchallenged and left to spread without the slightest voice of dissent. These thoughts are a plague to America and dangerous to a society that desperately needs racism to be a thing of the past.
This diseased perception of race, of promoting a gang mentality, is often unintentionally given validity – as seen with this campaign’s first presidential debate. Hosted at the University of Mississippi, the school was highlighted for its history during segregation. Again, race was focused upon – and this time by a multitude of people with a multitude of backgrounds. The same mentality that gave rise to racism and segregation was being drawn upon to once again bring attention to race…a mentality that creates differences.
The speech that still needs to be made
This election is not about race; it cannot be about one race beating another race. If this candidate wins, it could not have been because blacks voted him into office – but unless this is pointed out by Obama himself, this is exactly what far too many people will think. This has happened before on several levels. Each time it leads to reverse racism and increases superiority within much of the black community. And this will happen again on the biggest scale possible, unless Barack Obama calls out against this and says that he does not want a vote if it’s a vote cast on race.
So the real question is what is Barack Obama going to do? Is he going to say that it’s not about race but about America? Is he willing to take a stand against the use of this image?
Because if his image is being used to promote racism, and he doesn’t take a stand against it, then he is escalating racism.
If nothing is said, if this fact is not addressed, and if he gets elected, America will fall deeper into the abyss of uncertain times. If the people do not understand the relevance of what is happening, and if our leaders do not act on it, what hope is there for a better tomorrow?
A nation of free-thinking individuals
A main aspect of this campaign is that it has stopped being about the presidency, and about how people think the world is going to look at them, how they’re going to look at each other. A vote on race or image is the choice of an insecure and weak-minded individual
Neither race, nor gender, nor any other shallow reason has anything to do with how good someone will be at their job. Nor does it matter what presidents look like, dress like, talk like, move like – who they’re surrounded by, which have more glam magazine features.
This brings us to the glamorous photo shoot of famed black models playing the role of Barack and Michelle in the White House. While I do not claim Obama’s camp sponsored the feature, the effort (whoever it was initiated by) nonetheless demonstrates a type of propaganda used to influence you.
What is this if not a mockery of the position and of us, as the majority of the public is influenced by the image and the conceit it brings. These images have become a signpost of “cool”. But it’s actually a very uncool thing to make a choice based on its image or the image it gives you. Being supportive of the image in any way is a disgrace to America and goes against the very meaning of America.
We’re talking about presidents here. We’re talking about one of the most important jobs in the world. Anyone who uses image to influence you shows how little they really think of you. They show that they think you’re weak enough to be won over with glitz and glam – weak enough to be impressed by the appearance of things.
People think focusing on race and image is a rebellious act. But it’s not rebellious to choose something based on appearance and labels – it’s anti-rebellious. A truly rebellious person will see through the façade of label and image, and will see it for the mask that it is. If you’re a free thinker, then you’re not impressed by image. You’re not a follower.
Remembering what this role is about
The role of president of one of the most powerful nations on this earth demands more solemn consideration. The role is not an opportunity to showcase distorted examples of advancement, because if that’s why we’ve put someone in office, we prove we do not understand what advancement means. Doesn’t the presidency deserve more respect than the vanity of image? Does it not require that we look at both candidates with brutal honesty and take in only truth above any other factor?
The position requires an individual who will speak up if his image is being used to promote racism in any form. The role of president calls for a person of solid character, willing to stand up and say what needs to be said, each time every time – regardless of how they will be perceived by the public.
We need someone who not only sees truth, but practices it, implements it, and through the position, transforms America into a nation of truth above all else. This is true advancement.
The American people need to remember what this position is about. The people need to decide what is more important, image or truth? On November 4th, are we going to be able to say, “Look what we’ve done, we’ve voted in the first black president”, or “We’ve voted in the right person for the job”?
We have a great responsibility vested in us to make the right choice.
When the life of the average American worker is frightfully uncertain, when you live today not knowing what tomorrow will bring, when times are hard,
Do you want someone who will protect you, or do you want someone who can make things look good but who lacks the understanding needed for such a critical role?
As America, we cannot forget our priorities or what is at risk if we surrender to image.
We have to remember what is at stake here, we have to remember we have very real enemies with deadly agendas,
Enemies waiting for a weakness.
Enemies waiting to strike.
It’s not just about the presidency, It’s about our survival.
What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said “I do” to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the “Keating 5”? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
— Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth
Posted at 12:05 AM in Letters to the Editor
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And the following is my response:
You make some great points and I can understand the argument you are validly making. However…
As I understand it, racism is the notion that one finds one’s race superior to another or all others. While I do acknowledge that racism is alive and not exactly struggling in this day and age. I tend to think that since one of the two candidates running for office is a different race than the other, the argument of racism being the only reason for poll numbers is incomplete and even intangible. I will concede that PREJUDICE, by all races in America, is abhorrently present in the way people relate to both Obama and McCain
But none of the issues or aspects you mentioned have anything to do with race. They have had to do with the respective individual’s past.
First things first, Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain have both done some pretty stupid things. Yet, they have both been successful, been professional women who have raised or are raising families, and they have both been involved in very commendable philanthropic projects. They would both make exceptional first ladies. Any mistakes they have made have been answered for and are non-sequitor to this campaign, but neither of these ladies is running for any office.
Now as to the candidates running, the reasoning you gave can be used with another viewpoint as well.
What if Barack Obama was raised with a multigenerational military family background who espoused honor, courage and integrity in the rearing of its children? What if John McCain was raised by a non-Christian family, enrolled in a Muslim school, and then mentored by known communists and socialists? What if Barack Obama had a distinguished military career which included the command of a major fighter squadron? What if John McCain had been the community organizer and law professor? What if Barack Obama was beaten and tortured in a POW camp for five years? What if John McCain admitted to and acknowledged experimentation with drugs with a nonchalant attitude? What if Barack Obama developed a reputation of legislative independence and believed that policy was more important than party? What if John McCain had the appearance of using each successive elected position as a campaigning step to the next one? What if Barack Obama had the reputation of doing things to heal this nation's past wounds including, but not limited to Native American affairs and the Viet Nam War? What if John McCain had the reputation of associating and doing business with known terrorists and race baiters?
If those questions reflected reality, would John McCain be the GOP nominee? Absolutely not! Not because of race, but because his merit and character. As the media portrays them, Obama is the messiah who causes tingling in the legs merely by speaking and McCain is the doddering old fart, who is too out of touch with today’s generation. If the lives were reversed, Obama would still be the media darling… just like McCain was in 2000 during the primaries. That isn’t racism. That’s favoritism and biased behavior.
I truly think racism does much more than what you described above. I believe it promulgates itself into an election cycle and even into society with a lot of help from people, of all races, who don’t know how to deal with straight up success or failure.
For sure, racism is absolutely the last remnants of the chains of slavery that bind people down. But in this day and age, some of that binding has been self-inflicted.
