Some Hateful-Ass Shit
During the election, I heard people, black mostly but also a few white folks, speculate or state their “worry” that Barack Obama as presidential candidate, president-elect or president, would be assassinated like Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Even in the ridiculous cheeriness post-election, I still heard and hear partly joking but largely serious speculations about how long Obama can be president-elect or president without being killed. I never understood if it was about fear in general, fear of disappointment, fear of chaos, or a realistic appraisal of the racial climate in some parts of the US. Is this a lack of faith in our progress as a nation? In the Secret Service? In our selection of a president? What does it say when you openly wonder whether the guy whose t-shirt you’re wearing and whose bumper stickers are all over your car and wallet and windows and gear shift and whose sign you’ve proudly placed in your yard will be gunned down? Was your vote an act of faith or an act of stupidity?
Then there’s the Osama Obama Shotgun Pool sign that appeared in a store in Standish, ME, right after the election. The assertion of some defenders of the store owner, who denied he knew anything about the sign (really?), was that the sign was a tasteless joke gone wrong. I disagree. There’s no joke in “Osama Obama” after the fearmongering of the McCain-Palin campaign and its allies. The only reason to include “Osama” is to link Obama with Osama bin Laden, to imply that Obama is Other and therefore dangerous and probably allied with anyone who “hates our freedoms.” (That noise you heard was my frontal lobe exploding.) There’s also the allegation that at the bottom of the pool sign was a sentence “Let’s hope someone wins.” Oh, the punch line.
A rabid dog let out of its pen is hard to pen in again. The campaign tapped into deep fears, hates and received ideology on race that some in the US were able to apparently unpack, examine, shout and cry and argue over, regardless of who they ultimately voted for. When Obama is sworn in as president January 20, that unpacking is not over. The internal and external struggles will continue. Questions need to be asked and answers debated. Who is your neighbor? Where do you shop? Who’s your boss? When you have to hire, who will you hire and why? What does your doctor look like? Are saggy, show-your-underwear pants “culture” to be defended or a fashion that can be condemned, sneered at, discarded? Do you like your beans with a sauce or dry? Will you eat collard greens and blackeyed peas with me on New Year’s Day? Do I have to straighten my hair to get a corporate job? Should you drive alone at night through a neighborhood that isn’t your own? Can I trust that police officer over there regardless of his or her race? Will I still be asked “What do black people think about ___”? Will I be told I must eat/drink/wear/say/enjoy/reject x, y, or z because my skin is brown? And if I do not snap to, will I be considered not a member of the club? A traitor? Ignorant of “your/our History”? Will I ever have to hear again “But you must be mixed with something?” meant not as a yes/no, provide-missing-information question but as a compliment? And will folks like Mayor Nagin and Veronica White continue to cry racism whenever they hear a question or answer they do not like? (Disclosure: this bitch is no fan of Stacy Head but using “racism” to deflect attention from your own shit is lame. And undermines racial progress.) And if President Obama fails at something or doesn’t fulfill someone’s utopian dream, am I going to have to worry about a backlash? Can I continue to believe that The Girl will live in a different world than I, who lived in a different world than her parents? Or will we thinking, analytical adults continue to believe the lie that we can draw thick categorical lines between “races”? Will racial purity finally become the joke some of us already know it is?
What will you be thankful for this coming Thursday?
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COMING SOON TO A BROWSER NEAR YOU…The return of The G Bitch Spot! Stay tuned for additional updates, squeals, rants and wild projections.
G Bitch
still NOLA
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