Thursday, June 5, 2008

Obama is Black. Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

Looks like I owe Blayne Scofield $50 dollars. Unless, of course, Obama decides this whole thing was silly in the first place and changes his mind. Let's wait to see if he changes his mind....

Actually, to be honest, I am very excited and looking forward to this race. I think the man is going to make an excellent candidate and if John McCain is still alive in November- we're gonna take him down.

I have one last thing to get off my chest about the race, race, and gender before I join the screaming fans.

I would like to describe a T- Shirt I saw on a girl the other day. The tag:

Once you vote black you never go back.

Guys, this whole thing has been as much about race and gender as ANYTHING else and I think it is in our strength for us to admit that instead of denying it.

I caught some real flack from different people ( friends, lovers, liars) over the course of this whole thing- me all the while saying that One of the Reasons I was voting for Hillary was because a female running for president is a political act. I still think it is. So is the fact that our good man Obama is black. In this country both of these things were a big deal. Pure and simple. Just ask that Preacher. Just ask the people telling Hillary to do the ironing. Just ask the populations in the south that came out to vote that never had before.

We want to own the good part of having a black candidate (it's progressive, we are making headway, see race doesn't matter) and stuff in the closet or WORSE make invisible all the parts of it that make us (especially white intellectuals/artists/tax evaders) uncomfortable.

Barack Obama is black. He is black and that is political. Part of the reason that this is happening - that this is historic- is because he is black and it scares me MORE that we aren't owning that.
We have to own that he is a black man and be honest that it is part of the reason we are nervous that he isn't going get the votes in those states from those voters.

I am still hung up about the fact the left has done itself more harm than good, choking up our ability to use language and acknowledge differences. If you don't talk about the elephant in your living room we will never figure out how to get it out of the house and its going to shit everywhere and eat your sofa. Then you will have lots of shit everywhere and no sofa.

Obama knows he is black. He gave that awesome, awesome speech.


Bring on that change everyone has been taking off their clothes for. I'm in bed with the black man. I hear once you go black... well, you've heard it before.



Pathetically still secretly hoping for a dream ticket,

Melissa

1 comment:

Unknown said...

word. and one to your mother. who--i'm gonna say it!--is not black.