The Race Card

What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me...you know, 'He doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills'. - Barack Obama

Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. - John McCain campaign

You know, I’ve always hated the phrase “the race card”. I’ve always thought that the fact that a person would even let this phrase cross their lips tells me all I need to know about their views and opinions on race. Once I participated in a wrap-up session for an internship program I did in the ad industry, and an offhand mention of the dreaded “race card” was directed at me when I dared to mention feeling a little discomfort at being the only black male intern at my agency. In our society, which remains too undereducated and afraid to engage in frank talk about race, the “race card” phrase functions as a way to suppress any conversation or real examination of how race affects our world and to take a shortcut through the pearly gates into that “post-racial” society that is easier for those with smaller minds to pretend we’re in. In my case, it was used to deny my feelings because they made others in the room uncomfortable.

To use the phrase assumes that “the race card” is a trump card that black and brown people just have at our disposal to use at our will, as if our race does not exist until we mention it, and as if this card hasn’t (in the words of Whoopi Goldberg) “been pinned to us” in every situation that we find ourselves in. Now, we find ourselves at the place in the campaign where we all feared we’d end up eventually, the place in which Barack Obama begins to acknowledge the root of some of the more unfair (“I just don’t know who he is!”) accusations against him and the place in which the republicans do their best “Who, me?” posturing and attempt to turn themselves (and by extension their base of working-class white voters) into the victims of yet another black man playing the “race card”.

Old man McCain has been on a negative streak lately (a recent CNN poll found that 1/3 of McCain’s ads refer to Obama negatively while 90% of Obama’s ads don’t even mention McCain), and while some of us are tired of the same old game, this stuff is apparently doing a good job of shoring up McCain’s base against Obama (and certainly not for McCain, because I haven’t heard anything about his own plans out of the man’s mouth in weeks). I’m inclined to agree that the only chance McGhoul has is to whip up his supporters, the republican base (suckers or millionaires or both), and perhaps a few skittish independents to become vehemently, virulently opposed to the other guy, that elitist liberal with the ungrateful, angry wife. You know, the one who plays the race card.

The Color of Patriotism

Right now, the big story in the media is Barack Obama‘s trip overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, he’s brushing up on the foreign policy credentials, looking presidential, and basically doing everything that the next president of the United States should do. On the dying political party and half-dead political candidate front, John McCain is presumably somewhere figuring out where Iraq and Pakistan are on a map before he makes yet another huge gaffe that his pals in the media will ignore. Anyways, while doing a little internet surfing, I came across some pictures of Obama in Afghanistan, and while the pictures were with service members that were predominantly of color, I must admit that I was shocked by some of the online reaction to this. I’m a bit of a political junkie, and since the majority of my friends are inline with my own views, I lurk on different political websites to see what people are really thinking. For better or for worse, nothing brings out the truth quite like the anonymity of the internet, but even with that said I was actually pretty fucking disgusted at just how shocked people seemed to be that, you know, there are actually black and Latino service members in the United States military.

In all honesty, the U.S. military is one of the most diverse places I’ve ever worked. While it isn’t without its racial and class issues, it is a place where it is not entirely uncommon for whites to be below blacks and Latinos in rank. Place that little nugget in contrast with the civilian population in which people can go their entire careers without ever having a boss of color, and you’ll see how progressive the military actually is in this respect. This whole situation also got me thinking about how patriotism is framed in this country and exactly who has ownership of patriotic principles. You see, when the right-wing attacks Michelle Obama for her perceived “ungratefulness” and questions Senator Obama’s love for his country, they are continuing a time-honored tradition of portraying blacks as somehow less than patriotic, one that was further ingrained in American culture with the “Welfare Queen“ hysteria brought about by Reagan in the ‘80s.

The image of the American soldier that you see when you close your eyes is probably that of a fresh-faced white male, his piercing blue eyes positively shimmering with love for his country and noble restraint. I mean, isn’t that what we’re shown by Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers and the rest of the assorted Army propaganda that we’re subjected to? Of course, that is a perfectly valid image, but is it more valid than the immigrant who actually serves his country to gain citizenship, or the black girl who joins the military to help pay for college because her parents can‘t afford it? Or what about me? I’m the black gay guy, the double-minority who should feel more put-upon by this big, bad country than anyone else, right? Well, not so much. I love my country because I believe that it is a place where anything can happen for anybody, and I have been known to engage in heated discussions in defense of it. People like myself, those soldiers, and, yes, Senator Obama, scare the shit out of smaller-minded people in this country because we are examples of people of color taking ownership of this country in a way that we have almost never been allowed to before. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that more people haven’t seen those pictures for a good reason, and that is because they defy the narrative about patriotism that has been subtly embedded into our society and forms the image of that soldier that you see in your head. Obama’s presence means that the color of patriotism is becoming a little more broad, and I think that what an Obama presidency will be able to inspire in terms of patriotism among those who have never been thought to be patriotic will be great for the country. For our country.

Is Main Street Ready for Gay PDA? Is ABC Ready to Engage in Real Journalism?

I got a tip to this story from a messageboard that I frequent. Apparently, ABC is doing another one of their "What Would You Do?" stories, this time focusing on reactions to two different gay couples engaging in PDA on a park bench in two different locations, once in Alabama and once in
New Jersey. It was very clear to me even while watching the piece that it was biased in many ways, and calling it amateurish would be a compliment, but I'll let you make your own decisions before I get to mine. You can view the video here

Once upon a time, I was a young, idealistic kid who wanted nothing more than to be in front of the camera on an anchor desk, and while perhaps there's still a part of me that wants that dream, I watch pieces like this and they reinforce why I got the hell out of broadcast journalism and pursued an honest and fulfilling career in Advertising (please note the sarcasm that should be dripping from your computer screen at this point). There is so much wrong with this piece, and the most damning thing about it is that they were all so very obvious upon my first viewing of it.

#1 - Both of the gay couples and all of the media examples of gay kisses presented were all of Whites, reinforcing the stereotype that gay = white, and once again ignoring queers of color.

#2 - The women who were opposed to the Lesbians kissing were bible-quoting rural stereotypes with country accents, complete with the banjo music playing in the background as they spoke.

#3 - The men highlighted with a negative reaction to the behavior were both Black, thus continuing with the black = homophobic stereotype, and once again ensuring the liberal types that are already watching this show that "see, the real homophobes are those other people, not you!".

My critical thinking skills tell me that this "experiment" is a big pile of horseshit designed to make rich white liberals feel better about themselves. The people at ABC didn't want to honestly examine reactions, they just wanted to prove what they already thought. This shit is what's wrong with our news media today. I'll pass. I've already brought enough undeserved attention to this "story" by writing about it.

This Just In: Black Lives Not Worth Anything

The verdict to the Sean Bell shooting trial came in about 30 minutes ago. The officers involved were completely acquitted on all counts, and I feel sick to my stomach. Granted, I always expected this verdict, but there was some small part of me that thought these officers would've been found guilty for something, ANYTHING, that had to do with the tragic shooting of this young black man in New York City. These police officers in UNMARKED CARS shot an UNARMED man to death on the eve of his wedding, and they are not guilty of even the most minuscule counts that are being leveraged against them? I am all for personal responsibility in the black community, but those talking points just don't apply here. This man and his friends were assumed to be armed and dangerous because they were partying while black in a certain area late at night, and the officers acted on their assumptions, which were in no way proven to be true. Now, as in the past, police officers will walk the streets freely after killing yet another young black man. Will I ever find myself in this sort of situation?

There is a part of me that has to believe that my life, at least in the eyes of the law, is worth just as much as anyone else's in this society, but situations like this make me seriously doubt that. Being a young black man in this society means that my intelligence is doubted, that my life is worth less than others, and that one wrong move could send me into a jail cell or a casket at a rate that is vastly greater than that of my White, Latino, and Asian peers. The Sean Bell case isn't about Racist White Cops, because at least one of the officers involved is a Black man. Instead, it is about a culture that sees every black man as a potential threat and a thug, and how this culture feeds into the one dominant societal institution that is supposed to protect us all. I have always believed that police officers are our friends, that they exist to protect us from the bad apples in society. I believe in America, and I believe in equal justice for all. Incidents like this verdict serve only to slowly chip away at that belief, and at the love that I have for a country I have once worn the uniform of.

Is my life worth anything today, tomorrow, or the day after? The answer from the New York State Judicial System is a resounding NO, with the underlying fury of an angry stepfather that dares me to even think about asking the question again.