Obama, Wright, Wise & My Lowered Expectations

*NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: A friend of mine recently commented RIGHTLY on not supporting the use of the word “b*tch,” (in picture above) on a BLOG that celebrates feminism and anti-oppression. I have decided not to take this picture of Hillary and the little girl down, but to explain why I put it up in the first place. I think my background as a raised working-class person of color can cause me to momentarily get caught up in my anger and frustration because of how I view my country, and at times forget to be fully anti-oppression. I DO NOT CODONE THE USE OF THE WORD B*TCH to degrade any womyn because of the multitude of ways sexism/heterosexim/homphobia oppresses more than half of the world. At the same time, another thing I cannot condone is a politician who is supposed to be fighting to “break glass ceilings,” and speak “for the people,” use the politics off fear to win votes by appealing to Amerikans’ prejudices, ignorance and shortcomings. My doing this post was actually spawned when one of my (feminist, womyn of color) friends emailed the picture to me. Celebrated womyn’s-rights activist Linda Burnham wrote an amazing article entitled: “The Tightrope and the Needle,” which speaks to many of these issues in regards to race and gender. Hillary’s actions as of late, and her becoming everything she used to combat and despise increases my “lowered expectations,” but in retrospect (hind-sight is always 20-20), I would NOT have put this picture up. At the time it FELT justified, and it is for this reason I leave it posted, with an explanation (not an excuse – because I was greatly mistaken in my actions) for why I put it up there.

*My bad sisters. I will work hard to see this doesn’t happen again (though I personally know a few of you agree with that caption). My fury at racism makes me blind at times to the myriad ways I benefit as a heterosexual male, and I apologize deeply for my negligence and oversights.

Here we go…

In the wake of Jeremiah Wright’s (the Reverand at the Chicago Church that Barack Obama and his family attend) comments about “September 11 being a case of the chickens coming home to roost,” and Black Amerikans needing to sing “Goddamn America,” instead of “God bless America,” I have to admit that Barack Obama’s speech in response to this issue truly moved me. My broshot over at TheCheddarbox wrote a lil’ bit about it, but I feel the need to bite off him and throw in my 2 cents.

[Jeremiah Wright goin' stuey on Amerikkka]

Tim Wise is a anti-racist activist/white ally who recently wrote an article adressing the comments of Jeremiah Wright and White Amerika’s response to those words. While I don’t believe he is saying anything that hasn’t been said before by prominent activists of color, it is always refreshing to me when someone who benefits as a member of an oppressor group is able to confront their own feelings of guilt and use their privilege to reach for what is true. He states:

For most white folks, indignation just doesn’t wear well. Once affected or conjured up, it reminds one of a pudgy man, wearing a tie that may well have fit him when he was fifty pounds lighter, but which now cuts off somewhere above his navel and makes him look like an idiot.

Indignation doesn’t work for most whites, because having remained sanguine about, silent during, indeed often supportive of so much injustice over the years in this country–the theft of native land and genocide of indigenous persons, and the enslavement of Africans being only two of the best examples–we are just a bit late to get into the game of moral rectitude. And once we enter it, our efforts at righteousness tend to fail the test of sincerity.

But here we are, in 2008, fuming at the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago–occasionally Barack Obama’s pastor, and the man whom Obama credits with having brought him to Christianity–for merely reminding us of those evils about which we have remained so quiet, so dismissive, so unconcerned. It is not the crime that bothers us, but the remembrance of it, the unwillingness to let it go–these last words being the first ones uttered by most whites it seems whenever anyone, least of all an “angry black man” like Jeremiah Wright, foists upon us the bill of particulars for several centuries of white supremacy.

I must admit that when I first read this, I assumed it was written by a person of color, most likely of Black/African heritage. When I saw Tim Wise’s picture I was admitedly surprised (he kinda look like Ricky Gervais from the original “The Office”). I give him credit for speaking so candidly about what is real in regards to White privilege and systematic racism, but I must remember to make efforts not to hold him up TOO high. I think what can sometimes happen in my mind when it comes to combatting oppression, is that when I see someone who is part of an oppressor group speaking out against that oppression, I get very excited. My being very excited about anyone contradicting oppressor “patterns,” is not the problem, but the fact that my standards for most whites, men, heterosexual folks, middle/upper-middle/owning-class folks are so incredibly low.

Ex: It literaly amazes me when I meet another raised-working-class, heterosexual man of color who does NOT use the word “gay,” to describe something he dislikes or the word “fag,” to describe a person he dislikes. When I come across straight, blue-collar, brothers of color who choose not to contribute to the oppression of GLBTQ folks, I am usually taken aback.

I think I have these same lowered expectations of who can be my President. My sorry-ass VOTED for John Kerry. =( That is a hard thing to admit, but I am thrilled that my options as far as “the lesser of two evils,” seem to be a helluva lot less evil than in previous elections.

["A More Perfect Union"]

What impresses me so much about how Barack Obama is his ability as a mixed race person of color, to understand fully, the anger, resentment and sheer killing rage that has been passed on through generations of families/children of African heritage in Amerika…while also possessing the ability to communicate why this rage exists, to white/European Amerikans who have historically been sanguine in their benefitting from the oppression of so many. Where Jesse Jackson failed to reach many people who are “pigment-ally challenged,” Obama’s understanding of how many white folks’ minds operate due to his upbringing, has helped him to not go ignored. And THAT mi compadres…makes me wanna raise all my expectations.

In your face BILLary Clinton (howabout talking about Iraq and the economy instead of why Barack won’t be a good Pres for a change? Imagine that sh*t…),

C+

p.s. Thanks & praises to ALL those who made “Hip-Hop 4 Humanity,” a smashing success.