Reflection on election

(This is an excerpt from an ethics piece I wrote for a class)

The election of 2008 led to what was by most accounts the largest voter turnout of the last several decades. At least some Americans must have believed that blacks and whites (and all the other races, nationalities and colors we never mention in these discussions) were equal in more than just the theoretical sense.

Why then did Barack's run change the way that we look at ourselves as people?

During the aforementioned interview, a friend commented that he was relieved that the election had been decided. He commented that after the election, he didn't believe that anyone had the right or an excuse not to achieve.

One of the major news networks declared on that historic night that there was no more racism; in a sense, years of oppression and prejudiced acts were supposedly wiped clean on that historic night. The reporter asked me what I thought.

"I don't know if this election means the end of racism… but I hope so."

On the axis of history, standing at the threshold of what many consider to be the 'dream' that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of, what is our ethical responsibility?

For hundreds of years African Americans have existed in our country as something of a second class subculture. As is typical of most oppressed minorities (racial or otherwise) the strength and even the survival of the black race in America has been directly tied to our ability to disregard the magnitude of the injustice that has framed our existence. In a way, being black in America is less about what you achieve and more about what you overcome. At times, forgetting seems both appropriate and necessary for us to function on a level that is anything above subsistence. I believe we choose forget because our world won't let us.

I believe that as ethical, moral and spiritual citizens African Americans have an obligation to understand. We need to know that we don't have the ability to achieve because any particular one of us did, but because innately, undeniably any of us can. If nothing else Barack's victory, should help us understand that we have everything we need to achieve anything we want.

As Marianne Williamson so aptly put it; "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

In the end, we the majority of blacks in this country are not Africans in America, we are Americans. In the end, we are citizens, second class or first in anyone's mind, we are simply citizens in reality. We are as American as sweet potato pie.

 

 

‘Change’ Clothes

To paraphrase a childhood TV show, "Like the old saying goes, it's the man who makes the clothes."

Considering the fairly extensive course of the American political landscape, I find the current presidential race incredibly unique. There have been 43 individual candidates for US president and as we begin to elect our 44^th, beyond the obvious, one of the most incredible things about our current election may be the omnipresent marketability of the Obama name, campaign, and face.

Now, I do recognize that there have been plenty of other political figures that have found their way into our closets (Che, Martin, and Malcolm come most readily to mind), but none with the intensity of Barrack Obama, especially while they were alive. In fact, in the some 200 plus years of campaigns and candidates, I believe we would be hard pressed to find another presidential race that spawned nearly as many t-shirts, hats and tote bags as the 2008 race for the White House. It stands to reason that the Obama campaign should draw a considerable amount of pop culture attention from the majority of society. His dizzying run to the top of the democratic ticket is probably one of the first things to draw the collective attention of white and black American cultures simultaneously since 'Birth of a Nation'.

Aloud (when I'm bold enough to dare question anything about his Barrackness) I wonder what statement that this phenomenon makes about this race and our society as a whole. Has the visual immediacy of our communication reached the point that our political contests are feed for the pop culture cash cow? The point of this post is not necessarily the advancement of any particular point. Rather than question the implications for our society at this more than pivotal point in American history, I simply wonder what statement does this Obama "fad" make about our culture as a whole. How will history regard our obsession with Obama tees (as well as a conspicuous lack of McCain wear for the fashionable Republican)? We've stepped beyond wearing hearts on sleeves, and moved to displaying wholesale political affiliations on our shirts.

Juicy Campus Couture

As a child of the digital age, I consider the internet almost universally one of the greatest innovations known to man, if not the greatest. Of course, I am as biased as those who wish to decry every new technology with cynicism and stubbornness. As a function of that bias, and my profound belief in personal freedoms and the free exchange of ideas, I am on the other side of the extreme. I believe that there is a place for the expression of any idea and room for the expression of any thought.

That being said, I would like to say that I don't support Juicy Campus.com. And before the argument rears its seditious head, I am in full support of free speech. Shocking. But, I am reminded of the words of Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Undoubtedly, there is something out of sorts about the underlying implications of the blog phenomenon. Essentially, it grants the power of the largest media organizations on the earth to the least enterprising among our society. The problem is, oftentimes those people are least enterprising for a reason.

I don't fault students for being upset to find their names on the Juicy Campus page or shrinking at the mocking whispers of its morally lackluster proponents and apologists. I think it is the most human of responses to be suckered into the Juicy Campus holocaust, but I believe that with maturity, we should be able to step beyond the criticisms of our contemporaries. What we often forget is that there are those who have so little to lose that they need to take something from someone else to feel whole.

The amusing thing is, Juicy Campus is only digitizing a long present tradition of personal attacks and mental guerilla warfare that has plagued students (and people in general) and spread depression and low self esteem far throughout our cultural landscape. I once saw a cartoon that explained the process better than I could, but I'm not sure how many people would get the analogy.

Principally, the idea is that those with the lowest self esteem or the easiest targets, will be attacked and feel too wounded to fight back, deserving or not. Those who are "higher" on the food chain are amused by their own antics and the havoc they wreak or are a part of the larger group and unwilling to risk personal social security to defend the little guy. Sound familiar? It was called high school, and every bully you knew, is probably now posting, reading or supporting Juicy Campus and its mission of uninhibited ignorance and utter lack of human consideration. It's the stuff school shootings are made of and I think we're all a little tired of it.

There's something to be said for the old school way of doing things. At least back then, bullies met you face to face. Anonymity, it seems makes for some much more interesting conversation. Let's grow up, shall we?

The fallacy of democracy

I am by no means a political analyst, neither do I have any expertise that makes my opinion more valuable than the next man's, but in our theoretically democratic and free society, those things aren't supposed to matter. The truth is… they do. It's evident in our decisions and the state of our country. We select our choice for the highest office in the land based on party allegiances and clever campaign syntax. We don't vote to express our voice; we do it because we don't like Republicans. Or Democrats, which is no better or worse. We criticize and crucify those with unpopular positions. As a student and a young person in this crucial and historic time for our country, I must express my own faults.

I have lost faith in our democracy.

Maybe too many history lessons involving too many battles have taken their toll, or maybe I have expected too much, but I believed what I had been taught. I believed America was the greatest nation on earth. Never because of our military or our economy, but because we were a country that believed in ideals that made us more than our mistakes. Now, on the eve of what could be the most important election in the history of the US government, I am sad to say that I have struggled to even come to grips with the idea of voting. I wonder in this time, where we as a people stand by and watch as freedoms guaranteed us by the Constitution are stripped away without so much as a Congressional hearing, what does one vote matter? What is the value of one voice, in the chaos of mob rule?

A democracy among other things is "the common people considered as the primary source of political power" according to its entry in the American Heritage Dictionary. In reality, our political structure is much less honest. We are a paradox at best. We are a country that exists on the precipice of economic depression, still grandstanding with political acts of military bravado that costs us thousands of American lives and the blood of thousands of innocents. We believe in capitalism, when it works, and curse the profit-mongers who take advantage of the system when it doesn't. Our country has become a shell of its former self, and we stood by and let it happen. At times, we actively demanded that it be hollowed out. We have traded what once separated us; made us stronger as a people, for a gilded cage.

In a way, you can't believe in the economic, social and political boons of the US without condoning the inherent evils it creates. To vote means you accept someone else's right not to vote.

Here the point emerges; we as American citizens do not believe in democracy. We don't believe in Freedom of Speech, or of Religion or Press, and I for one don't know the cure.

I have only been here for twenty one years of life, and (unlike some) I am not quite sure that that's enough time to assess the damage gleaned from 200+ years of oppressive mentalities and false motives, let alone provide the solution. In this, I believe we are all at times guilty of being idealists, particularly Black America's favorite son and current political golden child Barack Obama.

I haven't decided yet what to do, and I'm not sure I'll choose to vote, but I hope I do. I hope that we as a people, the American people can rise to the occasion and reclaim and re-forge the legacy that we once owned. I do not fault Barack Obama, or anyone else who expresses what I view as idealism. In part, I understand that we have to be, in order to believe things can get better. I pray to God, sincerely, that I have been wrong. And I apologize to all those who grew up like me, loving and believing in this country.