latin american princesa {LAP}

What irritates me most about the media coverage of the race for the democratic nomination is the constant harping about gender and the less harped on question of race. Why do people think that it is strange that Obama got a higher percentage of female votes than Hillary in Iowa? Why don’t they question how many men voted for any male candidate? Do they think women are so stupid that they would vote for Hillary just because she is a woman? Shouldn’t female voters, like male voters, choose the candidate they feel best represents their interests?

The gender question seems to be getting more of this kind of bogus coverage than the race issue. We could blame it on the media and our patriarchal society. We could say that for a white male dominated patriarchal America, a man, no matter what color, is still better than a woman. But I won’t say that. That is an easy cop out. No, I think the media is reflecting a major difference in the campaigns of the two front-runners. She plays the gender card. He does not play the race card. She is running as a woman, to be the first female president. He is not running as a black man, to be the first black president. Early on this resulted in accusations of “not being black enough” which Obama cleverly quieted. I feel for Hillary. She’s smart and strong and could be a good leader, but it’s true she is part of the status quo. She hasn’t realized that she is more than just a woman. Or at least her campaign is not really showing that.

We can’t pretend that race and gender are not factors. Many people are surprised at the amount of white support for Obama. Certainly good questions related to race and gender will reveal interesting new dynamics. The problem is that Hillary and her campaign are making gender more of a focal point than Obama is with race.

When Obama speaks one hears a black man (with my eyes closed I almost hear MLK). But he is many things. He is multiracial, he is well-educated, he is a husband, he is a father, he is a citizen, he has lived abroad…. But most of all he is my hero for not allowing one aspect of his identity to define who he is. Stereotypes reduce us to one small, and often negative, aspect of our identity, stripping us of the rest of our selves. That’s why stereotypes can be so damaging to self-esteem. SO WHY DO IT TO OURSELVES? Why limit ourselves to only one aspect of who we are?

The progressive liberal in me may love Gravel’s frankness and audacity, but Obama could be what America needs to help us recognize and fully include multiple facets of our identities: black, white, immigrant, hopeful, energetic, ambitious, and complex. Obama as president would embody that new America so many of us are obviously yearning for: color full not color-blind. This would certainly play a role in both foreign and domestic issues, breaking with the colonialist, imperialist mentality inherited from European ancestors. Sarkozy is shaking up the French political establishment. Chavez, Lula and Morales represent dramatic changes in Latin America (how good the changes are remains to be seen). Sadly Bhutto’s assassination destroys a bit of democratic hope for that region.

Could we be on the brink of a new era in which the Euro-American arrogant superiority complex is slowly replaced by dynamic, new ways of thinking?

I hope so. But I don’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet.

• Flight From Darfur Ends Violently in Egypt (washington post)
  Young Mother Killed by Border Guards While Waiting to Cross to Sanctuary in Israel
• School deaths that stunned black America (the guardian)
  After four model students were gunned down in a playground, outrage spread: if the brightest and best are not safe, then who is? Paul Harris in New York reports on the killings that have galvanised a community
• Moving the homeless out of shelters, into homes (christian science monitor)
  A new approach is being heralded not only as more successful in fighting chronic homelessness, but more cost effective.
• Rising Breed of Migrant: Skilled and Welcome (ny times)
  

  Migration is a two-way street

• RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: No Change in Patterns of Police Brutality and Impunity
  CARACAS, Aug 20 (IPS) - Eloísa Caro, a 26-year-old domestic worker, was blindfolded, handcuffed, beaten about the face, verbally abused and nearly suffocated with a plastic bag last year when she was summoned by the judicial police in the Venezuelan capital to give a statement on a robbery in the house where she worked.
• British Civics Class Asks, What Would Muhammad Do? (ny times)
  

  “One of our primary concerns is: why the Muslim community again?” Mrs. Ali said. “Extremism is a problem in all communities, especially among the British National Party,” she said, referring to a right-wing party that has articulated white supremacist views. “The issue of terror and extremism needs to be addressed across the board rather than saying: ‘Here, Muslims, go into your corner and have your curriculum.’”

Via no snow here I found a fascinating article that helps me illustrate the importance of context to race, ethnicity and discrimination. It is also a good opportunity to introduce the black-white continuum* and the importance of recognizing (shades of) diversity on a greater scale.

In Arabs and the Racial Lessons of 9/11 Carol Chehade discusses the relationship between Arab Americans and African Americans in the U.S.

Profiled, feared, detained, assaulted, accused, interrogated, harassed, hated, and collectivized since 9-11, Arab Americans have suddenly known what it feels like to be temporarily Black.

This is no secret to Black people who already know that Arab Americans have the same type of superiority complex that European Americans do. This superiority complex is not only evident in the way we act toward Black people but in the way we choose to disassociate ourselves from their community.

Continue reading My black is not your black…

While Obama’s cowboy-like talk concerning Pakistan worried me, he’s now redeemed himself in my eyes with his handling of the “black enough” commentary.

From Obama: Enough with the ‘black enough’ talk:

And that’s when he issued this provocative challenge: Instead of asking Obama if he’s black enough, black journalists should dig deeper, and ask why there exists this mistrust in black America of a black man like Obama running for office?

And more on this: The Obamas Are Tired Of the Blackness Question

We are electing a person right? Not a skin color? And for that matter not a gender—for those who think I HAVE to vote for Hillary because she is a woman. Thanks, but I can make up my own mind who will represent my interests.

“Yo, you white, girl!”

On a hot June day in a Colombian fast food joint in Queens, I expressed my preference for a mocha over a cafesito colombiano con leche.

“You a little bit kinda white.”

On another occasion, I explained I was doing research for my masters degree and what cultural anthropology was all about.

“Now Colombia has everything. Cause there’s some niggers*, charcoal niggers. … And then there’s white girls. I know some Colombian white girls. And then there’s us, tanned.”

A youth explains to me the diversity that developed in Colombia since the slaves were brought over, resulting in a mixed Colombian culture.

Continue reading Black vs. white? NO! color full societies…