Why can't we talk about race?
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| Wed, 10-15-2008 - 4:35pm |
I've seen this come up here and elsewhere. In the *very strange* thread about Obama's birthplace (or something like that; I couldn't follow the propaganda, quite frankly), two posters said that they wish Michelle Obama had not referenced race. (I don't mean to point those individuals out but merely point out their posts.)
In a country where race is a huge elephant in the room, I don't understand why we shouldn't talk about it. Of course this election is about race. For the first time in our country's history, a black man is running for president on a major political party ticket.
It doesn't have to be a bad thing or a good thing. But race is a factor in this election. It's not necessarily a factor because of McCain or Palin or Obama or Biden -- but because one of the candidates is black. Likewise, gender is an issue, simply because we have a woman on the Republican ticket. Why avoid the topic? Why suggest that the candidates or their spouses not talk about it?
Laura

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I'll be clear, and leave no doubt. All things being equal between two candidates, I would vote for a woman.
Why? Because 216 years of history with no woman as vice president or president needs to change. Because the first woman to ever run 136 years ago was jailed for the endeavour, though they found some goofy pretext to do so. Because not even 20% of Congress members are women, and the current rate is the highest ever.
I'd vote for a moderate conservative like Christine Whitman in order to see such change, even though I am well to the left. There is a point beyond which I will not go, and a supply line could not stretch far enough for me to find it within to support Palin.
Full length fiction: worlds undone
"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson
If you read further down the thread, there's a post from guest that says "if you have any moral fiber you'll vote for Obama" or something to that effect.
So what that's one persons view, it is not the view of all Obama supporters.
Look at Brown vs Board of Education, Kennedy being elected in 1960 in the face of much prejudice, the Supreme Court ruling interracial marriage legal, the end of segregation, intergration of our armed forces, the Massachusetts gay marriage ruling, etc.
All of these things were demarcation lines of some sort, where an old notion is challenged and pushed further back away from the mainstream.
Obama winning pushes racism a bit further away from acceptability.
And yes, I'd vote for a woman all things being equal, because if we don't, it will never change. There are men who will never vote for a woman, far more than women who would
Full length fiction: worlds undone
"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson
Dear IVillagers,
I feel that to not speak about race -
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