This Time, I'm Adding My View

The ladies were at it again. I meant to actually get up and watch, but I overslept.

Here's the thing. McCain is losing. So he and his supporters, including Elizabeth Hasselbeck, are resorting to smear, fear, and racist tactics. Neither of them, and no one else I know, has completely "all-America" association. So this whole thing is completely repulsive. They claim Obama isn't being "completely honest." But what more does the electorate need to know? And what difference does it make anyway?

Hasselbeck is also accusing the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr of hating his country. Even though he voluntarily joined the marines during Vietnam. She's basically jumping from his finding fault with the country to him hating the country. And let's just be clear. There are plenty of faults to found with America, even discluding racism.

And for the record, as a black person, probably an overwhelming majority of us have mixed feelings about this country. We can look past the faults of this country, especially it's anti-black bias, to get to the affectionate "love" most conservatives think everyone should be. What's more, the overwhelming majority of us are adults. We understand that a country, even the one of our citizenship, isn't something to be "loved."

Also, I have to deal with this right-wing lie that the Democrats are at fault for our economic crisis. Let's get one thing straight. Our country's economic decisions have been made for the past 8 years or more from a conservative standpoint. Supply-side, lower taxes, deregulation, that's what has gotten us into the trouble we're in now. No one forced banks to do millions of "sub-prime" lending, aimed primarily at people of color. What Democrats and African Americans wanted was an end to the red-lining that was keeping African Americans from getting loans that rightly qualified for.

And once you look at the numbers, millions of people of color were given sub-prime loans even though they qualified for prime loans. Which, I should point out, is why the overwhelming majority of African Americans don't "love" this country. "Whitey" screws everybody, us especially, and then turns and blames it on us black folk. It had right after the Civil War when crime dramatically increased in the South, and even though 90% of the crime was committed by whites, including ex-Confederate soldiers, somehow, the entire increase was blamed on recently freedmen and women. So, we're used to this song and dance, and it is why essays and articles that Barack Obama's meteoric rise proves the end of "black politics" and racism fall on . . . well, I wouldn't say deaf ears to the extent that we do hear what's being said. Perhaps uncaring ears because we know you're lying to yourself and just aren't willing to accept your lies for ourselves.

So, the system remains racist. And blaming black people and other racial minorities for this crisis when just about every CEO and COO and CFO of the failing companies are white is racist as well.

But anyway, voter. Be smart. Be wise. If this is all McCain has, then he doesn't have anything positive to say about himself. And also, take note that he makes these accusations at rallies, not at the debates. He preaches to the choir. He makes these comments where no one can respond.

And as far as the mandate on parents to place health care coverage on their children - parents will have government assistance available to them. This ain't about the parent. It's about the child.

The View and Mine, Too

I will add my opinion later.

Here I'm Is

Yeah, I don't mean that sentence literally. It's not acceptable in any form of English. It's just something I heard my little cousin say when she was 2-years old.

Again, today. Some stream of consciousness about the world around me.

Let me start by saying that Americans, especially those who lack the melanin content of others, need to get over ourselves. We're not God's gift to the world. Right at this very moment, while we claim to support democracy and are willing to occupy a country that posed no danger to us, we're undermining a democracy in South America. Quite possibly just because Evo Morales and his left-leaning government doesn't dance to our tune.

No, America. We're not the greatest place on earth. We're not the the Disney Land of the world. Get over it!

We claim to be a land of religious tolerance. Not true. Ask the Muslim in your neighborhood. There aren't any? Try your job. Still none? Find someone who looks Arab, promise you're not wired, and ask them their truest thoughts of America.

We claim to be a Christian nation. That's not true, either. Oh, I know how candidates for president have to profess a belief in Christ. I know how we treat the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, etc, etc, so on and so forth. All of which leads me to the conclusion that we got a bunch of people who're crying, "Lord, Lord!" and ain't nowhere near heaven.

We claim to be a racially tolerant nation. Well, I'm black so I know that's a load of crap. In fact, that's what the previously mentioned male friend added to my list of traits I want in a husband. He's anti-assimilation. Which is odd if you knew him. But, that's what I heard him say. And, well, I like that. I'm anti-assimilation, too. Yes, I can speak standard American English with the best of'em. I have my "white" voice. I can "act white" when necessary. But ultimately, I feel as though I'm being deceptive when I do those things. And I am indeed deceiving the audience of my "white" performance into accepting me for the person they would like me to be, and not the person I really am. I do that to get what I want. Studies have shown that the average person responds more positively to whiteness than blackness. So, I get what I want and go on with life.

I mean, take a look at the most liberal site you can find. Huffington Post. Alternet.org. Read the articles, then read the comments.

Which further proves my point that we're not a Christian nation. Over 30% of our citizens, in order to be successful, have to put on a performance. We 30% have to spend at least 8 hours of our day lying about who we really are. Um, yeah, any religious leader who spent more time with the so-called "sinners and tax-collecters" than he did high priests and scribes would not force others to be anything but who they are in order to be successful.

Now, granted, I'm kinda down right now. My football fantasy teams aren't performing as well as I had hoped. You'd think I'd be able to just shake that off, but no.

So, here I'm is with a few of my general complaints about America.

And when I mention our lack of religious tolerance, I'm including dogmatic atheists and agnostics as well. It bothers me that these intellectuals who understandably demand rational proof of God can't separate religious teachings from religious people and their most demonstrably religious actions. I once can across someone who was trying to make the barb that in Christianity, a man dies to receive 10 virgins while at least Islam gives him 72. The guy was referencing a parable, a story Jesus told to help explain how the Kingdom of God works. The fact that he couldn't tell the difference between a parable and actual promises led me to the conclusion that he's not the genius atheist he thinks he is.

Which brings me to another point. We claim to be a sexually tolerant nation. We're not. Whether or not your sexuality and sexual activity is accepted depends on your race, your gender, and the particular group you're in at the moment. We have a healthy margin of people who believe whole-heartedly in sexual purity - at least for females - and who decry the relatively high amount of sexual content on TV. As though they can't turn the channel. Then there're those who think waiting until you're married to have sex is a terrible idea. No, no one's actually explained to me why that is, but whoa! Just find yourself someone who's "sexually liberated" and find out just how uptight they are.

Yes. I'm a virgin. Oh, believe me. It's by choice. If at this moment right now, I decided to have sex, I could change my networking-site status and find at least 10 sexual partners available tonight. And another 10 who'd be willing to fly in or fly me out by tomorrow.

And, as promised, I suppose I should list some general complaints about the world at large.

Okay. Let me first start with America's international affairs. We went to war with the Taliban if Afganistan, illegally invaded Iraq, talking tough about Iran and Russia. Meanwhile, there's a genocide in the Darfur region of the country of Sudan on the continent of Africa and what have we done? At least 5 million people have died in the war(s) in Congo on the same continent and what have we done? . . . Oh, I should be clear. I mean, what have we done to promote peace? Cause the fact that we're selling weapons in these regions does count for doing something, just not something constructive. And before you fault "those people" as though we American are above such destructive actions, interview some Iraqis and also, some women in our military.

And as far as international affairs apart from America, Georgia needs to stop their illegal, genocidal actions in South Ossetia.

Okay. I gotta go now. But I'll be back. And I'm not promising a better mood.

Racism Without Racists.

Very informative article. Well . . . not so much for me because I already know this stuff. But, it's information white Americans need to stop running from. - No1KState

October 5, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist
Racism Without Racists
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

One of the fallacies this election season is that if Barack Obama is paying an electoral price for his skin tone, it must be because of racists.

On the contrary, the evidence is that Senator Obama is facing what scholars have dubbed “racism without racists.”

The racism is difficult to measure, but a careful survey completed last month by Stanford University, with The Associated Press and Yahoo, suggested that Mr. Obama’s support would be about six percentage points higher if he were white. That’s significant but surmountable.

Most of the lost votes aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.

Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously.

“When we fixate on the racist individual, we’re focused on the least interesting way that race works,” said Phillip Goff, a social psychologist at U.C.L.A. who focuses his research on “racism without racists.” “Most of the way race functions is without the need for racial animus.”

For decades, experiments have shown that even many whites who earnestly believe in equal rights will recommend hiring a white job candidate more often than a person with identical credentials who is black. In the experiments, the applicant’s folder sometimes presents the person as white, sometimes as black, but everything else is the same. The white person thinks that he or she is selecting on the basis of nonracial factors like experience.

Research suggests that whites are particularly likely to discriminate against blacks when choices are not clear-cut and competing arguments are flying about — in other words, in ambiguous circumstances rather like an electoral campaign.

For example, when the black job candidate is highly qualified, there is no discrimination. Yet in a more muddled gray area where reasonable people could disagree, unconscious discrimination plays a major role.

White participants recommend hiring a white applicant with borderline qualifications 76 percent of the time, while recommending an identically qualified black applicant only 45 percent of the time.

John Dovidio, a psychologist at Yale University who has conducted this study over many years, noted that conscious prejudice as measured in surveys has declined over time. But unconscious discrimination — what psychologists call aversive racism — has stayed fairly constant.

“In the U.S., there’s a small percentage of people who in nationwide surveys say they won’t vote for a qualified black presidential candidate,” Professor Dovidio said. “But a bigger factor is the aversive racists, those who don’t think that they’re racist.”

Faced with a complex decision, he said, aversive racists feel doubts about a black person that they don’t feel about an identical white. “These doubts tend to be attributed not to the person’s race — because that would be racism — but deflected to other areas that can be talked about, such as lack of experience,” he added.

Of course, there are perfectly legitimate reasons to be against a particular black candidate, Mr. Obama included. Opposition to Mr. Obama is no more evidence of racism than opposition to Mr. McCain is evidence of discrimination against the elderly or against war veterans. And at times, Mr. Obama’s race helps him: it underscores his message of change, it appeals to some whites as a demonstration of their open-mindedness, and it wins him overwhelming black votes and turnout.

Still, a huge array of research suggests that 50 percent or more of whites have unconscious biases that sometimes lead to racial discrimination. (Blacks have their own unconscious biases, surprisingly often against blacks as well.)

One set of experiments conducted since the 1970s involves subjects who believe that they are witnessing an emergency (like an epileptic seizure). When there is no other witness, a white bystander will call for help whether the victim is white or black, and there is very little discrimination.

But when there are other bystanders, so the individual responsibility to summon help may feel less obvious, whites will still summon help 75 percent of the time if the victim is white but only 38 percent of the time if the victim is black.

One lesson from this research is that racial biases are deeply embedded within us, more so than many whites believe. But another lesson, a historical one, is that we can overcome unconscious bias. That’s what happened with the decline in prejudice against Catholics after the candidacy of John F. Kennedy in 1960.

It just might happen again, this time with race.

So Much To Talk About

First of all, Tucker Bounds, spokesperson for the McCain campaign, is despicable, I think.

Secondly, PAYING HIGHER TAXES IS PATRIOTIC. Let's talk about who'll be paying higher taxes - people who make a quarter of a million or more. The hedge fund managers who've made millions in the midst of this financial crisis that's required a government bailout. And seeing as how the military is made up overwhelmingly of young people from the working class, it wouldn't kill the chicken hawks to pay more in taxes so that people in the working class have more options than joining the military.

What else has happened in my life?

Oh. I've finally reconnected with a friend I haven't spoken to in a couple of years. Though, we probably won't be as close as we once were, the whole thing is kinda odd. There was a time when I needed her friendship just to maintain my own sanity. And now, two years later, I'm fairly sure I'm sane. Pretty sure.

It's just odd how much can happen in a couple of years. There are many ways in which I've grown and matured. And there're other ways in which I'll probably never change. For example, I now know I need to open myself and my heart to new people and experiences. On the other hand, my crooked way of view the world and expressing what I see hasn't changed. Another friend actually prayed that in that vane, I don't change. Which makes me wonder, is there something I actually should consider changing . . . I wonder but make no effort in that vane. I'm cool.

Then there's just life itself. Since I last talked to this friend, my brother has gotten married. I've gotten over my college crush. For a few months, I thought I had found the man I would marry. And I know all the reasons why I felt that way. This person not only met every standard I have, he added one! To me, that's amazing.

And I'm living the life I want to live, my health notwithstanding. I couldn't say that two years ago. Then, as now, I wanted to bring intellectual stability to the Black church. But now, I have a greater sense of how to do that.

I'm meeting people from around the world. I'm imagining a life beyond America. Two years ago, I couldn't imagine life beyond my house and the aunts and uncles up and down the road from me. Today, I can imagine life years from now. Two years ago, I couldn't imagine life much beyond any particular day.

Which is odd. Cause two years ago, it killed me that I couldn't imagine life not hardly a year out. But today, I enjoy each day on its own merits. And because I'm receiving better treatments, I can start to imagine years out. But, it wouldn't bother me if I was just marking from one day to the next.

Two years ago, the stock market was at all time highs! Do you remember that? Do you remember when the Dow Jones kept brushing up and down 14,000? At this moment, it's at 9,556. And even two years ago, it was apparent that prosperity wasn't trickling down.

And here's why I've had to take a break from American politics. See, I have a low tolerance for shear stupidity. Now, despite the mess conservative philosophy has made of the economy, people are still considering voting for McCain/Palin. Is that not shear stupidity? This whole, supply-side theory has never worked! We've always had to borrow money to make up for the loss of revenue from lowering taxes on the rich.

It's the conservative philosophy that has us in this energy crisis. If we had followed President Jimmy Carter's advice 30 years ago, the cost of gas wouldn't matter that much. And people are still considering voting for McCain/Palin. Isn't that shear stupidity?

Neo-conservatives have gotten us into Iraq. The conservative policy of privatizing everything gave us the Katrina disaster. Conservatives want to "drill, baby, drill." Meanwhile, it's just becoming clear the environmental damage the previous hurricane has had, including oil spills and damage to oil rigs in the gulf. And not only are there people who are considering voting for McCain/Palin, there are some idiots who will vote for McCain/Palin. They're buying this idea that Barack Obama gets "touchy" when his record is questioned and that that should make them question Obama. I mean, do they not recall how indignant McCain gets anytime someone questions his record. And this whole Rev. Wright issue only serves to prove how racist mainstream America is.

And the McCain campaign has decided to turn the page from talking about the economy to bringing up guilt by association issues with Obama. And there are some idiots who will go for it!

Shear stupidity.

So, that's my post for today. More of less stream of consciousness. I tried to find some theme so my post would make sense to you, the reader. But . . .

Oh, yeah! That reminds me. The most ironic thing about this particular friendship is that she graduated with a BA in biology. I majored in history and minored in creative writing. Now, I use my writing skills mostly for the blog and recently for writing essays for grant applications. And she has a website advertising her professional writing skills! Everything from poems to technical writing. I haven't touched fiction in at least a year. It's amazing to me. Then again, it could be my crooked way of viewing the world that I should or shouldn't work on changing.

And let me give a "shout out" to my 22nd rank UNC football Tarheels! You better do it, boys!