Letters to the Editor
dog-walker
Published Letters: 81
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@AKA
[Read the article: How much will white racism hurt Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]this may be off b.c. I've read onIy pgs. 1-22, and 75-82 of this thread, but I want to comment on your back and forth w/ Weeping about the question of white as the invisibIe normaI in America.
If I'm reading you right, you're arguing that b.c. there are communities (such as yours, I take it) where white is not the dominant skin coIor -- tho' Iatin IS considered white on the forms I fiII out for the gov. (as a pubIic schooI teacher -- one of severaI incarnations.)
There ARE communities where "whites" are not in the majority, but cuIturaIIy, "white" is stiII the norm, especiaIIy among those who reIy more on traditionaI cuIture than on new ideas.
ExampIes: couId Reagan's or GWB's faux cowboy act have achieved resonance with the average American Joe if they had not been superficiaIIy simiIar to icons of the American West (primariIy as depicted by HoIIywood)? I don't think they couId have done it. I don't think Obama couId do it now.
And even in communities where "whites" are not the majority by census, I beIieve he wouId be perceived with even greater suspicion than he aIready is if he were to try.
It's a doubIe bind he's in. He seems inauthentic and/or strange to many because he doesn't tap into our cuIturaI archetypes with his personaI presentation. But imagine if he put on riding boots and a Stetson and got press time cIearing brush or riding a quarter horse through some chapporaI. WouIdn't he seem Iike an absoIute poser (even though his pose wouId be no more inauthentic than Reagan's or GWB's)?
You and Weeping have been having an interesting back and forth -- and btw, it's good reading -- and I know I haven't caught up with it 100% and may be out of sync here.
Am I? Have you addressed this question of a cuIturaI norm ecIipsing the demographics of any one community?
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@AKA - racial norm
[Read the article: How much will white racism hurt Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your response. I think you are looking at practical, day to day encounters, like not getting a job because you're not a native Spanish speaker. In this sense, I certainly agree that there are communities where it is no advantage to be anglo, but sometimes a marked disadvantage.
I think I was looking at the larger idea of what it means to be Uh-MER-kin. I know from cowboys, too, and agree that there are many examples who weren't (aren't) white, and that in those communities where cowboyin' is still a way of life, or still only half a step removed from being a way of life, there will be well known examples of better riders and workers of various races (but don't you mean mainly Mexican?)
BUT, those individuals are not the apotheosis that Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, etc., became. In all of the stories and story art forms (including painting and sculpture, in narrative form), I am not aware of a single well known story or image of the West in which the good guys are not white.
It seems like those stories and images -- even voices -- are so deeply driven into our psyches as Americans, no matter of what race, that they have an almost magical power. That is how the Hollywood Actor and Union Boss -- is there a better definition of slick and sophisticated? -- and the Andover-Yale-Harvard educated WASP scion -- is there a more complete example of privaledged insider? -- were able to hypnotize Americans into thinking they were "regular folk."
It seems to me one of the infuriating and anguished ironies of our society that despite the day to day, on the ground examples of variagated racial-cultural hierarchies, such as those you cite, the fading white mono-culture that has defined the American ideal still holds such sway on our electorate.
And I still don't see how Obama could really become a regular Joe the way Bush and Reagan (and even Bill, in his southern version of the same character) were able to.
What I understand the sharp of the point for Obama is that, with the regular Joe totems taken out of his voodoo kit, he competes at a distinct disadvantage with Annie-Oaklie-Norma- Rae-HRC. And EVEN THO' SHE WAS ALMOST CERTAIN TO LOSE, HRC played her advantage to the hilt, and then siezed of the further advantage -- beyond painting herself as a "hard working white" feller -- of tarring Obama as the freak outsider.
I know she's got lots of supporters, but I predict that in time, her late campaign tactics will permanently tarnish her image and taint the Clinton legacy, just as Willie Horton came to shame G. Herbert Walker.
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@weeping: "a rat's fuck..."
[Read the article: A Scott McClellan flashback]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]b.c. it's the only defense the administration can mount, so of course the media must give it the most serious consideration, weigh all sides equally, and remain scrupulously neutral.
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@Joan re Wilson
[Read the article: A Scott McClellan flashback]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just piling on. Yes! She's amazing, writes with a flashing light.
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@furtail
[Read the article: A Scott McClellan flashback]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No. It's precisely irrelevant, as Weeping pointed out.
It doesn't matter you or any of us think McClellan SHOULD have done. The question is (not to judge a book by its cover), WHAT HAPPENED? For this purpose, McClellan is valuable as a window onto events. Maybe his IS a "turncoat." Maybe he is a vile thing.
Do you believe what he says happened did?
Or didn't?
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@The Death of the Bird
[Read the article: What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Goodcelary,
Thanks.
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@YellowDog
[Read the article: What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Machiavelian, I think. Or Machiavel.
That's nice to hope for, assuming he'd advance your interests. With this example, why assume he will?
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lesser of two evils...
[Read the article: The Obama campaign's past two weeks]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]IMHO, this work you're doing, Glen, is pretty amazing. No matter what the outcome of these political times might be, your work will remain as a witness.
Just sayin'.
But I wanted to put my finger on the scale weighing the question of whether we should support Obama because McCain and the Republicans are so terrible.
I disagree. I believe we should support the POLITICS and ISSUES, not the man.