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My Dichotomy--a toonless Wag-a-muffin offering

Posted by wag-a-muffin, Jan 18 2009, 12:14 PM

No toon today, just a short little blog.

I am, after all, a child raised in the hippie generation--even though my parents were about as far from "far-out" as is idealistically possible.

I watched t.v. news casts in horror during the civil rights struggle. I remember forced integration and busing and real Church bombings. I argued with racist friends over the merits of equality. I wasn't on the front lines, but I was on the "right side."
I remember reading in the "letters to the editor" of SEVENTEEN magazine angry young women readers, upset that a Negro was featured on the cover and I was thrilled that I was so "color blind" that I hadn't even noticed.

So, somehow, when I see a person of color as president, my initial reaction is, "wow, cool." (Sorry. That is my initial reaction.) Then when a split second later I realize and remember that it is Obama I am looking at, I get depressed.

I wish the first elected person of color was someone I could be proud of, or at least feel like I was happy for.

And I wonder if I am the only one feeling like, it is a positive move that we've come so far, but I wish our first Black president could have been a man or woman of integrity, and not a Chicago politician.*

*I would use a more applicable descriptive label for him, but I am a lady.

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Comments

#1
katnapper, Jan 18 2009, 12:40 PM

I do not even look at him. I do not care what color he is. I do not care what color anyone is. If they harm me I do not like them, if they don't I am willing to give them a chance. His policies are going to harm this country. I cannot give him a chance. It does not matter to me that he is black. He has ruined it by being a socialist.

#2
wag-a-muffin, Jan 18 2009, 12:48 PM

Maybe it's my face blindness, I don't automatically recognize anyone. So when I see him, my dislike, distrust, basic "dis" of anything O, doesn't kick in until I DO recognize him.

#3
The Prince Regent, Jan 18 2009, 12:57 PM

The only color that I see when I look at Obama or any like him is red and a hammer and sickle.

#4
USNJIMRET, Jan 18 2009, 01:24 PM

Good blog, perhaps better without a toon.
I have to agree with you, that there are a large number of black people who I would much rather have seen be the first black President.
Although even saying that is opting in to the notion that skin color has anything at all to do with the ability to be an effective President.
Like you I cringe, to say the least, at the thought of ANY pure politician becoming President. Al politicians really "know" is the game of politics, which operates under a constantly shifting set of rules.
Even more then 'just' a pure politician, one from somewhere like Chicago, where they all but celebrate just how corrupt they can be.....what were "we" thinking?
Oops, sorry.
Those that elected him are certainly not guilty of that sin. Thinking is done for them, platitudes are all they need, want or are capable of dealing with.

#5
Dublin5, Jan 18 2009, 02:39 PM

Good blog. I'm about where you are. It's exciting but in the same vein, when all the hoopla is said and done this week, this has potential to go from historical to a big scary mess. And the big scary mess has nothing to do with Obama's race.

#6
Bekisue, Jan 18 2009, 02:57 PM

I agree, Waggie. Good post.

#7
leftcoast, right winger, Jan 18 2009, 07:28 PM

I really do believe that emphasizing his "blackness' is going to prove more divisive and cause more racial hatred. I hope I'm wrong, but I see a lot of alienated people in the next four years.

This post has been edited by leftcoast, right winger: Jan 18 2009, 07:29 PM

#8
Riothouse, Jan 18 2009, 10:33 PM

I would get excited if Obama's Presidency was truly the realization of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Dream." He wanted black men and women to be judged "by the content of their character" rather than the color of their skin. I couldn't agree more, and I think that in order to protect democracy we must judge all men by their character. The sad part is Obama's Presidency is the very definition of racism that King was against. I heard so many people saying they were voting for Obama and were excited to have him as President because of the color of his skin, and NOT because of the content of his character. I just don't think that this is the dream that King orated about. I don't see it as a move forward in racial issues. I see it as a false sense of equality.

There are so many wonderful, intelligent, conservative and capable black men in this Country -- but they are stifled. They are told that they are a shame to their "Race" because they don't believe the right way. Those men are stifled because they have the wrong skin tone -- only they are stifled by the people who share that skin tone, more often than not. Until that kind of inequality and racism is dealt with, I think that the Obama pandering is patronizing.