Letters to the Editor
Rocky57
Published Letters: 211 Editor's Choice: 4
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@TRenee
[Read the article: Flagging America's racial divide]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...But what is also true is that the response could've been different if it were a black man in a working class uniform. Or what about a black woman in a three-piece suit? To those Southies, it is quite possible that they were reacting to a black man that they presumed was richer than they, that he was offensive on two different levels. At any rate, how the attacked man's gender, race and class works in concert bears scrutiny...."
You've an interesting perspective, trenee; so, let's take a look, once again. The picture, which has haunted me since I saw it on the desk of a fellow student at the professional school I was attending, at the time, in NYC, and the underlying story shows a black man as the victim of an unprovoked assault by Boston southies who were teed off about Garrity's decision to integrate Boston's schools. If a guy in a three piece suit walking in an area where three piece suits were, it could be argued, the uniform of the day and he were white would he have been assaulted? My answer: unless it were Garrity, himself, no.
What if he were a white guy in a "working man's" coveralls? My answer? No, again.
Now, if a black guy, in "working man's" coveralls, were happening along in the exact same time-space continuum as Landsmark found himself on that fateful day in 1976 what do you think his fate would have been?
Ps: if you think a black woman in a three piece suit would have been insulated from an attack, considering the heat generated by Garrity's decision and the nature of South Boston in the sixties and seventies, you'd be advised to think again.
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HP makes a point
[Read the article: A pivotal day for the Democrats?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...No, actually Clinton supporters are entirely unconcerned with the black vote. Proud Texas Girl called Obama 'that boy' last week on this site - do you really think this is a big concern? They take the base for granted, and they'll get burned. But hey, what do a bunch of old white women care?..."
They are...and that will come back to bite them in the arse, come November, if Obama is skullduggeried out of the nomination. The AA base has no incentive to come out vs. McCain, the adoptive father of a dark-skinned bangladeshi who was slimed by the Bush/Cheney right wing crud machine in 2000. Many of the driving issues are, primarily, the concern of the "old white women." Abortion? The AA community is probably as conservative about this issue as the evangelicals. GL/issues of sexuality? C'mon. The S. Ct? Six of one; have dozen of the other and affirmative action's dead in the water or modified to such an extent it'll soon no longer be a racial flashpoint and, if it were, McCain isn't perceived to be as cold bloodedly doctrinaire re this issue as were his Republican predecessors [sans Nixon] in the Oval Office. Likewise, McCain's not seen to be as much of a cheerleader for the Imperial Presidency as are Bush/Cheney.
So, who has the incentive to vote? Or, presented with the perfect scenario to either (a) sit on their hands or (b) vote for McCain?
If Obama's legitimately beaten out, that's one thing and one would expect Obama to campaign hard for Clinton no matter how much he'd have to hold his nose but if there's shmegillah afoot [I mean, apart from the racial bottom of the deck the Clintons' have dealt, since Iowa] and Obama rightly says screw this, how does one regard the Party's chances from the top to the bottom of the ticket, if the most steadfast of its constituency sits this one out? On the other hand, should Obama secure the nomination and get blitzed in the general due to racial misgivings/buyers remorse, many experts suspect that, at worst, there'd be beaucoup ticket-splitting in the Fall, due to those motivated new voters who survey the current economic and geo-political landscape and see the GOP for what it is--a Party for, in the immortal words of Michael Moore, the "Haves and Have Mores."
Proud Texas Girl and others of her ilk had better rein in their contempt and contemplate what could very well be an ugly scenario in November re those particular issues progressive, "older white women" hold most dear.