....the morality of a first grader, and the bigoted stranger anxiety and fear of the dark of a one-year-old."
I have a wonderful aunt in Louisiana whom I love dearly and who is one of my favorite aunts. But she keeps forwarding me these inflammatory, idiotic, Republican-oriented email forwards. The latest called Barack Obama unpatriotic for not wearing a US flag pin on his lapel, and called Michelle Obama a bigot for writing her Princeton senior thesis about her dilemma as a black student at an Ivy League school. Some of you may have seen this email or some iteration of it. Without posting that original email (which is too long), I'd like to post my response for discussion:
__________________________
Aside from white millionaires, the messages of the Republican party are designed to appeal to people with the education of a fourth grader, the morality of a first grader, and the bigoted stranger anxiety and fear of the dark of a one-year-old---and that email is a depressing example of this.
The email denounces Barack Obama for not wearing a half-inch pin of the US flag on his suit jacket lapel, claiming he's unpatriotic for not doing so. The email also degrades Mrs. Obama for her "pride in my country" comment, and talks about how, for example, she should have felt pride as the US brought an end to the USSR. Yes, she should feel pride in that the way that we did it was through a ridiculous arms race, wasting billions of our own dollars and causing the Soviet Union to waste billions of their own, robbing it from their people (which we knew would happen and accepted as attrition), and ultimately creating an excess of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, many of which are in the hands of anti-American groups at this moment. Awe-inspiring. The email talks about how Mrs. Obama should have felt pride as people on United Flight 93 fought off terrorists (funny how Republicans repeatedly need to rely on the raw emotions of September 11th to make a point). The email assumes that only Americans could have done that, and that had those passengers been European, African, Asian, Australian or Kiwi, they surely would've let the terrorists take over the plane. If Mrs. Obama were like me, she probably did feel a bit of pride in how all Americans banded together after September 11th. But like mine, her pride was probably chipped away a few days later when Muslim Americans were beaten to death in Baltimore; when mosques were vandalized across the country; when the Afghan restaurant on Jefferson-Davis Highway in Alexandria, VA nearly went out of business because nobody would eat there; her pride in America probably eroded when we abandoned human rights in the treatment of our "prisoners" in Guantanamo, some of whom are still there 6 years later without charges or trials, and some of whom have been beaten to death or near-death in the name of our country (or just for a good picture); she probably questioned her pride when mere weeks after we invaded Iraq and fought people who decry American greed and commercialism, Starbucks showed up in Iraq (for the Iraqis' benefit, or for ours?); and her pride probably took a further hit when she realized that our "success" in Afghanistan doesn't exist, and that we'd forgotten about that country altogether in order to attend to another country that we've personally placed in ruin. Wow---pride.
But I must come back and ask this singular question: Since when was patriotism only related to September 11th? When did patriotism become exemplified by wearing a flag on your lapel? Why is it no longer patriotic to make sure that everyone has a good education, that everyone has access to good healthcare? When was fighting for what the founding fathers fought for--namely, equal, civil rights for ALL people regardless of color, sex, or sexuality (yes, gay marriage IS a civil right, and "civil unions" are nothing but a rehash of "separate but equal"), and other issues like the separation of religion from government--when did these causes stop being patriotic?
Had September 11th been committed by Americans, a la Oklahoma City, would it have really inspired "patriotism?" Or had it been committed by a group in Europe, for example, would we have done the same as we've done in the Middle East? Would we have bombed the shit out of Spain? Luckily, conveniently, it was committed by a small sect of Muslims in the Middle East---people of a culture that many Americans know nothing about, subscribing to a small, radical sect of a religion that most Americans know nothing about. It's funny how much of the Republican base is in middle America, while the coasts and major cities tend to go Democratic. People in the places where one is more likely to know someone who is Muslim or Middle Eastern somehow are also more likely to vote against this backward view of "patriotism," against blindly sweeping views about other races or ethnicities, and against the inhumane treatment of people in the name of our "national security" and pride. Funny how it's a larger proportion of people in middle America, who are likely to have never met a Muslim, who likely didn't go to school with someone named Aziz or Mohamed, and who surprisingly are in a section of the country that is LEAST likely to be subject to a terrorist attack---it's funny how it's these people who are so quick to subscribe to these dim notions of patriotism and to fall for the twisted Republican message of fear of the unknown.
This inability (or unwillingness) to get out of one's closed-minded box and understand another person's experience is exemplified by the email's discussion of Michelle Obama's college thesis. The email points out that Michelle felt like her white professors and classmates saw her as "black first and a student second." Is this really so hard to understand? Think about it. How many black students do you think were at Princeton when she was there? The Association of Black Princeton Alumni (http://www.princeton-abpa.org/dynamic.asp?id=news_1980s) lists only NINE other black students in Michelle Obama's class of 1985. I can imagine that a black person might stand out. But it's so very easy for the white reader to say "get over it" or state that she has "a chip on her shoulder." Imagine that in your class of several hundred, only NINE other people look like you, only NINE other people know anything about your sub-culture, and only NINE other people don't use the white way of life as the filter through which to define "normal." (It's true, isn't it? Black is "black," but white is "normal." Tell me I'm wrong.) The email then goes on to criticize Michelle Obama for fearing that becoming a successful Princeton graduate might alienate her from other, less "successful" blacks, and the email states that she should be happy because she can now make hundreds of thousands of dollars. The email fails to even attempt to understand this: that for many blacks, there is a pressure NOT to succeed, that there is a feeling among some blacks that monetary success via "white" means equals assimilation into white culture and abandonment of black culture (yes, ignorance works both ways)---and that a black student is pressured by this whether she agrees with it or not. Sound ridiculous? Let me put it in "white" terminology: Think of the girl in high school who was really bright, but pretended to be stupid so that she didn't look like a "nerd." Everyone knows such a girl. It's the same thing--she's afraid of success in school for fear of looking unattractive. You can tell her that she's stupid for giving in to the pressure, but it's equally as stupid to fail to recognize that the pressure exists. In her thesis, Michelle Obama recognizes that the pressure not to succeed in the black community exists---she makes no claim of giving in to it, and yet her mere recognition of the problem is criticized by the email.
In fact, Obama's conclusion--to use her success to benefit the black community--is a refusal to give in to the pressure not to succeed, and yet by the email's wording, the email somehow implies that even her conclusion is something for which Obama deserves criticism. Is it wrong for her to use her success to help the black community? Would one argue that it is wrong because she used the "white" system of Princeton and then uses the fruit of that to help blacks specifically? Was it, then, not equally as "wrong" for Italian or Irish or Polish immigrants in the early 1900s to send money they made in America back home to help their families there? Surely, we wouldn't say THAT was wrong---seeing as how many of us are descendants of those very same immigrants? Are we, whites, forgetting our roots, and then chastising successful blacks like Michelle Obama for struggling with the prospect of losing their own?
It seems that we have, in fact, forgotten our roots. We make claims about what America and Americans stand for, and yet seem to have forgotten what America was MEANT to stand for. We act as if everyone inside this country and outside of it should share the same opinions as us, and forget that America was created as a celebration of difference. We inject personal, religious views into political decisions and forget that America was created specifically to avoid just that. We use fear-mongering as a political tool, referencing September 11th at every possible moment, or utilizing Barack Obama's middle name of Hussein in order to instill bigoted fears and then coyly play innocent when called out on it. We talk about the word "liberal" as if it's a dirty word, when "liberal" is what allowed women to vote, fought for all people being created equal, brought schools out of one-room shacks, and took us to the moon--the very things for which we take pride in our country.
It's time that we remembered where we come from, and stop letting a few closed-minded, power-hungry bigots tell us what we're supposed to stand for.
Forward THIS email to anyone who thinks that America stands for equality, ingenuity and hope, and that patriotism is more about what you do than what you wear on your lapel.
I have a wonderful aunt in Louisiana whom I love dearly and who is one of my favorite aunts. But she keeps forwarding me these inflammatory, idiotic, Republican-oriented email forwards. The latest called Barack Obama unpatriotic for not wearing a US flag pin on his lapel, and called Michelle Obama a bigot for writing her Princeton senior thesis about her dilemma as a black student at an Ivy League school. Some of you may have seen this email or some iteration of it. Without posting that original email (which is too long), I'd like to post my response for discussion:
__________________________
Aside from white millionaires, the messages of the Republican party are designed to appeal to people with the education of a fourth grader, the morality of a first grader, and the bigoted stranger anxiety and fear of the dark of a one-year-old---and that email is a depressing example of this.
The email denounces Barack Obama for not wearing a half-inch pin of the US flag on his suit jacket lapel, claiming he's unpatriotic for not doing so. The email also degrades Mrs. Obama for her "pride in my country" comment, and talks about how, for example, she should have felt pride as the US brought an end to the USSR. Yes, she should feel pride in that the way that we did it was through a ridiculous arms race, wasting billions of our own dollars and causing the Soviet Union to waste billions of their own, robbing it from their people (which we knew would happen and accepted as attrition), and ultimately creating an excess of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, many of which are in the hands of anti-American groups at this moment. Awe-inspiring. The email talks about how Mrs. Obama should have felt pride as people on United Flight 93 fought off terrorists (funny how Republicans repeatedly need to rely on the raw emotions of September 11th to make a point). The email assumes that only Americans could have done that, and that had those passengers been European, African, Asian, Australian or Kiwi, they surely would've let the terrorists take over the plane. If Mrs. Obama were like me, she probably did feel a bit of pride in how all Americans banded together after September 11th. But like mine, her pride was probably chipped away a few days later when Muslim Americans were beaten to death in Baltimore; when mosques were vandalized across the country; when the Afghan restaurant on Jefferson-Davis Highway in Alexandria, VA nearly went out of business because nobody would eat there; her pride in America probably eroded when we abandoned human rights in the treatment of our "prisoners" in Guantanamo, some of whom are still there 6 years later without charges or trials, and some of whom have been beaten to death or near-death in the name of our country (or just for a good picture); she probably questioned her pride when mere weeks after we invaded Iraq and fought people who decry American greed and commercialism, Starbucks showed up in Iraq (for the Iraqis' benefit, or for ours?); and her pride probably took a further hit when she realized that our "success" in Afghanistan doesn't exist, and that we'd forgotten about that country altogether in order to attend to another country that we've personally placed in ruin. Wow---pride.
But I must come back and ask this singular question: Since when was patriotism only related to September 11th? When did patriotism become exemplified by wearing a flag on your lapel? Why is it no longer patriotic to make sure that everyone has a good education, that everyone has access to good healthcare? When was fighting for what the founding fathers fought for--namely, equal, civil rights for ALL people regardless of color, sex, or sexuality (yes, gay marriage IS a civil right, and "civil unions" are nothing but a rehash of "separate but equal"), and other issues like the separation of religion from government--when did these causes stop being patriotic?
Had September 11th been committed by Americans, a la Oklahoma City, would it have really inspired "patriotism?" Or had it been committed by a group in Europe, for example, would we have done the same as we've done in the Middle East? Would we have bombed the shit out of Spain? Luckily, conveniently, it was committed by a small sect of Muslims in the Middle East---people of a culture that many Americans know nothing about, subscribing to a small, radical sect of a religion that most Americans know nothing about. It's funny how much of the Republican base is in middle America, while the coasts and major cities tend to go Democratic. People in the places where one is more likely to know someone who is Muslim or Middle Eastern somehow are also more likely to vote against this backward view of "patriotism," against blindly sweeping views about other races or ethnicities, and against the inhumane treatment of people in the name of our "national security" and pride. Funny how it's a larger proportion of people in middle America, who are likely to have never met a Muslim, who likely didn't go to school with someone named Aziz or Mohamed, and who surprisingly are in a section of the country that is LEAST likely to be subject to a terrorist attack---it's funny how it's these people who are so quick to subscribe to these dim notions of patriotism and to fall for the twisted Republican message of fear of the unknown.
This inability (or unwillingness) to get out of one's closed-minded box and understand another person's experience is exemplified by the email's discussion of Michelle Obama's college thesis. The email points out that Michelle felt like her white professors and classmates saw her as "black first and a student second." Is this really so hard to understand? Think about it. How many black students do you think were at Princeton when she was there? The Association of Black Princeton Alumni (http://www.princeton-abpa.org/dynamic.asp?id=news_1980s) lists only NINE other black students in Michelle Obama's class of 1985. I can imagine that a black person might stand out. But it's so very easy for the white reader to say "get over it" or state that she has "a chip on her shoulder." Imagine that in your class of several hundred, only NINE other people look like you, only NINE other people know anything about your sub-culture, and only NINE other people don't use the white way of life as the filter through which to define "normal." (It's true, isn't it? Black is "black," but white is "normal." Tell me I'm wrong.) The email then goes on to criticize Michelle Obama for fearing that becoming a successful Princeton graduate might alienate her from other, less "successful" blacks, and the email states that she should be happy because she can now make hundreds of thousands of dollars. The email fails to even attempt to understand this: that for many blacks, there is a pressure NOT to succeed, that there is a feeling among some blacks that monetary success via "white" means equals assimilation into white culture and abandonment of black culture (yes, ignorance works both ways)---and that a black student is pressured by this whether she agrees with it or not. Sound ridiculous? Let me put it in "white" terminology: Think of the girl in high school who was really bright, but pretended to be stupid so that she didn't look like a "nerd." Everyone knows such a girl. It's the same thing--she's afraid of success in school for fear of looking unattractive. You can tell her that she's stupid for giving in to the pressure, but it's equally as stupid to fail to recognize that the pressure exists. In her thesis, Michelle Obama recognizes that the pressure not to succeed in the black community exists---she makes no claim of giving in to it, and yet her mere recognition of the problem is criticized by the email.
In fact, Obama's conclusion--to use her success to benefit the black community--is a refusal to give in to the pressure not to succeed, and yet by the email's wording, the email somehow implies that even her conclusion is something for which Obama deserves criticism. Is it wrong for her to use her success to help the black community? Would one argue that it is wrong because she used the "white" system of Princeton and then uses the fruit of that to help blacks specifically? Was it, then, not equally as "wrong" for Italian or Irish or Polish immigrants in the early 1900s to send money they made in America back home to help their families there? Surely, we wouldn't say THAT was wrong---seeing as how many of us are descendants of those very same immigrants? Are we, whites, forgetting our roots, and then chastising successful blacks like Michelle Obama for struggling with the prospect of losing their own?
It seems that we have, in fact, forgotten our roots. We make claims about what America and Americans stand for, and yet seem to have forgotten what America was MEANT to stand for. We act as if everyone inside this country and outside of it should share the same opinions as us, and forget that America was created as a celebration of difference. We inject personal, religious views into political decisions and forget that America was created specifically to avoid just that. We use fear-mongering as a political tool, referencing September 11th at every possible moment, or utilizing Barack Obama's middle name of Hussein in order to instill bigoted fears and then coyly play innocent when called out on it. We talk about the word "liberal" as if it's a dirty word, when "liberal" is what allowed women to vote, fought for all people being created equal, brought schools out of one-room shacks, and took us to the moon--the very things for which we take pride in our country.
It's time that we remembered where we come from, and stop letting a few closed-minded, power-hungry bigots tell us what we're supposed to stand for.
Forward THIS email to anyone who thinks that America stands for equality, ingenuity and hope, and that patriotism is more about what you do than what you wear on your lapel.
