Racism Against Barack Obama!

I know. This is way off target for an Art Journal. However...

I found this posted by Johnnyb098 on the CNN Website. It is a most reasonable and clearly reasoned request that all of us “get our facts straight” in this election.

Amen, brother!



I’m looking forward to the debate tonight with some trepidation because I think Democrats have gotten over confident since the economic problems became visible. I say “became visible” because I date the beginning of the economic downturn to September of 2005. True, the current recession/depression/whatever didn’t begin until about nine to six months ago. Never the less, the big-bird with a damaged wing has been headed for a bumpy landing since the downturn in the housing market back in fall 2005. The over-stuffed turkey-luky of an economy had to be lurking in the nation’s subconscious for a long-long time, blocked because of some willful fear on the part of those who should know better, lack of knowledge on the part of many of us, stupidity by some, and greed on the part of still others, or any combination of the above. I think fear is a huge part of this equation, and fear needs a scapegoat. I think some in the Republican base, running on fear and anger have decided to make Barack Obama the (scapegoat) target of their fear and anger. We have all been watching the attempt to paint him as The Other, “that one,” foreigner, Muslim and terrorist by the McCain-Palin campaign. The result has been abusive, hate filled language in their audience such as; “off with his head,” “kill him,” “He’s an Arab” (And when did all Arabs become evil?). As a retired educator, I know that I did not – reads could not afford to- accept fear and hate filled language in my classroom, because it always was the mark of something much more ugly hiding just beneath the surface. I suppose my personal fear is that these Republican folks can use our baseless fears and anger about the run-away world economy as a place to deposit American fears of the other, our Caucasian bigotry against those of color. If they succeed in such a scheme, Barack Obama becomes the scapegoat target and he either looses the debate and election or, finally, some maniac fanatic on the far right assassinates him. There, I’ve put into words the exact fear I’ve heard expressed by so many friends. It’s even been expressed by some of my conservative friends as the reason they can’t vote for Barack Obama. How bizarre is that?

Damn! I can’t wait for this election to be over.

I hope whoever wins the election is able to put all the broken pieces, and nudge all the broken people back together again.

God bless us all, each and everyone.*

*I know I'm paraphrasing from Tony Kushner here, possibly quoting directly from Angels in America, and that Tony Kushner was quoting Charles Dickens.