White and Wrong Answers

Why did the Republicans lose?   Too many gifts to the 47 percenters?  Too much "urban" vote?

This guy right here is "urban" enough for me!!

The sanest rationale comes from those who say that there is nothing wrong with the Republican message; it's just hitting the ears of Hispanics and Asians all wrong.  According to this premise, a simple tweaking of the Republican platform-- maybe adding the words Hispanic and Asian along with Israel and God-- will find many minority voters banging down the Republican doors to get in.

A less sane one sounds like this:  a majority of American voters are now takers for whom the Obama-Democratic message of big government resonates and for whom individual success is instantly maligned.  According to this premise, there is no salvation for a country that is heading for political and moral destruction.

I think that there is a far simpler reason why the Republicans lost the Presidential election.
The answer lies in the answers to a few questions.

Evangelicals are
a) a cult that features a white Jesus
b) true white Christians
c) true white Americans
d)  all of the above


A tea party is
a) a bunch of white people with white rage hating the federal government because that's easier than blaming themselves
b)  a bunch of white people with white rage hating the federal government while accepting all the social advantages that derive from the federal government.
c) a bunch of white people period
d) all of the above

Abortion is
a) something white men should be fighting against
b) a procedure rare among white men
c) something white men are far better able to discuss than women
d) all of the above

Same sex marriage is
a) something that white men either dream about or fear
b) something that keeps white homophobes going to Chick-fil-A
c) something that white Jesus hates
d) all of the above

Paul Ryan was chosen as Mitt's VP because
a) he was a white conservative who would appeal to other white conservatives
b) a white guy whose sexy gym pic would increase the white male turn-out
c) he was really really really white (without a trace of "urban")
d) all of the above

Average white voters in the South
a) are 80 percent likely to vote for a white guy
b) have fantasies of living as overseers of large slave plantations where they can rape and abuse black people they way they were born to be treated
c) think the Confederate Flag is a symbol of all that's great about being white and American
d) all of he above

The correct answer:   Republican = WHITE

The reason why Romney lost was because the largest part of the Republican constituency is not the ardent Catholic fighting against abortion or the really rich guy who loves the financial license Republicans grant him, but the white racist (most from the old Confederacy, a great deal from the very white states of the Midwest).  Racism was simply not a huge draw for Hispanics or Asians or any other minority group.  And it was not a draw for white women.  And it was not even a draw to whites on the left and right coasts.

Let's face it!  The Republicans are never going to be able to expand their base as long as their base is a group of white racists.  And the Republicans are not gong to be about to change their message to a more universal or appealing one since their message is created by white racists.

There are two things equally true for this constituency
1) they live in hatred and fear of the black man
2) the Republican Party is a comfortable place for them to exist and procreate

88 percent of Romney's support came from white voters

In Southern states Romney overwhelmingly won the white vote (89 percent in Mississippi; 84 percent in Alabama;  68 percent in North Carolina;  62 percent in Arizona;  65 percent Missouri, 61 percent in Florida and Virginia)

These are the only states we have exit pols for, but you better believe that the whites in the states of the old Confederacy supported Romney from between 60 to 90 percent.

These people aren't going anywhere, although they talk a lot about secession.
Lest you think that it is absurd to think that so many years after the Civil War there are whites who still formulate their identity as members of the Confederacy, keep several things in mind.  There has never been such animosity among Republicans to the results of an election as there has been this year.  Whites are publicly talking about secession.  There has never been such hatred of a candidate as there has been to Obama-- there are web images showing him lynched or depicted in simian terms or whites sites
hailing the merits of white dudes and despairing at how much has been given away to blacks.  .  There is a severe insecurity problem among many whites who simply cannot understand the world and heir won place in it when the highest elected office is held by a black man.  Bereft of self-confidence, these people lash out against the same "other" that has always given them the greatest surrogate fro their missing self-assurance and has instilled within them the deepest level of fear-- the black man.

There is no good reason for any nonwhite group to vote for a Republican knowing that their greatest constituency believes that American is first and foremost a white nation.  This transcends any possible connection that any nonwhite group might have with Republican policies.  And let's make no mistake-- the Republicans were counting on this racist voting block to carry them to victory.

So all this talk is cheap.  Republicans will win elections when the white racists prevail; they will lose when the white racists lose.  Simple.  Unless heavy duty statements arise from leaders of the Republican Party that they abhor any and all manner of racism, the Party of Lincoln will live and die by racism.

A Letter

 A sample letter regarding the freeing of the MOVE members from over 30 years in prison! 

Michael C. Potteiger, Chairman

Pennsylvania State Board of Probation and Parole

Eastern Region Office 
2630 North 13th Street
Suite 100
Philadelphia, PA 19132 

Dear Mr. Potteiger, Governor, and Members of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole: 

As a 49 year old life-long citizen of our great state, I am writing to express my disappointment in your decisions not to recommend the following for parole not once but on several occasions:  Janine, Debbie, Janet, Delbert, Mike, Phil, Eddie, and Chuck Africa.  Unfortunately it is too late for Merle.     I myself have never written any appeal letter before, but I decided to write this letter out of the compassion to which I was moved when I read their stories and researched their fates.

It is hard to find precedence for not offering parole for those convicted of third degree murder.  Each of the aforementioned individuals has been incarcerated 34 years, far too long for the charges for which they were found guilty.  If they have acted as model prisoners (which I believe to be the case), and the determination to deny parole is based wholly on their refusal to confess to a crime for which they believe they are innocent, then I am very much disheartened by your rationale.  No human being should be expected to confess to any action for which he or she is convinced of his or her innocence:  this is not only a sin against one’s own conscience, but it compels one to discard the one virtue that has granted individual dignity and inner freedom, the truth.  I am not writing to express my disagreement with the verdict; indeed, that fight can wait, as it has these many long years, for another day.  Justice can be accomplished right now, if you would recommend these individuals for parole in order to give them a chance to live out the fractions of their lives that remain to them.  I believe that they will become positive members of our free society, an opportunity that they now deserve and for which they have already waited far too long. 

There must be one of you whose conscience must be moved toward compassion if not for justice.  We are race of people who believe in second chances when they are warranted. 

There are individuals who have been placed by God in positions of authority, individuals like you.  I myself am a teacher and know what responsibility comes with this position.  Each day we are presented with opportunities in which we have the ability to impact another’s life positively or negatively.  I believe that one day we will all be held accountable for the decisions we make when presented with these sacred duties; and at the very least, we too will find ourselves dependent on the good will of others.  I am asking you to choose to do rightly by the eight remaining members of MOVE who are still incarcerated and to recommend their freedom.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully submitted:

The End??

It's all over but the shouting, and the obese woman is practicing her scales one last time.  My head is crammed with thoughts, and as cynical and distant as I have become, my heart aches at  least a  little.
First, I find it so ironic that the fate of the President essentially rests in the hands of white men-- if the President can garner sufficient votes from this constituency (Romney's constituency), maybe 30 percent instead of 28 percent, then he will be rewarded with another four years.  Ironic and tragic that so many white men whose economic situations are so similar to most African Americans will identify themselves with the rich white guys based on color alone.

Be that as it may, I have better thoughts.  The out of context President's quote that ignited a Romney adopted refrain of "We built our businesses, not the government," compelled me to assess my own journey.  Obama is right-- none of our successes are attributable to ourselves alone, and those who make such a claim lack so much self-confidence that they cannot be expected to take a trip into their past to evaluate themselves with integrity.  For to make that journey requires humility and gratitude, and some egos are just not wired that way.

For myself, I think of my parents and my neighborhood.  My mother whose work ethic was simply a part of her faith in a God who wants what is best for his children.  Bible readings over breakfast, church and adult Bible studies, healing services.  How she befriended and cared for the radically different-- women whose looks and psychological illnesses reduced them to hermits whom she escorted on trips downtown and welcomed even to live for awhile with us; elderly and disabled women who resided at the neighborhood senior care facility for whom she would provide free haircare;  the drifters who would stop by the house for a hand-out and for whom she would cook (I watched in shock at how ravenously a hungry stomach could put way food).  I think of my father who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and who never could secure the American success story for himself, but whose ability to make the most of any situation was astounding.  Pestered by me to reveal something of his war experience, he recounted only one memory to me.  That of the day he was taken out of battle due to trench foot, being carried by two young German POWs.  Nearing their destination, the one young German at my father's feet, let the stretcher down in exhaustion.  Immediately an American officer rammed the butt of his rifle into the young man and screamed that no one treats Americans that way.  My father admitted how sorry he felt for a young man who was so much like himself.  And one month before he died, while coming out of anesthesia he said flatly, "War is Hell."  Those who think that Christianity or Patriotism is some cheap neon sign flashing a cross and American flag are just those who jump on bandwagons without understanding how unfathomably deep and hidden lie the roots of real citizenship and faith.

 I think of my neighborhood and those who I went to school with-- how many varieties of poor there are.  I think of those of us who made it to college-- Don Featherstun, Eric Dixon, Steve Kendall, Wanda Northington.  And those who I can only suspect were lost along the way.  I remember the Kirby family at whose house I stayed and had dinner with until my mother returned from work-- they had so many kids, what was one more?  I think of those teachers we had who actually cared and tried to make some form of educational Goshen in a land of drop-outs:  high school teachers like Mrs. McLaughlin, Mr. Iezzi, Mr. Carpenter (RIP), Mrs. Brunger, Miss McKim, Mr. Steele.  I think of my professors at Duquene Univeristy especially Dr. Clack who served as my mentor, my Tio, who gifted me with his old albums to introduce me to Ethel Merman and Gustav Mahler and everything in between.

When Barack Obama was elected, I felt vindicated in some strange way-- I praised his election on behalf of all of those in my past, black and white from the North Side of Pittsburgh.  But yesterday when I read Maureen Dowd of the NY Times describe the President as uninspiring, I was filled with white rage (as Tracy Morgan would say).  Uninspiring?  To whom?

At a private all girls' school on the Main Line outside Philly that had committed itself to diversifying the student body and faculty, an area had been set apart for watching the broadcast of Obama's inauguration.  I was overwhelmed; even I was on the point of tears, when I looked up to see the P.E. instructor, a black man nearly seven feet tall, with tears pouring down his cheek.  This was his time, not mine.  My time was 200 years ago when white men invented a country that outlawed diversity, treating women like second class humans, and blacks in property terms-- serviceable or worthless.  What must he be feeling?  Was he like me considering the possibility that racism and sexual discrimination were in the throes of destruction.  How could he really?  How could any African American?  He was, I suspect, savoring down to his marrow the success of one black individual, one who had overcome, and not praising a country that would have done anything not to allow him to reach this precious moment.

Little did I know that this was simply a way for a large number of white men and some white women in federal or state government do guarantee that this black man would not continue to inspire, to succeed, to remain the archetype of hope and change so that in the end, they could collectively wash their white hands with the claim-- we all gave him the chance, look at him now.  I do see a worn and weary President, but I also see his struggle as emblematic of the struggle of the people with whom I grew up,  every single African American who is condemned either because he or she doesn't succeed (they are just not smart enough) or because he or she does (they get all the breaks).  A no-win situation. And African Americans continue to walk forward every single day of their lives (Hercules or Sisyphus) taking the insults and injuries.  And we who are white think of it as water off a duck's back, and we put our faith in their patience and resolve.

So I will end this reflection not only with the hope that the President does gain four more years, but with the hope that a group of young black women whom I have had the pleasure of teaching and knowing will use the power they have claimed to turn this nation upside down--  Nadya, Tanisha, Maiki, Saidi, Rayven, Jazzlyn, Jocelyn, Ebony, Jennifer, Fay, Jasmine, Shannan, Neveen, and young women like them.  I am hopeful that their patience has run out, and that armed with righteousness, beauty, and wisdom they will inspire.  O how they will inspire!!

We the People!

In these waning days before the 2012 Presidential Election, I cannot help but think that whatever happens, it has been so cathartic for so many white voters.  When, for example, was the last time white men could openly disparage a black man without being rightly called racists?    So let the insults fly!  I am hopeful that even with a Romney victory some of us will not return to business as usual.

Some of us will grab that power that in our powerlessness we have all too briefly touched, not as a privilege, not as the exclusive property of the propertied class, not as a favor granted by the ruling class, but as a right to keep and maintain with a strong and firmer hand.  We too can be confrontational.  We too can be obstructive.  We too can make the status quo uncomfortable.  While they labor to go backward with nostalgia for the good old days of white men and obedient wives, while they play make believe, their own ears deadened by their own cacophonous cries of how the founders were Christians and filled with Christian virtue, while they desecrate words like "freedom" and "equality" hiding in the caves of their own ignorance stubbornly imagining that the shadows on the wall are real and that the fire behind them is the sun; we will walk into the light, no matter how our eyes ache upon seeing the truth.  We will congregate and multiply.  We will suck out every last drop of learning that we can.  We will be sly foxes and gentle lambs.  We will live as true Christians (in the world but not of the world) even as the Evangelicals demand otherwise, claiming a spiritual monopoly, throwing obstacles in the way of would-be believers.  Let them construct their grand and shining temples.  They build upon the sand-- upon ignorance, upon intolerance, upon injustice, upon bigotry, and upon oppressive legalism.  Let then claim "We built this House!" while we know that unless the Lord builds it, their labor is in vain.  We will commit ourselves to drawing lines between the political and the spiritual even as Christ refused a kingdom on earth when tempted by Satan and when questioned by Pilate.

We will fight for basic human rights and the dignity of the living.  If the political landscape in the aftermath of this election becomes a democratic wasteland, we will begin to till the soil and plant the seeds, waiting for the oases to bloom.  We will promulgate as many Gileads as we must to serve as sanctuary for victims of what may become a reactionary and oppressive country.  We will not endorse laws that limit basic human freedom, that scour away human dignity as though it were a stain, that wreck with  enterprising license those few structures of democratic success that we had believed were sacred landmarks.  We will not go away!  For we are the people!  And our we will not shrink down in the face of their one percent
assemblies of ego.  We are far bigger than they had ever imagined.