In case you missed Maureen Dowd's latest column in The New York Times, here's a link to it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=dowd&st=Search
Racism resurgent in America?
Obama as an Other?
I've studied the Tea Party pictures that I've been able to find, and I have yet to see a person of color in them. The rhetoric coming out of these gatherings seems to me to be reactive and fearful. I'm assuming these are good people, confused as I am, by economic forces at play that they don't understand; but that, rather than taking the time to educate themselves and address hard reality, the tea partiers, for the most part, are simply unleashing verbal blasts of discontent.
So today, I'd like to know what you think: Does the color of our brainy president's skin have anything to do with the level of anger in the protests against health care reform?
What do you think?
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I set upon the same search: To find a person of color at the rally. I did manage to find a total of two.
ReplyDeleteI've long thought there is some strange, fantasy-based nostalgia for a bygone era that many of the conservative persuasion possess. It's often expressed in round-about terms of, "Before we had all of (whatever), we didn't have so much (whatever)." It's seems like a longing for a more simple, Mayberry-esque time. But alas, Mayberry didn't have any people of color, nor gays, and women tended to be subservient. A conservative dream.
So I don't think these protests are very well focused on economics. If they had begun when our budget went from surplus to deficit during the previous administration, then maybe I would be convinced. Or perhaps if signs critical of the massive deficit spending on an erroneous war, or deeply flawed Medicare prescription legislation were not as elusive as a person of color, then I may reconsider. But the clear resolution is that there is a real, underlying fear for losing a sense of identity. It is deeply personal. That somehow the "otherness" that a president Obama represents to this segment is a threat to their very core. It's shocking, and obvious. The dangerous discontent fomented by the likes of Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity is enhanced by it's zeal and ignorance.
Just wanted to say thanks for this insightful comment. I LOVE doing this blog--let's me have a conversation like this one with you! Martha
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