Four Years Later - Where Are We Now?

I started this blog in September of 2005 in response to the tragedy in New Orleans. The botched response to Hurricane Katrina exposed the racial divide in our country in the most extreme of circumstances. I felt so many emotions around what I was witnessing and I couldn't keep them bottled up or I would have exploded. So I started a blog to express what I felt was the playing out of privilege, oppression, institutionalized racism and classism--all in front of our eyes at the New Orleans Convention Center day after day in the aftermath of the hurricane.

I have facilitated workshops for the Anti-Defamation League and I teach a college class called "Multiculturalism and Anti-Bias Issues in Education". This is something I do for a living, so these issues permeate my thoughts on a daily basis. The events of the last few months have me very concerned. Where is our country headed, that someone can post a poll on Facebook that asks if President Obama should be killed? I'm absolutely appalled that our society has come to this.

I believe that Jimmy Carter was right in his assessment--some of this vitriol comes from the fact that there are those that absolutely cannot accept the fact that our President is African-American. There are those who will argue that it is about Obama's policies. There may be some who truly are only against his policies. But I truly believe that there are those who even subconsciously may feel uncomfortable with the idea of an African-American president. Those who say, "I don't see color," yet by their actions it is very apparent that they, in fact, are prejudiced.

For example, take a look at the demographics of the 9/12 rally in Washington, D.C. 99% of the people attending that rally were white. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was not a place that people of color were likely to attend. Particularly when there were signs showing Obama as a witch doctor as well as other signs that were overtly racist.

Everywhere you turn, there has been an attempt to marginalize and make Obama appear as an "other". During the election, there were attempts to paint him as a Muslim by highlighting his middle name. Not only was this untrue, but it was offensive to Muslim-Americans because it suggested that there was something wrong with being Muslim. There was an attempt by Fox News to make an innocent fist bump between President Obama and his wife into some sort of sinister "terrorist fist jab"--again an attempt to paint them as "dangerous". Finally even John McCain realized how out of control it was getting, when at a rally a woman called Obama an "Arab" and McCain had to defend him, although while doing so, he inadvertently offended Arab-Americans.

On Election Night, my husband Tom and I celebrated like the rest of the country. I had never seen people SO happy! I had volunteered all day in my hometown of Des Moines, Washington and at the end of the day we went to downtown Seattle to celebrate at the Westin with the governor and the other elected officials at the big Democratic Election Night party there. On the way in, people were out in the streets drumming, dancing, screaming, yelling--everyone was so ecstatic! Our kids also had watched it on TV and called us up, screaming and yelling, "OBAMA WON! OBAMA WON!" It was so unbelievable. I remember being at the Westin when Clinton won and we were happy, but it was not anything like this!

But there are some Republicans that just will not accept Obama as President and are doing everything to delegitimize him. The birther movement has already been debunked yet attorney/dentist/real estate agent (you've gotta be kidding me) Orly Taitz continues on her quest to prove that President Obama was born in Kenya and therefore his presidency is not valid. And the pathetic thing about it is you have certain right-wing congresspeople willing to support the birther movement. What happens is the low-information voters who are unable to think critically buy into this crap and then a movement is perpetuated.

Nancy Pelosi made a speech about the danger that is fomented by this hateful rhetoric. I completely agree. And it's not necessarily the loudmouths that you see at the town halls or 9/12 rallies. All this hatefulness that is being spewed by Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs and all the other right-wing conspiracy theorists is fodder for those loners (think Tim McVeigh and the Unabomber) who have absolutely no morals or boundaries. This has got to stop. If there is someone who has the audacity to put up a Facebook poll asking if Obama should be killed, who knows what kind of other nutcase is out there?

When the White House is asked if they feel it is a racial issue, Obama cannot say, "Yes, I believe it is about race." Why? Because as an African-American, he will be accused of playing the race card. Whenever a person of color says that race is an issue in any particular incident, he/she will ALWAYS be accused of playing the race card. Therefore, Obama HAS TO say that race is not an issue. What has to happen is that other people, particularly, white people, need to make that observation. And other people HAVE made that observation. In fact, many people have.

What is ironic is that for people in the dominant culture, if you do not live in a racialized world where race is not part of your day-to-day existence, you can never know how that might impact your life. So what happens is that in any given situation, it's difficult for you to empathize how race might be a factor in that situation, because it is never a factor for YOU. So when a person of color expresses how race might be a factor in a life situation for them, someone from the dominant culture automatically DENIES that as a possibility and says they are "playing the race card" when in fact they are just sharing their life experience as a person of color.

It's the same as if a person has a disability. If a person is disabled and shares a difficulty they have in their life because of their disability, do you automatically say they are "playing the disability card". Probably not, right? So why do people always bring up this race card thing? I think it's because people of the dominant culture do not want to talk about race. They want to pretend that race is not an issue.

Funny, I have NEVER heard a person of color say, "Oh, you're playing the race card." Never ever. Because when I talk to my friends of color, whether they're black, Asian or Latino, when we talk about how our race might be a factor in a situation, there's always an understanding that yes, that is a possibility. We can all empathize with that.

In our society people of the dominant culture really are socialized not to talk about race. They're fascinated by it, but don't want to talk about it at the same time. The class I teach is great because I teach students who are planning to become teachers. We talk about all kinds of differences--race, gender, class, disabilities, sexual orientation. Are they uncomfortable at the beginning? You betcha. And for the most part, almost every class I teach I am the only person of color. Most of my classes are all white. But I provide a safe environment where people can say whatever they want to say without feeling judged.

I'll give you an example. Every quarter, there is someone who inadvertently uses the term "colored person". Rather than act shocked that the person used the term, we talk about the history of the term, how that term was used back in the 1950's to refer to African-Americans during the Jim Crow era in the South, and how it really harkens back to an ugly time in American history. I also draw the distinction between the term "colored person" and "person of color" because some people are confused by that.

And by the end of the class, the students come away with a completely new way of looking at the world. They are able to see the world with their eyes wide open and that the media perpetuates a lot of stereotypes. They are able to see the world through different perspectives and realize that their perspective of the world is not the only one. And they are able to talk about race without fear and in a more objective manner.

Implementing an Anti-Bias Curriculum

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Each year when I teach my class, Multiculturalism and Anti-bias in Education, my students, all of whom are studying to become teachers, go beyond the borders of their comfort zones and try to empathize with what it is like to walk in the shoes of someone different. The vast majority of my students are white, female and middle-class. Yet the children they will be teaching are increasingly diverse. The vast majority of my students view the world through a cultural lens that may be very different than the ones that their future students may be viewing the world through. It is so important that my students have the ability to empathize with other world viewpoints, and to see that other cultural perspectives are just as viable. It is important that they do not view people of color as foreign, or exotic, but as normalized. Through the class, we talk about infusing anti-bias curriculum into the day-to-day curriculum, so that it just becomes the norm, rather than "Tacos on Tuesday", or what we call a "tourist curriculum".

I'm Still on a High!

It has been eight days since Barack Obama was elected POTUS and I'm still beaming from ear to ear! I feel like the country has come out from an eight year hibernation in a cave and it's a new day in America!

On Election Night, Tom and I first went to Mick Kelley's Irish Pub in Burien where a contingent of people from the 33rd and 11th Legislative Districts watched the Election Night speeches on the big screen. John McCain gave a very gracious concession speech and I believe him when he says he will support Obama. When Obama gave his victory speech, Tom and I sobbed. We both grew up during the Civil Rights era. One of the first corporations I worked for after I graduated from college was under a consent decree because of systemic discrimination against women and people of color, and for years proactively hired women and people of color under court order. However, this didn't stop the discrimination that happened once women and people of color were hired. I ended up filing an EEO complaint against the company for gender discrimination and won a promotion and back pay. I consistently saw white men of mediocre talent get promoted over women and people of color of greater ability. When I filed my EEO complaint, women and people of color who rightfully should have been promoted finally got the promotions and pay increases they deserved. At the time, I was 26 years old. Another friend of mine filed a sexual harassment complaint; she too won her complaint as there was concrete evidence of the harassment. But there were many people who were discriminated against who felt powerless, who felt that if they stood up against those in power, that they might lose their jobs. So they put up with the discrimination.

That experience in a sense informed my decision to become a diversity trainer. I have always been interested in issues of social justice. I can remember as early as fifth grade reading books about civil rights and being moved by these stories. I decided rather than sit on the sidelines and bemoan the situation, I wanted to do something about. Originally I became an actor in a diversity theatre company, performing plays about institutionalized racism and facilitating discussions afterwards. Great experience. Afterwards, I worked with several diversity consulting firms and facilitated workshops in corporations throughout the country about workplace diversity. I've also worked with the Anti-Defamation League, working with schools on prejudice reduction and with Green River Community College as an adjunct instructor, teaching Multiculturalism and Anti-Bias in Education.

When I think back to the struggle of women and people of color in our society, and now look at how far we've come, with Hillary Clinton as a viable candidate and Barack Obama as our president-elect, I feel that the battles that many of us have waged have been worth it. The younger generation does not view race in the same way that older people view it, and I believe a lot of that is due to education, and how educators really are taught to not bring their biases into the classroom. There is a strong focus on anti-bias education, and has been for a long time now. And it was that all-important youth vote that was critical in Obama's victory.

I read a great article today. It talked about how Fox News is really helping the Democratic party. By preaching their hate, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and anti-intellectual rants, they push away moderates from the Republican party to the Democratic party so that the only ones left are the hard right, low education voters. Yea, Fox, keep on doing what you're doing! Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111102257.html

Sarah Palin Does Not Value Diversity

One thing that really struck me when watching the two political conventions was that the Democratic Convention was very inclusive. You had young and old, all different ethnicities, people with disabilities. Forty-four percent of the delegates were people of color. What a great representation of our country!

As I watched the Republican Convention, I really had to search the crowd to find a person of color. I also had to search the crowd to find someone under 55. Seriously. It looked like a senior citizen's convention. A white senior citizen's convention.

I remember one Republican pundit saying that they don't have quotas and that's why the Democratic Convention has more people of color. Well, I was part of the caucuses here in Washington State, and we do have goals in order to be more inclusive but guess what? We met most of our goals during the regular caucuses. Meaning, during the Congressional District Caucuses, when the national delegates were elected, we voted for a diverse delegation. Diverse in terms of age, race, sexual orientation, gender and disability status. You see, Democrats are inclusive! We don't limit our delegates to a select group of European-American, upper-middle-class 60-year-olds.

So what does this have to do with Sarah Palin? Apparently, she has absolutely no relationship with the African-American community in Alaska and has not returned any phone calls from one of the African-American leaders in Alaska. She doesn't feel it's important. Check out these two blogs:

http://freerangewriting.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-and-divesity-representation.html

http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-and-african-americans-in.html

Clearly, we can see where she stands in terms of her relationship with people of color.

The Politics of Spin

This morning I was watching "Meet the Press", as I do every Sunday morning at 6:00 AM. Boy, the Republicans sure know how to spin an answer.

Rudy Giuliani was being interviewed by Tom Brokaw, and Brokaw was hitting him with some pretty tough questions. First of all, he showed a clip of McCain promising to run a respectful campaign, followed by a recent attack ad in which the McCain campaign states that Obama's only accomplishment in education is providing sex education to kindergarteners! Which is not only patently false (Obama did not sponsor the bill, and the bill is about teaching K-12 children how to avoid sexual predators), Giuliani goes on to blame Obama for McCain's negative ads, saying that McCain wouldn't have to do negative ads if Obama had agreed to town hall meetings!

Then he defends his sarcastic and condescending remark about community organizing in his RNC speech. He turned it around by saying he was referring to how little a record Obama had in community organizing. Sorry Rudy, we all heard what you said. That is NOT what you said. You sneered. You said, "Community organizing". Then you laughed and said, "Yeah," in a mocking tone. It had nothing to do with his record. You were just being an asshole. Then he went on and on about him being the most liberal senator, blah, blah, blah.

When asked about the "bubba" vote, and the impact of those who may not be emotionally prepared to vote for a black man, he answered it very superficially, saying he knows John McCain and he knows that John McCain doesn't want people to vote for him because of race. I call BS on that comment too, because so many ads from the McCain campaign subtly and not-so-subtly paint a picture of the Obamas as "other", trying to appeal to those racist voters who are not comfortable voting for an African-American. And then there are the conservative groups and scurrilous emails that have perpetuated rumors about the Obamas--that portray Michelle Obama as the "angry black woman" or Barack Obama as a Muslim, or an innocent fist bump as a "terrorist fist jab", or the rantings of their pastor as somehow reflective of their views. What I don't understand is why isn't the media looping the story about Todd Palin's ties to a secessionist party? Why isn't the media airing the story about Sarah Palin's pastor saying that any critic of George W. Bush and his policies will burn in hell? Why is there a double standard when it comes to coverage on Republican candidates and Democratic candidates? Liberal bias, my a**! The media is owned by corporations.

We deserve to know about Sarah Palin. This sequestering of Sarah Palin is ludicrous. It should be clear to EVERYONE by now that she does not know anything about foreign policy. She is being hidden from the press because she is not able to answer questions on the fly and the McCain campaign is terrified that she is going to make a fool of herself. She already made a fool of herself in the Charlie Gibson interview when she had no idea what the Bush Doctrine was. Some people may argue, "Well, so what, not everyone knows what the Bush Doctrine is." Yes, but SHE is running for Vice-President. SHE should know what it is. Clearly that was not one of the things she was PREPPED on. The Vice-Presidential job is not something ygu study for like a test. You need to be prepared, and clearly she knows NOTHING about foreign policy in a time when we are engaged in not one but TWO wars! She says her foreign policy experience is about ENERGY! Give me a break! And then Giuliani tries to defend that position by skirting the issue and saying that it's about her executive experience? What, her part-time position as mayor of a podunk town of 6,000 people and governor of Alaska for less than two years, where she is under investigation for abuse of power? Come on, do you really think we're that stupid?

Please use your vote wisely. This election is way too important to waste it. The McCain/Palin ticket is not about change. The choice of Palin was a calculated move to bring evangelical Christians to the ticket and hopefully women; however, many women realize that Palin does not share their views when it comes to women's reproductive rights. Obama and Biden have a record of supporting women's rights.

This election really matters. It really matters. We can do this.

Register to vote! Educate yourself!

This election REALLY MATTERS this year. If you are not registered to vote, you can do so easily online at the following website:

http://www.voteforchange.com/index_obama.php?source=091008emailR#

It will take you less than three minutes and you'll even be able to register to vote absentee. I vote absentee because I don't have to worry about how to get to the polls, I get my voters pamphlet early, and I have time to peruse it and decide how I'm going to vote at my leisure before Election Day.

Also, it is VERY important to inform yourself. Watch the news. Read as much as you can. Educate yourself. Don't believe scurrilous rumors. Don't vote for someone because they seem like they'd be nice to have a beer with. Vote for someone smarter than you. Vote for someone who truly understands the issues. Vote for someone who you feel truly has your best interests in mind.

The culture wars reignited

What has become clear from the Republican National Convention is that John McCain used his surrogates to reignite the culture wars. Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin went on the attack and viciously tore into Senator Obama, throwing out the "red meat" for the party faithful in St. Paul to dig their fangs in. They were sarcastic and condescending. Mean.

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin invoked the term "community organizing" with utter disdain--indeed, Giuliani laughed and repeated it to the crowd as if to say, "Yeah, can you believe it, community organizing." Do they care that the civil rights movement was the ultimate community organizing? Or the women's movement? Or women's suffrage? Or the American Red Cross? Or the United Way? And it takes RESPONSIBILITY? Oh yeah, it's not that they don't care, THEY JUST DON'T GET IT.

Mitt Romney went on stage and kept on drawing contrasts between LIBERAL values and CONSERVATIVE values and how we need to return to CONSERVATIVE values, and blah blah blah. Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. It is YOUR Conservative party and Conservative values that got us into this mess that we're in now by voting for Bush not ONCE but TWICE. TWICE! UNBELIEVABLE! They voted for someone with conservative values and who they were comfortable having a beer with--and he's now the butt of jokes and disrespected by international leaders. People are sick and tired of the right wing evangelicals hijacking and dividing this country by taking their extremist stands on social issues and forcing them on the rest of us. Not this time Mitt, not this time.

And Sarah Palin. The fact that she came out of nowhere, and after ONE speech, the Republicans say, "She is one of us!" Yet Barack Obama has been giving speeches for 20 months, gave probably one of the most historic speeches on race in the history of our country, and people are STILL saying, "We still don't know him." Yeah, right.

John Ridley wrote a great blog about the glaring double standards that exist in these campaigns that I have to share. You'll get a kick out of them:

The Guide to the Conservative Palinguage Vol. 2 - The People's Edition
John Ridley


This is the Vol. 2 of The Guide to the Conservative Palinguage. I'm calling this one the People's Edition because you, the people, have obviously been taking AP courses in talking Conservative. I've been slammed with responses. Enough that I can promise you there will be future volumes. Along with some of mine, I've mixed in a few of yours for everybody's linguistic pleasure.

Before we start, I'd like to note that I intimated in Vol. 1 that English is a Latin based language. Hondorf was among a few others who pointed out that English is "primarily German based, yes, but it is really a hybrid of Germanic and Romantic languages . . . by the way, I am a redneck."

Clearly, none of us should judge a neck by its color.

A reminder, we're collecting Palinisms here, and over at That Minority Thing.com. If you've got 'em, send 'em.

Ready? Let's begin!

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phoney." Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."

SoyAA says: If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

If you give your wife a dap on stage, it's actually a "terrorist fist jab." If your daughter licks her palm so that she can slick down your youngest child's hair on national TV it's an "adorable moment." (Seriously, forget about abstinence only, teach these folks some grooming skills).

DTD SAYS: If your pastor rails against inequality in the United States of America, you're an "extremist." If your pastor welcomes a sermon by a member of Jews for Jesus who preaches that the killing of Jews by terrorists is a lesson to Jews that they must convert to Christianity, you're a "fundamentalist."

If you're a black man and you use a scholarship to get into college, then work your way up to being the president of the Harvard Law Review, you're "uppity." If you're a conservative and your parents pay your way to Hawaii Pacific University . . . you only have four more schools to attend over the next five years before you somehow manage to graduate (it might be five more schools over the next five years. No one has yet verified whether or not Palin was actually ever registered at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. But, you know how shady people are who ever attended any kind of school in Hawaii).

SeanOcali says: If you're 18, white, and get a 16 year old girl pregnant "life happens." If you're 18, black, and impregnate a 16 year old girl, you're a "registered sex offender."

If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of "Change," it's just "empty rhetoric." If one week before your party's national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about "Change," that's "red meat."

And your last lesson for the day:

If you are a Democrat, an Independent, or even a moderate Republican, if you're female, male, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, bi-racial, multi-ethnic, or GLBT, if you're a Jew, Gentile, Muslim, agnostic or atheist -- "Yes, we can!"

If you're a pitbull with lipstick from Alaska, "Yup, yup!"